Sports and Activities
Sky Diving
OK, so it might not be everyone's cup of tea, but could there possibly be a more original way to say farewell to your single life than by throwing yourself out of an airplane? Skydiving is becoming a great Buck's party activity to rival old male bonding favourites like go karting and sea fishing. This is definitely the perfect activity for a Buck who likes heart-thumping adventure.
Basically, you have two options; either you kidnap your mate and drag him off to a sky diving centre for a solo jump, or you all sign up for a taste of parachuting as a group. How you actually decide to do the sky dive is up to you. You can do solo jumps, where it's just you and your parachute. Obviously this requires quite a bit of preparation and some training sessions before hand, so if you think this might be a popular Buck's idea with your mates, you'll have to do some forward planning. Contact your nearest sky diving school to find out exactly what committing to this would involve. If you don't fancy the pure buzz of a solo jump, perhaps you'd rather go for the added security of tandem skydiving. With this type of parachute jump you are attached to an experienced skydiver, so you get the rush of the free fall, without the stress of opening the parachute at the right time. For many novice skydivers, this is the ideal way to experience their first jump and most sky dive centres are used to organising packages for groups such as Buck's parties.
If you take the outdoor sky diving option, why not build your parachuting session into an bigger Buck's weekend of bonding and having a good time with your mates. Places like the Hunter Valley or Yarra Valley make a great location for a sky dive as you can do your jump and then head off to a winery to continue the Buck's party atmosphere. If you're heading to the coast for some sailing or fishing, tack on a sky dive – many coastal destinations like Byron Bay, the Gold Cost and Cairns have established sky diving schools nearby.
Another way to get the adrenalin rush of free fall is by trying indoor skydiving. With an indoor sky dive you enter a wind tunnel and experience the excitement that you would otherwise only get from leaping from a plane by being lifted and suspended in the air by a strong jet of wind rushing up from below you. The two big pluses of indoor skydiving are that you have to do a bare minimum of training – just a basic safety talk – and, a major draw card if you're thinking about this as a Buck's night idea, you can watch each another do your jump from a spectator's area.
Finally, if you fancy jumping, but not necessarily skydiving, take a look at some of the tower jumps available around the place. In this Buck's activity, you and your friends can arrange to jump from a tall building or other static object on a wire. It's rather like controlled base-jumping, with all the excitement but none of the danger.