Can You Skydive With Friends?

Your friend approaches you and asks “Do you want to go skydiving with me?” – one of your first thoughts might be a super awesome image of you and your friend floating through the blue sky, holding hands, huge smiles across both of your faces! While this sounds awesome and is totally possible for experienced skydivers, that’s not exactly how it goes for first-time tandem skydivers.

Record scratch … wait! So, do you skydive alone or with someone? Breathe, young grasshopper — for your first time skydiving, you will skydive with someone. And while it might not be your bestest bud, you will soon grow to love your trusty tandem instructor.

Yes … and no. Licensed and experienced skydivers can most definitely skydive together, but first-time tandem jumpers are prohibited from skydiving together for practical and safety reasons. In some situations, a licensed/experienced skydiver friend can jump with a tandem skydiver – as long as it is approved by the S&TA (Safety & Training Advisor) at the dropzone.

On a tandem skydive, you will share your skydiving experience with your friends right up until it comes time to jump! This means you will be able to check in together and ride the plane together, but you will jump one at a time while attached to your assigned tandem instructor.

We do not allow tandem jumpers to jump at the same time for safety reasons. There are risks that come with having two tandems next to each other because of the difficulty maneuvering in flight while attached to someone, and the risk of the “drogues” (the tiny white parachute that is deployed before the main parachute) getting snagged or wrapped up together. Our goal is to keep you as safe as possible and mitigate risks. Therefore, only approved, certified, and experienced skydivers are able to skydive next to a tandem jumper.

How will you decide who’s going first? Will you rock, paper, scissors for it, or will you gladly volunteer to go first? While you might not see each other in freefall, you will be able to watch your friend exit the airplane door before you, and you might even get the chance to spot them while under canopy. And you can absolutely feature in each other’s photo or video package before and after your jump.

As soon as you land back on the ground, you will be reunited with your friends and loved ones … and then you can freak out together about the fact that you just FLEW!

For your first tandem skydive, you will be attached to a certified tandem instructor … but how many times do you have to skydive with someone before you can go alone?

If skydiving solo is your goal, it is best to start with a tandem skydive. A tandem skydive gives you the chance to experience skydiving without the added pressures of operating your own parachute and gives you the opportunity to get a feel for canopy control.

Skydiving schools at different dropzones have different requirements. Some DZs require that you have at least one tandem before you pursue your license, while some have no requirements necessary in order to start the skydiving license program. However, you will be required to take a 6 to 8 hour ground course before actually going it alone. And even then you won’t be alone-alone — you usually will have two instructors holding onto you on your first real solo skydive.

Skydivers take skydiving safety very seriously, so it’s not exactly a casual experience when deciding to skydive solo.

At Skydive STL, we take two tandem skydivers up at a time in our airplane. If you are celebrating a birthday, a special event or just have a large group, you can watch your friends skydive from the ground and cheer them on! For large groups, we do our best to accommodate and will normally take your group on back-to-back loads so you can all celebrate together in a timely manner.

Skydiving with friends is a great way to improve your skydiving experience all around. Here are our top 5 reasons skydiving with friends is a good idea:

1. You’ll make unforgettable memories together. Whether it is your first jump or 1,000th jump, you’ll never forget the people you jumped with.
2. You’ll have a friend to lean on. Working up the courage to go skydiving can be a daunting task, to say the least, so having a buddy there for you has a way of providing each other with moral support throughout your journey.
3. You’ll strengthen your relationship. Nothing brings people closer together than when you’re going through a life-changing experience together.
4. You’ll celebrate milestones together. Skydiving is one of the best ways to celebrate a birthday, graduation, engagement, anniversary, etc. in a way that makes the milestone that much more amazing!
5. You’ll create traditions together. Some besties will jump on the same day every year as a tradition that began with their first jump – a great moment to reflect and celebrate another year of growth.

Ready to experience the thrill of jumping from 10,000 ft at St. Louis’ closest skydiving center? Book your jump with Skydive STL today! Blue skies, friends.