Booties Too Loose?

[jim_32766 0]

I just jumped with a new custom-made bootie suit today and had some unexpected results. No matter how I changed leg position/extension or how I extend/pointed my toes it seemed I could not get the material between my knee and my toes sufficiently tight. The material felt like it was randomly flipping to either the left or the right side of my legs, creating some very interesting steering input during the dive. It was as though someone were flying right behind me and slapping my legs back and forth. The input was quite abrupt. A straight track was also a serious challenge.

As you can see from my profile I am fairly new to this sport, but I have jumped with a bootie suit before. The suit I used previously belonged to a friend and was a little small for me, but the booties were nice and tight during freefall and exhibited none of the flapping I experienced today.

I’ve read many threads regarding the fit tests and they too seem to indicate the booties are probably not the right fit. I am also bringing the suit to the manufacturer later this week to have them examine the fit while I wear the suit. I am confident the fit will be corrected.

My question is this – has anyone else had a similar experience, and is this to be expected of a close but less than tight fit with booties?

Thanks.

The meaning of life . . . is to make life have meaning.

[BIGUN 1,488]

Yup. They'll fix you up.

Nobody has time to listen; because they're desperately chasing the need of being heard.

[muff528 3]

That's better'n "booties too tight". When they first came out I borrowed a bootie jump suit from a friend to see what all the hubbub was about. I put on the suit and my rig, rolled up the legs and boarded the plane. At jump run I zipped the booties and shuffled toward the door while bent over in the plane. I did a dive-float type exit and tried to straighten my legs while looking up at the plane and found out that my friend's legs were quite a bit shorter than mine. I did zip the booties on the ground but I never stood up with them zipped before boarding the plane.

[bliston 0]

Hey Jim,

Here is an attached picture of the way that I like my booties to fit. When I'm replacing booties on jumpsuits for people, or adjusting the way they fit, I have them lie flat on the ground, face down and stretch their arms straight above their head. Then I have them extend their legs and point their toes. By marking the material right where their toes are (with their shoes off), I seem to get a good mark of where the bootie material should end and the flat "sole" should be sewn on.

So folks prefer a slightly tight fit, and those that have less of a natural arch might want a tighter fit that the above method will give them. However, after doing a fair bit of tunnel flying and coaching, and watching people in the air, I've noticed that sometime peoples booties are too tight and make it harder to both extend their legs all the way when they track and to maximize their lift if they are trying to fall as slow as possible (or get back up to a formation).

I hope this is helpful. You may want to use the method above and have someone mark the bootie with some chalk or something, just in case the manufacture says, "how much shorter do you want it?" My guess would be that my method creates booties that are slightly longer than the norm, and don't think it has much of a chance of making them too short - my fear would be that the manufacturer would might over-shorten them if you just give it to them without any specific guidelines.

Have a good one,
Ben

Mass Defiance 4-wayFS website


sticks!

[VideoFly 0]

Most manufacturers have no problem correcting problems with fit, typically for no charge, except maybe shipping. My new suits usually needed correction in fit somewhere or another. I never had a problem getting the fit corrected. The last suit I bought had a size 9 bootie, instead of a size thirteen. That was a more difficult size correction to fix than your need for lower leg shortening. However, Tony fixed them and they fit great. Tony suits rock!

[rehmwa 2]

in my experience, 9 of 10 people that think their new bootie suits are mis-sized are either wearing them wrong or haven't really learned to fly them correctly, (most just thought they were wrong without ever flying the suit in the first place)

the other 10% are absolutely right and get their booties fixed free (half of them took measurements wrong though)

also, new bootie wearers tend to bend their legs too much also - so the booties bounce in and out of the air (happy feet). be aware of that too. It'll feel much like what you noted also.

however, If you bought locally, it's pretty easy to put on the suit with the rig (and the SHOES YOU WORE WHEN YOU TOOK THE MEASUREMENTS) and show your suitmaker how it fits

- a simple dart in a seemingly loose bootie can be a quick and temp fix that'll also give you an idea if you really want them tighter - before you have them start cutting fabric - if done right, you can stop right there - I darted my first real bootie suit for a year to get a tighter bootie. at that point, I took the dart out and was happier at that point with the original fit (it was right the first time - I just needed it tighter while I learned to point my toes.) The dart stayed for that whole year (we used good thread). As a result, I had my suit and avoided two adjustments obviously. Try that.

however, they should fix it free if it's really off

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