Learning the art, what suit to start with

[Jamie-Richards 0]

Would it be more suiting to start out in a tracking suit then eventually get into a wingsuit? Thoughts on what suit I should go for?

[mccordia 73]

The best start is a good background in body flying skills. Be it FS or Freefly, control is of bigger importance than performance.

After that any intermediate suit, suitable for beginners, from the various manufacturers will serve you a long time. At 3000 ws jumps the PF shadow and phantom are the suits I keep coming back to.

But untill the time you have the experience to fly those, skills are the main gear worth investing in...

JC
FlyLikeBrick
I'm an Athlete?

[Rauk 0]

I agree with Jarno. The Shadow or Phantom are spectacular to start and (especially the Phantom) can keep you busy for hundreds of jumps, at least. I have taken probably 100 people for their first flights and I can say that 90% of those were Phantom's. The other ~10% were Shadow's and a few random suits were mixed in there.

[dthames 0]

Jamie-Richards

Would it be more suiting to start out in a tracking suit then eventually get into a wingsuit? Thoughts on what suit I should go for?

On the first question (skydiving point of view), I did some serious solo tracking with with Flysight feedback in an RW suit. Then I borrowed a tracking suit for a few jumps before my first wingsuit flight.

I am sure the tracking suit did exactly what it was designed to do. However, I am happy I didn't go out and buy one.

Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”

[Anachronist 2]

Jarno is right.

I don't get the idea of tracking suits for non-BASE stuff, I've seen quite a few people track their a**es off (with and w/o tracking suits) to "get ready" for WS but they don't do any better than someone with good belly skills. Learning to track is important but a tracking suit is like putting training wheels on training wheels.

The Phantom is a good beginner suit that will keep you learning and having fun for at least 100 WS jumps, more if you are tall and skinny because you can fly with bigger suits no problem, the T-Bird is also good to learn on but you will outgrow it in about 20 jumps. I flew both when I was learning and the Phantom is the better of the two IMHO. Skip the I-Bird all together, it is basically just a tracking suit with the legs sewn together, you will outgrow it in 5 or less jumps.

[kallend 1,623]

While Jarno gives good advice, it would help to know your overall experience level.

Whether you have 201 jumps or 5,000 jumps would affect my recommendation.

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[mccordia 73]

Quote

Whether you have 201 jumps or 5,000 jumps would affect my recommendation.

In both cases Id recommend a small wingsuit for a good 100 to 250 jumps before (if one even has to) upsize. 201 or 5000 jumps doesn't make any change in that recommendation for me..

JC
FlyLikeBrick
I'm an Athlete?

[Rauk 0]

mccordia

Quote

Whether you have 201 jumps or 5,000 jumps would affect my recommendation.

In both cases Id recommend a small wingsuit for a good 100 to 250 jumps before (if one even has to) upsize. 201 or 5000 jumps doesn't make any change in that recommendation for me..

Agreed.

[DSE 3]

mccordia

Quote

Whether you have 201 jumps or 5,000 jumps would affect my recommendation.

In both cases Id recommend a small wingsuit for a good 100 to 250 jumps before (if one even has to) upsize. 201 or 5000 jumps doesn't make any change in that recommendation for me..

Agreed. Whether one has 200 skydives or 20,000 skydives, the first few wingsuit jumps are the first few skydives in a wingsuit.

Look around on DZ.com articles, you'll find where Brian Germaine (thousands of skydives) had his ass handed to him by a big suit that he was not experienced enough to have been flying.