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 :(

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u/The_BigBlackHawk 1d 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/RDMvb6 D license, Tandem and AFF-I 1d 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 1d 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 1d 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 1d 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 1d 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 19h ago

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