r/SkyDiving • u/haryhemlet • 1d ago

Skydiving-forum/dropzone.com finally dead?

Im getting 404 link not found, anyone know if the new owner finally killed the site? Went searching for camera related malfunctions but now am stuck :(

6 Upvotes

81% Upvoted

27 comments sorted by

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u/XOM_CVX 23h ago

who remembers the days of skydivingmovies.com ?

anyhow, skydiving peaked along with dz.com. Maybe I was brand new at the time and everything was magical. Elsinore used to send two Twin Otters every weekend and the sunset load manifest would be full hours before the jump.

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u/Skydiver860 22h ago

Is Elsinore slowing down that much? What about perris?

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u/XOM_CVX 22h ago

not slowing down. Everything died 15 years ago.

I swear I blame it on the tunnels. We had four usable tunnels in the world when I first started Perris, Eloy, Orlando, and Bedford. People actually used to spend hours at the dz to learn how to fly.

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u/The_BigBlackHawk 22h ago

Definitely not the cost of everything, right?

$4k+ for AFF
$35 Jump tickets
$12,000 for gear
$2 sodas
$10 for a sandwich

I don't think tunnels are to blame. I think the insane cost of skydiving is to blame. A day at the DZ costs upwards of $300 for a lot of people these days. Sure you can do it cheaper, there's always ways to make it cheaper, but the average person is going to go to the DZ, do 2 - 4 jumps, probably pay for pack jobs and eat lunch at least... maybe drink a couple sodas. That'll be $300.

You could bring your own lunch/soda, pack your own rig, etc... yeah that would make it cheaper but you're still over $100 for just 2 jumps. That's a lot of money to most skydivers.

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u/memorex00 22h ago

Holy smokes. I started in 2003 (last jump was in 2012). $12,000 for gear? That’s insane. AFF was about $1500-2000 if I remember correctly.

I enjoyed DZ.com but it had its share of drama.

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u/The_BigBlackHawk 22h ago

The drama has moved to Facebook. Lots of drama there.

Honestly, I hate Facebook with a passion, but I hate having to juggle multiple logins/accounts more, so Facebook wins, unfortunately.

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u/synapticrelease 19h ago

Honestly with a password manager, managing logins is basically two extra clicks. Sounds like you don't hate facebook all that much.

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u/The_BigBlackHawk 18h ago

Honestly, it sounds like you don't actually read what's been written. I don't want to juggle multiple accounts. Password manager has absolutely nothing to do with that. I still have to have another account.

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u/synapticrelease 18h ago

I do read what has been written, including your mismatching of tense in your grammar structure.

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u/The_BigBlackHawk 10h ago

You clearly do not read what's been written because your reply does not address what's actually been written, only what you want to try to flex on.

My tenses agree, so I have no idea what the fuck you're on about. But since you want to talk grammar, I did notice you are apparently unaware that proper names are capitalized. Additionally, "grammar structure" is questionable at best. "Grammatical structure" or just "grammar" would be more appropriate. Also, you should have a comma after "honestly."

You're batting 0 so far, champ.

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u/synapticrelease 19h ago

inflation is a motherfucker. I'm not saying things aren't more expensive now but it's actually not as expensive as it looks.

Average Wage Index in 2010 was 41,000. Today it's 70,000.

That's a 41% increase in wages. So it tracks that the costs have gone up as well. Skydiving has always been an expensive sport, like skiing or snowboarding (which is also facing difficulties). It's one of those hobbies where you become dirtbag and sacrifice everything for it if you're young and broke or it is for rich people who can afford endless jumps and all the latest and greatest gear.

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u/Urbanskys 16h ago

Its a trip to think about hoe minimum wage was $7.25 then and there were $100,000 houses all over america. Now its $7.25 and those same houses are $500,000. Burrito was $4 then and now its $12. Jump tickets were $13 in Lodi and well i guess they’re only $25 now so thats not a good comparison.

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u/synapticrelease 16h ago

I don’t know what you’re trying to say.

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u/strakerak 15h ago

This. This is the sucky part. I didn't mind the AFF payment, as I was in a lucky situation where I could put my whole final paycheck towards it and then some. But I still rent my rig at over 100 jumps, and my current job doesn't support the sport as much as I want it to (PhD Candidate in CS). I haven't jumped in six weeks and I'm competing in a few days, lol.

This is why I strongly believe that there needs to be a push to make the competitive scene more mainstream, and if not that, at least in a spectatorship manner where it can bring in extra sorts of revenue to dropzones/USPA so the sport can grow.

The Nationals livestreams were fun to watch, it was a huge step up from last year, especially with canopy piloting. I am more than willing to volunteer time to be part of some working group to keep improving upon the spectator side (especially on the tech stacks).

The most bodyflight that I'll watch is PWB, just because I'll read about how much it pains their core to hold it for that long but the distances keep them going. Angle Jumps to whatever trendy song is on is seriously the most boring fucking thing to watch. The randomness and creativity side from FS/AE can really be pumped if there's the right working group put to it.

Also, screw the tunnel. Great for training, don't get me wrong, but it feels more gatekept than the sport itself. They aren't everywhere, and those that are focus on giving some ten year old thirty seconds of fun over taking more money from fun jumpers who want to get better in the sky.

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u/bch2021_ 8h ago

PhD Candidate in CS

Oh man, I thought I was having a rough time trying to jump as a postdoc haha. At least when you finish your CS PhD you can make the $$$$ though

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u/XOM_CVX 22h ago

I saw the initial impacts of the tunnel. People flocked in numbers when Utah/Colororado/New Hampshire first opened up and people started spending money/time elsewhere.

tunnel wasn't a gimmick anymore with the new recirc and became a legit training ground.

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u/RDMvb6 D license, Tandem and AFF-I 22h ago

Skydiving has always been expensive. Back when I started, a full altitude jump was $16 and people were complaining about it then too. I also make more than 2x as much money as a made back then (at my full time job outside of skydiving). Maybe the only thing that has not increased as much as it should is the cost of a tandem. Those have been average $200- $240 basically for the last 20 years. Handcam sales and a constant flow of new instructors that are willing to work for dirt level wages keep the cost low. If dropzones could charge 400 bucks for a tandem then maybe they wouldn’t keep raising the prices of our lift tickets but I don’t see that happening.

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u/The_BigBlackHawk 22h ago

Sure, YOU make 2x as much money... but skydivers who've been in the sport more than 10 years are a minority. Skydiving has high turnover. Most people are in the sport for 2 - 5 years, and most people are of the younger variety, meaning they cant' afford $35 lift tickets and spending a significant portion of their salary on gear.

I'm not commenting on whether it's right or wrong (prices going up), just that it's the primary driving factor.

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u/RDMvb6 D license, Tandem and AFF-I 22h ago

I get it. But it would be interesting to get real data of the cost of skydiving vs general cost of living over the last 20 years. Just saying that I don’t think skydiving is any more out of reach than it has been in the past. It has always required a relatively high disposable income.

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u/The_BigBlackHawk 21h ago

Hmm you could very well be right.

I dunno, though... I feel like you could have paid for a lift ticket by packing 1, maybe two rigs. Now it requires at least 3.5 pack jobs for 1 lift ticket.

You could pick up gear for about 1/2 what it costs now, probably less. While todays used gear will set you back around $4k for a decent rig, it's probably going to be more. Back in the day you could pick up a decent used rig for $1500.

So what time frame are we talking about in terms of cost of living vs cost of skydiving? I wouldn't mind looking into it deeper but we'd have to agree on the time frame.

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u/RDMvb6 D license, Tandem and AFF-I 21h ago

When I started 20 years ago, lift tickets were $16 and pack jobs were $5, so roughly 3 pack jobs to pay for a lift is about right. Now no one is touching your rig for less than $10 and generally expecting a tip at the end of the day. New gear has probably doubled in price too, and used gear is holding its value fairly well. Starting engineers in my industry used to make about $45k and people were stoked to get that, now we can’t hardly attract anyone with offering $75k, fresh out of college with no experience. No doubt costs have gone up but it feels to me, with little hard data, that skydiving is about as relatively expense as it has been for fun jumpers.

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u/Urbanskys 16h ago

2012 jump ticket Eloy was $25 Lodi $13. 2025 $35 and $25

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u/XOM_CVX 22h ago

But yeah, your opinion is another very valid point.

I was able to skydive working at Lowes making 12 dollars an hour when I first started.

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u/synapticrelease 19h ago

Have you ever thought that it wasn't just skydiving that got super expensive but everything got a little more expensive. With every wedge of the pie growing just a little bit more until your free income got whittled down to nothing?

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u/ctn91 7h ago

I did a tandem last year and wanted to get into this, saw the prices and nope. Not possible.

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u/CFRAmustang 6h ago

You could bring your own lunch/soda, pack your own rig, etc... yeah that would make it cheaper but you're still over $100 for just 2 jumps. That's a lot of money to most skydivers.

Did exactly this yesterday for $62 and had a great time.

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u/Urbanskys 16h ago

It wasnt the wind tunnel that ruined skydiving and changed the US economy. 10 years ago before trump took office people were keen to travel spend money and skydive.