SkyDiving In Texas

With the buildup of extreme sports over the decades, a number of locations have been set up to accommodate those who wish to participate in Texas sky diving. Snowboarding venues can be found throughout any mountainous region in the United States, all manner of surfing and jetskiing can be accomplished in lakes and off the shores of the country, and skydiving has become more mainstream with several locations accommodating those who enjoy the sensation of actually flying the human body, especially throughout Texas, which has the ideal climate and general weather conditions to support the sport.

No matter where you live in Texas, skydiving is easy as you can probably find a local “dropzone”, which will assist you in pursuing a hobby, a career, or even a once-in-a-lifetime experience beneath a canopy.

One of the largest locations in Texas for such sport is Skydive Dallas, actually located about an hour north of the city in a town called Whitewright. Will hundreds of regulars and a huge landing area, Skydive Dallas is optimal for both first-timers and career divers. Two turbine engine planes run jumpers up to an altitude of 13,500 feet (nearly 2 ½ miles above the ground), and skydivers freefall before opening their canopies and floating down to the surface. You can choose to take a first jump course and skydive under your own canopy with the assistance of two instructors, or you can go tandem, strapped to a jumpmaster for the entire ride.

Two large dropzones can also be found in the Houston area – Skydive Houston and Skydive Spaceland. Offering the same services as Skydive Dallas but with a greater number of planes and even more regulars supporting the business, these dropzones are incredibly busy. Instead of the clear view of the Red River you get at Skydive Dallas, you are more likely to catch sight of the Gulf of Mexico.

Skydive San Marcos accommodates flyers in the San Antonio and Austin areas, and though smaller than these other dropzones with only one turbine aircraft, the center receives plenty of support from local regulars and adventurists alike.

Skydive Aggieland in Bryan, Texas, is also supported by one aircraft but gets plenty of attention from the college crowd at Texas A&M to keep things busy and running all the time.

While not sporting any turbine engine planes, East Texas Skydiving in Gladewater does have 2 Cessna 182’s that run regularly, accommodating those not wishing to make a long drive to Skydive Dallas to get their kicks.

The same can be said of Eagle Flight Skydiving in Granbury, southwest of Fort Worth, also supporting divers with 2 Cessna 182’s. There are several other dropzones with similar aircraft and abilities throughout the state.

For the faint of heart who are nervous about “jumping out of a perfectly good airplane” (referred to as “whuffos” by skydivers), you can always pay a visit to Zero-G, the wind tunnel in Houston, where you are trained and put into an enclosed tunnel simulating the airspeed of freefall so that you can experience the pure exhilaration of really flying without the fear.

by Julie-Ann Amos, professional writer, and owner of international writing agency www.ExquisiteWriting.com

Why not create your own HubPages? It's fun and you can make revenue from Adsense and other revenue streams on your pages. JOIN HUBPAGES NOW

This work is licenced under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California 94105, USA.