Perris Skyventure Indoor Skydiving: Indoor Skydiving in California at Its Finest

If you have ever thought about skydiving, but couldn't build up the nerve to throw yourself out of a perfectly good airplane, (as the saying goes). You can always opt out for the indoor skydiving, vertical wind tunnel option. If of course you are so lucky to have one near by you.

First a little bit about the Perris Skyventure Indoor Skydiving vertical wind tunnel. This thing is huge! Built 3 years ago at a cost of 4 million dollars! Its a 96 foot tall mammoth tower! This ain't no ceiling fan. With the potential to blow wind speeds up to 150 MPH this tunnel demands respect.

The ground crew are great, warm, welcoming, and friendly. The facility is clean, and well maintained. The jump suits provided are in good shape, and comfortable. Upstairs where the actual flying is done you will find plenty of briefing rooms, equipped with VCRs and TV for briefing, and debriefing your tunnel time. There is also a huge room up stairs from that where only skydivers are allowed. Perfect for getting some space from the crowd, and going over their tunnel time exercises.

Maybe, perhaps you are an AFF (Accelerated Free Fall) student and need a little extra coaching, and you are not sure if the money spent in the tunnel, and a coach is worth it. Speaking as an AFF student with only 10 jumps, it is well worth it. Especially if you need that little extra edge as a student skydiver. I clocked in 30 minutes of coached tunnel time at Perris Skyventure. I now have the skills, and confidence I need to finish my AFF jumps off.

First for the Wuffo's. The 2 minute flight for 50 bucks is not a bad deal. However this just does not even come close to what you would experience as a first time tandem or solo AFF stage 1 jump. I would recommend shelling out a little more dough, and experiencing the real deal. Not only that if you have very little, or no skydiving experience you will find it very hard to actually get stable, and fly your body. You will not be doing anything fancy. In fact you'll be lucky if you can manage to just get stable, and hover. Most likely your 2 minutes in the tunnel will consist of the tunnel rat holding you up, and trying to get you into the correct position to achieve body flight. Unless you are a bipedal, egg laying, and evolved from the dinosaurs this most likely will not happen in 2 minutes. In saying that though it is sure to bring a smile to your face, and loads of fun.

However, if you are an AFF student and are having trouble with certain things during your free-fall then the tunnel is most definetly the place for you. I myself was having difficulty maintaing stability, turning. The tunnel (and a coach) cleared that up with ease. I now have the skills required to blow through the later AFF stages now. At least as far as the body flight aspect goes.

If as an AFF student you do decide to get some tunnel time. Make sure to get yourself a personal coach. It costs a little bit more, but is well worth the extra cash. Your skills will increase ten fold. The difference being is that without a coach, you really don't have any direction, or focus. You will have the tunnel rat in there with you, but they are not a coach, they are merely there to assist you on getting in, getting out of the tunnel, and to get a hold of you if it looks like you are going to leave the earth's atmosphere due to the shear power of the fan blowing your face off.

The folks at Perris Skyventure Indoor Skydiving are great. The are kind, friendly and very supportive. If your a first timer, a newbie AFF student, or an advanced skygod doing some relative work in the tunnel they will treat you the same regardless. I found the prices to be very fair, and acceptable. Even with the extra I spent on personal coaching. Take note that you have to arrange the coaching on your own, and booking is mandatory. The skills that you will learn in the tunnel are well worth the money. It will end up saving you money in the long run as you won't be redoing, and repaying your hard earned dollars over, and over on your failed AFF jumps. You can only benefit from the wind tunnel as an AFF student.

If you are lucky enough to be short drive away from a vertical wind tunnel, then by all means go for it. You'll have a blast, and leave with a smile on your face. Not to mention some new body flight skills that you can put into effect on your next jump.

Two thumbs up for Perris Skyventure Indoor Skydiving.