As one of the most popular disciplines amongst skydivers, 4-way formation skydiving is one of the best ways to start working on those skills you developed through your AFF training and subsequent A Licensure. Sure you’ve learned to skydive solo, but now it’s time to shine and have some fun with a few others at altitude. Not convinced? Keep reading for 5 reasons why 4-way formation skydiving is great.

1. Spice it up!

Let’s face it, solo jumps can get old. Remember the saying two is company, three’s a crowd? Well, we have a few amendments to make. One is lonely; two’s company; three is alright; but four is a perfect party! Instead of the same ole’ same ole, spice it up with a few friends! Finding a group to jump with and to work toward a common goal with gives you purpose on jumps (trust us, we enjoyed our silly cutting-up no plan skydives too, but it is about time for something new). Looking for teammates and forming a team isn’t just about placing on the podium; it is mostly about finding similar personalities, setting similar goals, and developing as skydivers. If you’re worried you’re not quite good enough, skill comes second when looking to build a team and looking for teammates.

Speaking of skill…

2. Build Your Skill Set

4-way formation skydiving is one of the fastest ways to improve your skills and your flying abilities! Plus, the results are easy to see. In 4-way Formation Skydiving, each team flies to a set ‘draw’ of formations. The number of formations built per round within a 10-round competition are averaged to give the jumpers an idea of how well they are doing. Another means of measuring progress is through time. By timing how long each set of formations takes, a team can get an idea of their performance. Teams work to improve their averages by shaving seconds off those times and building formations more quickly.

3. Fast Friends and Fun Times

It probably seems obvious that through 4-way Formation Skydiving you will often develop deep friendships and camaraderie with your teammates as you work toward your goals. But because the 4-way dive pool is consistent across the country (and the world for that matter), the competition world of skydiving also opens up a whole new community of jumpers to befriend. Before you know it, you will be forming friendships with people you’ve met from around the country.  

4. Get Ready To Make Moves

We don’t just mean making formations either. We mean road-tripping, country crossing, and even globetrotting! Tired of the same ole family vacay to the beach? Depending on how far you want to take it, 4-way Formation Skydiving can provide opportunities for you to travel locally, around the country, or even other continents to different events and competitions. So, dust off that passport!

5. It’s so accessible!

Last, but not least, 4-way Formation Skydiving is great because it is accessible! Once you enter 4-way competition, you can easily start to learn from and be coached by some of the best people in the world at the sport! You definitely cannot say that for most other sports: imagine trying to get free throw tips from LeBron or coaching from Falcao. It’s also really easy to begin jumping with a 4-way Formation Skydiving team. It can be as simple as contacting a director of one of the local meets. They are more than happy to help find you a pickup team to compete with during a meet, and you can compete with that team for just the day or the weekend. Or maybe, you might just decide to continue training and jumping with that team in the future!

If serious competition isn’t your thing, don’t worry. The important thing with 4-way Formation Skydiving is finding others with similar personalities and goals and having fun! But, if you do decide you want to get serious, let us know! It’s likely there are others here at Skydive Orange that feel the same way.