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How fast is skydiving growing as a sport?

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Anyone have any numbers from 20/10/5 years back of worldwide jumpers? Do any long serving instructors find there is a lot more demand now compared to x amount of years back? Is it steady? It would seem to me to be growing, but i have no idea by how many people.

How many people went to the first WFFC and when was that even?

"Skydiving is a door"
Happythoughts

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Anyone have any numbers from 20/10/5 years back of worldwide jumpers? Do any long serving instructors find there is a lot more demand now compared to x amount of years back? Is it steady? It would seem to me to be growing, but i have no idea by how many people.

How many people went to the first WFFC and when was that even?



Since I have an unfair advantage I'll let others try and answer where, when, and how big the first event that later became the WFFC was.

I think in the past 5 years the growth of the sport has seriously slowed. It exploded in growth during the early to mid 90s. I don't have specific numbers though.
Chris Schindler
www.diverdriver.com
ATP/D-19012
FB #4125

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Ohhh... The FreakBrothers Conventions! Its well before my time but at least I've taken the time to learn some of the history of the sport. It started in '79 and Roger had his own C130 for it towards the end!
Yesterday is history
And tomorrow is a mystery

Parachutemanuals.com

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Looking at whats going on locally, I'd say the sport is shriinking.

Morris and Kankakee have closed, Ottawa sold a plane, Hinckley used to run 2 otters and a caravan, but now just has one.

Jumpers from East Troy continue to migrate to Hinckley and presumably Ottawa. I wonder how long East Troy will be around...?

_Am
__

You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

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I started 11+ years ago, and Sabre's were the big thing to have. Does anyone remember the Nova canopy? One jump was $13 dollars in '92 at the DZ I jumped at, though it was a 182, And Caravan jumps were $14.
The skydiving industry was kicking ass in early 90's till about '98-'99.

ERic

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I noticed in another thread that attendance was 2700 jumpers at this years wffc...thats about half of the attendance in 1998..


----------------------------------------------------
If the shit fits - wear it (blues brothers)--

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Worldwide ???

USPA membership (as best I can find from various sources):

'86 16,435
'87 17,135
'88 17,423
'89 18,484
'90 20,045
'91 21,289
'92 25,867
'93 27,021
'94 27,980
'95 30,000
'96 33,000
'97 33,000
98 34,000
99 34,100
00 34,217
01 34,322
02 33,664

Obviously some rounding occurred in some years! Anyway, explosive growth in the '90s, followed by levelling off in the last few years. (It's the economy, stupid).
...

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

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Ohhh... The FreakBrothers Conventions! Its well before my time but at least I've taken the time to learn some of the history of the sport. It started in '79 and Roger had his own C130 for it towards the end!



That C-130 wasn't Rogers. It was ours. It was flown to the convention in 1986 from South Africa with a load of SA jumpers onboard, and was flown back afterwards.

t
It's the year of the Pig.

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There is a massive amount of churn ie the number of people starting and stopping the sport, so whilst lots of people take skydiving up an equally large number also drop out. I guess there are many reasons for this, cost, safety and whuffo peer pressure to name three, but I also wonder about the attitude of a minority of skydivers, dzo's, cci's etc who seem to be hell bent on keeping numbers down by being unfriendly and unwelcoming. If we could retain more even a small extra percentage of students we could start to grow the sport again.

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Ohhh... The FreakBrothers Conventions! Its well before my time but at least I've taken the time to learn some of the history of the sport. It started in '79 and Roger had his own C130 for it towards the end!



Very good Phree. But my understanding is that it was called FreakBrother Reunion in Big Foot, WI just south of Lake Geneva. I got to fly in there once with the otter and Roger was recounting the story to us. Man, you could just see in his eyes the party there like it was yesterday. Kinda like when I flew into Quincy in between conventions and it was empty. I can still see the party.

Party on Roger!
Chris Schindler
www.diverdriver.com
ATP/D-19012
FB #4125

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I think its fair to say that interest in the sport has grown steady over the past ten years. But, the current economy directs disposable income to sports that have lower penetration costs.


The total population has also increased during this same period, so it would make sense to look at the numbers as a percentage of the total too.

In the seventies when I started jumping, there was a much better distribution of income particularly in manual labor and the trades. Today, skydiver's incomes are very polarized; they are either "rolling in it", or barely able to exist. Despite the fact that modern gear is safer and has an increased service life, the front end cost is a barrier especially to younger people.

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