Planning Your Day

Pro Tips To Help You Prepare For Your First Jump

Welcome to Skydive Monroe! We’re excited to host you for an unforgettable experience, and because you’ll be stepping into the world of the unknown, we’re here to help prepare you for an incredible day. Skydiving is an adrenaline based sport and to fully enjoy the experience, we have a few key tips so you can have an even more enjoyable time!

Pre-Gaming

Control the Adrenaline

That probably sounds like the antithesis of what you would do as it’s easy to let your mind wander about the possibilities of jumping from a perfectly good plane and a couple drinks should calm the nerves… right?! And who can sleep or eat when they know they’re going skydiving?!

First – and we’re not trying to be your mom here – but your body and mind are intrinsically connected. Part of being able to process the adrenaline is getting plenty of rest, and focusing on being calm, taking deep breaths, and having a good night’s rest. Being able to practice being calm prior the jump is the same practice we use when we prep to jump. Every. Single. Time.

Next, eat a good meal the morning of your jump (here are a few good options):

  • Oatmeal with apples and but butter
  • Eggs, avocado, toast, sausage, breakfast potatoes
  • Pancakes with fresh fruit

Then snack up about an hour before up to 20 minutes of your jump (here are a few good options):

  • LÄRABAR (or your favorite granola bar)
  • Fresh fruit
  • Veggies and hummus

Your body needs energy to process the adrenaline. If you pump up the adrenaline with no food or energy in your body, then odds are you’ll feel a bit nauseous, throw up, and/or just not have a good time.

Pro Tip: don’t drink too much coffee the morning of… let’s just say jitters anyone?? And be sure not to drink too much the night before. If you’re tipsy, drunk, hungover or smell like alcohol, for safety reasons we won’t let you jump.

What to Wear & Bring

Firstly, we want this experience to be comfortable as well as awesome. We recommend dressing for the weather. Yoga pants, cargo pants, jeans are great options while shorts are rather uncomfortable in the harness. Avoid collared shirts or extremely loose clothing as they’ll whip your neck at 120mph! Finally, wear closed toed shoes like sneakers. Boots, sandals or pumps are not skydiving friendly!

Here’s a quick checklist of the things you’ll need to bring:
  • Government Issued Photo ID
  • Payment (Cash, Cards)
  • Cooler with snacks, lounge chairs, blankets
  • Entertainment (games, iPad, books) to pass any wait times
  • Your Friends! Spectators are welcome. If bringing kids, they will need to be under adult supervision. And please, no furry friends unless they are service animals.

Remember – no drinking is allowed during jumping! Please leave your brews at home!

Arrival

Arrival time is based on your scheduled class time. We ask students to arrive no more than 15 minutes prior to their scheduled class time to have time to check in, finalize payments and paperwork prior the training. This will also allow you time to park and use the restroom before checking in.

Parking

When you arrive, you may be greeted with colorful parachutes dotting the skies, but be sure to pay attention to other pedestrians and getting to the correct building. Customer parking will be on your right as you arrive from Towler Road. Our building will be an airplane hangar on the left from your Towler Road entry.

Check-In

Upon arrival, all students will check in at our Manifest window at the entrance of the hangar. The office crew will begin the check-in process with paperwork, followed up with final payments.

Check-in takes approximately 10 minutes. Following check-in, students will begin a training class.

Groups

If you have booked your skydive with a group of friends, the staff will make every effort to coordinate you on the same plane. However, depending on the group size and other factors, groups may be split into smaller groups.

Video

How often do you jump from an airplane from 14,000 feet? This experience is worth documenting with our skydiving picture and video package. Our experienced videographers will capture every aspect of your jump from gearing up, exiting, freefall, and landing!

Note: Because of safety reasons, we cannot allow tandem passengers to bring their own small action cameras like Go Pros. Check out our video services HERE!

What’s the Agenda & How Long Will it Take

This is a great question! We understand that making plans are important as we live generally busy lives. There are many aspects in skydiving that are unpredictable, so we are unable to give you an exact time, but ask that you plan to spend 4-6 hours with us. Here’s how the day will roll:

Training

After you check in with the office and complete your paperwork, you’ll watch a pre-jump video that tells a bit of our sports history and what you can expect for your skydiving experience. Afterwards, one of our instructors will brief you on the procedures and expectations of your jump.

In Between Time

After training, the times of getting you in the sky will vary. Bringing things to help you pass the time, a little patience and planning to spend the day with us will help you enjoy your experience while we put our puzzle together coordinating groups and experienced skydivers in to planes.

However, we won’t leave you hanging wondering when it’s go time. Our manifest office staff will inform you of your wait time.

NOTE: Since we are a weather dependent sport, adverse weather can affect wait times and delay our entire day. Adverse weather may include: low clouds, rain, heavy winds or turbulence. If weather does not allow us to jump for the day, please check in with us as we have several options to reschedule you!

Go Time

Skydiving is an exciting and highly coordinated event. There are many variables that affect the timing of getting you up in the air. Students are assigned a jumping order based on their arrival and class time. When it’s go time, you’ll be paired with an instructor who will suit you up and review your training. This is also the time a videographer will introduce themselves to document your experience if you’ve chosen a video package.

Then, it’s time to board our turbo fast King Air aircraft up to 14,000 feet in a whopping 10 minutes! Next, you and your instrutor will jump out and spend an incredible sixty seconds of freefall and approximately five minutes floating back to earth under the parachute. On clear days you might even see Stone Mountain or the Atlanta skyline!

Next, you’ll float down to the grassy landing area in front of our main operations hangar. There is an observation deck as well for your friends to cheer you on as you come in for landing.

Post Jump

After landing, your instructor will present you a skydiving certificate, proving you just jumped out of a perfectly good airplane! If you’ve chosen the video – which we highly recommend – your video will be edited and ready for you within 15 minutes of landing.

And there you have it – from pre-gaming to post jump, on how to plan your skydiving day with us here at Skydive Monroe. So whaddya say, are you ready?