Types of Skydiving: Break Down 

Key Takeaways 

Skydiving includes many disciplines beyond tandem jumps, such as formation skydiving, freeflying, wingsuiting, and canopy piloting, each with unique skills and gear. Parachute types range from beginner-friendly square canopies to high-performance ellipticals. Exploring these disciplines with proper coaching can unlock endless possibilities in the sport.

Are there different types of skydiving that people master, or is it all the same? Do people just continuously jump out of planes … without learning anything? Far from it! Each skydive is a learning opportunity and skydivers pride themselves on living by the slogan: the learning never stops. 

No skydive is the same and there are plenty of skydiving disciplines that people choose to pursue! And no, you don’t need to go into competitions to practice these skills. So, what are the different types of skydiving? Here’s the break down: 

The Different Types of Skydiving: Core Disciplines 

Formation Skydiving (FS)

Formation skydiving refers to building skydiving formations alongside other jumpers while in freefall – it’s basically a group activity focused on holding hands while falling at terminal velocity. FS refers to building formations while flying in a belly-to-earth position, but there are other variations of formation skydiving, such as vertical formation skydiving – VFS – which entails building formations while flying in a vertical position, either head-up or head-down. 

Is FS easy? Nope, FS takes a lot of dedicated practice and awareness. When we learn to skydive, we do so in a belly-to-earth position, as this is the most stable skydiving position, giving many people the wrong impression that it’s easy. 

What is a static jump and tandem jump? A static line jump is a way of training new skydivers and gives no time in freefall. Tandem jumps are also used to get new skydivers familiar with the air and have plenty of freefall time! 

Freeflying (FF)

Many people think that freeflying has recently become all the rage, but this is far from the truth. Freeflying is when skydivers orient their bodies in any position that isn’t belly-to-earth … think, sitting in a chair (but there’s no chair!) or doing a headstand, but in the sky! Chances are, all the old-timers you see hanging around the dropzone took a stab at freeflying decades ago! However, like many things in skydiving, we want more, and the FF discipline is no exception. 

In the past, static freeflying took precedence, but a freeflying advancement of today is flying dynamically, or with lots of transitional movement between flyers. However, static flying is an incredibly important skill to master, as it makes you a predictable flyer. Plus, how are you supposed to fly VFS with your friends if you can’t confidently fly static?  

Movement

What’s the opposite of static flying? Movement jumps! Flat tracking and angles are the thing of modern-day skydiving. These jumps entail groups of skydivers moving horizontally across the sky. They maneuver their bodies in ways that initiate forward movement while in freefall and are able to fly in close proximity to one another. 

Speed Flying

This is the newest discipline to emerge on the scene. Speed flying is a totally solo discipline and demands you to feel the need … the need for speed! Speed flyers have one goal: to go as fast as they possibly can in freefall. They wear incredible slick suits and orient their bodies into head-down positions (the position with the least amount of drag) to go as fast as they can. 

Wingsuiting

Flying a wingsuit is something many skydivers feel called to do … and just as many don’t. Wingsuiting opens the door for many sub-disciplines, such as formation flying (flocking), performance flying, acrobatic flying, XRW (more on this next), and proximity flying. Skydivers need at least 200 skydives before putting a dress (the street name for wingsuit) on, as the margin for error is less. 

CRW / XRW

CRW skydiving refers to Canopy Relative Work, which is sort of like formation skydiving, but while under the parachute. And XRW is just this done to the extreme. CRW generally entails more docile wings creating formations, while XRW involves itty-bitty canopies and wingsuits … at the same time. This is why the “X” stands for EXTREME. 

Canopy Piloting

Many skydivers will spend their jumping career thinking that the canopy portion of a skydive is simply just getting safely to the ground, and others will focus their entire progression on it. 

Swooping in skydiving is an intentional high-speed landing technique that takes loads of precision, practice, and skill. People regularly compete in canopy competitions – commonly called ‘swoop comps’ – held by the United States Canopy Piloting Association (USCPA).

There are multiple disciplines within swooping, such as distance, speed, and zone accuracy. If toe drags across a glassy pond aren’t your thing and jumping into festivals or baseball games is your calling, there’s also canopy skills and different parachutes specifically for that! 

Are There Different Types Of Parachutes?  

The parachute you fly in relation to the discipline you do can be directly related, but sometimes they’re not. For example, FS flyers can jump any wing they’d like, whereas swoopers opt for more high-performance canopies. 

What are the 4 types of parachutes? 

• Round: Commonly used for military operations, round canopies are not very common today, as they result in notoriously hard and somewhat geographically-unpredictable landings. Think: Clunky school bus.
  
• Square: Although we say square, they’re actually rectangular. These canopies are popular among beginners and are the shape of our reserve canopies. They’re known for more docile flight. Think: Mini van.
  
• Semi-eliptical: These canopies are the perfect middle ground for the intermediate jumper. Think: A good ol’ sedan.
  
• Elliptical: Fully-elliptical canopies are higher-performance wings that have a smaller margin for error and a steeper dive! Think: Ferrari. 

What is a static jump and tandem jump? A static line jump is a way of training new skydivers and gives no time in freefall. Tandem jumps are also used to get new skydivers familiar with the air and have plenty of freefall time! Tandem skydives use large (over 300 square feet) parachutes, and static line parachutes are much smaller, because they’re only supporting one skydiver. 

Myth Busters: Is Banzai Skydiving Real? 

Banzai skydiving – when someone enters freefall without a parachute and chases after their skydiving rig – is not real. The closest thing to this is a skydiver taking off her parachute mid-flight while hanging onto another jumper! Gulp!

Where Do I Start? 

In the beginning, sorting through all the types of skydives can be overwhelming, so where the heck are you supposed to begin? We all started in the exact same place – with a tandem skydive and earning our A License! If you’ve checked that off your bucket-list, start communicating. The best way to figure out what you like in this sport is to do it. That being said, it’s critical to do it with safety first. Communicate with coaches, go on small group jumps to ensure proper instruction and learning, and ask others about their experience. 

We Have It All At Skydive Carolina! 

Skydive Carolina is proud to be home to skydivers of multiple different passions. From first-time-friendly tandem jumps to wingsuiting and movement organizers, we have it all! Are you a newly licensed jumper looking for a great community? Come see us! Have you never stepped foot in an airplane and want to see what skydiving is all about? Give us a call or go ahead and book your jump online!