What is skydiving?
Skydiving means exiting an aircraft in flight and descending under a parachute. Here is what actually happens on a jump, start to finish.
Read →Skydiving explained
What the words actually mean
Skydiving has a vocabulary of its own, and most of it is never explained to newcomers. These are plain-English answers to the terms you will hear at a drop zone — written to inform, not to instruct.The basics
What skydiving actually involves, from the ground up.
What is freefall, and how fast is it?
Freefall is the part of a skydive before the parachute opens. Typical belly-to-earth speed is around 120 mph, and here is why that number varies.
Read →What is terminal velocity?
Terminal velocity is the speed at which air resistance balances gravity and a falling object stops accelerating. In skydiving it is a range, not one number.
Read →What is a tandem skydive?
A tandem skydive attaches a first-time jumper to an instructor on one harness system. It is how most people make their first jump.
Read →What is a drop zone?
A drop zone is the airfield and operation where skydiving happens — aircraft, instructors, landing area and the community around them.
Read →Equipment
The rig, the canopy, and the devices that back them up.
What is an AAD?
An AAD is an electronic backup that fires the reserve parachute if a skydiver is still falling fast at a dangerously low altitude.
Read →What is a canopy?
Canopy is the skydiver's word for the parachute itself. Modern canopies are steerable wings, not the domes most people picture.
Read →What is a rig?
A rig is the complete parachute system a skydiver wears: harness, container, main canopy, reserve canopy and usually an AAD.
Read →What is a reserve parachute?
The reserve is the second parachute every skydiver carries. It is packed by a certificated rigger and inspected on a regulated cycle.
Read →What is an altimeter?
An altimeter shows a skydiver their height above the ground. Most jumpers wear a visual one and many add an audible in the helmet.
Read →What is a pilot chute?
A pilot chute is the small parachute that catches the air first and pulls the main canopy out of the container.
Read →What is a deployment bag (d-bag)?
The d-bag holds the packed canopy and releases it in a controlled order, so the parachute opens smoothly rather than all at once.
Read →What is a slider?
A slider is a fabric panel that slows the canopy's inflation, turning a violent opening into a manageable one.
Read →What is a three-ring release?
The three-ring is the mechanism that lets a skydiver release the main canopy quickly, using leverage to make a heavy load easy to undo.
Read →What are risers?
Risers are the webbing straps connecting the harness to the canopy's lines, and they are also a way to steer.
Read →What are toggles?
Toggles are the handles a skydiver pulls to steer and slow a parachute. Pulling both together is the flare that lands it.
Read →What is a hook knife?
A hook knife is a small blade carried on a rig for cutting lines or webbing in an entanglement.
Read →What is a jumpsuit?
A jumpsuit is cut to control fall rate and grip. Different disciplines use very different suits.
Read →Training and licences
How people learn to jump alone, and what the ratings mean.
What is AFF (Accelerated Freefall)?
AFF is the most common route to solo skydiving in the U.S. You jump with instructors alongside you and deploy your own parachute from the first jump.
Read →What is static line training?
Static line training deploys the student's parachute automatically as they leave the aircraft, building toward freefall over a series of jumps.
Read →Skydiving licences: A, B, C and D
USPA issues four licence classes. Each has jump-number and skill requirements, and each unlocks different privileges.
Read →Canopy and landing
Flying the parachute — the longest part of most skydives.
What is the flare?
The flare is the final control input before landing, converting the canopy's forward speed into lift to slow the touchdown.
Read →What is a landing pattern?
The landing pattern is the agreed flight path canopies follow to the landing area, keeping everyone predictable to each other.
Read →What is a wind sock?
A wind sock shows wind direction and rough strength at the landing area — the reference every canopy pilot checks on approach.
Read →What is density altitude?
Density altitude is how high the air 'feels' to an aircraft or canopy. Hot days make everything behave as if it were higher up.
Read →Aircraft and the load
Getting to altitude, and the language of the jump run.
What is a load?
A load is one flight of jumpers to altitude. Manifesting on a load is how you get on the aircraft.
Read →What is the spot?
The spot is the point over the ground where jumpers exit, chosen so everyone can reach the landing area.
Read →What is a burble?
The burble is the pocket of disturbed, slower air directly behind a falling skydiver.
Read →Disciplines
The different ways people fly once they are qualified.
What is indoor skydiving?
Indoor skydiving means flying your body on a column of air in a vertical wind tunnel — the freefall sensation, without the aircraft.
Read →What is a hop and pop?
A hop and pop is a jump where the parachute is deployed almost immediately after exit, usually from low altitude.
Read →What is swooping?
Swooping is high-performance canopy piloting — using a diving turn to build speed for a long, fast landing approach.
Read →What is a wingsuit?
A wingsuit adds fabric surfaces between the limbs to generate lift, letting a skydiver glide forward across distance rather than simply falling.
Read →What is a boogie?
A boogie is a skydiving event or festival — extra aircraft, visiting jumpers, organisers and usually camping.
Read →What is formation skydiving?
Formation skydiving is building shapes in freefall by flying belly-to-earth and taking grips on each other.
Read →What is freeflying?
Freeflying is flying in orientations other than belly-to-earth — head-down, head-up and transitioning between them.
Read →What is accuracy landing?
Accuracy is the oldest competitive skydiving discipline: landing as close as possible to a target.
Read →What is BASE jumping?
BASE jumping is parachuting from fixed objects rather than aircraft. It is a separate activity from skydiving, with far smaller margins.
Read →Safety and malfunctions
The vocabulary of what can go wrong, and the systems that address it.
What is a malfunction?
A malfunction is any deployment that does not produce a canopy safe to land. Skydivers train extensively for them.
Read →What is a cutaway?
A cutaway is releasing the main canopy so the reserve can be deployed into clear air.
Read →What are line twists?
Line twists are when the suspension lines twist together after opening, leaving the jumper unable to steer until they clear.
Read →What is currency?
Currency is how recently you have jumped. Drop zones require a refresher if you have been away too long.
Read →Drop zone culture
The slang, traditions and etiquette you will meet at a DZ.
What is dirt diving?
A dirt dive is rehearsing a jump on the ground before doing it in the air.
Read →What is breakoff?
Breakoff is the point in freefall where a group separates to get clear air for deployment.
Read →What is a whuffo?
Whuffo is skydiver slang for someone who does not jump — from 'whuffo you jump outta them planes?'
Read →What does 'blue skies' mean?
'Blue skies' is the standard skydiver farewell — a wish for good jumping weather, and also used in memoriam.
Read →Quick reference
All terms, A–Z
- AAD (Automatic Activation Device)
- Accuracy landing
- AFF (Accelerated Freefall)
- Altimeter
- BASE jumping
- Blue skies
- Boogie
- Breakoff
- Burble
- Canopy
- Currency
- Cutaway
- Density altitude
- Deployment bag (d-bag)
- Dirt dive
- Drop zone (DZ)
- Flare
- Formation skydiving (FS / RW)
- Freefall
- Freefly
- Hook knife
- Hop and pop
- Indoor skydiving
- Jumpsuit
- Landing pattern
- Line twists
- Load
- Malfunction
- Pilot chute
- Reserve parachute
- Rig
- Risers
- Skydiving
- Skydiving licence
- Slider
- Static line
- Swooping (canopy piloting)
- Tandem skydive
- Terminal velocity
- The spot
- Three-ring release
- Toggles (steering lines)
- Whuffo
- Wind sock
- Wingsuit