Skydiving in California.

Skydiving California (Tracy)

The place is called Skydiving California and it is located in Tracy close to Silicon Valley.
The picture above is from 13.000ft and that is the altitude fun jumpers like me use to jump from.

We built a circle in a head down formation, which is a modality called freefly.
To introduce a little bit of skydiving on this first day, it is important to know there are few
different modalities for skydiving; for example, belly jump, XRW (canopies and wingsuits),
wingsuits and swoop. In freefly you can reach the highest speed on freefall.
For people who are not skydivers it is a tandem jump in which one instructor will carry you
attached to you.

Tracy is a good spot for skydiving because of the winds, they are very stable not changing so much in directions and speed, and those two factors are important for safety while skydiving.

Also, the dropzone is one of the most famous in California because there are high quality jumpers and instructors from all over the world working there. The skydiving community in Tracy is considered a global community because we have people from many different countries like in Silicon Valley. Personally I like the vibe and the environment in Tracy, it is very friendly and organized. I recommend Tracy for all the people around the Bay Area, it is one of the most trustable places to skydive.

Skydive Taft (Taft)

Skydive Taft is a famous place to skydive for fun jumpers and professional athletes. High skill athletes and high performance skydivers like to go to Taft. The reason is because this place is well known for having the best skydivers from all over California; Professional jumpers from Northern California and Southern California get together at Skydive Taft because this place is located in the middle of California. The place is a beautiful desert and it is close to Bakersfield.

Some of my personal views and shots from Skydive Taft for you to check.

As I mentioned before, there are different styles for skydiving.
In the first picture we are doing a freefly jump, in the second picture we are doing a tracking
jump and in the last picture we are doing a belly jump and also a star formation.
The main difference between the type of the jumps are body position, direction and speed.
To understand better the direction of the jump you can imagine someone falling from the sky
straight to the ground or you can fall and move forward at the same time.
Those are some of the basic lessons and it could get way more complex including transitions
from directions, speed and body position. Skydiving is a new sport; for example,
freeflying modality started in the 90's and after Gopro launched the sport could debrief itself
and evolve a lot from there to now.

Skydive Elsinore (Lake Elsinore)

This is a skydiving place located in Lake Elsinore between Los Angeles, San Diego and
Orange County. The place is well known for the good structure, excellent professionals from
the skydiving community and the good service. The President of the Skydiving Association
used to jump in this dropzone. They have different types of airplanes, that is the biggest
difference compared to the other dropzones. The view is beautiful from above,
you can spot the lake, mountains and the city at the same time.
Here is a shot from a canopy flying above.

After the freefall comes the canopy flying. Here is where it becomes dangerous.
As you get closer to the ground, you need to be aware, because the goal is to land safe
and on the target.

It is a fun and beautiful ride while under a canopy, but you need to focus on the traffic
from other jumpers, wind, speed and distance. There are different techniques to land and
there are different types of canopy , so each canopy has its own technique.

So that is my skydiving experience from North to South in California. 
Hope you liked to learn a little bit about skydiving and glad to share my own skydiving
experience in California with you. Enjoy the ride.