I am a (or was!) a first time jumper and I did extensive research before finally picking a place and settling on where I wanted to jump out of a perfectly good plane. What a great way to celebrate finishing the school year I'd say!
Anyways, there are a few reasons why I finally choose ChicagoLand Skydiving Center. Before I was going to pick anywhere to go I was going to call around and see how the workers were and how well they would answer my questions. Before I ended up calling CSC I called around to another skydiving place that was closer to me and in southern Ohio (startskydiving.com) I don't have one problem giving away the name of the place as they clearly didn't earn my respect and you'll soon find out. I'll name your name to do either one of two things, compliment your company or put it down it's up to the company on which one I do.
When I called up STARTSKYDIVING they were very unprofessional. They were very short with me and very rude. They acted as if they didn't care about my business and wanted to get off the phone as quickly as possible. I had to keep the conversation going the whole time and they didn't try one bit to get my business.
I am describing my experience with them only to show you how differently and how well I was treated with CSC. When I called up CSC I was immediately greeted with a very happy and cheerful person that I could tell enjoyed they're job and was going to take their time with me. I started asking my questions and they answered every single of them beyond my belief. They assured me of everything and told me to call back as many times as I need to if I still have questions.
I just got one of those "Good feelings" with these guys. I knew when I got off the phone with them that this was the place to go. Now you also have to understand this is a HUGE compliment on CSC and who well they handled me. I traveled all the way from OHIO to 45 minutes west of Chicago! I had to have passed over 5 jump zones on my way there and I didn't care one bit because I would much rather drive 5 hours to a place that made me feel comfortable then travel two hours and be nervous.
I drove up there the night before with two other buddies of mine. This was another great sign of hospitality by CSC. They allowed my friends and I to set up a tent on their land, use their firewood and make ourselves at home there over night. Absolutely unbelievable, I couldn't believe how well they were treating me before I even met them in person!
The following day was finally jump day! I had to wait two hours for clouds to clear to jump but that was just mother nature being a pain in the ass. The workers there clearly love the job they do. Not only that, they understand what they do and know everything you could imagine about skydiving. They made me feel completely safe and I didn't have one ounce of fear in me the entire time. I was more excited then scared and I think that was due to the fact that the crew had done such a good job in abolishing my fears that all I was concerned about was jumping and having fun!
In conclusion, ChicagoLand Skydiving Center is by far the best and most professional jump zone in the Midwest and I would gladly travel five hours every weekend to jump with these guys because of how well they treated me and how great my experience was. Will deff come back and would deff recommend to anyone thinking about making their first jump CSC is the place to be!
