How To Become A Certified Skydiver

You’ve watched the jaw-dropping videos. You’ve checked out other successful students’ AFF videos to get an idea of what to expect. Now, naturally, you want to put yourself in their securely-tied shoes. If you’re looking for how to become a certified skydiver, you’ve come to the right place: Skydive Perris has one of the longest-running, most trusted learn to skydive programs on the planet. You couldn’t be in better hands.

How To Get Certified To Skydive Solo

Your journey to fulfill those freefall fantasies starts with your enrolment in the First Jump Course. At Perris, we teach new skydivers using the AFF method. The method is described in this little presentation (second tab from the left) on the United States Parachuting Association website, but we’ll summarize: AFF includes a ground school, eight levels of mastery and a few more supervised jumps afterward before the student nabs that coveted A-license. 

We’ve put together some AFF videos that break down step-by-step what you’ll cover in AFF training, just so you have some forewarning and forearming when you march onto the Perris campus. Research is a good thing.

How Many Jumps To Become A Certified Skydiver?

Riddle me this: How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll pop? It depends on your technique, your focus and your determination. (In learning to skydive, y’know, biting will get you nowhere.) However, you do need a minimum of 25 jumps to obtain a skydiving ‘A’ license.

As in any well-run training program of any type, students don’t progress to the next level until they’ve demonstrated mastery of the level with which they’re currently engaged. As there are eight levels within the AFF curriculum, each with a determined set of skills to be mastered and demonstrated, you’ll jump at least eight times (and that’s if you’re a stone-cold natural). Some people may jump a couple of times at a certain level, but it all depends on you.

Luckily, at Perris, we have a “hack”: our on-site indoor skydiving vertical wind tunnel. The tunnel allows our AFF students to work on bodyflight skills in a low-stress, variable-controlled environment that makes passing in-the-sky tests a lot easier and more efficient. The tunnel is a key part of our curriculum, and you’re going to be super-glad that it is.

Your next question is very probably going to be, “So–how much does it cost to become a certified skydiver?” Check it out: Skydive Perris offers a range of AFF packages to fit any budget and help control costs.

How To Become A Skydiver

You think we’re borrowing a duplicated page from the Department of Redundancy Department, huh? Guess what: We’re not.

Becoming a skydiver is actually a very different animal indeed from simply getting certified to skydive without a tandem instructor strapped to your back. Becoming a skydiver involves integrating yourself into the community. It involves making a second home at the dropzone and dropping deep into the culture and the living history that undergirds the sport. It involves a lot of beer-nursing and campfire-gazing and craning your neck to peer upwards. And it’s the best becoming you’ll ever become.

Are you ready to become a skydiver? It’s not that big a leap; in your heart, you probably already are. What are you waiting for? Let’s do this thing.