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Average Rating = 4.89/5 Average Rating : 4.89/5

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Average Rating : Average Rating = 4.89/5
Total Reviews: 35

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The best DZ in the world!


Skydive Chicago Rated 5 by: rigoton95 on 2012-10-02

Pros: Everything!
Cons: I have to take a plane to get there... hehe No cons!
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Skydiving paradise! Everything there was make for us the skydivers and is simply the best place in the world to have fun, learn and become a great skydiver in the world! SDC rocks my friends!

0 of 15 people found this review helpful:
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(Review ID:7652)

Big airplane, big hanger, big landing area.


Skydive Chicago Rated 5 by: Bealio on 2012-07-23

Pros: Hot manifest girls
Cons: Hot manifest girls are slow
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The facilities are beautiful. This is what you picture a dropzone to look like before you ever went to a drop zone. I was hoping the place would be more busy on weekdays.

5 of 33 people found this review helpful:
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(Review ID:7489)

this place can be life changing


Skydive Chicago Rated 5 by: scottayerSDC on 2011-02-23

Pros: Everything you ever wanted in skydiving and more
Cons: It's addictive
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I did my Tandems and AFP at SDC right before they moved to their present location. Everyone knows by now that the place is a resort that would be a great destination even if you weren't a skydiver. A person can go from never having flown in a plane to jumping out of one in a few short hours. Over the years I have taken it so much farther than that. What you have to remember is that fun can be a lot of hard work and if you apply yourself you can go far. I attained my pilots license with the help of SDC. I acquired almost all of my gear and almost all of my jumps in trade for work. I reached the 500 jump mark without actually paying for a jump since jump 20 something because of barter. I became a coach and then a tandem master. Giving someone else that first time experience is amazing. Now at 1500 jumps I can't stress enough that Anyone can get to this level it's not that hard. I have participated in dozens of demo jumps and a lot of them paid me. I have jumped over soldier field and intentionally landed in Lake Michigan. I have jumped from a helicopter and flown with a Jeep Commander to land with it and ride in it to display it to the media and Chrysler execs. and then made ESPN's top ten plays of the day. I received my pyrotechnics license with the help of SDC and all I wanted to do was blow off a couple of professional fireworks. Now I run both fireworks shows each year at SDC. I have participated in the UFO jumps. I have jumped from hot air balloons, bi-planes, many different jump planes and helicopters. I have made tons of friends and amazing memories. I wasn't any different from anyone else coming to SDC for the first time. With a little effort you can transform yourself and choose from many different options available with the help from SDC. Yes anyone can do this. I have read some of the reviews and most people get it. This place is an adult playground. You can go to wallmart the YMCA or even your local church and get some of the same experiences that SDC has...but nothing comapres to the fun that is within reach at SDC...nothing. People that live anywhere close to this place, and dont go to it, just dont understand what they are missing. I have used this place to generate maximum fun for myself and I urge everyone to do the same. Pick whatever level of SDC you want and go for it.

16 of 48 people found this review helpful:
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(Review ID:6245)

Top notch training and safety, amazing facility


Skydive Chicago Rated 4 by: travrois on 2010-04-01

Pros: Great facility
Cons: None
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Got my A license here and jumped for several summers. First off: I've never seen anyone take safety for granted here especially the employees. The AFP program is great and I'd highly recommend it especially for students who still have doubts well after their first AFP classes. I think there could be more integration to being a non-student jumper once one gets their A license.

Summerfest is a blast and worth the trip.


0 of 22 people found this review helpful:
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(Review ID:5634)

Great Place, needs few improvements


Skydive Chicago Rated 5 by: waterboy3412 on 2009-06-03

Pros: Professional Employees, HUGE landing Area, AFP in A Week
Cons: Unorganized AFP program
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Okay I have made all 25 of my jumps at SDC and I love the place to death. They have a huge plot of land so if you don't make it to the holding area there aren't any power lines to hit, you'll just end up in the corn fields (but they'll send someone to get you). Their Tandems are great and they actually teach you to skydive. They give you an altimeter and actually want to you to pull the pilot chute.

I really want to review the AFP Program, so here it goes:

I recently completed AFP In A Week. It is a great program, it costs around 2600 bucks but if you can afford it you'll be better off. The Transistion course (what you take after your 2 tandems) is okay. As soon as I got there I felt as though I had no idea what the instructor was talking about. They would use terminology and not explain it in detail. However you do get hands on experience in the classroom, which is nice. You will need to take a test, but if you get questions wrong, it doesn't really matter because they go over it as a group and explain the answer. All in all the class is good but if they would explain parts of a parachute in more detail it would be easier for a beginner to understand.

I loved making my AFP jumps at SDC, the instructors are great, funny, knowledgeable, you name it. My problem with the jumps was the videos. They give them to you on tapes. I don't know how many of you have VCR's still but I don't. Plus if you want to post them on facebook or YouTube you will have to pay them 10 dollars to copy your videos to DVD. I heard they are switching over to flash drives but I don't know when thats going to happen. Another problem was that you don't jump with the same instructor everyday. So one instructor might have your videos on a flash drive, or there computer, or on your tape. They always seemed like it was never high on their priority list to get you your videos. Even when you did get them, getting them in order is next to impossible. My last problem with the videos was on my graduation jump (the most memorable and fun jump) my video was taken by a "pro" photographer on an HD camera. After I landed I saw the video on the big screen but when I asked for a copy he was unable to give me a working one. The file was corrupted. So I have no footage from my grad jump, but I'm over it. Also After you make your 20 instructor jumps and you are on your own, be prepared to buy your own goggles and altimeter. They stop providing you with those. So there went another 200 bucks. Anyway on to the positive stuff.

The staff is amazing, although new to the sport, the first night we were there we were invited to a BBQ with the staff and other jumpers. It is an amazing atmosphere. The DZO Rook is sweet, we talked for a good amount of time which I thought was cool. Also the jumpers there are always willing to give advice which is awesome. After I got my license the Manifest made an announcement over the loud speaker and everyone applauded, which made me feel good. I also learned a ton! Like i said before, I didn't know the difference between the risers and toggles but I feel like I have a great base of information to build on.

Final Thoughts:

I couldn't think of anywhere better to skydive, the view is better than you think it would be, the staff is great, the super otter is SWEEEEEEEET, and they have competitive prices. If they could organize their AFP a little more it would be perfect. If you have never been to SDC, I recommend it.

13 of 65 people found this review helpful:
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(Review ID:5153)

The place to go


Skydive Chicago Rated 5 by: flyfast1966 on 2009-05-27

Pros: Everything
Cons: None
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SDC was awesome. I was there for 3 days, it's like a resort. Everything you need is on site: Gear shop, showers, laundry facilities, rigging, camping, packers, food, Ginormous landing area, Swoopers and low speed jumpers have separate landing area's. The staff and regular jumpers treated me well. Lift capacity , super otter and caravan, that did several back to backs.
I will return !! SDC is worth a road trip!

8 of 67 people found this review helpful:
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(Review ID:5134)

Best DZ around!


Skydive Chicago Rated 5 by: Kenny1134 on 2009-01-07

Pros: Great people + Great planes + Great Facility + Great location = Perfect DZ
Cons: Closes during the winter
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If you want to learn skydiving SDC is the place to go! The staff is excellent and really knows how to help you progress. The manifest office works like a machine, and friendly jumpers are always organizing loads to keep everyone jumping. The dz has a ginormous landing area, and the grounds crew keeps everything very clean. Definitely jump it up at SDC!

5 of 52 people found this review helpful:
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(Review ID:4932)

Awesome place,with big fast airplanes what else do you need?


Skydive Chicago Rated 5 by: 2shay on 2008-12-20

Pros: fast planes and very knowledgable, and helpful staff
Cons: none
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I was hired by Rook the owner last season, and he did not even know me if I may add (thought that was pretty sweet). I went there without knowing anyone and was welcomed with open arms. I worked groundscrew to start. While there I got my coach and tandem rating, and did over 100 tandems in my first month working as an instructor. Everyone there is very knowledgeable and will help absolutely anyone. The otters and the pilots are world class, doing 15 min turns. They also just got a caravan, that should be nice on slower days. Rook and everyone there try to give the biggest and best playground for all skydivers to come and have a blast. I have been to a few dz's and this is a very smooth operating dz with world class planes, facilities, instructors, etc. So thank you to everyone there: Rook Nelson, David Elliot, Steve Verner, Groundscrew, and everybody I missed sorry but I could go on for a long time (and my hands are tired from typing). I really feel at home here and love the fact that Rook and all of team mandrin, and any other of the most knowledgable people in the game are there to answer any question I or anyone else has. You simply will not find that at many dz's if any. These guys are good to go in my book and I will not forget any of them.

Joel Touchatt D-29482

5 of 56 people found this review helpful:
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(Review ID:4921)

Amazing DZ, Beautiful grounds... definitly sets the standards for other DZ's


Skydive Chicago Rated 5 by: mamajumps on 2008-08-05

Pros: Everything about this DZ is a pro
Cons: At big boogies, the showers ran out of hot water fast
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Skydive Chicago is the premier DZ. Definitely sets a standard that other DZ's should follow. The staff take professionalism and friendliness to an all new level. Everything is top of the line to facilities, planes, equipment, and housing at the DZ. Beautiful DZ, great vibe. Definitely a DZ to visit if you haven't yet. Tons of places to land, very well marked LZ. 2 Thumbs up!!!!!!

8 of 57 people found this review helpful:
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(Review ID:4688)

Interesting changes to "Chicago's best DZ"


Skydive Chicago Rated 4 by: sunsetrose on 2008-08-02

Pros: great facilities
Cons: weather, cliques
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I should have wrote this review after my first visit there 2 years ago. I found it interesting how different I felt this time around. SDC has some of the greatest facilities that I've seen at a DZ-Tiki Hut, Sky Lounge, swimming pond, canoeing, camping, horseback riding. They even have Genie's cafe on site which is great if you're hungry, but the prices are really expensive!
Despite these wonderful facilities, I found the the vibe amoung people was different.For starters, I stayed in a tent in the camping ground. There were many loud parties on the weekends-loud techno music pumping that lasted until 3 am! If you're into the party scene, then this is great for you, but for someone like me who's not into the college party scene it was downright annoying. I wanted to be able to jump in the am and not feel tired. With the parties, it was nearly impossible and I too found myself going to a hotel. I also noticed how much drug use was going on. At the tiki, you could see people were high on some sort of drug (that definetly didn't look like a pot high). Although I expect to see drug use at a DZ I found this to be out of control and unprofessional. Especially when I saw the DZO and instructor involved in these activities. Would you feel safe jumping tandem with an instructor who you knew was out partyiing and doing drugs the night before??? To add although some people are very friendly and willing to take you in and jump with you, others do not. There are obvious "sky gods" and cliques. It's apparent that if you are not part of this clique, you are no one important to them. Again, I expect to find cliques at DZ's, but this one was very noticeable.
All in all, it is a nice place to jump and visit, just make sure you fit into the scene before heading there.

24 of 95 people found this review helpful:
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(Review ID:4680)
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