Tandem passengers who surprised me

[Abedy 0]

Tips are rarely given here, but anyway... I like the job because students/passengers are usually very grateful and that makes me feel really good after a week full of work that quite often isn't rewarded at all.

I've never had a tandem guest ask me out yet, but in case it is a nice girl, wayyyyy to young for me.... I already feel disappointed for telling her I'm married

The sky is not the limit. The ground is.

The Society of Skydiving Ducks

[Abedy 0]

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I do believe that considering the passengers as potential future students (giving them "adult" explanations, explaining a bit "how it works" under canopy and such) does often give them a better experience than "just the ride of a lifetime"

+1
Especially the "adult explanations" aren't that difficult and worth the effort at least to passengers you feel are open to it and don't only want to have that "ride of a lifetime"

The sky is not the limit. The ground is.

The Society of Skydiving Ducks

[JohnMitchell 14]

Not too long ago I was suiting up a group of tandem passengers. Standing on the sidelines was a young mom holding her weeks old baby. I could tell by the excitement in her eyes she really wanted to go, and I told her so. She said "Yes, but I have to feed the baby in half an hour." I told her she'd be back on the ground by then. She quickly handed the baby to her husband and ran off to do the paperwork.

I quickly got her ready and took her on a tandem on that load. She was tuned in, aware, and had the time of her life, really a great student. It was a fantastic jump. But what really made it for me, a humbling experience really, was her trust that I would get her back to her baby safely, because her child needed her. As a parent, I know how strong those parental bonds are, and how much she ( and any passenger, really) trusts their tandem master. That is not something to be taken lightly.

[BobMoore 0]

I wonder how many tandem customers come on to the DZ totally oblivious to the danger they MIGHT face, even after they watch the waiver video and hear Bill Booth say "You could die". I am sure the thousands of gleeful patrons of Disney World never consider the possibility that that roller coaster could fling them off the ride and into the hotdog stand.

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Not too long ago I was suiting up a group of tandem passengers. Standing on the sidelines was a young mom holding her weeks old baby. I could tell by the excitement in her eyes she really wanted to go, and I told her so. She said "Yes, but I have to feed the baby in half an hour." I told her she'd be back on the ground by then. She quickly handed the baby to her husband and ran off to do the paperwork.

I quickly got her ready and took her on a tandem on that load. She was tuned in, aware, and had the time of her life, really a great student. It was a fantastic jump. But what really made it for me, a humbling experience really, was her trust that I would get her back to her baby safely, because her child needed her. As a parent, I know how strong those parental bonds are, and how much she ( and any passenger, really) trusts their tandem master. That is not something to be taken lightly.

"For you see, an airplane is an airplane. A landing area is a landing area. But a dropzone... a dropzone is the people."

[Abedy 0]

Quite a lot of passengers and their relatives are sort of aware of the dangers. Not that they really know about terms like side-spin etc, but they know things might go wrong. It's rather things like "Did you fold your canopy correctly?" or "Will you bring my daughter back safely?" or "Have you ever had an accident tandem skydiving?". The questions are legitimate AFAISI and thus we answer them in a non-joking manner.
And we usually tell them that this experience requires attention to what we tell them and practise with them before and that, if they don't follow these instructions, they might do harm to themselves or the both of us.
We don't show them a video beforehand here and I dunno how the "You might die" sentence - especially expressed by a guy with a ZZ Top beard - would be received by folks here.

@JohnMitchell: Nice story, tnx4sharing. I had a jump with mother who came with her baby some weeks ago, but she didn't have to feed it. She liked the ride and was very keen to get back to her family (baby in her hubbies arms) to share the experience and cuddle the baby of course

The sky is not the limit. The ground is.

The Society of Skydiving Ducks

[ast4711 0]

Yesterday we had a women, I turned away last year because of her overwight.

Story a year ago was: Women appeared for tandem, looked a little heavy, I took her to our briefing room, and asked her about her wight. She claimed 85kg (178lbs).... :-) Put her on a scale and guess: 115kg+ (240lbs) !
Explained everything to her and made clear that a jump is impossible. Since she had an already payed voucher (wight limit printed on it), I offered a full refund. She resigned and claimed that she will come back some day...

Yesterday, she appeard again and hey, looked great!! Lost much, I think still 85-90kg but not more, so here we go...! Jump was great, she was so happy and everybody could feel that this jump was her big inspiration to finally loose wight!

alex

--
www.tandemmaster.net
www.skydivegear.de

[Abedy 0]

Nice story. Seems a tandem voucher can be a nice hint "to lose some weight" I can imagine a "SKYDIVING IMPROVES YOUR HEALTH*" slogan with the asterisk telling in small letters: If it makes you reduce your circumference

BTW: It takes some time to get an eye for euphemised (sugarcoated) weights You're sometimes quite surprised if you have a student stand on the scales

The sky is not the limit. The ground is.

The Society of Skydiving Ducks