How Many Jumps Before Solo Skydiving?

Disclaimer: we can’t really tell you how many jumps you need before you’re skydiving solo at Oklahoma Skydiving Center. It depends! Everyone is a little different. The lazy answer is “none,” because you can do your very first skydive with your own parachute if you forego a tandem to start with level one of a skydiving training program — but even though you have your own parachute, you’re not really jumping alone. You’ll have two instructors with you from start to finish. The easy answer, then, is “a minimum of eight,” but that’s rarely ever the case.

How We Teach Skydiving at the Oklahoma Skydiving Center

We teach new skydivers the ropes using the tried-and-tested United States Parachute Association’s Accelerated Freefall (“AFF”) method. This is a solo skydiving training method that’s been a resounding success since its debut many moons ago. It’s described in this little presentation (second tab from the left) on the United States Parachuting Association website. We teach this way because it’s efficient, effective and way fun!

It’s All About Mastery

There’s even more to learning to skydive than jumping, as it turns out. There’s more to the matter than the simple number of jumps you do before you can skydive solo. The AFF experience at large includes a classroom-based ground school, eight levels of mastery and a few more supervised jumps afterward before the you’ll grab the brass ring of that magical, coveted A-license.

The mastery we’re talking about is the mastery of skills that you’ll need to demonstrate on each AFF level. Your instructor’s evaluation of your mastery determines if you move on to the next level or repeat the one you’re on. The number of jumps it takes to get to true “solo” depends on your technique, your focus and your determination. So, basically: It’s up to you!

How Much Mastery Are We Talking About, Exactly?

Don’t worry; we don’t expect you to be perfect right out of the gate. As in any well-run training program of any type, from extreme mountain unicycling to bonsai trimming, our OKSC AFF students don’t progress to the next level until they’ve demonstrated mastery of the level they’re currently performing.

As there are eight levels within the AFF curriculum, each with a determined set of skills to be mastered and demonstrated, you can expect to jump at least eight times. However, most people don’t do it that quickly. Most students jump a couple of times at each level.

What if you could turn your flying dreams into your flying reality? You can — and we want you to do it with us, via the AFF program at the Oklahoma Skydiving Center. Reserve your place today!