Their answers aren’t meant to tell you what your numbers should be. Instead, we hope they encourage you to think critically about your own emergency procedures and have meaningful conversations with instructors, coaches and mentors about setting them. Here’s what experienced skydivers from across multiple disciplines had to say:<\/p>\n\n\n\n 23,800+ Jumps<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I would like to start by making it clear that opening altitudes and hard decks are a very personal choice and they depend on your progression and experience in the sport. That being said, I would like to share what I use for deployment and hard deck altitudes, and the reasons why I chose them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When the discussion about OA (opening altitudes) and my HD (hard deck) arises I always ask first: what is your AAD set to? Is it on the factory setting or have you increased the activation altitude? I ask because for me the decision about altitudes starts from the bottom up- based on AAD activation altitude I set HD and then OA. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I will specifically reference Cypres, since that is the system I have been using for 27 years. The factory setting of Cypres activates its cutter at 750 feet. I personally think that this altitude is way too low, so my activation altitude is plus 200 feet, in other words my AAD will activate at 950 feet. I feel strongly that the extra couple of hundred feet give you more time to land safely. It is important to note that different manufacturers have different factory settings and everyone should be familiar with their personal AAD settings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Now that we have established at what altitude my AAD will activate, we can get into the decision about the hard deck alarm. It is very important that there is a clear understanding of what procedure you will follow when you hear this alarm. For me it\u2019s the last warning that I have gone way too low to deploy my main parachute, so for me this alarm means that I will go straight to deploying my reserve. I have this altitude warning set at 1800 feet. You should never hear this alarm if you respect your OA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “There is no stupid questions, only stupid people who do not ask questions.”<\/strong><\/p>Luis Adolfo Lopez-Mendez<\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n Like I said before, this is my personal choice that goes hand and hand with my experience and the equipment I use. The altitude choice would change if I change the settings on my AAD or my equipment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Having a hard deck is vital, as deploying your main parachute at a lower altitude produces the risk of AAD activation and a two canopy out scenario. This should be avoided at all cost, as we would be gambling on the outcome. Once we have the hard deck setting clear we can start thinking about what altitude we will deploy our main canopy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Again this goes hand and hand with your equipment and experience, there is no one altitude that fits all. The standard OA in the sport is 3500 feet. But at what exact point of your deployment procedure does the alarm go off? When you hear this alarm are you stopping your tracking\/break off, waving off and then deploying? Or did you already manage all this and the pilot chute is out of the pouch when you hear the beep? If it is the former, then you are getting closer to the HD after your main is fully open. I personally use the latter, I want my pilot chute out when the beep is ringing at my OA. My OA is 3750 feet, I choose this as my AAD is plus 200 feet, this way I am not risking a double malfunction. As stated before the HD alarm is something I never want to hear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you respect your OA, your alarm for the HD is a sound you will never hear, but we need to be clear and practice what procedure we will use in case we hear the HD alarm. <\/p>\n\n\n\n If you are not clear what your OA or HD should be, ask the more experienced jumpers to help you find yours, but please always ask questions on why those choices are better for you, so you can make an informed and safe decision about it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I always say: There is no stupid questions, only stupid people who do not ask questions!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Flight-1 Instructor, 11,000+ Jumps<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n My personal numbers are a 2,500-foot decision altitude for high-speed malfunctions<\/strong> (or immediately if the G-forces are increasing or I know it is not getting better)<\/em>, 2,000 feet for low-speed malfunctions<\/strong>, and a 1,000-foot hard deck<\/strong>. I use a higher decision altitude for high-speed malfunctions because I’m losing altitude rapidly and want plenty of time for my reserve to deploy. For low-speed malfunctions, I have a little more time to assess whether the canopy is recoverable, but once I reach 2,000 feet, the decision is made. My hard deck is 1,000 feet because it’s an altitude I can easily recognize in my landing pattern.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Whatever numbers you choose, know them before every jump…and stick to them.”<\/p>Kaz Sheekey<\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n I don’t want to advocate a specific set of numbers for anyone else, but I do believe it’s important to have real numbers that you’ve thought about and committed to. Those numbers should take into consideration factors like your normal deployment altitude, the type of jumping you’re doing, your canopy, and your experience. Whatever numbers you choose, know them before every jump and stick to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Skydive Perris DZM, 32,000+ Jumps<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The idea of decision altitude sometimes leads people to what I feel is a backwards way of thinking. In my opinion the most important decision is made before the jump. What am I going to do if my canopy isn’t t working properly? Am I going to fight to fix it or cutaway and get a good reserve over my head as quickly as possible? <\/p>\n\n\n\n I have 30+ cutaways. I’ve never come close to my decision altitude and rarely even re-checked my altitude. I already knew exactly how high I was when I deployed and I cutaway immediately after opening if I wasn’t 100% sure I could fix the problem in a few seconds. Here’s my plan:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Many skydivers have decided to first fight to fix the problem and if it hasn’t been fixed by the decision altitude to then cutaway. This plan has led to many fatalities, injuries and close call situations jumpers were lucky to live through. Trying to fix a malfunction will very often make the situation worse. <\/p>\n\n\n\n “If there is any question at all of whether I can fix it quickly or not, I cut away calmly, deliberately and immediately.”<\/strong><\/p>Dan BC<\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n I don’t worry about cutting away and losing the canopy, or the cost of a repack, or friends telling me “you could have gotten out of that.” To me there is one goal and one goal only, to land safely. The sooner and higher I have a good canopy over my head the more likely I’ll have a good chance of doing that. But who knows, I’m kind of old fashioned that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Momentum Flight, 4,000+ Jumps<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n My decision altitude is 2,000. In my experience, this gives me a good window to clear a malfunction on my main while also giving me plenty of time to deal with a potential malfunction on my reserve if I end up cutting away. It also gives me time to find a good landing area. That being said, most of the time I\u2019ve cut away far higher than this because I knew I wasn\u2019t going to clear the malfunction by 2,000ft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n My hard deck right now is 1,000 feet. This is the lowest altitude at which I would want to cut away if something were to happen to my main later in the flight. This coincides with my CYPRES activation altitude because I set all of mine to +3, meaning it activates at 1,050 feet. I round to 1000ft to have an easy number to identify.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is the lowest altitude where I personally feel confident I could get a fully open reserve over my head and execute a safe landing. While some argue having a Skyhook could allow you to cut away lower, I have also heard of reserves taking longer than expected to deploy, even with a Skyhook. Because of that, I personally do not feel comfortable lowering my hard deck below 1,000 feet at this time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fly4Life, 12,000+ Jumps<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I personally have my hard deck pretty low \u2014 1750 ft, to be exact. Which technically gives me only 2 or 3 seconds to make the right decision and execute it. But here\u2019s where I\u2019ve trained my brain for all the possible scenarios, which I can quickly condense into 3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Before I explain them, though, there\u2019s something important to mention: I\u2019ve very rarely actually heard my last audible alarm during a jump \u2014 maybe 2 or 3 times throughout my whole career. So whenever I do hear it, it\u2019s a very different and very proper alarm in my ears compared to the other freefall alarms I\u2019m used to hearing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s important for two reasons:<\/p>\n\n\n\n A) Because I\u2019ve barely ever heard it, whenever I actually do, it immediately gets my attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n B) I train my brain by listening to the hard deck alarm on the ground, in a controlled environment, while visualising the different scenarios I could encounter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So yeah, these are the 3 main scenarios I put myself through:<\/p>\n\n\n\n These 3 scenarios are the main themes, and each one of them could look very different within itself. And this is where I think visualization goes a long way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Arcus Flight, 3,000+ Jumps<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019m extremely conservative under canopy and always have been. My decision altitude is 2500, and my hard deck is 2000, even when I have my base canopy in my sky rig. That said, I\u2019ve had 2 cutaways (knock on wood), and both times, I chopped far above those limits. The first time, I cutaway at 4K (it was my 7th wingsuit jump, and I\u2019d pulled high), as soon as I knew it was inevitable. The second time, I chopped around 3k. I don\u2019t want to be distracted low under canopy where there might be other canopies I could collide with, so I try to make a decision as early as possible. I watched someone wait for their AAD to fire (couldn\u2019t find his handle and just decided to rely on the AAD to sort it) in the middle of the main landing area once, and all I could think about were the potential collisions in the pattern that could have caused a double fatality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s important to me to always consider those sharing the sky with me. I could fight an issue lower to save myself the trouble of locating a canopy drifting off the dz, or I could set myself up to deploy where the wind will keep my canopy on the airport if I need to chop (wingsuiting makes this easier than for other disciplines obviously). Even if – for any reason – there\u2019s a likelihood that cutting away higher means it\u2019ll be a struggle to get my canopy back, I\u2019d rather not still be fighting and distracted anywhere near other canopies. As a wingsuiter, my most likely canopy traffic besides other wingsuiters are students and tandems. I can\u2019t rely on students to keep their head on a swivel for me with a mal heading toward them, and I wouldn\u2019t want to put a tandem in the position of having to avoid me either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fly Warriors, 5500+ Jumps<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Until now, I have a total of 3 cutaways. All of them, I cut away above 2000ft, (my decision altitude is 2000ft). I always want to have a fully open and functioning canopy no lower than this altitude, mainly to have enough time to identify where am I and if a can reach the DZ. In case I’m too far from the DZ, that would give me enough altitude (also enough time) to find a safe area to land, or prepare for a water landing. I currently have an OP126 as a reserve, which is a 1.4WL for me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I personally accept that my 1.4WL reserve canopy could have some line twists (never had, thanks to my rigger Nelson) if I were to have an aggressive cutaway. This is why I will always do my procedures as soon as I identify any issue. My decision time becomes really important since it’s going to affect directly the time and altitude I have left. For sure I always want to be clean by 2000ft. In case I would have an issue, such as a lower canopy collision, since Im using skyhook+RSL, chop it will be the only way to survive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 8000+ jumps<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n My decision altitude is 2100ft. This is because I want to actually cutaway by around 2000ft. I build in the extra time for my brain to react. If I have not cleared whatever malfunction I am dealing with by 2100ft, it is a non-negotiable agreement I\u2019ve made with myself to cutaway. I have personally thought I was seconds from clearing a malfunction only to pop my brakes and realize there\u2019s also a tension knot or something serious – now I\u2019m lower than my decision altitude. 2100ft, especially under a highly loaded HP canopy, is now a strict rule. Also, I do not wait until my decision altitude to cutaway. If I have gotten that low, I have already made a series of mistakes. In my experience, I have usually cutaway well-above my decision altitude.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The only time this decision altitude may change (raised slightly higher – i.e. 2500ft) are places with obvious terrain features that may make finding a suitable alternative area under a reserve more difficult. Particularly, because I am usually angle flying (or flying camera for movement jumps) and opening significantly off jump run. These scenarios could include mountains, forests, over the ocean, dense urban areas etc..<\/p>\n\n\n\n My hard deck for cutting away no-lower-than is 1000ft. I am usually jumping with my Skyhook. Again, this number builds in time for real-world cognitive reaction times and the physical EP execution. I would use my Skyhook slightly lower than 1000ft in an absolutely catastrophic situation (e.g. I\u2019m about to start my turn at 1000ft and someone suddenly flies through my canopy) where I have no chance of recovering my wing. Lower than this altitude, I would just get my reserve out and as much fabric as possible if I\u2019m unable to safely land the canopy above me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n My Speed Cypres activation is set to +300 ft. I rarely deploy my main lower than 3500\u2019. A 2-out situation from not deploying on time is highly unlikely for me. If for some reason my main is not fully inflated by 1050ft, it is far more likely I am incapacitated if I\u2019m still near freefall speed at 1050ft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAim for the bushes.\u201d – The Rock, The Other Guys, Tex<\/p>\n\n\n\n Horizon, 7,000+ Jumps<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n When I think of my decision altitude and hard deck, I think back to what one of my first instructors said to me: This has guided my process in shaping my own personal limits as I\u2019ve progressed as a skydiver. And with roughly 7,000 skydives on my own gear, here\u2019s my current thought process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n My Decision Altitude: (2500\u2019 AGL) My Hard Deck: (1900\u2019 AGL) Some closing thoughts on \u201cdecision altitudes\u201d and \u201chard decks.\u201d![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.skydivemag.com\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/ascend-1024x768.jpg\")
Photo by Orbit Media<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nLuis Adolfo Lopez-Mendez<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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Kaz Sheekey<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Dan Brodsky-Chenfeld<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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Photo by Brandon Schmidt<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nFelicia “Fish” Sturgeon<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Roberto “Manfi” Hernandez <\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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Photo by Argy Alvarez Gen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nAshlee Richman<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Dani Gallego Prieto<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Jesse \u201cTex\u201d Leos <\/h4>\n\n\n\n
David Lang<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\u201c\u2018Decision Altitude is the altitude where you\u2019ve decided that the canopy above your head is the canopy you\u2019re going to land.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the event that I do have a high speed malfunction, 2500 feet above ground level gives me adequate time to sort out any kind of mishap or potential malfunction with my reserve. I constantly need to remind myself that we are skydiving and anything is possible. There\u2019s no need for me to fight with the high-speed malfunction past this point. Whether I\u2019m jumping with my RSL\/Skyhook connected or disconnected, there\u2019s high odds of me spinning under a high-performance canopy malfunction, and therefore HIGHLY likely to have line twists on my reserve opening. Experience has taught that anything is possible, and I want altitude more than anything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The only way that I\u2019ve made it to this point without cutting away a malfunction is if it is a low speed malfunction that I\u2019ve identified and have a solution to. I have until 1900\u2018 to execute that plan to get a fully flying main canopy. However, If I\u2019m still having any issues or have any doubt in my mind about landing the canopy, I got to my EPs. Plenty of time to fight for my life from there if anything should happen in the reserve extraction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These are both decision altitudes. But every altitude is a decision altitude. We are jumping out of airplanes. Many of us moving off of jump run over various terrain. All of us are climbing to altitude over varying elevations of \u201cAGL\u201d, not what your altimeter is saying. These decisions need to be kept in reference during your entire jumping experience. Skydiving is not a pay to play sport. It\u2019s up to me to be responsible for my safety and aware of the space around me. I have to be in it. Every step of the way. Every altitude up, and every altitude down is a decision altitude. And the hard deck\u2026 -6\u2019 is the altitude I\u2019m going to stop making decisions for myself whenever I find myself in an emergency situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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