They say skydiving changes you. Who wouldn’t be changed after willingly jumping out of a moving plane at 10,000 feet above the ground?
This might not be everyone’s idea of a good time, but for those chasing adrenaline, an amazing view and the feeling of being on top of the world (even if only for a moment), Edmonton Skydive is ready to strap a parachute to your back and teach you the basics.
Since 1985, every year from early May to mid-September, this skydiving centre has been giving people the chance to see the city (and themselves) from a different perspective.
“It is never boring,” says co-owner, manager and instructor, Raina Naomi. After 2,400 jumps — a few with her Jack Russell Terrier, some for charity, but mostly out of the joy of the jump — she still enjoys watching people experience their first time in the air.
For Candace Korchinsky, who did her first jump with Edmonton Skydive in May 2025, this was about conquering her two greatest fears: flying and heights.
“I needed to wake myself up,” she says.
The whole experience takes a few hours, but it might surprise you to know that the actual skydiving — from exiting the plane to touching down — takes less than 10 minutes. It flies by, literally.
There is a good chance your brain will go quiet as soon as you get to the airport. For Korchinsky, that moment came with a sort of serenity. It helped that she had a full month to mentally prepare for it.
At first, it might seem like you are signing your life away (don’t worry, you are not). Like any sport, precautions need to be taken — the first 30 minutes at Edmonton Skydive will hopefully ease your mind. Before meeting your instructor, staff teach you all the basics from equipment checks and learning airplane exit procedures to the banana position (an arched, belly-to-earth stability pose) and free-fall signals. You might just cruise through the instructions — because in that moment, the easiest thing to do is exactly what you’re told.
“This is a safe, extreme sport,” says Korchinsky. “It’s just falling. How hard can falling be?”
Even as the plane takes off, you might still feel numb to it all. To calm herself, Korchinsky focused on a small sticker of a bulldog with sunglasses that was stuck to the inside of the plane — anything to avoid thinking about the 25-minute ascent to 10,000 feet.
Naomi says the hardest moment for first-timers is standing at the edge of the airplane’s open door, just prior to stepping out. But that’s where trust comes in. The instructor attached to you will not hesitate to give you the push you need.
“The instructor was my safety net,” says Korchinsky. “He made it easy to just let things happen.”
And then, suddenly, you’re out.
Contrary to what people think, free falling does not feel like dropping from the Space Shot at Galaxyland. As soon as you leave the plane, you find yourself floating, feeling as if you are lying on a cloud cushion — even if it’s just for 30 seconds before the parachute opens up.
For those scared of heights, it’s not quite the same sensation as standing atop a tall structure. There is no immediate sense that you could slip. “When you are standing on an open beam or ladder, there’s the sense that you could fall,” says Korchinsky. “But when you’re skydiving, you know you are going to fall, but it’s a safe fall.”
As the ground comes closer to you, the real challenge isn’t fear. It’s remembering to breathe. Air is whooshing at your face all the way down, so breathing through your nose is key. Korchinsky chuckles as she remembers how hard it was for her.
You may reach the ground before you fully come to terms with what just happened. But when it does, you feel unstoppable, according to Korchinsly; you look up at the sky and won’t believe you were just flying up there.
“I could finally say I had skydived,” says Korchinsky. And if anyone questions it, she is always ready to pull out the photos to prove it.
