What To Wear For Indoor Skydiving

How do you pick out what to wear for indoor skydiving? It might feel like you’re getting dressed for a space flight, honestly. If you have no idea what to expect, you’re not alone. The key thing to remember is that, for the purposes of indoor skydiving, your outfit will be invisible under a jumpsuit, and only really needs to do three things: to allow your body to move freely in every direction, to keep you comfortably covered as you wait for your session and to wick the sweat that this very active, dynamic sport will reliably wring out of you.

Here’s how to choose your duds:

Tip #1: Cut the bulk, but don’t show too much skin.

The weather in the wind tunnel is always perfect, so there’s no reason to layer up. The chamber is carefully temperature controlled, so it’s always spring in there. Don’t go for bulky clothes, because they have a tendency to fly uncomfortably, and try to keep as much skin covered by close-fitting light clothing as possible to avoid the “flap factor.”

Most pro-level tunnel flyers wear a compression-style, long-sleeved, long-legged baselayer under their skinny little flyin’ suits, but you don’t need to get that fancy (unless you want to). Unless you’re a hardcore running athlete, there isn’t a big likelihood that you’ll have that particular set of togs lying around in your wardrobe, so we’ll tell you the next-best thing: leggings, paired with a close-fitting, long-sleeved top that stretches and is long enough to go down to your hips. If you’re a male human and haven’t quite embraced the yoga-guy aesthetic, close-fitting athletic pants will work. In essence: the closer you can get to the aforementioned compression-top-and-compression-pants ideal, the better off you’ll be.

Side note: Coming to the tunnel for a date? Squee! No worries. We have locker rooms for you to change in and out of your tunnel-flying stuff and back into your strawberries-and-champagne fancies.

Tip #2: Know what to avoid.

Lots of new tunnel inductees wear jeans, but that’s not the very best idea. Why? They’re often too confining and they don’t stretch. Also avoid any clothing with ornaments–strings, beads, rhinestones, grommets, etc.–because dangly stuff will smack around under your jumpsuit (and might even come right off). Skirts? Nope. They’re square pegs in the round hole of a pants-legged jumpsuit. Oh — and any jewelry you wear in the tunnel can be kissed goodbye, so take ‘em off and put them in one of our lockers before you step into the wind.

Tip #3: Put a suit on it.

No matter what you’re wearing, it’ll be under wraps. Why? Because, unless you have your very own jumpsuit (and you will, as soon as you’ve started flying regularly!), you’ll be borrowing one of the rack of suits that we keep for this very purpose. Wearing a tunnel flying jumpsuit is a non-negotiable factor of tunnel flight, as it will serve a couple of vital purposes while you’re in there: firstly, to keep your clothing on your body (true story) and secondly, to provide your instructor with handles to keep a firm grip on you, so you don’t go bouncing off the walls.

Tip #4: Figure out your footwear.

What kind of shoes can you wear in the tunnel? One kind of shoes: athletic lace-ups. These should be sturdy enough that you could comfortably take ‘em out for a quick run. Literally no other footwear will do. Anything else would end up tangling in the tunnel’s protective mesh, spearing your courageous instructor in the tummy or just flying right off your feet into the great big fan. Forget ‘em? Again, no stress. We have simple athletic shoes for you to borrow.

Tip #5: Tube-proof yourself from the neck up.

You’ll be wearing one of our skateboard-style helmets when you fly with us. That will protect your noggin against an armada of offenses, but there’s one thing that helmet will not save: Your hair. Each helmet has ventilation holes, and the wind loves to push hair right through ‘em.

Want to keep your hair presentable? Bring a Buff! (That’s one of those tubular bandanas, y’know?) Pro-level tunnel flyers have a whole wardrobe of these things, because they’re great for keeping everything up top under wraps. If you have truly luxurious locks, bring bobby pins to help keep the Buff in place.

Well? Are you ready for your indoor skydiving fashion debut? Do your little turn on our floating catwalk, dahling. Make your reservation today!