Skydiving is one of the most extreme categories our panel has dealt with this year. For the Tripbase Awards, the experts had to carve a huge list of contenders down to the winners you see below. They did this by discussing each blog and marking it against a set of criteria, from ease of use to delivery of social media.

There can be nothing more instinctively wrong than climbing into a metal machine, waiting until its petrochemical-powered internal combustion engines propel you and it to a mind boggling height of thousands of feet, and then jumping out of it into the abyss.

The first ever skydive took place in 1797, when a Frenchman called André-Jacques Garnerin jumped out of a balloon using a parachute. The first competition didn't take place until the 1930's, presumably because nobody apart from Garnerin was prepared to trust the eighteenth century's first attempts at parachutes. New Zealand remains one of the more popular destinations for skydiving, partly because of the country's obsession with extreme sports and partly due to the relaxed corporate manslaughter legislation. America boasts a number of skydiving schools, as does the UK. In most Western countries, student skydivers will have to perform a tandem jump before they are able to exit the plane under their own steam, as well as taking a written exam requiring 100%. In the UK, eight hours of classroom teaching is required.

Thrill seekers should consult any of the blogs below for a thorough overview of the sport, its benefits and its dangers. What could be better than seeing the world at 120mph as you hurtle towards it?