What makes someone pick the place to make thier first jump?

[Fast 0]

I know that this thread has done before, but I spent some time searching and couldn't quite find what I was looking for. If you know of the thread please link me to it. In lieu of that lets have a discussion.

The primary aim of this thread is at people reading the site who have just started skydiving or people who remember what it is that they wanted when they started skydiving. We have done the "why did you choose this DZ" thread to death but the focus is mostly on experienced jumpers. I am looking for ONLY a student perspective. What made you pick a DZ to go check out. I am not so much interested in what made you keep going there or what you thought after you got there, I think I have a good handle on that.

I am looking to know about the process that people went through before the picked a DZ to make thier first tandem. Also, if you are reading this and haven't yet decided where to jump or are working on that process I would love to hear from you too.


I am trying to figure out what people want out of this. Most of the people who are going to answer this thread are skydivers, but I want to know what that one time tandem thrill ride person uses to decide where to go.


Let me know what you think? I have intentionally made the poll "Select only one option" because I want you to pick the most important thing. I know that many factors go into it but if you had to pick one, what would it be?

~D
Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me.
Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

[ladyskydiver 0]

When I was making the decision to do my first jump, an ex-boss of mine said that he'd jumped at SkyKnights. So, I looked up the DZ, called, and went out there. Liked the "vibe"/people enough and felt comfortable with the instruction and decided to go ahead with the class and jump.

(Man...that was a long time ago. )

Life is short! Break the rules! Forgive quickly! Kiss slowly! Love truly, Laugh uncontrollably. And never regret anything that made you smile.

[CornishChris 5]

Polls like this always make the assumption that there are lots of places that people can choose from. For me it was mainly location.

CJP

Gods don't kill people. People with Gods kill people

[Orange1 0]

Quote

Polls like this always make the assumption that there are lots of places that people can choose from. For me it was mainly location.

ditto

Skydiving: wasting fossil fuels just for fun.

[Fast 0]

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Polls like this always make the assumption that there are lots of places that people can choose from. For me it was mainly location.

Sorry. I forgot to include that as a poll option. I don't know how to add it or I would. If you chose because of location, was it because it was the closest place or the only place?

~D
Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me.
Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

[RB_Hammer 0]

My first jump, a tandem, was with some friends that had already planned to jump so I just went with them. The tandem was at Eloy. Before the freefall ended, I had decided I wanted to do this on my own. I went back to Eloy to pursue the training and the vibe I got there was very elitist and just didn't feel good. I checked out another DZ in the Phoenix area, a much smaller DZ, Desert Skydiving Center in Buckeye, AZ. They made me feel part of the family within the first 5 minutes of talking to them.
So for me, the first jump was 'other', the first serious jump was attitude.

"I'm not lost. I don't know where I'm going, but there's no sense in being late."
Mathew Quigley

[SkydiveMO 0]

I took out the Yellow Pages, turned to the Skydiving section and called the DZ that had St. Louis in its name. I thought well I live in St. Louis so it must be close. Man I was an idiot, lucky for me all the DZs in our area are top notch so it really wasn't an issue.

[CanuckInUSA 0]

Location, location, location ...

Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

[pilotdave 0]

I made my first jump when a skydiving club was formed at my university. I went to their first club meeting, and we voted on the dropzone based on a bunch of information that the guys running the club had collected (none of them had ever jumped). We went over location (including the scenery and percieved "redneckness", not just distance), price, plane, and jump types available (not all had static line as an option). I think we really ended up making the decision based on the scenery, since one DZ was near the beach and the rest were surrounded by farmland.

We learned a lot on that first trip though and switched to a redneck DZ surrounded by farmland for our club's home DZ. We realized an ocean view isn't as nice as a turbine plane, more instructors, a manifestor, and good outs!

Dave

[Fast 0]

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Location, location, location ...

Sure but how did you find out where to go? Did you just know the dropzone existed? How did you find out before that?

~D
Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me.
Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

[Darius11 12]

I don’t know about anyone else. But when I did my first tandem jump I didn’t know about altitudes, and all the other things that I know now. I just wanted to jump. So connivance of location was the reason I went to the dz I did.

Their great service and vibe is what made me keep on going back.

I'd rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not." - Kurt Cobain

[keka 0]

I went to Chambersburg to have my 1st Tandem b/c I have a friend that used to jump there at the time and he knew a lot of people there from other DZs.

the environment was really nice and I decided to take my AFF course there, since I was getting to know everybody, and it was not that far from my place.

At that time the price of the jumps were pretty much the same....so no big deal.

http://www.woundedwarriorproject.org
PMS#551
I love my life :)

[Chris-Ottawa 0]

100% Location...

I simply searched google and found my home DZ. I looked for the closest and that was that. I have 3 or 4 other DZ's that are within 1-3 hours drive but mine was 45 mins.

Went with 7 friends and had a blast.

I have now started jumping at the other DZ's but that's life. Different styles, planes, people, whatever.

Basically, I assumed that any company that throws people out of planes for fun, and is still operating, must have a decent track record. I realize now that this can be wrong but...that's life.

If I had known about DZ.com before jumping I would have still likely gone to the same DZ, but at least I could have found others and checked reviews.

Chris

"When once you have tasted flight..."

[speedy 0]

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100% Location...

I could not have put it better my self. The DZ was local so I signed up.

Dave

Fallschirmsport Marl

[kelpdiver 2]

My experiences suggest there are lots of different explanations for the one timer's choice.

When I first did a tandem at 23, it was a Vegas trip and we wanted to do everything. So we went to the infamous LV DZ and had a great time. I think they partly comp'd us on the rental in leiu of a pickup, but memory is hazy now. In this scenario, they were the only game in town I was aware of, so exclusivity at a travel destination was key.

5 years later I organized a group jump and picked Hollister due to their 18k altitude, advertized on their web site as highest in the world. The Vegas jumped seemed like it last mere tens of seconds (and maybe it did with their MSL heights), so freefall time was a huge interest, though frankly I found the last couple thousand feet unnecessary. In this scenario, it was the features of the jump that secured 8 paying customers. Funny enough, I got abruptly dropped from a contract that day, and 3 days later interviewed and immediately went to work at the same company where 3 of the jumpers were at.

3 years after that, a friend that wanted to jump but wouldn't do it by herself caused me to do yet another group. This time Monterey won, based on the potential view of the ocean and the fact that I had already gone to Hollister. Beat Byron for the same reason - view. A DZ that has a better view than cowfields should advertize the hell out of it, even if it barely matters in the overall experience.

These days, knowing what I do now, I'd probably send em to Byron or Hollister, tell them to stick to the standard 14-15k altitude.

[pfloyd 0]

I met a jumper at a local brewery during a tasting session and he talked about skydiving to me and my wife. He talked us into coming out and jumping the next day (wasn't a hard sell as both my wife and I have entertained the idea of it before) and the DZ was pretty close to our location. I loved it and my wife even did 2 tandems. So word of mouth is what got me into sport.

My drinking team has a skydiving problem

[tombuch 0]

Awareness of the jump operation.

In my case a guy walked into the student newspaper office where I was working as a photographer and offered a free skydive if we would do a story about it. That's all it took. There were two competing DZ's in our area, but I didn't even know about them at the time. I was a bit smarter a year later and turned the tables, calling one of those other DZ's and offering to do a story for a free jump. Being a starving and somewhat smart college student, I repeated that approach in year three at the third DZ. So, I managed to get my first three jumps free.

I think most people see an ad, bumper sticker, or hear from a friend. Those that are interested in jumping but don't know where to go tend to check the yellow pages, or search online. Very few do any significant research or comparison shopping. Based on my 25+ years of experience and more than 20 years of teaching, I'd say most students have no idea how the sport is regulated, how DZ's or instructors are certified, or the relative safety of our sport. They just assume that any DZ that is in business must be safe, and commit based on that assumption. Obviously, that's not true.

Driving consumer education was a key focus of my book JUMP! Skydiving Made Fun and Easy. Unfortunately, very few prospective jumpers bother to read much of anything, or to even shop around, and the skydiving industry works hard to keep them in the dark.

Tom Buchanan
Instructor Emeritus
Comm Pilot MSEL,G
Author: JUMP! Skydiving Made Fun and Easy

[DrewEckhardt 0]

Location. I tried to drive less than an hour and the muppets always had some excuse about their airplane being broken or tandem master out sick. Next closest was two hours+ so we went there.

For AFF I went to the new DZ 15 minutes away.

[darwin143 0]

For my first tandem it was all location. I knew I wanted to jump, so I just searched online for the closest DZ to my house and that was it.

Three years later I decided to finally do AFF. Living in Orlando, FL, there are obviously lots of options. I wanted one that was obviously safe, good instructors, etc, but I wound up going to a DZ where I knew someone. He said the vibe was cool, people were nice, and the view was nicer, so that's where I went and stayed. It's about 40 minutes farther than the closest DZ to me, but it's still only a little over an hour so it's no big deal :)

[brianfry713 0]

Location or word of mouth. I went to the closest DZ for my 1st jump. Then when I went to complete AFF, I went back to the same DZ even though there was one closer. I think if someone has a friend who has jumped at a somewhat nearby DZ, they are more likely to jump at that same DZ, or jump there when visiting the area.

[za_skydiver 0]

I voted other.

The reason i went to the dz i went to for my first jump, was because it was the only dz within a 600 mile radius. Yes, i know this pole is probably aimed at US jumpers, but i just had to have my opinion.

Some dream of flying, i live the dream...

[matt1215 0]

Titusville was just where my friends took me to jump.

[Rdy2skydive 0]

When I decided I wanted to make my first skydive, I Googled all of the dropzones in New Jersey. A few came up, along with some NY and PA places. I called/e-mailed all of them. The only response I received was the from the owner of my now home DZ. The owner called me and actually spent over an hour on the phone with me, patiently answering all of my questions, explaining the tandem process, and talking about skydiving in general. I couldn't wait to make my first skydive.

The DZO also became a patient AFF instructor a few months later.

For me, it was the time a busy DZO took to speak to me and make me feel welcome. I guess it's all in the customer service. Since all the NJ dropzones are approximately the same driving distance, I could have picked any of them to jump at, but I'm still waiting for them to get back to me.....

[mktoson 0]

That first jump is all about location. It's your first jump, you don't know the difference between a Twin Otter or a Cessna, 8000ft or 13000ft. Vibe, what vibe? With an activity so foreign to you at that point, what are your expectations do you have of dz culture? You don't have any, you have no reference point or baseline of dz vibe.

And if you continue on to do AFF you'll probably do it at the same dz you did the tandem because it's familiar at that point. You'll make friends during AFF and become anchored there as an experienced jumper.

So far, this is the oldest I've ever been.

[Andy9o8 0]

For me it was transportation. I was a college freshman and didn't have a car at the time. There were at least 3 DZs that were closer, but my college's skydiving club had a FJC "deal" at a DZ about 2 hours away, and that was the only one where the club carpool was going, so that wound up being my first DZ.