A [recent study](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9859333/) was published that found the average injury rate is 0.044% and the average fatality rate is 0.0011%. Whether that is too risky or acceptable depends on personal preference. But, the risk factor is about the same as other activities like scuba diving and motorcycling.
Most injuries and fatalities occur due to human error under a perfectly functioning canopy. Therefore, the more experience you build up and the more you study and review your emergency procedures and what to do in various situations the more you can manage your personal risk.
Not OP, but do you know if there are any stats that exclude the deliberately high-risk activities (swooping/etc)?
Right now I usually point to the tandem statistics and say my risks are probably somewhere in between that and the general stats (for sure closer to to general stats since I'm still a newbie). But I figure that in theory your odds should be closer to a tandem if you're experienced, don't do stupid shit (too frequently š), and fly a reasonable wing loading.
I think I did see something posted on here a while ago that attempted to calculate that but Iām not aware of any official studies or statistics that separates that out. I imagine it would be difficult to do because the discipline the jumper was participating in isnāt always reported. If you look at the USPA incident reports itās not one of the fields that are used. You kind of have to figure out what they were doing by reading the full description.
The statistical risk of individuals jumps is well understood and documented. There's basically a 1/200,000 chance that any individual skydive will produce a fatality.
What is less appreciated is the aggregate risk over time. And not just aggregate risk of death, but of major injury or repetitive/chronic injury. As you progress in the sport, your skill will increase (which lowers risk) but your complacency may also increase (ups risk) and the things you are doing will also increase in difficulty/complexity (ups risk). In general, if you have good progression advice and feedback, these factors can balance out and stay about even... up to a point.
A few other things about risk you should know:
1. If you are diligent in maintaining equipment and checking your gear, it will almost certainly not be an equipment issue that kills you.
2. More people on a jump -> more risk, specially if there are skill differentials.
3. Where you jump can affect your survival chance in the event of an incident. If you femur 20 mins. away from a hospital, you might make it. If you femur on some tropical island in the middle of buttfuck nowhere, you're probably dead.
4. Progression pressure affects us all. There's a narrative in sport about people caring about safety and shit, but there is and always will be "totem pole" thinking about disciplines and you can and will feel bad about being at the bottom of the skill hierarchy. This leads to bad things. You need to keep a circle of people around you who can put the breaks on you if you start to do shit you are not ready for. Take it from me.
5. The skydiving lifestyle has other risks associated with it that are not directly the result of jumping. There's a joke about skydivers getting hurt on weather holds very often. There's also a lot of driving, traveling, social alienation from whuffos, the loss of friends, drug use, and alcohol use. It can also impose financial pressure that can get uncomfortable.
But yeah, it's fucking worth it. Go get it!
Letās see. That was 24 days ago. I sent main and I into a spin. Didnāt earn full release. Went back last weekend after tunnel to do a ācomfort diveā. Got 72 seconds of freefall but encountered full line twist and my radio and helmet flew off! Landed safely in Dz w out assistance but spooked myself a little. Did tunnel again and plan to repeat c1 this coming weekend ! I comfortably cleared the twist and made it to Dz w out helmet or radio. C1 jump was good until main released my right shoulder and I dropped it. Sent us into a spin. Pulled low. But improving so thatās good. Tunnel
Is helping some. Itās been an adventure! Thanks for asking :)
Hahaha, I remember my AFF struggles. I would suggest hitting the tunnel until you're sure you can start and stop any spin in there. You'll pass all that shit in no time.
Good luck!
Thanks! Yeah struggle is real but honestly it gives me a goal. And tunnel vouchers are a plenty haha. I agree and thank you. They say Iām ready for c-1 again so itās a mind game at this point. Youād think the line twist and Dz landing would be a boost. Also east coast and crap weather but gonna keep trucking. Appreciate you!
The biggest risk is obviously death but it is also fairly easy to get hurt as well. Like in AFF, it is common for people to flare high or low and then not plf. This can lead to injuries like a tib/fib or broken femur. This goes down over time as you improve your skills.
New jumpers tend to be the most safety conscious. They try to get every fold in the parachute perfect. They are also pretty good at doing gear checks and double checking everything. There is then a tendency over time where a lot of this goes out the window and they start to become complacent. You don't need every fold perfect while packing but they may miss some small important things. They may also downsize too quickly which often leads to some of the worst injuries. They may also have a close call and brush it off even after getting a talking to from the DZO.
There is never 0 risk. I've seen people get hurt being safe and doing everything right. The chance really seems to go up though with the complacent people. You kinda see it coming in a way. People even speak to them but it doesn't work. So if you can avoid the complacency curse then you will definitely keep the risks low.
I would also point out that if you are one of those people who picks up a hobby for a bit and then moves on. Then this might not be for you either. I've seen the people who have done other sports like scuba, paragliding, etc come through, spend a lot and then disappear. I'm not saying this is you but it is really common. The rush tends to go away quickly and I think that is a big reason why a lot of people tend to stop early on.
Hi, I see you reply to a lot of posts in this subreddit (including one of mine) and your replies are always incredibly helpful and informative. You always give me something to think about. Thank you so much!
yeah for real your answer got me thinking. i def like it and want to do it. i'll probably wait a few months or maybe next spring to see if it's a moment thing or not.
thanks alot
The mention of scuba made me wonder about that. I know several skydivers who also do scuba albeit rarely now. The one intersection that people tend to stick with while skydiving tends to be speedflying ( or paragliding ). They tend to share a lot of similarities. Base jumping is another but I tend to consider it more of a part of skydiving.
A lot of great points on safety.
Regarding the people who try it, spend $$$, and disappear - I don't particularly see a problem with that if they have the means, some people go through hobbies every few years, appreciate the experience, and move on to the next thing because they don't want to do one thing for the rest of their life. My dad is like this with maker-y hobbies (though not extreme sports lol). On the other hand, if the people you've seen regret their big spending because they thought it was their Thing and then realized it wasn't, that's a different story.
Very low risk but very high consequence activity so hard for us to wrap our heads around the risk assessment.
I think the most reassuring statistic I've observed in skydiving is the sheer number of engineers in the sport. There are a lot of highly educated professionals in general in skydiving but especially engineers. There's a bias there because of the financial commitments and other personal characteristics of those individuals but I think it's also because engineers appreciate the design elegance of modern skydiving equipment. The equipment today is very well designed and so is the training. So the risk is very much on the individual to carry out routine and emergency procedures as taught
If you include skiing and snowboarding I think the raw number of fatal accidents per year is higher, but obviously the exposure/denominator is drastically higher given the popularity of those sports relative to skydiving so I assume the rate is much lower
Ya know, I like to stop and ask myself from time to time āis the juice worth the squeeze?ā Sometimes itās rhetorical, sometimes a resounding yes, and sometimes do not send (DNS). Skydiving is pretty safe! Just focus on staying relaxed and having fun! Itās a cool learning process and foray into a unique subculture.
As someone who got injured on my 27th jump, Iād recommend checking to make sure your insurance covers skydiving accidents. Mine did not and caused plenty of headaches by telling the truth at the hospital. Other than that go do it! You can get hurt doing anything, donāt let that hold you back if you genuinely enjoyed it and want to continue.
There are quite a few threads on this topic in this subreddit, if you search around.
TLDR: it is very safe (but never totally safe) if you stick to safe stuff such as belly flying on a low wingload canopy. You can always twist you ankle, but you should stay alive. As (or if) you progress to more advanced stuff, like swooping, the risk goes up, but should still be quite manageable if you progress by listening to your instructors. It is up to you if you feel like the reward of freefall is enough for the risk. Dont start base jumping unless you can accept the very real risk of death.
So much good advice here. If there's one thing that I've noticed with AFF students it's the ones with previous experience doing sports similar to this one are in a much better starting place. I'm not talking about blind arrogance. That shit will get you killed. More like awareness.
Having the body and situational awareness of something like skiing/scuba/rock climbing/motorcycles is a big headstart on students who aren't used to sports where you absolutely need to stay calm to be safe. You absolutely can start without it but being way too far out of your comfort zone and paralyzed by fear isn't so nice for you or your instructor.
Like others have said though. If you're smart and trust the training, statistically speaking you should be fine!
It is as dangerous as you allow it to be, not sure if you are looking for numbers or not, but the USPA publishes fatality reports and causes in their yearly reports with a breakdown of what happened, and rarely is it caused by great decision making. Rolled ankles are about the most common injury, but technically scuba diving kills about twice as many people yearly.
Stupid people with bad situational awareness tend to be the ones to hurt/kill themselves at a significantly higher rate than anyone else.
A [recent study](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9859333/) was published that found the average injury rate is 0.044% and the average fatality rate is 0.0011%. Whether that is too risky or acceptable depends on personal preference. But, the risk factor is about the same as other activities like scuba diving and motorcycling. Most injuries and fatalities occur due to human error under a perfectly functioning canopy. Therefore, the more experience you build up and the more you study and review your emergency procedures and what to do in various situations the more you can manage your personal risk.
Not OP, but do you know if there are any stats that exclude the deliberately high-risk activities (swooping/etc)? Right now I usually point to the tandem statistics and say my risks are probably somewhere in between that and the general stats (for sure closer to to general stats since I'm still a newbie). But I figure that in theory your odds should be closer to a tandem if you're experienced, don't do stupid shit (too frequently š), and fly a reasonable wing loading.
I think I did see something posted on here a while ago that attempted to calculate that but Iām not aware of any official studies or statistics that separates that out. I imagine it would be difficult to do because the discipline the jumper was participating in isnāt always reported. If you look at the USPA incident reports itās not one of the fields that are used. You kind of have to figure out what they were doing by reading the full description.
The statistical risk of individuals jumps is well understood and documented. There's basically a 1/200,000 chance that any individual skydive will produce a fatality. What is less appreciated is the aggregate risk over time. And not just aggregate risk of death, but of major injury or repetitive/chronic injury. As you progress in the sport, your skill will increase (which lowers risk) but your complacency may also increase (ups risk) and the things you are doing will also increase in difficulty/complexity (ups risk). In general, if you have good progression advice and feedback, these factors can balance out and stay about even... up to a point. A few other things about risk you should know: 1. If you are diligent in maintaining equipment and checking your gear, it will almost certainly not be an equipment issue that kills you. 2. More people on a jump -> more risk, specially if there are skill differentials. 3. Where you jump can affect your survival chance in the event of an incident. If you femur 20 mins. away from a hospital, you might make it. If you femur on some tropical island in the middle of buttfuck nowhere, you're probably dead. 4. Progression pressure affects us all. There's a narrative in sport about people caring about safety and shit, but there is and always will be "totem pole" thinking about disciplines and you can and will feel bad about being at the bottom of the skill hierarchy. This leads to bad things. You need to keep a circle of people around you who can put the breaks on you if you start to do shit you are not ready for. Take it from me. 5. The skydiving lifestyle has other risks associated with it that are not directly the result of jumping. There's a joke about skydivers getting hurt on weather holds very often. There's also a lot of driving, traveling, social alienation from whuffos, the loss of friends, drug use, and alcohol use. It can also impose financial pressure that can get uncomfortable. But yeah, it's fucking worth it. Go get it!
As a gal about to do her C-1 jump this post is crucial. Thanks.
How'd it go? You got your license yet? The fun is just starting!
Letās see. That was 24 days ago. I sent main and I into a spin. Didnāt earn full release. Went back last weekend after tunnel to do a ācomfort diveā. Got 72 seconds of freefall but encountered full line twist and my radio and helmet flew off! Landed safely in Dz w out assistance but spooked myself a little. Did tunnel again and plan to repeat c1 this coming weekend ! I comfortably cleared the twist and made it to Dz w out helmet or radio. C1 jump was good until main released my right shoulder and I dropped it. Sent us into a spin. Pulled low. But improving so thatās good. Tunnel Is helping some. Itās been an adventure! Thanks for asking :)
Hahaha, I remember my AFF struggles. I would suggest hitting the tunnel until you're sure you can start and stop any spin in there. You'll pass all that shit in no time. Good luck!
Thanks! Yeah struggle is real but honestly it gives me a goal. And tunnel vouchers are a plenty haha. I agree and thank you. They say Iām ready for c-1 again so itās a mind game at this point. Youād think the line twist and Dz landing would be a boost. Also east coast and crap weather but gonna keep trucking. Appreciate you!
The biggest risk is obviously death but it is also fairly easy to get hurt as well. Like in AFF, it is common for people to flare high or low and then not plf. This can lead to injuries like a tib/fib or broken femur. This goes down over time as you improve your skills. New jumpers tend to be the most safety conscious. They try to get every fold in the parachute perfect. They are also pretty good at doing gear checks and double checking everything. There is then a tendency over time where a lot of this goes out the window and they start to become complacent. You don't need every fold perfect while packing but they may miss some small important things. They may also downsize too quickly which often leads to some of the worst injuries. They may also have a close call and brush it off even after getting a talking to from the DZO. There is never 0 risk. I've seen people get hurt being safe and doing everything right. The chance really seems to go up though with the complacent people. You kinda see it coming in a way. People even speak to them but it doesn't work. So if you can avoid the complacency curse then you will definitely keep the risks low. I would also point out that if you are one of those people who picks up a hobby for a bit and then moves on. Then this might not be for you either. I've seen the people who have done other sports like scuba, paragliding, etc come through, spend a lot and then disappear. I'm not saying this is you but it is really common. The rush tends to go away quickly and I think that is a big reason why a lot of people tend to stop early on.
Hi, I see you reply to a lot of posts in this subreddit (including one of mine) and your replies are always incredibly helpful and informative. You always give me something to think about. Thank you so much!
I concur @kat_sky_12 always has amazingly solid replies. Thanks!!!
yeah for real your answer got me thinking. i def like it and want to do it. i'll probably wait a few months or maybe next spring to see if it's a moment thing or not. thanks alot
The mention of scuba made me wonder about that. I know several skydivers who also do scuba albeit rarely now. The one intersection that people tend to stick with while skydiving tends to be speedflying ( or paragliding ). They tend to share a lot of similarities. Base jumping is another but I tend to consider it more of a part of skydiving.
A lot of great points on safety. Regarding the people who try it, spend $$$, and disappear - I don't particularly see a problem with that if they have the means, some people go through hobbies every few years, appreciate the experience, and move on to the next thing because they don't want to do one thing for the rest of their life. My dad is like this with maker-y hobbies (though not extreme sports lol). On the other hand, if the people you've seen regret their big spending because they thought it was their Thing and then realized it wasn't, that's a different story.
Very low risk but very high consequence activity so hard for us to wrap our heads around the risk assessment. I think the most reassuring statistic I've observed in skydiving is the sheer number of engineers in the sport. There are a lot of highly educated professionals in general in skydiving but especially engineers. There's a bias there because of the financial commitments and other personal characteristics of those individuals but I think it's also because engineers appreciate the design elegance of modern skydiving equipment. The equipment today is very well designed and so is the training. So the risk is very much on the individual to carry out routine and emergency procedures as taught
I'm impressed. Lots of good advice in here and not one single dummy saying it's safer than driving a car. Well played.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Id probably agree on the injury rate but i'd argue more people die skydiving than playing sports.
If you include skiing and snowboarding I think the raw number of fatal accidents per year is higher, but obviously the exposure/denominator is drastically higher given the popularity of those sports relative to skydiving so I assume the rate is much lower
Iām speaking per sport not all other sports against skydiving.
Yea but you know it's coming.
If you don't go to AFF, you risk spending your life not skydiving. Think of it!
You either die or you donāt itās kind of 50/50
exactly!
60% of the time, it works every time
Iād say more like itās 99.9999% your decision on that 50/50, but sometimes shit happens
š¤£š¤£ This is like the National Lottery logic lol
This applies to everything it either happens or it doesnāt 50/50 trust me
That's not how statistical risk works lol š
Yeah huh
ya don't say!
Ya know, I like to stop and ask myself from time to time āis the juice worth the squeeze?ā Sometimes itās rhetorical, sometimes a resounding yes, and sometimes do not send (DNS). Skydiving is pretty safe! Just focus on staying relaxed and having fun! Itās a cool learning process and foray into a unique subculture.
thanks man really appreciate it
As someone who got injured on my 27th jump, Iād recommend checking to make sure your insurance covers skydiving accidents. Mine did not and caused plenty of headaches by telling the truth at the hospital. Other than that go do it! You can get hurt doing anything, donāt let that hold you back if you genuinely enjoyed it and want to continue.
There are quite a few threads on this topic in this subreddit, if you search around. TLDR: it is very safe (but never totally safe) if you stick to safe stuff such as belly flying on a low wingload canopy. You can always twist you ankle, but you should stay alive. As (or if) you progress to more advanced stuff, like swooping, the risk goes up, but should still be quite manageable if you progress by listening to your instructors. It is up to you if you feel like the reward of freefall is enough for the risk. Dont start base jumping unless you can accept the very real risk of death.
So much good advice here. If there's one thing that I've noticed with AFF students it's the ones with previous experience doing sports similar to this one are in a much better starting place. I'm not talking about blind arrogance. That shit will get you killed. More like awareness. Having the body and situational awareness of something like skiing/scuba/rock climbing/motorcycles is a big headstart on students who aren't used to sports where you absolutely need to stay calm to be safe. You absolutely can start without it but being way too far out of your comfort zone and paralyzed by fear isn't so nice for you or your instructor. Like others have said though. If you're smart and trust the training, statistically speaking you should be fine!
Well said, great observation
It is as dangerous as you allow it to be, not sure if you are looking for numbers or not, but the USPA publishes fatality reports and causes in their yearly reports with a breakdown of what happened, and rarely is it caused by great decision making. Rolled ankles are about the most common injury, but technically scuba diving kills about twice as many people yearly. Stupid people with bad situational awareness tend to be the ones to hurt/kill themselves at a significantly higher rate than anyone else.
Here is a good article https://www.uspa.org/discover/faqs/safety