Tandem Contra Costa County

We make over 10,000 freefall parachute jumps annually at Bay Area Skydiving. By 1957, the first commercial skydiving schools began to appear, and the National Parachute Riggers-Jumpers, Inc., started in the 1930s, became the Parachute Club of America. PCA renamed itself the United States Parachute Association in 1967. Despite the perception of danger, fatalities are rare in skydiving, each year a small number of people are hurt or killed parachuting world-wide. Parachuting is an activity involving a preplanned drop from a height using a deployable parachute. Though this web site is oriented towards first time skydivers, we welcome both new and experienced jumpers to our little drop zone. Parachute canopies have sizes that go from 4.3 sq m , that is 46 sq ft to more than 46.5 sq m , meaning 500 sq ft. Some Tandem skydiving training programs instruct first-time jumpers on how and when to deploy the main canopy themselves. In these programs, about half of the first-jump students succeed. However, the tandem master remains primarily responsible for safe and timely parachute deployment. After watching a short video you will be trained by your Tandem Master instructor to make your first skydive. Finding a good skydiving school might be a great first step. You should first investigate very well the school you want to atend. A great thing about skydiving schools is that most of them offer first jump opportunities. People have been using parachutes for hundreds of years, even back to China in the 1100s. Around 1495, Leonardo DaVinci designed a pyramid-shaped, wooden framed parachute. In the US and in most of the western world skydivers are required to carry a second, reserve parachute which has been inspected and packed by a certificated parachute rigger (in the US, an FAA certificated parachute rigger). Many skydivers use an automatic activation device (AAD) that opens the reserve parachute at a safe altitude in the event of failing to activate the main canopy themselves.