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Sky Diving For Lower Leg Amputees - A Life Experience

Sky diving is an extreme sport that not every vacationer wants to experience. For those who enjoy extreme sports, sky diving is typically high on the list of vacation travel plans and life events one wants to complete. For adults with disabilities, extreme sports can be challenging but not impossible. If you are a lower leg amputee, it is important to understand what extreme sports you can participate in with the right accommodations.

For adults with lower leg amputations, who want to go sky diving, the extreme sport is possible with just a few accommodations. Understanding what those accommodations may be, and finding an extreme sport sky diving program that will assist you, is the key to a fun and exciting sky diving experience. When looking for the ideal sky diving experience, ask about accommodations that are specific to your lower leg amputation needs.

For lower leg amputees, the first accommodation that must be considered is the protective equipment and jumpsuit to be used in sky diving. Because sky diving requires the unique use if jumpsuits, a suit that is designed for amputees will be important. In addition, because the equipment used in sky diving is selected, in part, based upon weight and height, you will want to ask your skydiving instructor about the role of your weight and how to balance weight of your body to accommodate for the few pounds missing due to the lost extremity.

Obviously, when sky diving as an amputee, your landing will be important. In many cases, landing with one leg is possible and can be manipulated in such a way to make the landing safe. Having a sky diving instructor with you during the descent is important but you will also want to have a team of individuals on the ground ready to assist in your landing, even providing a landing pad to ensure your existing lower extremity does not take the brunt of force when coming down to the ground.

Extreme sports are unique and often require a unique personality of individual who wants to experience the life adventure. For adults with an interest in extreme sports that include sky diving, there are many preparation and training to be considered. As an adult with a disability that includes a lower leg amputation, sky diving is possible but with a few additional accommodations that can be offered by some of the best sky diving facilities in the country.

Sources: Journal of Orthopedic Surgery 2002: 2: pp. 47-49.