Thank you iFly Seattle for hosting our indoors skydiving experience. As always, all opinions are our own.
Have you ever wanted to go skydiving? What’s holding you back? Fear? Cost? Time? Location? I recently spent a weekend in Southside Seattle with two of my daughters and we took the opportunity to try indoor skydiving at iFly Seattle in Tukwila, WA.
iFly Seattle is one of the original iFly locations in the country and has one of the fastest wind tunnels in the world. In fact, many professional skydivers come to this location to train.
We were so excited to give indoor skydiving a shot. Skydiving is on my bucket list, so I jumped at the opportunity to try indoor skydiving at iFly Seattle.
Once you sign up and complete your waivers, you meet your instructor and watch a video. You learn the basic hand signals and get an intro to what the indoor skydiving is all about for a first timer. Our instructor, Chris, aka Baby Thor (trust me, his nickname is nothing short of perfect) walked us through what we needed to know and got us geared up for our flight. Suit, goggles, earplugs, and helmet and we’re ready to enter the waiting area of the wind tunnel, the wall-to-wall cushion of air in a flight chamber.
We each got to fly twice for about 1 min and 30 seconds per flight. A real skydive only lasts about 40 seconds, so you actually get a ton of flight time compared to the real deal with an indoor skydiving scenario.
In the wind tunnel, Chris helps you fly by adjusting your position and gesturing to tell you how to position yourself. While in the wind tunnel, you’re in winds anywhere from 88 to 108 mph. CRAZY. Remember the game you used to play as a kid when you’d smush your cheeks to show how fast the kid on the motorcycle was going? It’s that times 100. Strange pressure yet so much fun.
Your flight is with a group of people. My oldest daughter and I went with about 8 other people. Our youngest changed her mind. She was nervous, which was totally fine. Although the next day, I think she was wishing she had gone with us. We’ll just have to go back another time.
The second flight you can go up higher with the instructor if you want, so we did. You’re maybe 20 feet up in the wind tunnel. THAT is a weird feeling. It’s a cross between not being able to breath because the wind is blowing up your nose and mouth and having the wind knocked out of your because your lungs are being crushed. But it’s the most wild thing I’ve ever done.
We can’t wait to go again!
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