Skydiving around Calgary

[Super_Geo]

http://www.albertaskydivers.com/

Checked with these guys and it comes to around $303/person, which sounds pretty reasonable. Jump from 9,700ft, 30 seconds of free fall, 5 minutes of parachuting down.

I've never jumped before, what do you guys think of AlbertaSkyDivers?

[calgary403]

There was a place around Calgary that had something like 5 deaths in 15 years. They got sued and then changed their name. Make sure that one isn't the one before you jump.

[adidas]

lol these guys dont sound to reliable

Please note: The Solo course requires decision making in a high stress situation.

[in*10*se]

don't use the one around in Beiseker, AB. thats the one where they have a fatality like once a year. I did mine up around the edmonton location, a week later, the one in beiseker killed a student.

http://www2.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/story.html?id=921a300b-a74f-48e7-bb13-5a93bc5f5623&k=75050

[davidI]

Looks like that Alberta Skydivers is just the Beiseker one renamed. Not certain though. Maybe they have new management / quality control.

I just did a 16k foot jump in New Zealand and loved it. I didn't find it scary at all and it wasn't quite the adrenaline rush I expected....nothing like bungee jumping at all.

I actually found it sort of soothing. I'd like to get more into it and be able to do solo jumps in the future.

[ddduke]

I recently did the one near Edmonton too, also didn't think it was like a bungee, doesn't even feel like you're falling.

But we chose to drive up to Edmonton because of the bad reputation around Calgary. Also, I spoke to the people in edmonton and they told us that you need 6 practise jumps and a few classes before you can go solo, while the one near Calgary lets you jump solo the first time, just doesn't seem right to me.

[Tik-Tok]

I'll just quote myself from a previous skydiving thread.


Originally posted by Tik-Tok
A couple of years back, when I was looking into it myself, I went to several jump-review websites. I couldn't believe all the blatant rival bashing between Alberta skydiving companies. Every single one had decent reviews, followed by absolutely HORRID reviews, which was obviously rival companies just harassing each other.

I decided there weren't ANY in Alberta, professional enough for my money. So I went to Vancouver to jump. I gotta say it was well worth it too, the view of the ocean and mountains was awesome. Better than the farmer fields here, I'd imagine.

[ClearBluewater]

Originally posted by in*10*se
don't use the one around in Beiseker, AB. thats the one where they have a fatality like once a year. I did mine up around the edmonton location, a week later, the one in beiseker killed a student.

http://www2.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/story.html?id=921a300b-a74f-48e7-bb13-5a93bc5f5623&k=75050

Nobody killed anyone. I've sky dived before and you need to realize if the thrill is worth risking your life, because you really are risking your life. There is no perfect parachute.

[AutodreamFrank]

Originally posted by Super_Geo
http://www.albertaskydivers.com/

Checked with these guys and it comes to around $303/person, which sounds pretty reasonable. Jump from 9,700ft, 30 seconds of free fall, 5 minutes of parachuting down.

I've never jumped before, what do you guys think of AlbertaSkyDivers?

I did my first tandem there, got my First Jump Certificate there, did about 6 solo skydives there.............. I'm on jump 18 now but i've switched dropzones.

Ian Atkens was the dzo at the time and he was an awesome guy. UNFORTUNATELY they really cater to the british military and the only have a cessna 206 and a cessna 182 for airplanes.. which the 206 loads 6, and the 182 loads 4 at a time. Just call them and make an appointment...

BUT, I recommend taking the time to go to Westlock cause Edmonton skydive center has amazing people, younger crew which are fucking awesome to party with and they have a Super twin otter which takes you to 14,500 for your exit and you get 1 minute of freefall and 5 min of canopy ride (tandem i'm assuming) The plane ride is awesome, the otter has benches, takes you up faster, has no turbulence and honestly, the last time I jumped from that plane i fell through a cloud blanket so as I exited it was like exiting from an airplane way high (the westjet kind of plane ride where all you see is clouds below you)


Amazing!!

Oh just to clarify to you guys worried about Alberta Skydivers.... 5 years ago it was called Skydive the ranch, which was a good dropzone but was cursed with a few fatalities, which gave them a bad name. Ian Finnagin (owner of Pacific skydivers) took over the dropzone and completely upgraded all the gear, and added AAD's to everysingle rig on the site. also CSPA law states that every tandem rig must be equiped with an AAD and RSL so ya skydiving isn't as scary as you think. You have your main, your reserve, and a computer that opens your reserve is you are rendered unconsious in freefall.

[Super_Geo]

ninjasound, thanks for the info!

How is skydiving in winter? Is the cold an issue if you dress appropriately? The chutes should be more effective because of the denser air, right?

I owe a buddy a huge favor for really coming up to bat for me when I was job hunting, and we were grabbing beers one day and he mentioned that a mutual friend had gone skydiving and it sounded awesome, but it was one of those things that he wanted to do but didn't have the balls to do on his own.

As soon as he said it I knew the perfect thank-you gift... haha tell him we're going skiing and then take him skydiving without letting him know what's up until the very last minute :rofl:

[codetrap]

Originally posted by Super_Geo
ninjasound, thanks for the info!

How is skydiving in winter? Is the cold an issue if you dress appropriately? The chutes should be more effective because of the denser air, right?

:rofl:

What's the windchill at 200kph? (terminal velocity) That's how cold it will be.

At -15C, with 100KPH, the effective temp is -32C.

[turbotrip]

theres some skydiving school through university too

[AutodreamFrank]

I've never jumped in weather colder then 15c so I couldn't tell ya....

Our Chutes are actually LESS effective due to Alberta's Altitude regardless of temperature. My instructor was telling me stories of people that skydive at sea level come up here and injure themselves really badly cause they are flying canopies with smaller wingloads then there weight. They don't realize that cause Alberta is like 3000 feet above sea level, they are landing at an altitude that they should be opening at.... so they are travelling faster than what they are use too... but don't worry about that kind of crap, that shit is irrelevant unless you get into skydiving and want to do solo jumps.

Pretty much all dropzones in Alberta are closed now, they don't make enough revenue with Tandems in winter to keep there fleets airborn so they did there wrap up in late October. If you guys really want to go skydiving, the only one open is Pacific skydivers in Pitt Meadows BC, and they are only open weekends, weather permitting.... Or you can go to dropzones that are open year round, like Cali, Florida, or Las Vegas.


Long story short, you won't feel cold on your first skydive cause you'll be shitting your pants with excitement when the jump door opens :)



PS: I hope this will get you hyped up to jump, this is my AFF level 4 repeat video jumping out of a C-182

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