7 things you don’t know about paratrooping

Most people know nothing about paratrooping except that it’s an army force so as a paratrooper I felt it was my responsibility to educate people more about it.

Below are 7 things most people don’t know about paratrooping

It’s a sport

Yup you read that correctly. It’s a sport like any other sport that’s available for civilians to practice at sports clubs. It even has its own “itehad” and it can give you the grade bonus at “thanaweya 3amma”.

It’s a popular sport

Yeah well it’s an underground sport with just one or two clubs practicing it in Egypt right? Nope! While it’s not as popular amongst people as football but it actually has 17 clubs around Egypt practicing it from Cairo, Giza and even “Elshar2ia”.

It’s NOT skydiving

Lots of people who have heard of paratrooping often confuse it with skydiving and the two of them are completely different from each other. Paratrooping is more basic with more steps to do if you don’t wanna get injured doing it. You also jump from lower heights than skydiving and the parachute opens for itself.

Injuries are very possible

While it’s impossible for civilians’ parachutes not to open you can still get hurt if you don’t do the rules you were taught before jumping. You can get it all from a simple but painful scratch to a double fracture but the more you stick to the rules the safer you get.

It’s an army’s game

You can be a civilian paratrooper but you’ll still have to go by the army lifestyle. That means you can be treated roughly sometimes and if you’re a boy you can never have long hair or *cries a lot* grow your beard.

ElShams and Elgala2 are the best

It’s an army related sport and el gala2 is the military’s club so it’s natural that it becomes the best. Competing with it is el shams club where you’ll always find those two getting first and second places at any championship. (Not doing any advertisement for my club *cough*elshams*cough*)

It takes time…and money

If you plan to jump and land in one piece you’ll need practice. The average time needed to jump is a month but it can take more time depending on individuals. It also costs a bit cause every jump costs 500 EGP so you’ll not be able to do every jump unless your last name is Sawiris.

I said this: If you can’t afford to travel abroad to do skydiving do yourself a favor and come jump with us.