SUMO initial impressions

[nickfrey 0]

Before getting in to the specifics of what I think of the suit...

My SUMO first arrived April 2, I was one of the first orders and chose custom colors. I ordered it on Feb 13th and received an email a week later saying it would be completed on March 28th and shipped immediately. I don't think full production had started when i ordered and I hear delivery times are closer to one month now.

This is exactly what happened, there was even a one day customs delay and the suit was overnight-ed from US Squirrel HQ to me to make up for it!!! Even after I told Mike I couldn't use it till the next week.

My first impression was great build quality as usual, but this thing seems really low volume... I should have just took pictures and sent them to Squirrel when I got it, but I didn't. Turns out it was built way to small for me, at 5' 3" and 150-160 I am difficult, to say the least, to make suits for. I emailed [email protected] from the DZ and had a response from Matt within 20 minutes (i think it was actually even faster then that). He immediately recognized the problem from photos, it was just plain to small. He told me they would fix it and put another one in to production immediately, even gave me the option to change the colors. This was on a Monday, and the new suit shipped to the US that Friday and was shipped to me from Utah arriving Wednesday... 9 days!!! Needless to say I was very impressed and it fit perfectly. They even sent me a hat with it!

Now on to the suit, I like it! It's stable, and even my cannonball frame was able to consistently glide at 1:1 by the second jump. It's pretty nimble as well, and though not the greatest glide is also stable on its back (no inflation). Remember I'm 5' 3" and 190 with gear!!!

I jumped it with and without the No Wobble leg wraps, Even without it is super stable, no issues at all. Though with them I found turning to be much more crisp and require far less movement and corrections to get the desired effect. I started to gun it on the last (3rd) jump of the day and was surprised by the ground I covered, flysight said 1.1 to 1.2 GR. I do not consider myself a good tracker by any means and have actually only made about 10-20 real tracking suit skydives out of 600+ sky jumps. But I can tell this thing has A LOT more to offer in more capable hands. Cant wait to BASE it, and to find out it's true potential. I think Squirrel did a great job with it, felt as stable as a standard PF, with far more performance available. I don't jump for time, nor do i consider that a measure of performance, but for those that care, 85 seconds from 12.5k to 3.5k... It took me my first twenty wingsuit jumps to get my cannonball ass past those numbers!!! Ground speeds were easily in the mid 90's... To put it in to perspective, The best PTS glides on PPC are just over 1.1 at 105mph... And I've BASE tracked with that guy, he's better then me. TUBE 4 shows 1 at 1.3 and then drops off to 1.0.

My initial impression it likes to go steep, arms back about ass level it seems, wide or narrow stance is totally fine, and seems to have little effect, maybe some on forward speed, though much greater changes to glide and sink were to be had with arm height and width adjustments. Was still stable even in a pretty hard de-arch and rolled shoulders. As it speeds up, glide improves.


I am super stoked with the suit and the service from Squirrel... I'll soon be ordering my 4th suit from Squirrel, bring on the FUNK!

[Bluhdow 31]

Do you have much time on a PTS? Most of my tracking jumps are on a PTS (which definitely likes to fly steep) and when I jumped the Sumo it seemed much more natural in a flatter position than I'm used to. This isn't necessarily good or bad, just a different style.

They seem to cover similar amounts of horizontal ground, both very stable and comfortable, they just got there most efficiently at different angles. In my experience.

I think the Sumo would be an easier suit to fly from the start, as most skydivers aren't used to tracking as steep as the PTS prefers. As far as top end performance is concerned, I have no idea. Not qualified enough on either suit to judge.

Apex BASE
#1816

[nickfrey 0]

I've never jumped a full PMS, pants with a ski jacket only. So can't make a fair comparison.

[wasatchrider 0]

nickfrey

I've never jumped a full PMS, pants with a ski jacket only. So can't make a fair comparison.

well no one wants you to jump with full PMS anyways

BASE 1519

[SLAMBO 0]

Where is Fledgling?

[nickfrey 0]

wasatchrider

***I've never jumped a full PMS, pants with a ski jacket only. So can't make a fair comparison.

well no one wants you to jump with full PMS anyways


HA, fucking auto-correct!