I tried to support the now owners of lake wales, but there intentions were different than what they said. Lake wales new owners do not want the fun jumper base, all they want is to make money with tandems. They do not have the customers to make it a tandem factory, and do not like fun jumpers. Jumpers have no place to stay either if they need to. The buck house that was there is no longer available. They made some treated staff members wrongly and made some bad choices. Saying these things, I see Lake Wales drop zone closing by the end of 2009. Since they own titusville, I do not think they want to compete with themselves, so it would be easier to buy Lake Wales, then close it, just to build up their other drop zone's. Yes they also own Skydive Jacksonville, and Skydive Monterey Bay in Cal.
Say what you will about the Nardis, but the now own four dropzones which are consistently busy with Tandems. Now that being said, I may not agree with their decision to limit fun jumpers at their dropzones, but again, their dropzones are successful, and obviously making them money. I don't believe that Lake Wales will go under, I do believe, surrounding dropzones i.e Z-hills are already and will continue to see an increase in their fun jumper base as a result of the decisions made by the management of Lake Wales.
As far as competing with themselves, I don't really think they are competing with themselves, They are making money at both locations. Many people who would go do a tandem at lake wales would not want to make the drive to titusville, and would probably drive to Zhills or Labelle so I would say by leaving Lake Wales open they are attracting a customer base that would normally go to a competing dropzone.
When the decision was made to limit the fun jumping at Titusville, many people said the same thing "titsuville will never make it without the fun jumpers" well Titusville is still there and it is a busy "tandem Factory"
When they re-opened Jacksonville people said that DZ sucks, they operate out of a trailer, there are no bathrooms and the power is supplied by a generator. Well, Jacksonville still has a steady stream of tandems coming in despite a nicer dropzone with a better aircraft (palatka) being close by and another dropzone (the jumping place) which is also near by
I have worked for the Nardi's off and on for the last 6 years. Although I have not always agreed or understood their decisions I respect their right, as business owners to make them. Patti and Greg are good people.
I'm sorry, you are unhappy with the decisions made by the Nardi's and the managers of their dropzones, As you know Z-hills isn't far away from Lake Wales and TK and his staff will welcome you and anyother fun jumper with open arms. I've visited Zhills recently and had an amazing experience, Friendly people, good food, fun skydives, I am looking forward to returning there in the near future.
Titusville does pretty well taking in tandems from the east coast and Orlando market. Buying Lake Wales was pretty smart, because it helps lock in Orlando and also opens up Tampa which is a market Skyride has a fake DZ in. And since ZHills won't take Skyride, they can now just send the tandems to Lake Wales.
