Sky Diving in Spain

[Forrey]

Can anyone recommend a good sky diving company in Spain? A group of us are heading over there for a week in July and are contemplating jumping out of a plane (with a parachute of course).

We are staying in a villa which is in-between Alicante & Valencia, just over an hour from each town.

Also, if anyone has jumped before (this will be my first time), do you have any words of wisdom.

[jake-the-peg]

It's been a few years since I did this so sorry if I'm a bit out of date

There are 3 basic ways to start skydiving:

AFF (accelerated free fall) - In at the deep end costs about �1,000 you and a couple of instructors from altitude but you can get your cat 8 (fully qualified) in 2-3 weeks.

Tandem - full free-fall experience, but you're very much a passenger strapped to an instructor - doesn't count towards any training.

Static line jump - do a day of training then you jump with the rip cord attached to a plane. Modern courses should be RAPS (ram air parachute - aka square rig canopy) shouldn't have old ex-military round chutes now. You start from probably 3-4 thousand feet

Most people parachuting started with static line, you do a few jumps then a few with a dummy rip cord then you do your first solo (gulp! - bit of a rite of passaage that one)

Look for instructors qualified with the BPA (British parachute association)

Check your travel insurance covers you.

Oh and do it early on, you may want to go back!

[lamorna]

Check out www.freefalladdicts.com especially the forum for advice, and the skydiving news pages for pictures and descriptions.

No disrespect to Jake the peg, but the AFF course in Spain can be completed in just 3-5 days due to the weather.

Another option instead of a tandem is to do the AFF level 1. Instead of being strapped to an instructor, you jump with two instructors holding onto you throughout the jump, then fly your own canopy to the ground (assisted by radio instruction).

Have fun and enjoy it!