Skydiving Instructor Burn Out

[JACKO 0]

Asking the real veterans around the DZ about what it is like to be a full time skydiving instructor (TM and AFF) and video person, I was really surprised to hear how many people discouraged this because of the "burn out" factor.
To me, it seems that skydiving full time would be the opposite of burn out. Those guys have the greatest lives. Many have travelled all over the country and all over the world skydiving. They've been places and seen things I only dream about; and wake up everyday a get paid to do something they love.
I have a longer term goal to do AFF, Tandem and Video, once I hit the 600 jump mark. I'd like to do it full time for 5 years and travel around the country and the world a bit.
I think ANY job gets old if you do it too long.
My question is- Does skydiving full time burn people out??
Jack

[Craig 0]

I do not instruct but I have heard the same about the burn out factor. I think it really depends on the volume of students at a DZ versus the number of instructors. In my opinion, there were quite a few tandems and students that came through the DZ this past year, but it was my first season in the sport. From my point of view it seemed like the majority the instructors jumps were with students and tandems. While some instructors did have some fun jumps every now and then, almost their jumps were with students it seemed. I think what it really comes down to is how much time you would like to invest in instructing, and then balancing that with some fun jumps in between so not to get burnt out. Since I am not even close to a point in being able to instruct, and thus have not given the idea much thought all this is just my opinion.
Craig

[cyberskydive 0]

Well, thats how they make their $$$, so they probably will want to do as many instruction jumps as possible. However its been my experience that lots of em do get in a "fun jump" or two at the end of the day. And quite often I have seen them take weekends off and go jump at other boogies in a variety of places to make the bal;ance worth it.
D.Chisolm C-28534
[email protected]
http://www.sunraydesigns.com

[skybytch 259]

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My question is- Does skydiving full time burn people out??

Yes it can. But it depends on a number of factors if you will or not. I know people who've been instructing full time for 10+ years and they still love it. Others are done after a year or two.
Tandem is the most brutal on your body; if you plan to do tandems be in very good shape and have a reasonable amount of upper body strength before you start. It's really fun to jump tandem with a first jumper, but doing a lot of tandems can lead to mental burn out. Many who choose to do a tandem are in it only for the "ride"; personally many times I felt like an amusement park ride operator instead of a skydiving instructor. If you jump/work at a small dz you may find yourself doing nothing but tandems which will play hell with your flying abilities. Tandem equipment is very specialized and quite a bit different than your sport rig. Tandem emergency procedures are different and more complex than on sport gear. And you are totally responsible for another person's life when you are a tandem instructor...
AFF instructing requires a bit less responsibility in the air but also requires that you have some teaching ability and a lot of flying ability.
Rigging and packing are another way to make money skydiving. Both are not easy ways to make that money; packing is hard work!
Probably the "easiest" way to jump full time is flying a camera. Your only real responsibilities are to get the jumpers in frame, stay out of their way and remember to turn the camera on. You get to jump with a variety of people (tandem, AFF, 4 way, etc...) and make as good or sometimes better money than the tandem instructor makes. Cons of doing video? Possibility of gear hanging up on equipment, heavy helmet, expensive to get all needed equipment.
The most successful full time skydivers I've met all can do more than one thing, whether it's tandem and AFF, AFF and a rigger's ticket, camera and AFF, whichever. The more things you can do the more useful you are to a DZO. It's pretty rare to be able to make a decent living jumping if you can only do one thing.
pull and flare,
lisa

[miked10270 0]

Yeah... any job carrying responsibility can cause burn-out, especially when what was your hobby suddenly becomes your whole working life with responsibility for another's life.
Generally, it's the brilliant skydivers who become instructors, regardless of whether they have whatever the "X-Factor" is that makes a good instructor. Idon't mean good teaching manner or the ability to teach... I mean the ability to shoulder the responsibilities of instructing, being liable and responsible for your students safety while being pressured to "Jump the student" & make the DZO his money [sad].
Not for everyne.
Mike D10270.

[Aviatrr 0]

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My question is- does skydiving full time burn people out??

I can't speak first hand, but I am going to say yes.. I think I have a bit of insight here.. Being a pilot, I began doing something for fun(flying), and ended up doing it for a living.. I still love the hell out of my job.. I get paid damn good money to play with multi-million dollar high tech toys.. I work a week, then have a week off.. If I did this job EVERY day, I would sure as hell burn out.. Hell, if I did this job 6 days a week(as a lot of skydiving instructors do) I would burn out..
When I was flying 5 days a week, with only weekends off, I had to balance some of my work flying with fun flying so I didn't grow to hate flying and look at it as strictly a job.. I'm away from home too much, and shoulder too much responsibility, to do this work if I don't enjoy it.. I went out on the weekends and did some fun flying - aerobatics, low and slow, etc.. I'd say this would be quite similar to a skydiving instructor working in fun jumps to keep 'em interested in it as a sport rather than just a job..
Being a skydiving instructor is a hell of a way to make a living.. I think, if done right, it would be a hell of a lot of fun for a while.. When you start to look at it as 'just a job', it's time to get out and find something else..
Mike

[13bRotary 0]

Your change doing it for fun to doing it for work.

[jtval 0]

Quote

Asking the real veterans around the DZ about what it is like to be a full time skydiving instructor (TM and AFF) and video person, I was really surprised to hear how many people discouraged this because of the "burn out" factor.

To me, it seems that skydiving full time would be the opposite of burn out. Those guys have the greatest lives. Many have travelled all over the country and all over the world skydiving. They've been places and seen things I only dream about; and wake up everyday a get paid to do something they love.

I have a longer term goal to do AFF, Tandem and Video, once I hit the 600 jump mark. I'd like to do it full time for 5 years and travel around the country and the world a bit.

I think ANY job gets old if you do it too long.

My question is- Does skydiving full time burn people out??

Jack

Any time you trade your internal motivation for external rewards you run into the possibility of losing interest.
With that said. I've been skydiving for 13-ish yrs. I love it, still.
I was lucky enough to become an AFFI, Wind tunnel I, Wingsuit I, and a decent photard. I LOVE IT.

It IS my Primary job right now but I am in the Air Force. so I am still working on a retirement plan.
my intrinsic desire to give back was due to the way I was raised in the sport. Chile Relleno (AKA John Cox) had a lot to do with that.
I've wanted to skydive since I was a child. I've wanted to be a skydive instructor before I started jumping. It's just one of those achievable dreams that so many people can not afford/achieve. I try not to take it for granted. But, I get paid even if I don't jump.

Many try to make a living at skydiving which CAN make it somewhat less enjoyable.
If I HAVE to jump in order to pay the bills I can see how the shitty weather days and the sick days can crush your ability to live.

My photos

My Videos

[stratostar 5]

The burn out factor comes from dealing with the assholes in the industry (dzo's & staff peeps) and dz politics, as well as providing the instruction and info to keep people as safe as we can, yet see the carnage of those morons with the "mad skillz" who fail to get it and we get to clean up the mess.

I'll give an example of the kind of BS I'm talking about...

On sept. 15th I drove 3 hrs to a dz to work there, by request. A few weeks before I had talked a student down on radio. In the following weeks, she asked a number of times if I would do the radio again when I came back to teach there next, because the people doing radio were pounding her into the ground on landing. As I sat in the parking lot starting the day, the young lady pulled in and saw me and first thing she said as she got out of the car, "your here,will you talk my down?" Her GF also standing there, said me too!

We did the first load, both had great landings, fast forward an hour, after doing a TDM I walk in the clubhouse, I get asked, more like begged to talk them down again. I agreed to do so. Hell I love teaching and working with students! As I was walking out the door to go to the LZ. Another instructor starts yelling at me.

"Are you going to talk them down again? You going to fucking up the whole operation again like that you did an hour ago, we don't need you to do that, we have people to do that!" and on and on and on he went yelling shit like that and cursing right in front of all the pending tandems sitting there waiting to go and the asshole was standing behind the manifest counter, so it looked like he was "the man" to the students.

What had happened was, while I was talking down the first load, someone had manifested a number of loads, matching up students and instructors and planning the loads, they were not in any set order... The assholes on the DZ sat there bitching about me holding up the whole show and not taking my first TDM up, but there were two 182's sitting, they could go up and no one was holding up shit. Same as when Mr. asshole started yelling shit at me.

Well I packed up my TDM rigs and my tools and left right then and if they though I was fucking up the whole show and causing delays, well they sure as hell got what they asked for because now they were down to one TDM-I & a good deal of people waiting and that was the whole reason why I was asked to come there!

It's that kind of unprofessional bullshit that I'm talking about that leads people to say fuck it I don't get paid enough to put up with over ego'ed fuck heads on a power trip, hell I can go get a real job a put up that shit daily... People leave the real world to skydive to get away from all that shit they deal with during the week and the last thing they want to deal with is that shit following them to the dz.

you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

[waveoff5500 0]

after the surrealness wears off it becomes like any other activity. the problem with "work" jumps is that they are for the most part pretty routine. obviously there are crazy situations that happen sometimes in any jump but generally the plan for the jump, be it aff or tandem or video, never changes. so if you think about literally doing the same thing for thousands of jumps and nothing else it becomes a bit clearer to see why people burn out. the key is to keep it fun, keep it interesting outside of your work jumps, and try to perfect your skills on the work jumps. i have the great oppurtunity to work and have it pay for my jumping so i pretty much break even but do my best to keep it interesting and break up the work with fun jumps etc.

so yeah i can see how people get burnt out after doing 4000 tandems etc but remember why you started jumping was to have fun!

"its just a normal day at the dropzone until its not"

1653

[pontiacgtp00 0]

I started to type out a post, then realized the OP probably isn't going to be here to read it since the thread is 11 years old.

[riggerrob 558]

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The burn out factor comes from dealing with the assholes in the industry (dzo's & staff peeps) and dz politics ... It's that kind of unprofessional bullshit that I'm talking about that leads people to say fuck it I don't get paid enough to put up with over ego'ed fuck heads on a power trip, hell I can go get a real job a put up that shit daily... People leave the real world to skydive to get away from all that shit they deal with during the week and the last thing they want to deal with is that shit following them to the dz.

..........................................................................

Agreed!
DZ politics will burn you out long before the long hours and low pay.

For example, I skydove part-time for 15 years. slowly adding instructional and rigging ratings. Then I worked full-time - as an instructor and rigger - for 18 years before burning out.
Burn-out was caused by young, up-and-coming jumpers trying to get promoted past me without putting-in-their-time. When they found out how hard it was to earn more ratings than me, they resorted to political tactics like bullying and sucking up to the DZO.

While they devoted evenings to wineing-and-dining the boss, I was packing reserves and emerged from the loft to find empty pizza boxes strewn about.

Or me losing concentration (e.g. losing count of the number of gores) - packing pilot emergency parachutes after I lost track of how many drunks were sitting on the packing table ... despite written DZ policies about no alcohol until sunset, no students in the loft, etc.

Or how about the DZO quietly cancelling bonuses for rush-jobs - without the courtesy of telling me to my face.
Or manifest quietly moving me to priority last on the tandem rotation - without having the courage to tell me to my face.

But in the end, it was the fall-out from a plane crash that burnt me out. While I was able to recover from my physical injuries 90 percent. Too many "comedians" reminded me too many times about my physical injuries, by denying me access to the few seat-belts that were long enough for tandems.
Sorry, but riding in airplanes without a seat-belt terrifies me!
Which forced me to conclude that I was never going to be allowed to recovery psychologically from my injuries. After gritting my teeth - over their juvenile behaviour - for a year and a half, I was forced to quit the skydiving business.
Ironically, the worst two bullies no longer work for that DZ. So they achieved their goal of "eating the weakest man," then moved on themselves.

Talk about DZ politics "shooting themselves in the foot!"

[stratostar 5]

I understand fully and have dealt with the very same issues..... all but the hurt in a plane crash part.... I'm sorry to hear that end of your recovery took such a turn. All I can say is some dzo lost one hell of a professional. Would love to have few rigger Rob's on staff!

you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

[skywade 0]

Every DZ I have visited has somebody like stratostar described, usually a low-time jumper that is impressed he has made it that far in the sport. This person feels that he is the skydiving authority that everyone should obey and look up to. Anytime I visit a DZ and one of these characters starts barking orders at me like a drill sergeant, I pack my rig, pay my tab, and leave. I'm paying to be there,the DZ is not paying me and I'm not speding my cash to listen to that crap.

[popsjumper 2]

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The burn out factor comes from dealing with the assholes in the industry (dzo's & staff peeps) and dz politics, as well as providing the instruction and info to keep people as safe as we can, yet see the carnage of those morons with the "mad skillz" who fail to get it and we get to clean up the mess. [/reply

THIS^^^^^

My reality and yours are quite different.
I think we're all Bozos on this bus.
Falcon5232, SCS8170, SCSA353, POPS9398, DS239

• Quote

[popsjumper 2]

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I understand fully and have dealt with the very same issues..... all but the hurt in a plane crash part.... I'm sorry to hear that end of your recovery took such a turn. All I can say is some dzo lost one hell of a professional. Would love to have few rigger Rob's on staff!

Ditto, with emphasis.

My reality and yours are quite different.
I think we're all Bozos on this bus.
Falcon5232, SCS8170, SCSA353, POPS9398, DS239

[JohnMitchell 14]

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"Are you going to talk them down again? You going to fucking up the whole operation again like that you did an hour ago, we don't need you to do that, we have people to do that!"

It would have been nice to say "Yeah, they asked me to because they think the people you have doing it suck!"

I've been lucky to always the the part time weekend guy with a M-F job during the week. I work a little, I fun jump a little and keep it pretty mixed up. If some DZO treated me the way they hollered at you, I'd pack it up and leave too. I hope they learned something from you.

[JohnMitchell 14]

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Too many "comedians" reminded me too many times about my physical injuries, by denying me access to the few seat-belts that were long enough for tandems.

What f-ing douche bags. I'd like to see how they handled the hell you went thru to come back from that horrible event. It's still not too late for us to go kick their asses.

[stratostar 5]

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If some DZO treated me the way they hollered at you, I'd pack it up and leave too. I hope they learned something from you.

Didn't learn shit, that was Mr. Assholes third public rant, the first two was about my rigging of static line rigs... Mr. non rigging ticket fuckhead..... likes to yell and cuss in front of people and make a drama play, instead of address any concerns in a professional manner in private.

So on the third one, talking the students down I left, but it's a club and I don't believe they learned shit other then that style seems to get results they like there for there is no reason to change. I can tell you had this been a real business and owned by a DZO, I would had talked to the dzo and then left. If it was anyone working for me they would be fired on the spot and banned.

you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo