Every tandem skydiver is given a tandem skydiving safety brief ahead of their jump. This is a great opportunity to meet our instructors and learn more about your jump, including the essentials of what you need to do.
The aim of this post is to give you an overview of what you can expect from your tandem skydiving safety brief. Of course, no blog post can replace the actual brief so even if you’ve read this, you’ll still need a brief in person.
When can you expect to receive your brief?
As a tandem skydiving customer, you book your preferred date and preferred time for your jump. The time given is your arrival time, so arrive then and you can expect to be called for your brief shortly afterwards.
A tandem skydiving brief must happen before you jump, but isn’t necessarily done directly before your jump – i.e. you might be briefed but then someone else jumps before you.
Most of the time, the brief does happen directly before your jump.
Who will deliver your brief?
Your tandem skydiving brief will be delivered by a tandem skydiving instructor. This may be the person you actually jump with, or another one of our tandem instructor team.
The instructors tend to take it in turns to deliver the briefs.
Equipment information in your tandem skydiving brief
Part of your tandem skydiving brief is an introduction to the equipment that will be used on your jump. While you don’t need to know how to use the equipment yourself, we do find it can be reassuring to have a brief overview of what we’re using.
This includes showing you the harness you’ll be wearing for your jump and explaining how it will be fitted when your time to jump comes.
Understanding body positions for your tandem skydive
It’s important that all tandem skydivers understand three key body positions used during the tandem skydive. These are:
- The exit position, used for exiting the aircraft
- The freefall position, used while we’re in freefall
- The landing position, getting your legs up high for landing
These positions will all be explained and demonstrated to you. You will be asked to show us the positions before you go up for your jump.
Practice before your jump
When it comes to time for your jump, we’ll fit the harness and then do some final practice with you. This includes the ‘hanging harness’, which is where we hang you in your harness from the roof in a setting that is best for showing us your three key body positions.
It’s a good chance for you to show us that you can do what’s needed, and to raise any queries you might have.
Safety assessments during the tandem skydiving brief
An important part of your tandem skydiving brief is the risk assessment that we’ll be doing throughout.
There are a number of important considerations to be taken into account ahead of a tandem skydive. Some of these are raised prior to the day of your jump through the option of a self-declaration medical form vs a medical form that needs a doctor’s signature.
In any case, the brief and final practice are an opportunity for us to conduct a final risk assessment with you and to ensure you’re comfortable and ready for your skydive.
So what are you waiting for? Book your tandem skydive today.