What Defines Us As A Skydiving Community

There’s a good reason why we’ve chosen to spend our lives with people who are deeply involved in the skydiving community. In all honesty, they’re the most fantastic people we’ve ever met. This incredible sport brings people together in both its soaring highs and in its tragedies, making us appreciate life that much more on both ends of the spectrum. That full-scope experience of a deeply, fearlessly lived life means that skydivers share a very unique perspective. Such a perspective drives proactive social behavior directly from its roots.

Skydivers Look Out For Each Other.

When you’re walking out to the plane on any given dropzone, you’ll see it: Skydivers checking each others’ equipment; looking around to make sure that everything is in the proper configuration; tapping and tugging and confirming that everything is just right. You’ll see jumpers setting up their exit arrangements and “walking out” their jumps on the ground. You’ll observe them having careful conversations about exactly what they plan to do, so nobody is caught unsafely off-guard.

We take these safety conversations very seriously, even though we’re smiling, laughing and playing around, because–on every jump–each one of us is taking responsibility for not only ourselves but for every other jumper on the plane.

Skydivers take the same kind of care of each other outside the context of the actual jumping. We have a tight, supportive community; we celebrate each other’s’ successes and help pick up the pieces when things aren’t going well.

Skydivers Look Out For The World At Large.

When you start to look around, you see how involved skydivers are not just with their freefallin’ brethren but with making the entire landlubber world a better place to be. Often, we use skydiving to do it.

There are hundreds of examples of these efforts, but a few come readily to mind: Jump for the Cause, a non-profit started by a group of women who perform mass skydiving formations to raise money; Leap for Lupus, which has been raising funds for disease research for many years running; Operation Enduring Warrior, which facilitates skydiving training programs to expand the world of our nation’s veterans; Just Care More, which supports programs for at-risk youth–and then introduces them to the “whole-other-planet” experience of a great big skydiving party at the beach, with the aim of motivating them to aim for the stars.

Skydivers Love To Share.

Skydivers generally wax pretty poetic about the experience of freedom, focus and peace that they experience through the act of freefall. That experience–enjoyed over and over and over–has life-changing effects on their personal sense of possibility, accomplishment, confidence and overall happiness. It’s a gift, really: and to share that with others is an incredibly satisfying, bonding experience.

At Perris, our staff and our skydiving community at large is really big on sharing that gift. You’ll notice it from the moment you arrive. When we congratulate our new jumpers, we really mean it, and you can tell. After all: we’re welcoming you into the population of the world of skydiving–which, of course, is the very best–and we know you belong here. Come on over and introduce yourself!