davelepka

Lesson one - what not to do http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFRtn0GzuBE

Here's a few tips for buying skydiving equiment. 1. Never, ever, ever order anything based on the skill you think you will have when it arrives, or the weight you think you'll be at when it arrives. Only buy things that you are currently qualified to jump, or that fit you at your current weight. Doing otherwise is sure way to make a costly mistake. 2. Never, ever, ever buy any container that your canopies are the biggest the manufacturer says will fit. The manufacturers lie like crazy about what you can stuff into a certian sized container, and you're going to put yourself in a world of hurt if you believe what they say. This is twice as important if you intend to buy a brand new canopy. Size a container so the first size canopy you intend to install is in the middle of the range that will fit. 3. Trying to buy a small rig is retarded. Buy what will comfortably hold canopies sized to match your current level of experince. Here's the truth, nobody notices what size your container is. The exception to this might be another male, low time jumper. If you're trying to impress the other new guys at the DZ, great. If not, the small rig is silly. If you do jump a small rig, and can barely land the canopy, it looks really bad. Any cool points your container had are lost because you can't fly the parachutes. You can jump a rig that looks like it belongs to an experienced jumper, but you can't make yourself perform like an experienced jumper, so what's the point. Not to mention, a nice new, compact rig covered in grass stains? How is that going to look. Why not slow down a notch, and look for a used rig with a 190 main and 190ish reserve? You could score a complete used rig, nice modern stuff, for the price of a decked out Micron. Put 100 jumps on it, and then see how you feel about your equipment choices. Another nice part is that you could have a used rig together in a week or two, and not have to rent gear. There's no better way get more out of your jumps then to have your own rig with a properly fitting harness.

To be fair, if you're going to assume one way or another, the better bet would be to assume that the person asking has intentions of doing something stupid, and most folks would rather not enable that type of situation. If you are 'just wondering' than not telling you isn't hurnting anything or anyone. See the distinction? And let's be fair, if we searched DZ.com we could come up with 20 guys who posted about swooping or higher WLs, who insisted they were fine or not doing anything wrong, only to later either die, end up in wheelchair, or break femurs/pelvis. I'd rather see DZ.com have a 'typical reply' to certain posts, then to have a 'typical outcome' involving death or serious injury. As far as you're concerned, learn like everyone else, spend a few years on a DZ, pay attention to what's going on, and seek appropriate coaching.

First off, that other post was awesome. I thought it might have been a link to Brian Germains book, but the way he used that 'tinyurl' thingy led me to believe otherwise. Funny stuff, but also appropriate. One of the problems with swooping is that alot of people who aren't ready to swoop want to do it anyway. The other problem is that everyone gets 'ready' to swoop at different rates. Some guys get it with 300 jumps, and other guys take 500. Some guys with 1000+ jumps should never swoop. When you combine that with the inherent dangers in swooping, it's not hard to understand why nobody wants to publish a 'how to' book or DVD. What you do is this - read Brian Germains book, study aerodynamics, seek out canopy control courses, and find a mentor. That's how you learn to swoop.

Big let down? Was the flying sub-par? Was the coaching ineffective? Let's be real here, what you did was hire a freefly coach. This is a guy who's good at falling out of airplanes, and telling other people how to fall out of airplanes. You didn't hire a life coach, or a saviour, or a role model, it's a guy who can tell you how to be a better freeflyer. If the flying or coaching left something to be desired, then by all means bring this up when it's time to pay the man. Aside from that, realize that if he did his job, and you paid him his money, that's the end of your transaction. It doesn't include you telling him how to live his life or conduct himself professionally. This entire thread is retarded. This is a sport that fully embraces the concept that every 'first' needs to be recognized by buying a case of beer for the DZ fridge. This is that same group of people who, when asked about tipping instructors, repeatedly suggests that money is impersonal, but every instructor would be happy with a cold one at the end of the day. Anyone who is remotely surprised that the drinking or drug usage bleeds over into the daytime must be an idiot, We're talking about sustances that have been proven to be addictive, and then you're surpirsed when skydivers have trouble drawing the line as when and when not to partake? Come on people. Wake up.

Look friend, if it had been an issue, it would be a standard part of the FJC at every DZ in the country. If you're wearing a properly fitted harness, and your chest strap is snug, your handles can only go so far. They may not be in the exact spot they're in while you're in the plane, but they'll be close. The thing is, even is you have a perfectly symetrical malfunction, and your harness isn't twist or pulled in one direction or another, your handles still won't be in the same place as they are in the plane. If you look at your handles under canopy, they'll be higher and slightly further out from your body then they are before you deploy. If you add a line-over to that, even a nice line-over, now the handles will be up and out, and shaking around a little. The bottom line is this, you need to look. That's your best bet, and should be your number one priority. Hell yeah, if that doesn't work, hunt those bastards down and git-r-done, and good work for putting some thought into your emergency procedures. Now pull your panties out of your ass, and stop trying to get everyone to add a step to their emergency procedures.

That's a solution, and a good case of a DZ putting students and making new jumpers a top priority. Just to illustrate the flip side to that, let's remember that DZs are businesses, and only part-time in most parts of the country, so you have to make the money while you can. With that in mind, let's consider that we've already priced out AFF to an A license at about $2k. If a DZ can make half of that in profit (probably not, but let's just say), that's $1k in their pocket, most likely over the course of several months. Then that jumper buys gear, and let's go with the low cost used option, and the DZ locates it all, and marks it up a notch before selling to the jumper. The DZ pockets another $400. That same jumper is now a skydiver, and makes 75 jumps a year, not a bad number for a jumper who deosn't jump in the winter. Figure the DZ makes $5 a slot, so the DZ is up another $375. Grand total over the course of two seasons - $1775 Same DZ books 20 tandems on a Saturday. Makes $1775 in 8 hours. I'm not saying it's right, but that's the way it is. Sure the new jumper may bring in more tandems by talkign up his buddies, but maybe not. Sure you need new jumpers to make new instructors and keep the DZ alive, but that's a long term concern. The AFF students income is also long term, slowly flowing over the course of two seasons. The staff is a porblem as well. You have more TMs than AFF-Is, and most of the guys are multi rated anyway. I cannot understand this for the life of me, but a good number of them prefer tandems to AFF. No packing, very brief training, no de-brief, it's quick money. (I for one would much rather jump and pack my Velo, and actually freefall as opposed to drougefall). It's not hard to understand how the little guy (AFF student or newbie) can get overlooked at a modern day DZ. Points to Sky Knights for making sure it doesn't happen.

Don't do that again. There was a recent fatality where a student grabbed a floating reserve handle on the rig of an instructor who was outside of the plane. The reserve was deployed, and the instructor hit the tail. It's true it was a different circumstance, but the concept of not letting people grab your gear outsdie of the plane still stands. As a camera flyer for students/tandems, don't climb to a position from which you cannot safely return to the cabin on your own. There is always a chance that the student/tandem will decline to jump when they get in the door, and you need to be ready for that instance. Having others grabbing for your harness in an unplanned, unrehearsed attempt to get you back into the plane is not a good situation.

I started with the money issue, and part of it was the high cost of entry, but the other part was how that cost will influence jumpers down the line. Take a guy who's been jumping for five years with 500 jumps. Between jumps and gear he's got $20k tied up in skydiving. This is probably going to be a guy with a good job and a life outside of the DZ (not a DZ rat who's there every day). Given the limited amount of time he has to spend at the DZ, I'm not surprised that he would rather jump with those of similar (or better) skill levels. Another layer of that concept is the specialized dicsiplines. That same guy who's been working on his freeflying, or block moves with a four-way team is going to be hard pressed to 'babysit' a newbie who's still trying to fall straight down. Let's go one step further in looking at how modern skydiving pushes the newbies aside - big turbines. On a Cessna DZ, you have four slots at best to a load (a tandem will cut that in half). Licensed jumpers will maifest and take whatever slots are available on the next load becasue bumping back a load is a real time waster. As such, you get a wider of jumpers manifested together on loads, and with only 2 or 4 people total, it's easier to include evreyone in the jump. I, for one, have experinced this. If we're running the 182, or the Caravan is full of tandems, sometimes it's just me and one or two other fun jumpers on a load. In these instances, I'll group up with whoever is on the load, and come up with a dive we can all take part in. On a load where there are a dozen fun jumpers, I'm not looking around to make sure everyone is grouped up, and has someone to jump with. So when you have an Otter full of jumpers, you can do bigger ways that the newbies aren't ready for, and there are so many jumpers on the load, that a single guy doing a solo is alot easier to ignore than when it's a Cessna, and that guy is at least 25% of the load. It's a different world. We have all sorts of neat specialized gear, advanced and refined freefall disciplines, and big fast airplanes, all of which are good in some ways and bad in others. In terms of easing the way for newbies into becoming skydivers, maybe not so good.

That may be true as well, but it doesn't change the fact that the costs in skydiving (and grocery stores) have outpaced inflation and increases in pay. Given that fact, it should be no surprise that there is a reduction in new jumpers entering the sport. People are having enough trouble paying for groceries, let alone a hobby like sky jumping.

Well, a guy chimed in upthread, and he was for just over $2k to get an A license. Again, you can get gear for under 3k, but I don't think that what most people want. The thread is about why can't we retain new jumpers, and my assertion is that the monetary aspect is a big part of it. I know that there are ways to do anything on the cheap, however, this is a materialistic society in the US, and when you bring that mindset to the DZ, it costs a certain amount of money to keep up with the Joneses. I'm not in that camp myself. I spent as little money on gear as possible, all for the sake of having more money to jump with. I had ratty used stuff, and I borrowed whatever I could. At the time, I was 18, and willing to do whatever it took to get in the sky. I was tyring to get myself paid to jump, because otherwise I couldn't aford it. Now if you take a slightly older person, the type who has the disposable income to afford to jump, they're going to have a different viewpoint. My point is this, even for a jumper to get outfitted with reasonbly new used gear, an AAD, helmet jumpsuit, etc, it going to cost $5K. That's a steep price of entry, and that's not for a new, or top of the line rig. So what I'm saying is that for John Q Public to show up, and get an A licesne, and the equivilant of 'middle class' equipment is $7K, and all that gets you ready to start paying for jumps. Those prices are not related to my area. I also live in the midwest, Ohio. The costs add up, it's just the way it is.

That's your comment? I've said it before in this thread, and I'll repeat it here, there are exceptions to every rule, but you cannot expect to grow a sport based on the exceptions. SDC is an exception to the rule. It is, without a doubt, one of the nicest DZ in the country.

Trailing exits (or peeling) is the way to get started with a new team. Do this until you get to know the counts, and how the different pieces fly right out of the door. Some are more floaty, and others just fall down the hill. Once you're dialed into the count, and you can predict how the different things fly out of the door, you can safely switch to leading the team, and getting the cool shot of the plane as you fall away from it. If you try to lead them too soon, you risk being too early and not being tight on the exit, or being late and exiting into their burble. Even if your wings can keep you from falling onto the team, you'll be so tight that you cut parts of the team out of the shot. Either way it's a failure. By trailing the exit you can guarantee that you'll get the shot, and that's your job as the camera guy.

Ok, so for those who thought my numbers were high, here's this guy- AFF $1500 Another 15 jumps to get an A license = $400 Gear rental for 15 jumps = $250 So A license, no repeats, no video = $2150 Rig was $1500 (for a cheapo). Add an AAD and the cheapo costs $2500. He's got $300 in an altimeter $30 is a for cheapo helmet. So gear total is $1850. Cheapo gear + training with no repeats or video = $4000. Add in an AAD ($1k), a jumpsuit ($400), a skydiving helmet ($200) and an upgraded rig ($1k on top of what he spent, and even then $2500 is a good price for a complete used rig). New total, representative of an average jumper getting trained and set up = $6770 If you repeat a level or two, get a video of one of your AFF jumps, or if your DZ charges more than $16 to rent gear (that's the number I used) then there you have your $7k to get trained and set up with a modern rig w/ADD, jumpsuit, helmet and altimeter. By the way fanya - no offence meant when I said your stuff was 'cheapo'. I just mean it's low priced, and that's actually how I bought all of my skydiving gear for years, prefering to spend my money on jumps.

That's one of the best new ideas in video in a long time. The idea itself is kind of stupid for almost every jump under the sun, but for the one jump where there's something happening 360 around you, it's a stroke of genius. The timing was perfect, and the execution looks tight as well. The shot of the guy carving around the outside is a godsend. What a perfect way to cap off a perfect jump. Can you Youtube some complete jumps with that set-up? Even if it's not the record (so an not to step on any toes), I'd love to see a couple of the attempts from exit to opening going around in circles.

Just to play devils advocate, let's use some lower numbers, and see what it takes to get paid to skydive. Let's face it, the real problem with no new jumpers is no new instrucotrs, so that's something to think about. Let's say you can get your A license in 25 jumps, and it costs $2k. Let's say you put together a rig on the cheap, no AAD, $2k. Let's also say that you manage to upgrade your stuff by selling the old stuff, so gear never costs you anything more. Let's say you don't buy anything else. No suit, and you borrow a helmet, goggles, altimeter from the DZ. Let's also say you don't go to any boogies, or travel to jump. OK, now you're in it for $4k, and you have 25 jumps an A license, and a rig. The best way to get started getting paid on the DZ is video. So you probably need 250 jumps min to get on staff just about anywhere. So you need 225 more jumps at $23 each = $5175. Now you need a camera helmet, so $500 for video, $500 for stills, $500 for a helmet and mounts, and $500 for a camera suit = $2000. Grand total to make $35 on a video jump = $11,175. Remember, that's the bottom dollar cost. It would take 319 paid video jumps to break even in this example (you have to double your jump numbers plus 70 to actually make $35). If you want to be more realistic, and add in equipment upgrades, rigging, equipment maintenence, jumpsuits, etc, you're looking at about $13k to $14k. If you skip video, and go right to tandem, that's a 500 jump min, so add 475 jumps at $23= $10925. Add in the cost of the tandem cert course, $1500. Grand total to make dollar one as a TM = $17,425 Wanna try AFF? That's 500 jumps min as well, so you still have to spend $10925, but some of those have to be prep dives where you pay an AFF I to play student, so figure another $1500 for that. Jumps alone = $12425 The AFF course is closer to $2k. Total to make dollar one as AFF I = $18425 Again, all of these numbers are absurdly low. Teh TM and AFF numbers don't include the required coach course, or USPA dues, or medical checkouts (for TMs). The whole point is that it's not a cheap sport, and the sport itself is going to suffer for it. All of today's instructors are going to get old, or married, have kids or buy houses, and have less and less time to spend at the DZ. The interesting part is that all of the jumpers, DZOs and gear manufacturers who created this monster are going to die, retire or quit skydiving before push comes to shove, and they'll never see the shortfall. I got into skydiving right when Point Break had put it in the spotlight, and tandems and the economy were such that business was booming. Since then I've watched jumpers come and go. Equipment and trends have come and gone, and I[m telling you, my first post is dead on.

Again, reference my reply one post up. You're looking at the minnimums for everything, and I'm looking at the fatter part of the bell curve. Another thing I've learned from the few years I've been at this is that everything costs more than you think it will. Let's not leave out the ancilary costs of jumping - rigging including repacks and AAD maintenence. Travel costs for boogies, or even just driving to the DZ. Equipment costs like relines, and replacing worn components, PC pouches, PC's, etc. All of that could add up to another $1k a year. It might not sound liek alot, but you're talking about $1k less in the checking account, and another $1k you have to explain to your wife on top of all the jump money and time you want to spend at the DZ. We're not talking about the cheapest way to do things, that's another discussion. we're talking about the average costs for the average jumper looking to get into skydiving and fit it into their lives and financial picture. I didn't even touch on specialty items like wingsuits ($500) or camera helmets ($1000+) or competition ($$$$$ who knows) or specialty coaching ($100's) or wind tunnels ($600+). Again, none of these are 'must haves', but they are things the average jumper ends up spending money on. There are people who want to jump in anyway possible. There are alot more who want to jump, and be like their buddies, and do the things they do, and have the things they have.

$7k was the number for training plus a rig. I don't think that's too far off the average for AFF, plus coach jumps to an A license, plus a rig w/ AAD. In terms of the rig, and all the other gear, let's keep in mind I'm not talking about the cheapest you can find, I'm talking about the average costs for modern skydiving gear. That's a big part of the problem is that the 'norms' in skydiving are high. Some people see the bigger picture, and are happy to buy just what they need to get by, but more people tend to want to 'fit in'. As such, a newer rig used rig, with some fancy pants options w/ an AAD runs $4K on average. Along the same lines, those same people aren't going to be happy with a Pro Tec. Those are the same lids the students use, and they just spend thousands to not be a student anymore. Hence the need for a $200 skydiving specific helmet. I always look at new jumpers as the 'perfect storm'. You find the guy with the right mindset and physical abilities, at the right time in his life where his family and wife/girlfriend support his skydiving, who has the money and the time to dedicate to the sport, and that's what it takes to make a new skydiver. I know guys like you describe, in fact I was one of them, and I did whatever it took to keep me in the sky, but I was the exception and far from the rule. There will always be the exceptions, but you can't expect to build a sport on the exceptions to the rules. Let's rememebr that this whole post was was about retaining jumpers, and building the corps of fun jumpers. It's not about finding out what is 'possible' if anything goes, it's about what is probable given the averge John Q Public trying to become the average John Q Jumper.

There are a bunch of reasons that student retention is down since the 'good old days'. For starters, the price of skydiving has gone up. Good economy or not, and factoring in for inflation, it still costs more. The gear is more expensive. Sure it's better, but a rig with an ADD is a big hunk of change. A reasonable used set up with an AAD will run you 4k. That's a months pay for a recent college grad, two months 20-something without a college degree. The specialzied jumpsuits everyone 'needs' at $400 a pop. Years ago the suits were cheaper, and there no such thing as a freefly suit. The helmets are no longer recycled motorcycle, hockey or skateboarding helmets. They're made for jumping, and run $200 and up. The jumps cost more. It's not that they cost more, there's just more of them. Back in the day on a Cassna DZ, you'd make three or four jumps per day, and now it's twice that number or better with a turbine. I guess they do actually cost more, but you're going to 13k instead of 10K. Either way, $75 paid for a weekends worth of jumps back then, and now that's closer to $300. The monetary point is this - jumping used to be much cheaper to get into. A guy with a little free time could afford skydiving on a part time basis. You buy your gear and jump once a month, and feel good about it. Now, it costs $7k to train, and buy some basic used gear, and that's alot of change for something you only use once a month. Aside from the money, the jumps are different. If you jumped at a Cessna DZ, there's four slots on the plane, and if you manifested, there was a good chance that you would jump with the other guys on the load. Instant load organizer. There was no freeflying, just RW, so everyone was doing the same thing. It ws only natural that everyone jumped together. Now we have Otters where there are 20 some people, and everyone is already grouped up, There are freeflyers, and wingsuiters, RW, trackers, CRW guys, whatever. Anyway you slice it, it's tougher for the new guy to show up and fit into one of those groups. Let's take it one step further, all of those freeflylers, wingsuiters, RW guys and CRW guys have all spent the untold thousands of dollars it took to get them trained, experinced and equipped for their jumps, and they're spending $100's to be there that day, and people are surprised that they only want to jump with similarly skilled jumpers? Here's the bottom line, if you want skydiving liek it is today, with big fast airplanes, specialzed equipment and training, and a variety of disciplines, then you're going to have to accept that it's become a sport for the affluent. The catch 22 is that alot of affluent people don't want to sleep in tents, drink beer around campfires, and shit in a porta-potty. They want catered meals, hotel suites, and yes, flushing toilets. Skydiving has the costs of entry and partcipation of an upscale sport, and the facilities of a tractor pull. Furthermore, the very market that skydiving needs to tap into, the 20-soemthing males who will spend every weekend at the DZ, and become the instructors of the next generaltion just can't make the grade. Where does a 20-something kid get the dough to make it happen? It's $5k to $7k to get in the door, and $500 or $600 a month to come out every weekend. What kind of money did (do) you make in your 20s?

It's hard to remember ever seeing a dumber group of jumpers. For starters, they seems to a have their RW jump well rehearsed, and were cranking points right out of the door, but they must have 'forgotten' to do a gear check before exit. Stupid. Moving on, I saw the main flaps flapping alomst immediately when I watched the video. You might say that I knew it was coming, but I didn't know which jumper it was gong to be, but I still spotted it right away. I've got news for the you, the video guy has nothing better to do than sit there and watch too, but either he didn't see it, or he did and hung out anyway. Either way, both stupid. As an RW video guy, you need to be aware of what's happening below you. If you see this type of thing, first get the fuck away from above the formation. Then get on level, and clear the other jumpers away from the guy. Which brings me to the other RW flyers. How the fuck did the guy who had a cat on the horseshoe guy not see the main flaps blowing in the wind? It was one foot from his face, and he saw nothing. Open your eyes jackass. Once the main came out, what the fuck were the other RW guys, and the camera guys doing hanging out right next to the guy? That's retarded. What happenes when the bag pops open, and the canopy comes out? The jumper was going to swing forawrd, and one of those guys could have been kicked. An AFF-I was killed being kicked by a deploying student a few years ago. It's not a situation to take lightly, get away. Fast. How about when the guy cut away? How would you feel if you managed to get away from a horseshoe, only to land on top of your video guy, who for some reason is two feet under you? Let's take this one step further, and say the guy follows his emergency procudes the way he was taught. He cuts away, and goes right for the reserve as he hits the camera guy under him. He just survived a horseshoe, and now the shithead under him is apt to foul his reserve. What a fucknut. For the matter, either of the two idiots who hung out next to him were at risk for the same as the camera guy, plus getting hung up in the main risers or lines before the guy cutaway. If he did then cutaway, it only hurts those guys, but if the bag opened, now they're in his lines, and the canopy is trying to deploy. I can't see that ending well. Open your eyes up there guys. Wide. If you see something liek this going down, clear out of the area. Way out. Your chances of contributing are slim, and your chances of injuring yourself or others are much higher. Just to throw a thought out there, how tight is your altimeter attached to your wrist? Pretty secure, right? Well, if you stick that hand into another guys mess tyring to 'help him', all it takes is one line around your altimeter to make you a permanent part of the problem. Unless you are an AFF-I who has been trained to involve themselves in the deployment process, stay away. The AFF-Is out there will have the skill and judgement to assist, or know when they have nothing to offer.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but a Rawa helmet is a regular helemt like a Mindwarp or Nvertigo that has flat side and top molded into it, right? The problem is that front mount stills are usually found on full camera helmets like the FTP, or the Vapor. Those helemts have that big flat forehead area that leads up to the top plate. This is where the front mount stills generally hang, sometimes upside down off of an extended top plate, or right side up off an L braket. To do this on a helmet like a Rawa, you'd have to build a mount the would hang the stills in front of your forehead, and mount the video high enough to see over the stills. At the same time, you would have to keep the stills high enough that you could see under it. So you've got a side mount video, which keeps the weight low and close to your head, and a top mount stills which keeps the weight low and clsoe to your head, and you want to hang the stills way out in front and jack the video up to see over the still camera. Why? Aside from the location of weight issues, you're also going to be making the whole set-up taller and more snaggy. Why not just mount the CX on the side? Or get crafty, and tuck it up under the corner of the where the stills currently are?

This is why you tip your instructors (and video guys). If you read the manual on how to be a tandem instructor there's a chapter on properly fitting a harness, supervising a student in and around the airplane, a few chapters about freefall and canopy procedures, and one about landing. Involving the students family and friends in the ground prep is not in the book. Answering a slew of quesitons from them is also not part of the plan. Bolstering the students confidence, and ensuring that they get the most out of their jump, oddly not in the book. When the instructors go 'above and beyond' and really make you feel good about your experience (and you didn't even jump) that's worth a few extra bucks. One other point, just so you know, a new tandem rig goes for $15k. A small skydiving plane runs about $50k, and goes all the way up to $1.5 million. You can't skydive in the rain, or when it gets too windy, and most folks only jump on the weekends. It's alot of money tied up in something you can't always do. I know $200 seems like a alot for a jump, but a fair percentage of that is the actual cost of doing business. The profit margin is reasonable, and the instructors pay is on the low side given what they are doing. I'm sure they guys appriciated the hell out of the tip.

I didn't see the smiley face next to your post indicating this was a joke. You're kidding right? What makes you think that you hanging on to one riser will drag the mess off of the guy, when you hanging by both (before you cutaway) did not? Aside from being a waste of time, something neither of you have the luxury of, you trying to hang you full weight off of one riser will only to serve to tighten the grip that those lines have on the jumpers body and equipment. Do yourself, and them, a favor by removing yourself quickly and completely from the situation. You may have a simple cutaway and reserve deployment, but the other jumper has a main canopy wrapped around them, and needs to establishh control over their own main canopy, or clear enough of the mess to allow operation of their cutaway and reserve system. You playing tarzan with one of your risers will not contribute to that situation.

Should I point out that the factory is so close to Z-hills that you can see it from the DZ? My Flite Suits all have to be shipped 3000 miles to get to me, so you have to give them a few extra days for that. Did you even bother to drive to pick up your suit, or did you just walk over?????

Try Flite Suit in California. I have ordered four suit from them, and alway paid the rush charge (I think it's $40). I had all of the suits in my hands within 10 days of placing the order. One was ordered on Monday, and I had the suit on Friday. You might want to add a few days because you're in Finland, but you could have it in two weeks. The suits are built very well, and will last much longer than 70 jumps. One of them made it well over 2000+ jumps. The others are still in service, and should last just as long.