Indoor Skydiving vs Real Skydiving

If you’ve been searching for ‘skydiving near Atlanta’ or ‘skydiving Atlanta’, you may have noticed an unexpected and curious search result – indoor skydiving. Indoor skydiving is not at all like real skydiving, but a smart marketer thought it would be a good idea to call it that when the first indoor skydiving wind tunnel opened in 1999 on International Drive in Orlando. Since then, indoor skydiving has exploded in popularity with a new facility opening every month in a different city and country around the world.

Indoor skydiving in a wind tunnel is a lot of fun, but as skydiving experts, we’ll offer some insights between indoor skydiving and real skydiving as the differences extend beyond the obvious airplane and parachute (or lack thereof). There’s so much more to it!

How Similar is Indoor Skydiving to Real Skydiving?

When comparing indoor skydiving and real skydiving, the truth is there’s no real comparison.

Skydivers love wind tunnels because they serve as an excellent training tool to perfect body position in free fall. The 120 mph rush of wind on your face and body is where indoor skydiving and outdoor skydiving intersect in similarity, but that’s also where it ends.

Indoor skydiving is an enjoyable experience but it’s light on adventure. What it feels like to skydive outdoors is a life-changing event that classifies as one of the top five things a person will do in their lifetime… and we say this with no hyperbole.

Biggest Difference Between Indoor Skydiving vs Outdoor

Have you ever accomplished something big that you thought was beyond your capabilities like running a marathon or losing a certain amount of weight? Whatever the achievement, what makes it so uplifting is the mental and physical struggle that goes into accomplishing the goal. When the goal is accomplished, there’s a breakthrough that leads to the realization that we have the ability to do big things if we set our minds to it. This is the difference between indoor skydiving and real skydiving. With real skydiving, there’s an achievement and breakthrough. With indoor skydiving, it’s simply a fun activity – there is no personal challenge.

Biggest Advantages of Outdoor Skydiving

Many people say they want to skydive, but few go through with it. The event isn’t without risk, it’s expensive, and you usually need to find someone to do it with. In other words, there are lots of great reasons to not have to commit to facing the reality of jumping from an aircraft 14,000 feet in the air. These obstacles are part of the reason why skydiving is so rewarding. There are so many tests to overcome to just step into the aircraft. Once you make your skydiving reservation, you’ll have many worried family members telling you how crazy you are; some will try to convince you not to go through with it. You’ll realize that there are more reasons not to jump than to actually do it. Add a fear of heights, or have never been on an airplane before, or the contemplation that you could indeed die doing it… making a skydive isn’t a light decision and it weighs heavily!

These combined stressors and fears are what make the accomplishment of skydiving so great. Once you step through the door and into the atmosphere, you’ll realize that you aren’t going through the experience in fear but rather in an unexplainable joy. Freefall is like a gift that immediately validates the decision to jump because what you thought was so scary turns out to be one of the most exhilarating and freeing things you’ll ever do in your life! Seeing the world from thousands of feet up and for miles around and feeling comfortable… it’s an incredible feeling! Many have described skydiving as therapy as all burdens are released and all that troubles you become inconsequential. Skydiving is freedom.

For many, skydiving is an emotional experience as it represents a huge breakthrough. If you can do this, you can do anything! You just have to set your mind to it.

If you’re ready to join us on an adventure, we’d love to host you so we can show you firsthand what this amazing sport is all about! Contact Skydive Monroe today or learn more about beginning your real skydiving journey!