Skydiving Pictures

Skydiving defined:
skydiving is the sport of jumping from an airplane at a moderate or high altitude over the ground and free-falling to earth while using one's body to control direction and movements before opening the parachute to slow the fall and pull of gravity and land safely upon the earth again.

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One of the most difficult things to overcome in order to skydive is the fear of falling. That moment of truth comes when your mind, body and soul are overpowered with sensory overload when you are faced, for the first time, of having to jump out of the plane.

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Learning how to skydive: usually the first time someone skydives they are partnered with a professional instructor in what is called a tandem dive. The partners fall to earth, open the parachute and land together, so the first dive is completed with the instructor having hand's on control from beginning to end.

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Falling Together: Skydivers merge together in formation over the Florida Keys during the Skydive Marathon parachuting festival. The event offers both novice and professional skydivers opportunities to take air plunges over the Keys island chain.

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Skydiving As Entertainment: A member of the Navy Seal Leap Frog skydiving team performs a corkscrew maneuver before landing on the field before the Navy-Tulane football game in Annapolis, Md., in 2005.

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Sky Surfing: it's no longer a rush just to jump out of a plane and parachute to earth, some sky divers take it to the next level and use a board to "skysurf". The board is very similar to a snowboard and the skydiver uses it during a freefall and performs acrobatic tricks by cutting the board in different directions on the way down.

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Parasailing: Another form of fun in the sky is the sport of parasailing. Although not really skydiving, as you are not jumping out of an airplane and freefalling to earth, rather you are hooked into a harness and towed from a boat from the water below. The wind fills the parasail and you sail along through the air for a thrill ride. The parasail is a special parachute, but the para-sailor has no control over the sail like a skydiver.

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Skydiving Skills: One of the most important parts of skydiving, just as important as jumping out of a plane and activating your parachute, is how to land properly back to earth. These skydivers glide to the ground at the proper angle in order to land standing up.

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Adventure Skydiving in Groups: jumping as part of a large group has become popular. While freefalling to earth jump members race toward each other to form up and lock arms/hands on the way down, until the moment they pull their rip cords and release the parachutes to slow the fall.

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World Record Skydiving: members of the World sky diving team make a group dive during a world record-setting fall at Korat Military airport in Nakhon Sawan province in Thailand. A team of 357 skydivers from 42 countries have broken the world freefall formation record.

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