Where and If To Find Cheap Skydive Jumpsuit

Wednesday, February 17th, 2010

Here’s another of reader’s question that I’ll try to answer.
Jumpsuits are one of the expensive parts of the skydiving equipment. In most cases their price exceeds $100 and goes to $200 and more. There are different types of jumpsuits - for free fly, camera suits, crater suits and more.

As usual one of the possibilities to find cheap skydive jumpsuit is to look for a second hand one. Unlike other sensitive parts of the skydiving gear, the jumpsuit isn’t as strictly related to safety so it’s OK for most people to buy used.

There aren’t much places where to find used jumpsuits online - one is eBay (just now there is only 1 offer, a jumpsuit for $50).

Here is a place which discusses several companies offering used skydiving gear: Skysurvey.com.au.

More links to used gear stores are available at DropZone and Skydive World.

As usual you can simply search the web.

You can consider buying used jumpsuit a better idea than buying very cheap new one (if we assume you find any). The new cheap jumpsuit is likely to be made in China and to have a questionable quality and non-standard size.

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Skydiving Directory

Wednesday, January 13th, 2010

Our site focuses mostly on the safety aspects of skydiving. We know that you may want to learn more and start skydiving for real. So we decided to create this skydiving resource center with links to some of the best sites about skydiving. We don’t aim to create the largest directory - instead of that we are looking to list only the must-visit resources. If you feel a great resource is missing, use the comments to suggest one.

General Skydiving Information

U.S. Parachute Association - this official site is a huge source of general information and current news and events from USA.

Skydive World is the best portal with links to other skydiving resources, just like ours here.

Top 10 Fascinating Skydiving Myths is just one page but well worth reading.

Skydiving Training

Here are few useful resources that can point you where to learn skydiving. I will not list any specific schools because I can’t recommend them without trying them.

Learn to Skydive - Dropzone’s great article will help you jump-start with skydiving.

The 7 Best Places to Skydive Around the World is a great article by Turner Wright that will give you some good ideas.

Where is the best place to go skydiving? - that’s a Yahoo answers page and the best answer is really very informative.

If you were looking for skydiving school better use the search engines - but do check forums and local groups for opinions about the school you plan to attend!

Skydiving Gear

Once again I’m not going to give you links to specific stores at least until I research them enough to be sure in their quality. Instead of that here are some good resources which will help you to buy your skydiving equipment. Of course don’t forget to check our detailed article on the topic as well.

Buying skydiving equipment for the new skydiver is an article that will answer your most important questions if you are just starting.

Of course you should also check Dropzone Skydiving Gear which offers not only good links in categories but also reviews of the equipment.

If you are ready to buy you may also check the Yahoo directory on skydiving gear and equipment.

Skydiving Discussions

You guessed right, DropZone has also a skydiving forum and it’s probably the most popular. But let’s list few other places with good discussions about skydiving.

UKSkydiver Forum is the favorite places of those who live in UK, but even if you are not there you can learn a lot from the discussions there and participate in them.

College Skydiving Forum is a relatively new place and less active but still a good one.

Skydive Safety is a small community dedicated to skydiving safety (just like this site is)

Indoor Skydiving

Once again, there are hundreds of places where you can go to try some indoor skydiving. My target is not to give you links to all of them - it wouldn’t make sense because you need one which is close to where you live. Instead of that, here are few resources where you can learn more about it:

Vertical Wind Tunnel - indoor skydiving explained in deep details in Wikipedia

How to Indoor Skydive In a Vertical Wind Tunnel - eHow’s guides usually aren’t very good, but this one is.

Other Sites of Interest

As we are building sites about other topics too, we believe you may find some of them interesting. This section will list some of these sites, even if they don’t seem too much related to skydiving.

Retro and Mechanical Toys - a site about old fashioned toys with a lot of information and pictures.

Outdoor Garden Benches - know everything about garden benches and even learn to build benches yourself.

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How Old Do You Have To Be To Go Sky-diving?

Thursday, June 11th, 2009

There are various regulations which may vary depending on where you live and the dropzone you have chosen.

In most cases you will need to be 18 years old to start skydiving.

If you are 16-18 years old, your parents may give the agreement for you.

But again, it depends on the dropzone and country. Some countries may have no regulations, but I would advice you to stay away from the drop zones in them.

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Is Indoor Skydiving Safe?

Thursday, April 16th, 2009

As described in the article about indoor skydiving, it’s much safe than the real outdoor skydiving. Only one indoor skydiving fatality has been documented as far as I know.

If you have tried this discipline yourself, please share your experience.

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Is It A Good Idea To Buy Used Skydiving Gear?

Wednesday, March 4th, 2009

Excluding the debatable areas, there are some pieces of equipment that most skydivers agree can be bough second hand and others that are not.

It’s not recommended to buy used…

…Helmet. Skydiving helmets (and most helmets for other sports as well) are created to handle one impact only. The helmet you are buying may have no visible damage, but even if it has been dropped on the ground it might have lost its protection power. Buying a second hand skydiving helmet is unsafe.

I wouldn’t buy used jumpsuit either. First, it’s like used clothes, they fit to someone’s body and will never fit as good on yours. Second, the wears on the windsuit are also hard to notice and although there is no such danger like with the helmet, it can be very unpleasant to have it tear while jumping.

Some used skydiving equipment you could consider buying

The less sensitive and related to safety the equipment is, the more appropriate for buying second hand it is. Also generally the electronic stuffs like the altimeter for example either works or not. It’s fairly easy to see if the altimeter is damaged or not, so it’s kind of OK to buy it used.

The AAD is sensitive, but is also electronics and could be bough used if you are sure in the seller or if it is still in warranty.

The best gears you can safe from are these unrelated directly to the jump things like video cameras, jumptracks, batteries, shoes etc.

Buying second hand harness is a questionable idea, I would say “no” to it.

Whatever parts of your skydiving gear you decide to buy second hand, don’t rely on seller’s word: carefully check the quality of the items yourself and spoil the deal for the smallest doubt.

If you have luck finding good second hand equipment and choose carefully, you can save from few hundreds to few thousands bucks.

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Skydiving Wind Tunnel And Indoor Skydiving

Wednesday, February 4th, 2009

Even you have not been convinced about skydiving safety regardless of all the facts and statistics, there is still a chance to experience the joy of skydiving. Indoor skydiving is as safe as skydiving can be - not riskier than any contact sport for example. Of course you can be injured if you practice this sport, but the incidents are much lighter compared to the incidents in real skydiving or base jumping. In fact, up to this moment, for 20 years of history of indoor skydiving only one fatal incident has been documented.

Photo by Gaetan Lee at Flickr

When reading about skydiving wind tunnel you may meet also the terms indoor skydiving tunnel and bodyflight - it all means basically the same.

How Does it Work

Types of Wind Tunnels

There are two main types of skydiving wind tunnels: Sucker/Vaccuum Pressure Suction and Blower/Air-Pusher. The Vaccuum Pressure was invented in the mid 1990’s to make flying easier as opposed to the flying in the Air-Pushers. The problem with the Blowers is they require solid skydiving skills and falling out of the air column happens often. Of course these tunnels have a lot of safety air-bags around them, so this is not a safety issue but still many people find it just too hard to fly this way.

Anyway most more advanced skydivers prefer the Blower/Air-Pushes type because flying outdoor is more enjoyable. The Vaccuum Pressure Suction is preferred by less experienced participants because they are surrounded by walls which make it much easier to stay in the air and perform various figures.

The Costs

One more advantage to using wind tunnels as opposed to real skydiving is cost. There is no need of an airplane, parachutes or other expensive special equipment. The flights in USA and Canada usually cost $20 - $50 per flight (2-3 minutes) with discounts for families, full hour flight or frequent visitors. In Europe you can often find longer flights (10 mins) to be offered for 25 - 50 Euro. Usually the flight tunnels will give you equipment included in this price.

Going to a skydiving wind tunnel is a wonderful, affordable and quick way to test whether you will like skydiving or not. Of course, the real skydiving is a different experience but the tunnel will give you enough “taste” before you decide whether you want to make the “big real jump“.

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Skydiving Risks

Tuesday, February 3rd, 2009

“Skyiving is risk free!”

If someone told you this you have the full right to doubt their sanity. Yes, skydiving can be a very safe extreme sport. But safety depends on many factors - your experience, your equipment and your knowledge about the potential risks.

Photo by -Xv at Flickr

Yes, there are risks in skydiving and you need to know them if you want to prevent incidents. So the purpose of this article is not to scary you to death and put you off this wonderful sport. It’s purpose is only to force you think twice before doing stupid “brave” things that you have seen in Hollywood movies. 92% of the fatalities in skydiving are due to mistakes in judgement and procedure. If that sounds like too many kids overestimate their capabilities, it may just be the true.

Let’s explore the main skydiving risks that you should be aware of:

• Equipment failure As opposed to what most people believe, equipment failure is very rare reason for skydiving fatalities. Of course, sometimes the parachutes doesn’t open, but all reasonable skydivers have a reserve parachute. Having both parachutes fail to open is an exceptionally rare thing.
• Working with unknown equipment The equipment can get you in trouble if you don’t know it. The different types of parachutes can carry different weight and have different characteristics so not knowing the specific of yours increases the risk to open a parachute too late, too early or do something else wrong.
• Climatic conditions Here is the real reason for many of the skydiving accidents. Strong sudden wind or shifting winds can sweep away the skydiver and cause him to crash. To avoid such risks you need to stay informed about the climatic conditions at the time and place of the jump.
• Medical risks Skydiving is not extremely exhausting sport but still requires a decent level of fitness. People with heart diseases, fever, osteoporosis and similar diseases should think twice before skydiving and do it only after consultation with specialist. The first skydiving jumps can be quite stressful so you’d better be in good mental health as well.
• Landing injures The risk of small landing injures is not to be neglected - you can sprain, dislocate or break a leg or hand. While these incidents usually are not fatal, it’s good to be extra careful at the time of landing.
• Fatality due to overconfidence in yourself. This is maybe the second reason for skydiving fatalities. Young skydivers often overestimate their capabilities and try to perform jumps that are too complex or risky for them.

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Wingsuit Base Jumping

Tuesday, February 3rd, 2009

Get prepared for one of the hottest trends in skydiving: Wingsuit Base Jumping. If you have never seen wingsuit jumpers so far, your first thought may be “those guys are insane”. Just have a look at some YouTube videos.

What Exactly Is Wingsuit Base Jumping

People jump from clifs, airplanes or towers with special suits which let them slow down and control the fall - that’s basically wingsuit base jumping. Sometimes the jumpers start by skiing and throw away the ski while in the air. Then they are flying with the jumpsuit for certain amount of time which of course depends on the attitude of jumping. At some planned moment the flier has to deploy the parachute and land.

Photo by danceinthesky at Flick

The wingsuit slows the fall to about 30m per second and lets you move 20% more horizontally than you would without it.

Wingsuit jumps can also be performed as a skydiving discipline (from an airplane) but most skydivers find the BASE jumps far more exciting.

What Do You Need

First and most important - a wingsuit. The cost of a good wingsuit is about $1,500 - $2,000 and while it’s not cheap, I would not advise you to save money exactly from it.

Other encouraged equipment is AAD and Pilot Chutes.

Is Wingsuit Base Jumping Safe?

The main danger in base jumping and number one reason for fatalities is striking the object you have jumped from. The wingsuit reduces this risk because of the better horizontal movement it allows you do to.

However exactly the advantages of the wingsuit can turn against you - the low fall rate can perplex your judgement about the attitude and distance from the objects which often can cause accidents.

Often some more experienced wingsuit jumpers try to do jumps that would be impossible without the wingsuit. This can lead to accidents if they overestimate their capabilities.

If you don’t let be fooled by the extra safety that the wingsuit gives you, doing this king of jumps is not more dangerous than the other skydiving disciplines. As always, play safe and don’t let the adrenaline take over your mind.

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The Variety Of Skydiving Disciplines You Can Enjoy

Monday, February 2nd, 2009

How many ways to jump do you know? Probably not as many as there are in skydiving. The disciplines in skydiving are enough to be separated in two main categories - Base Jumping and Free Fall. It’s not that you should specialize in Freeflying and not do Base Jumping or the other way around. All the disciplines can be applied together and some even have to.

Photo by divemasterking2000 at Flickr

Let’s explore some of the most interesting ones:

Free Fly

Formation Skydiving

If you have ever been impressed by the skydivers watching some parachuting show, chances are you have been watching a formation skydiving performance.

Formation skydiving is practiced in groups of 4, 8 or 16 participants who perform specific figures and are usually video-recorded by another skydiver.

Formation skydiving is a sport with specific rules - each figure the participants perform is worth certain amount of points and these points are used to calculate the ranking in the competition.

Formation skydiving is considered the most popular parachuting discipline.

Base Jump

Here’s something you can do on your own. The Base Jump consists of jumping from an artificial or natural obstacle - building, tower, cliff, bridge etc.

For more information on the Base Jump it’s better to check the Wikipedia article.

This discipline is mostly practiced individually or in groups of 2-3 people.

The first base jumps have been done in the very beginning of 20-th century.

Freestyle

This discipline is different than Free Fly discussed first in this article. It’s a sport discipline with rules - typically there is one performer and one skydiver who video-records his partner’s performance.

The Freestyle skydiving includes all kind of movements and acrobatics in the three dimensions during the fall. Freestyle is considered one of the dangerous disciplines.

Style

Not “free”, just Style. This is a very different, high speed discipline including a lot of movements in series. The performer aims to make as many movements as possible in a short time.

This is clearly a competitive skydiving discipline and one of these who allows you to achieve world records.

Style is activity loved mostly within old-school skydivers.

Accuracy landing

Accuracy is one of the oldest skydiving disciplines. The performer jumps from the airplane and tries to land as close as possible to a predefined target.

This discipline is practiced individually or in groups of 4 skydivers. The performers usually land on their feet.

These were just some of the most popular skydiving disciplines. There are all kinds of crazy ones like Canopy skydiving, Blade Running, Sky Surfing and so on.

If you want to skydive just for fun, you may not be interested in following specific disciplines - they are for sportsmen who often compete professionally.

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Are You Ready For Your First Parachute Jump?

Wednesday, January 7th, 2009

The first parachute jump is often source for good memories and jokes for years to go. After you have made it, it’s easy to tell stories. The hard part is to do your first jump. And deciding to do it is half work done. What Can Prevent Your Jump Before discussing your first jump, you ought to know that there are some circumstances under which you are not recommended (and often not allowed) to do it:

Photo by Lowerlighter at Flickr

• If you have used spirits or drugs
• If you have high blood pressure or serious heart disseases
• If you suffer from osteoporosis
• If you have broken leg or hand

It’s not that you can’t jump drunk or with a broken hand, but it’s highly recommended to avoid that and skydive only in good physical and mental shape.

The Decision

Freefall Jump

The first classical freefall jump is usually made at 700 - 800m attitude. If you are doing your first parachute jump in a club (which is highly recommended), the instructors will prepare all the equipment for you so you can concentrate on the skydiving.

The instructor will explain you in detail what to do: how to enter and go out of the plane, how to jump, what to do in any unexpected situation and how to land. Usually the first jump instructions include also dry training inside the plane.

When you are actually doing the jump you will again be accompanied from the instructor but only to the door of the plane. He or she will tell you when to jump… and the rest is in your hands and legs. After you jump you will have just few seconds to enjoy the free fall and then the parachute will open.

The first freefall skydiving jump is a terrific experience which you are going to remember for life.

Tandem Jump

If you don’t like to be alone in your first parachute experience, you can choose a tandem jump. The tandem jumps are more expensive because they usually occupy the best instructors and very high quality equipment.

When you are doing a tandem parachute jump your harness is tied to the harness of the instructor who also holds the parachutes. The free fall duration is much bigger compared to the “freefall” jump - it can be as much as one minute! Only the drogue starts opening after the first few seconds. This is because the jump starts at attitude of 3,000 - 4,000 m. After that there is at least another minute fall with the main parachute open.

Because of the high attitude and the long duration of the jump it requires even better physical and mental shape than the freefall jump. However the experience is even more memorable.

Freefall or tandem, your first parachute jump is going to be memorized. It’s a good idea to get a video camera or audio recorder so you can share your great moment with your friends and relatives.

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