As this site is meant to be for a general audience, I have created this glossary of skydiving terms in order to help non-skydivers understand aspects of my experiences.
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Base
The base of a skydive is the group that exits and upon which the rest of the formation builds. Like the homonym instrument “bass”, it is a critical element of the formation and needs to have strong skydivers, but there is little glory in being in the base. Author’s note: I was a bass player.
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Big Way
The number of people in a formation leads to it being called an N-way, where N is the number of people. So a group of 5 skydivers will make a 5-way. Different people have different ideas of how many people need to be in the formation for it to be called a “big way”. I…
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Dirt Dive
A dirt dive is a process of practicing a skydive on the ground. It can include everything from the exit to the points to the breakoff.
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Drop zone
A drop zone is a location of skydiving operations. It usually has a place for planes to takeoff and land and a place for skydivers to land their parachutes. It may also have buildings for packing parachutes, instruction, and paying for skydives.
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Fall rate
Fall rate is the speed at which your body falls through the sky. It is your terminal velocity as the drag of your body going through the air balances the pull of gravity which is trying to speed you up. There are a lot of factors that can affect how fat you fall, like body…
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Going low
In order for a group of skydivers to make a formation of any kind, the most important thing is that everyone have the same fall rate. A person falling at 125mph will not be able to stay with someone falling at only 115mph. If they do manage to grab a hold of each other, the…
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Organizer
An organizer is a combination of a manager of fun and a manager of safety. Organizers design skydives for the group(s) they are working with, making sure everyone has a challenge but nobody is in over their head, which is the fun part. They are also in charge of making sure that groups exit the…
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Outside
Skydiving formations build from the center out. The center is called the “base” and the edges are “outside”. Since the formation tends to slow down as it builds, lighter skydivers who fall slower are usually on the outside and heavier skydivers are in the “base”.
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Playground Exit
A playground exit is a fun and silly way to exit an airplane. Everyone holds hands as if they were preschoolers walking to the playground. Make sure you let go before the tension gets to be too much, or the middle-aged members of your group might tear something.
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Points
In skydiving “points” refers to the number of formations the group was able to make between exiting the airplane and breaking off. Some formations have names, and the sequence is usually decided by the organizer. Skydivers practice the formations on the ground in a dirt dive.