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PastorPete

Jumpsuits by FreeFall Skydiving

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The company is run by Chris Kotscha. He's ex military, been a regular at Ontario DZ's in recent years, is a PFF instructor, and has been at SWOOP the last couple seasons. He has also run instructional trips to Florida. So he's pretty active. The inexpensive suits, produced in Pakistan or somewhere, aren't expected to last as long as a top line Tony Suit or anything. I haven't seen the latest ones so can't comment on options or durability, but he has been selling a fair number locally. It looks like he's slowly been building up the complexity of the suits, probably debugging any issues with them, and getting into more complex designs -- eg the advanced and not just basic RW suit, or creating a couple wingsuit designs. Hope that's some useful background.

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Thanks, sounds like I'd get a suit at least. You get worried when there's no telephone number, just an email address. Anyone here own one of his suits. Actual experience with fit, seams, durability, etc would be great info to have. There's nothing here in the gear reviews section.
Blue Skies

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Hi everyone,

We have been refining the suits over the last few years and have now started actively advertising as the suits are now very strong and last a long time.

To date we have sold over 800 suits.

I am happy to show samples of the suits to see the quality and design.

Peter is right in that the first suits were make in Pakistan but we put some real money into the company since then and now build a very strong product. The solution: we bought our own factory and have our own staff.

I am always happy to show samples. Fell free to contact us at [email protected]

Cheers!
Downsizing is not the way to prove your manhood.

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FWIW I've got the classic RW suit, thing fits great, material feels high quality, and it was relatively inexpensive. I even took it for a ride across some asphalt in ZHills and apart from some scuffs on the leg it's held up fine :$. It's my first suit and I'm pretty happy with it.

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I own both an RW and a 2-peice free-fly suit from FreeFall Skydiving. I'm very happy with both.

The RW suit has about ~160 jumps on it now, and is holding up strong. It's been very durable, and fits well. The booties and grippers are still in great shape. I had the custom colour stitching option put on. The inside pocket is handy. For the price, I would definitely recommend it.

I haven't jumped the freefly suit too much since I've purchased it, but it snaps together nicely. The shorts are great for general jumping / day-to-day activities on the DZ (lots of pockets, secure in freefall). Unfortunately I cannot comment about the suit while free-flying, as I'm an RW flyer. The jacket fits nice, snaps in to the shorts, and the flat grippers are okay.

Not too much negative to say about the suits, especially for the price. It's been put through the washer twice as well, colours are still great(neon-orange on black too). The free-fly grippers could be a bit more firm (RW grippers are great), but that's about all I can think of.

Hope this helps your decision!

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I have a free fly suit (Euphoria) from FreeFall - it's very well made and has stood up well to the landings where I haven't :-)

I also have an older Bev suit - which i am quite happy with - my suit from FreeFall is certainly equal to the quality of my Bev suit. The zippers are better, the material and stitching are top quality.

I've only put about 60 jumps on it, but it still looks new. It's tough without being bulky or inflexible.

the Bev RW suit is quite tight, and that really only allows me to fall FAST - so when I get to ordering another RW suit, I'll be ordering it from Chris at FreeFall.

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There a ton of these suit here in Canada, they continue to improve in design and durability. The cost point is amazing and you get more then what you pay for. Chris the owner and concept man behind the company wanted to bring quality and a reasonable cost. They hold up as good as any suit. The eveloution of the freefall skydiving suit has been very pleasent to watch. The quality continues to inprove. Chris puts a ton of work into the betterment of his designes, he has a detailed back ground into research and development and understand how to progress design.

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I can say I saw his suits about a month ago, one of our guys bought one he had and made a nice difference in his fall rate. A crash landing by our rookie required more than first aid (for the suit) Chris took it home and is fixing it up. I would say it looked as good or better than others in the market. I will be ordering a couple in the next few weeks. I'd say you can't go wrong......

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I have known Chris, the owner of Freefall Skydive, for nearly 2 years. He was one of my initial AFF instuctors, and on ongoing mentor, jumping out of planes. He is ex-military and so am I (the US type). I purchased one of his flight suites about a year ago and have jumped every jump in it since. It is an awesome suite. The price was also better than any price I could find on the internet. The best part was the "personal attention" that I received when purchasing from Chris. He ensured the measurements were exact. When the suite came in, he double checked everything before he gave it to me. Then after a few jumps, he double checked again. He even offered to replace the suite after a few jumps, just in case I found anything wrong, which I did not. I plan to buy more suites from him. The quality is excellent and it fits like a glove. The colors even match my canopy. B|

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I bought my first jumpsuit from Freefall Skydiving. Chris has a great word-of-mouth reputation of low prices without sacrificing quality and I wasn’t disappointed on either.

I found working with Chris fantastic. He took far more measurements than most companies do, which made all the difference for a great fit (very important for the female skydiver!). The colour even matches my rig perfectly.

I would highly recommend suits by Freefall Skydiving.
Hope that helps! Good luck with your suit purchase!

Blue Skies :)

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Keep in mind a lot of these comments are from friends of the suit maker in question .. I have yet to see any "new prototype" suits so I cannot comment on the build quality of the newer stuff.. If you do end up getting a suit let us know how it is.. Keep us posted

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I bought a new suit in Sebastian in February from Chris Mr. Walczak and it's amazing. All the bells and whistles, high quality material and the sales and service Chris provided was unbelievable.

Priced better than anything on the market...

RE friends? I never met him prior to that trip. I can proudly list Chris as a friend now though. That's not only due to his good business practices but also due to the fact that he's one of the good guys, period.

On that note? I wouldn't be surprised if he's added hundreds of friends in his short time in business. i can't say enough good about him or his products. He's won a devotee here that's for certain.

Leaving off all the particulars, his stuff is top notch and priced right and he stands behind his products. As a customer, you can't ask for more.


Blue Skies Chris, I'll get that order in for camera jacket/pants and can't wait for the tracking suit to be completed!


Jack

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jumpinjackflsh

I bought a new suit in Sebastian in February from Chris Mr. Walczak and it's amazing. All the bells and whistles, high quality material and the sales and service Chris provided was unbelievable.

Priced better than anything on the market...

RE friends? I never met him prior to that trip. I can proudly list Chris as a friend now though. That's not only due to his good business practices but also due to the fact that he's one of the good guys, period.

On that note? I wouldn't be surprised if he's added hundreds of friends in his short time in business. i can't say enough good about him or his products. He's won a devotee here that's for certain.

Leaving off all the particulars, his stuff is top notch and priced right and he stands behind his products. As a customer, you can't ask for more.


Blue Skies Chris, I'll get that order in for camera jacket/pants and can't wait for the tracking suit to be completed!


Jack



What he said! Chris has the best customer service in the industry! He has done absolutely everything possible to make a difficult situation good.

I now have a camera suit on order and will be ordering a freefly suit as soon as funds allow!

Blue Skies Chris!
You will never be more alive than you are the instant you let go!

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Chris likes to demonstrate his suits by grabbing one part of the suit and having the potential customer grab another part, and have the guy pull as hard as he likes to try to pull the suit apart.

(You wouldn't do that across a zipper I suppose, but across any major sewn line.)

I was told he was doing demos like that at a recent large US boogie. This is just second hand from a friend, but apparently a couple jumpers saw his demo, and then continued on to the booth of a major jumpsuit manufacturer. The booth wasn't staffed right at that moment, but the guys did the "try to rip it apart" test anyway ... and ripped one of the other company's suits open.

Strength isn't exactly the only criterion for a jump suit. Indeed, a couple suits I'm jumping from other companies are versions that are nice and light weight, but as a result probably wouldn't stand the pull test. I'm sure any jumpsuit can be ripped apart given the right force and angles, but still, it is an amusing little anecdote. Correct me if any part of the tale I was told was incorrect!

I get the impression that with FreeFall Skydiving suits, like with other smaller companies, it is best to talk to them to get the details decided on -- Their order forms are still pretty simple so there aren't always check boxes for every one of the latest options for their evolving designs.

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Since the post is still active I'll add an update. We did have a few glitches which stretched out the delivery time. I believe I got caught in some system changes.
Chris did his best to make everything right and I eventually got a good looking, well fitting suit. It's got about 20 jumps on it and none of the seams have let go in spite of some rough and tumble landings. Glad I got the cordura reinforced butt :-)
The fall rate seems to work well with everyone I've jumped with so far. (belly)
The price point is attractive, so I can see myself ordering again.
Blue skies

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I usually support new, smaller companies, but I cannot say I would recommend freefall skydiving. Firstly, my order got cancelled due to confusion from the owner, after 2 weeks. We got this resolved, then my credit card finally got charged, so I was like, all I have to do now is wait. It has been 10 weeks since my card was charged, and have sent several emails with no reply, asking the status of my order. It was quoted 5-8 weeks wait time. Unhappy customer. Will my order ever get here? Was it actually made? Has he gone under and just gone with my money? If you dont want to be left with these questions, I would not recommend freefall skydiving, and just go with a known name brand so you can be sure you will get what you ask for. :(:(:(

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It is a small shop and communication can be a bit spotty. While he does have some fulfillment issues (long wait) I believe Chris will get you a nice suit in the end.
As far as workmanship I have limited knowledge of what a good suit should look like other than not falling apart, but I can say my suit has attracted numerous favourable comments at my DZ regarding both the quality of workmanship, design and style. Hope it all works out for you.
Blue skies,

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We saw his booth at Nationals this year, and I will have to admit I was impressed. The team was even talking about looking into getting team jumpsuits via them.

I'd have to see how their camera suit flies, but I'd be willing to give it a shot for sure.

The tug of war demo is pretty impressive. I tried my best to rip that thing in half (and...it really should have....) and it didn't budge.

My experience with jumpsuits in the last few years has been pretty poor. The old "they just don't make um like they used to" saying seems to be true. I've had established and major jumpsuit manufactures for the last 2 years and my experience included extremely long delivery times (4-6 months) and jump suits that require 125 to 150 bucks worth of rigging repair every season. In fact, my camera suit is in for repair right now after a seam decided to let loose at Nationals. My team has had similar problems with newer suits from 3 different makers over the past 2 seasons. Some of the suits cost close to a grand....and were still having issues after one season. So for me...something that is strong and durable would be very desirable. Throw in a good price, reasonable turn time, and good service and you should have the design for a successful company/product. *edit typeO

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Actually in the spring he was delivering in 8-10 weeks. I thought that was a bit long but it sure beats the 4-6 months you mentioned for 'brand name' suits. Sounds like he's a bit over 10 weeks now. Still compares well. :-) I should clarify my 'spotty communication' comment. I didn't have a lot of luck with the company telephone number but by email I usually heard back no later than two days, often 1 day or the same day.

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I don't have one myself just yet, I'm waiting to get properly measured up so I can order one, but a few of my friends have these suits and they're freaking awesome. Hell, I tried one of theirs and it's really great. They feel great, they fly great, they look awesome, and they're tough as hell.

When I started looking into suits, I was shopping around basically, until I saw and tried one of these suits on and totally fell in love with them. Can't wait to get measured up and get my order sent in.

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Update: STill haven't got my order yet! First emailed my order on June 10, 2013. Just got an email about defective material, this and that, and having to re make it, and will be here by the end of the month. A month ago I was told it would be here in 2 weeks. Just dissapointed, I've been waiting 18 weeks for something I thought I would get in 5-8. STILL jumping in blue jeans.
I was hoping to get them and be impressed then order a freefly suit. Good prices, but having to play waiting game back and forth I am debating on whether I want to try again.

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