Beginners FAQ – Grand Bend Sport Parachuting Center

Beginner’s F.A.Q

Weight Restriction

There are several reasons why skydiving is not a sport for people who are over-weight and/or out of shape. Heavier folks run a greater risk of injury on landing. Parachutes are designed and tested to certain weight and speed limits. With our freefall system we also have experienced serious difficulty maintaining control of students in freefall who are a lot heavier than us. Contrary to what a lot of people think, objects (i.e. people) DO fall at different speeds. Your speed is determined by your weight and the amount of drag your body is creating. The amount of drag is determined by your surface area and body position. It is difficult to assess your suitability for the sport until we see you. We hope to save you the embarrassment of being turned down by asking your height and weight when you pre- register. We’ll phone you if the numbers suggest you’re heavier than what we consider safe. A “maximum weight” will depend on your “Body Mass Index” which is weight divided by square of height. For example, this chart gives the maximum weight we will accept for various heights:

For equipment loading reasons we can’t accept students over 220 lbs (100 kg). Please don’t think you can fool us… we have accurate scales which we will use to determine your weight if we think you’re close to the limit. Parachute equipment is expensive and it is not feasible for an operation of our size to have enough equipment to fit all possible combinations of height and weight. We do have a small selection of parachute harnesses and canopies which will accommodate quite a range of torso sizes and weights. If you’re a shorter person we do have small, light systems that will be comfortable for you. If you are quite tall, we have ones that will fit you too. We will not be able to fit you if you are shorter than 4’10” or taller than 6’9″. We also do not have equipment that will properly fit some people who are short and fairly heavy for their height. Generally these people will be outside the above chart’s guidelines anyway.

Age & Health Restrictions

If you are over 50, or have had previous health problems or injuries, we require a statement from your doctor stating that you’re in acceptable shape for parachuting. If you are under 18, we will require your parents to attend the training course and sign a consent agreement. Minimum age is 16; maximum age is 63.

Weather Restrictions

The weather often interferes with skydiving. It’s frustrating and it happens frequently! If it’s too windy or cloudy to jump that first weekend, we’ll reschedule your jump for the earliest convenient time. We prefer, whenever possible, to re-schedule your jump for a weekday so as to avoid over-crowding subsequent weekends. Please do not book with us if your schedule is so restricted, or you live so far away from us, that you cannot come back to jump fairly soon after the date of your class. Please understand that we do not give refunds if the weather is bad and you have to reschedule.

Course Timing

During the summer, first-jump courses can be arranged for weekdays. The training and jumps can all be done on the same day with a small group of 2 to 5 people. Weekend courses often have more people so we cannot do all the training and jumps in one day and still provide high quality individual attention. Our usual schedule calls for some training Friday evening and the rest on Saturday morning. The jumps start on Saturday by early afternoon (weather- permitting) and take more than an hour per student. Students should plan to be available to jump on Sunday or return some other day, as time and weather will not allow everyone to jump on Saturday.

Clothing

You should dress appropriately for the weather. If it’s warm, we recommend a t-shirt and shorts or light pants. If it’s cool, bring a sweater and a pair of sweat pants or track pants. We don’t recommend jeans or other snug pants as they can restrict your movement. You will be provided with an appropriately sized skydiving jumpsuit. These suits are intended to provide a certain freefall speed and generally are not big enough to allow baggy or bulky clothing underneath. If the temperature at jump altitude is at or below freezing, we have some gloves you can borrow. As for footwear, we recommend running shoes. Landing a modern parachute is not like a walk in the park or the beach or the office. Fortunately it’s not like landing a round military parachute either. Walking shoes, moccasins, sandals and boots with heels or steel toes are not acceptable. Instructors are concerned about being accidentally kicked during the exit or freefall so we really don’t recommend you wear boots!

Our Season

Courses usually start in late April and are available most weekends (and some weekdays) until late October. We do sometimes jump here over the winter but it is sporadic and infrequent due to the weather.

Pre-Registration

Once you have decided on the day or weekend you want, please phone us to pre-register. You may wish to pick a different date if your first choice already has a lot of people pre-registered. We normally book no more than 10 people for a weekend in the summer. We take up one first-jumper per flight and you should anticipate at least an hour and a half between take-offs. On weekends, some first-jumpers will not get up until Sunday. Your jump order is determined by the date we receive your deposit. If you have a group we require a deposit for each person. If you are paying a deposit for someone else in the group, note that you will not receive a refund if that person doesn’t show up for whatever reason (and we’ve heard a lot of ’em!). Make sure you are reimbursed for any deposits you pay for others in your group before you send the deposit(s) to us! Please note as well that if your group’s size drops into the next bracket of group rates then all remaining members of the group must pay the new (higher) rate!

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