I lived in Thailand for over 5 years (2007 to 2012) and as a Skydiver since 2004 (still only 70 jumps but lots of windtunnel time, 17h), I only heard about Pattaya DZ (Thai Sky Adventure and didnt know about the other one Bird's Paradise at that time which is the opposite feelings of this review) and being close to Bangkok, it was practical for me to go there and also to stay sometimes in Pattaya. In June 2011, when it was still in the previous location near Pattaya, I went for a recurrency jump and did 2 more jumps, there was no issues at that time and the instructors and staff seemed friendly... In 2013, after they re-opened in the new location (lake reserve area further away from Pattaya beach), the bad experience all started... I will only summarize the most annoying parts from my experience, but after discussions with other jumpers, TSA (Thai Sky Adventure) has a bad reputation and seems to be cheating and stealing and lying to customers... First of all, the exit altitude is now 9000ft (from my experience in Feb-Mar 2013). When the clouds are below 9000ft, they sometimes drop you at 8000ft to have a visibility below clouds. While doing that they cancelled the AFF students and bring them down but still drop the tandems so they don't have to refund them obviously and still drop them from lower altitudes. This DZ is totally oriented Tandems and Marketting. They pickup tourists on Pattaya Beach 3 or 4 times a day and bring them to the DZ... like 6, 7 tandems a day was common at that time... I met 2 AFF students who joined the program for A-license that they offer (25 jumps) but those guys (including myself) were never able to jump. It was always tandems in priority... I spent 5 days from 7:30am to 5pm hoping for a slot on each plane and managed to jump only 3 times... Even fun jumpers coming would jump the same day and leave the 3 students on the side claiming the winds are above 14mph or 12mph but will pick up (winds were actually 10-12mph most of the time)... I ended up wanting to do a tandem jump to be able to jump (ridiculous when you have over 70 solo jumps). Then trying to take a video or a coach jump seems a huge complicated task as they are all booked for tandems of course... They even sadly offer me 2 "available" instructor but incompetent to me... One is above 70yo and I was his first coach jump, the person couldnt even start or set-up his go-pro properly and the video results is so poor, he dived after me and never managed to come close to me... I was looking for him the entire dive (while doing my program too)... Big waste... The second "available" instructor is like 50kg or less and no way he could jump with me (90kg)... Some good instructors are there but unfortunately too busy... I understand busy DZ and tandems priority to make the DZ leave or survive (grow) but this one is particularly outstanding... They would feel bad for me (and the other 2 students) waiting all day each day with hope and apologize by the end of the day when the beers appear. They would even tell me to come at 8am the next day and would be guaranteed a slot on the first load... Then being in Pattaya (party city) and combining it with Skydiving is not possible so I had to sacrifice party and showed up each days at 7:30am but to discover that tandem customers just appeared from nowhere and it was not possible for me to jump... I did my recurrency jump but could only do 2 more jumps in the next 4 days... I was willing to do 4 or 5 jumps a day if I could... I had at that time jumped in 8 DZ in 5 countries in 9 years with only 60 jumps but never got the A license. I was willing to do that and time and budget was not the problem for me but TSA never helped. I now have 75 jumps and got A and B license (seriously as per the book with proper canpoy training, exams, check dives, water practical training) from Bird's Paradise in the North of Thailand and I am motivated again to continue this amazing sport... TSA staff is one of those DZ that demotivates people and erase the fun of this sport (to make money out of low altitude commercial tandems) I will never recommend this DZ to anyone... I only diffuse my bad experience (and actually have much more to say outside this review section) but I will continue trying to go there at least once a year to confirm my statements or hopefully to see it improve to my expectations....
