How to Become a Professional Skydiver: Your Guide to Going Pro

Table of Contents

• What “Professional Skydiver” Actually Means
• Skydiving Prerequisites & Licensing Path
• Gaining Experience & Building Skills
• Action Plan: How to Start Today

Key Takeaways

To become a professional skydiver, you must complete a skydiving training course in order to get your A-License, and then continue earning licenses and ratings from the United States Parachute Association. We can help you with all of the above here at Skydive Monroe!

How do you become a professional skydiver? Sure, it’s easy enough to go online and book a tandem skydive, but the path toward flying solo is a lot less clear. If you’re looking for tips on how to become a pro skydiver, you’ve come to the right place. We’ll go over the steps, requirements, and more.

What “Professional Skydiver” Actually Means

There are a couple of different ways to interpret “professional skydiver.” Some may mean it to refer to someone who has earned their solo skydiving license and can jump without the supervision of an instructor. Others may use it to refer to someone who works in skydiving as their profession, ranging from tandem instructors to stunt skydivers, like the Red Bull skydiving team.

Either way, the path to get there shares all the same initial steps. To become an experienced skydiver, you must enroll in Accelerated Freefall (AFF) or a similar program to learn how to jump solo responsibly. If you ask any skydiver, they won’t consider someone with a fresh A-License to be a “professional.” That’ll come with time, practice, and skill.

Skydiving Prerequisites & Licensing Path

There are a few crucial first steps to getting your skydiving license with the United States Parachute Association (USPA).

Your First Skydive

The typical way to begin your skydiving journey is with a tandem skydive – it’s not always required, but it is recommended. There aren’t many prerequisites to making a tandem jump. You need to be:

• At least 18 years old
• Adhere to weight restrictions
• In generally good health
• Wearing appropriate athletic clothing

When you arrive, you’ll need a valid ID to sign your waiver, and then you’re all set to start your skydiving journey!

Accelerated Freefall Course

The Accelerated Freefall (AFF) course is the most popular method for learning to skydive in the fewest number of jumps. From the get-go, you jump with your own parachute – but don’t worry, before your first jump, you’ll have a full day of ground school to teach you everything you need to know. 

At Skydive Monroe, you’ll complete multiple levels of AFF with our highly experienced instructors: 

• AFF First Jump Course & Category A First Jump
• Category B
• Category C
• Category D-1
• Category D-2
• Category E-1

During this course, you’ll learn basic safety skills and emergency procedures, and develop freefall awareness and vital canopy flying abilities.

Finishing Your Training

After you graduate from AFF, you’ll be cleared by your instructor for solo supervision. This doesn’t mean that you’re a licensed skydiver yet, but it does mean that you can jump by yourself or with a USPA-certified coach. Coaches are trained on how to teach group freefall skills, and are capable of taking over the second half of your learning.

During this time, you’ll learn how to safely navigate freefall when there’s more than just you in the sky! The best part of skydiving is sharing it with other jumpers, and this is often considered the most fun part of the training process. You’ll need to log at least 25 jumps to be eligible for your A-License, as well as learn how to pack your own parachute, pass an exam, and finish checking off important skills.

Getting Your License

To get your license, you first have to become a USPA member. Then, annually, you’ll have to renew your membership to maintain your license. Once you complete your USPA A-License Proficiency Card, your instructor will sign off on your skydiving license! Be prepared to get stamped on both your card and your forehead, one of our favorite skydiving traditions!

At this point, you’re now free to skydive with whoever you want out of airplanes. That being said, there are still some restrictions with an A-License. For example, if you want to jump out of a helicopter or hot air balloon, you need at least a B-License. So, how do you keep developing your skills? 

Gaining Experience & Building Skills

Congratulations!!! You’ve earned your skydiving A-License, which is a massive accomplishment!! The best part about skydiving? The learning never really stops. There are so many directions you can take to keep getting better. If you want the real answer to “How to be a professional skydiver?” it’s simple: keep earning more licenses and ratings.

Earning More Skydiving Licenses

The first step after getting your USPA A-License will be to get your B-License. You’ll have to demonstrate better accuracy in your landings, pass a B-License canopy course and water training, and reach at least 50 skydives while meeting certain skill requirements. It’s a similar process for your C- and D-Licenses; you can find a checklist of the requirements needed for each license in the USPA Skydiver’s Information Manual (SIM).

You keep track of your accomplishments in a logbook. Skydivers log every single jump they make, usually with a few important notes about group size, altitude, and landing accuracy. Each logged jump needs to be signed by another skydiver in order to be accepted as proof for your licenses.

Skydiving Ratings

In addition to licenses, there are also ratings you can earn. To teach others how to skydive, you start with your coach rating and can take that to get an AFF instructor rating or a tandem instructor rating. You’ll need at least 100 jumps to get your coach rating, and that’s generally the first one skydivers work toward.

To earn ratings, you’ll need to pass intense courses. These are taught by ultra-pros; skydivers with instructor examiner ratings. There really is no limit for how far you can take your skydiving career – there is always more to learn and earn!

How much does it cost to become a professional skydiver?

The short answer: learning to skydive costs about $3,000 to $5,000. You’ll have to consider the cost of any tandem skydives, AFF pricing, and gear rental. Then, if you’d like to buy your own gear once you get your license, that ranges from $2,500 to $10,000, depending on whether you buy used or new. Skydiving has a high initial cost of entry, but once you have your own gear and license, jumps at Skydive Monroe only cost $32 each.

Ratings courses are expensive as well, if you’d like to progress further into the sport. However, these costs are often recouped fairly quickly from the money you earn by using those ratings. So, how much do you make as a professional skydiver? The full-time salary can range from $20,000 to $80,000 a year, depending on factors like where you work, what type of instructor you are, and how busy your dropzone is.

Action Plan: How to Start Today

Are you ready to become a professional skydiver? Start with a tandem or go ahead and book your AFF first jump course with us now! We can’t wait to fly with you. Blue skies!