karlm

There are a few local helmet makers in SA. And the quality is good. Ask around for the Tom from Perhana Helmets, he jumps out at witbank. Otherwise the hrlmet you are looking for is of good quality, maybe also chat to your CI. Better never to have met you in my dream than to wake and reach for hands that are not there.

Here is SA we have one or two local suppliers of RW Suits, but most of our senior RW jumpers and National Champions jump the Tony Suit. A freiend ordered the Bev Suit with all the "Majik" options and I was quite impressed, a local jumper at our DZ then got the dealership to sell Bev Suits in SA (thanks Simba). Our 4-Way went with Bev because of the quality and cut of the Bev Suit, we were also impressed with the reports on the suit. Our order included, thick grips with cordura, inside leg grips, cool max linning (it's hot in SA) cordura bum and booties, booties with the pleates. We did a mass order (13 suits in total) and all but one suit did not fit correctly (a bit baggie), otherwise the workminship was excellent. We collected our suits while in Orlando doing some tunnel, and were impressed with the flight charatristics of the suit, our team ordered the exact same (3 girls, one guy) and decided that if need be weights should be worn to compensate for fall rate, instead of going for a cotten suit. I have also jumper the Tony Suit for about 15 jumps, and was impressed, but not as much as the first jump in my new Bev Suit. I give it a 10/10. If in doubt, whip it out! Better never to have met you in my dream than to wake and reach for hands that are not there.

Our DZ is now looking into the whole "Canopy Control Course" and one of the topic on the course is "Join the Dots". Where possible define when the other jumpers on the load are and at what altitude, so once you have landed you can do a quick scout around and see who has landed and who still needs to. This is not always possible on DZ's with larger aircraft, but we jump a Porter, so the traffic and landing numbers are slightly lower. I have also seen people forget that there is a tandem still to land, and walk straight into the landing path. We teach our students that the jump is not over until you have placed your canopy and rig down for packing. Better never to have met you in my dream than to wake and reach for hands that are not there.