If you're doing your first ever skydive with Skydiving Kansas City, the instructor you're attached to has done it at least 500 times before. Like every instructor in the state, Skydiving Kansas City's dive gurus have at least three years and 500 dives under their belt, making them more than qualified to take the lead on tandem jumps.

Skydivers, meanwhile, forget about deploying their parachute and focus on the thrills found roughly 10,000 feet high in the air, such as the rush of adrenaline and clouds that are fluffy enough to clean your ears. After a 40-second free fall at speeds of up to 120 miles per hour, the instructor opens the chute, and the rest is a 5–10-minute scenic float back down to terra firma.