I'm interested in going skydiving in Austin, Texas. I've found a few different locations and am looking for a recommendation. So far Texas Skydiving (http://www.austinskydiving.com/aboutus/a... looks like my number one. If anyone in the Austin area has had an experience at any of the skydiving locations, I'd appreciate hearing about it. Thanks. I am a Skydiving Instructor in the Austin Area. I've worked at most of the 5 available dropzones and have jumped at all of them.
Of course I want you to check out the dropzone that I am currently working for: http://www.gravityratsskydiving.com. But, I will try not to push just my current dropzone here.
Basically all the Dropzones in the area will do a good job for your first skydive. Each Dropzone has good things going for it, and bad things. I belive that all the dropzones in the area operate using safe practices.
Texas Skydiving (the one you posted a link for) is a good dropzone. I learned to Skydive there and did over 1,000 jumps at that dropzone. It is a small family feeling dropzone. One of the major draw backs is that it is the furthest away from Austin. This dropzone has a really good student program and is a great place to be for Jumps 1 through 25.
Skydive San Marcos is your other major bet for your first jump. They are a much larger dropzone with a larger plane and closer to Austin. They can do the best job in the area of handling a large group. By far they do the highest volumn of tandems in this area (I suspect they do more tandems than all of the other dropzones combined). Draw backs are that they have a larger business feel. It is more of a Machine there than a family feel (which I like a family feel when skydiving).
Finnally, there is Gravity Rats Skydiving Center. This is a new dropzone that opened up a couple weeks ago. Relax, even though the DZ is new, all of the staff (myself included) is highly experinced and dedicated to your safety. This dropzone is doing a lower volumn of Tandems than other dropzones in the area (example San Marcos), but is focused on Learning to Skydive, not just do a Jump and smile.
When it comes down to choosing a dropzone to jump at, use what I've said as a guide, but make your own choice. Choose based on what is a reasonable drive for you. Remember if you come out and the weather turns sour, you are going to be making the drive again. Also choose based on what kind of dropzone that you want to be around. Ask your friends, you may know someone who has jumped at one of the places before. http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;...
this is a link to one of my old questions. this guy gave me a really detailed answer. good luck u can look at the listings... I moved away from Austin 2 years ago. When I lived there we always used this company: http://www.skydivesanmarcos.com/
Skydive San Marcos
Hwy 80 South, Fentress Airpark
Fentress, TX 78622
Phone: 512 488 2214
It's about 30 minutes from Austin, (less if you live in South Austin) but well worth the drive. I'd start by checking this link:
http://uspa.org/dz/states/TX.htm
this is a list of the USPA dropzones in texas.
There are a couple websites you need to check out to get good info on skydiving.
http://www.uspa.org is the website of the United States Parachute Association, the governing body for sport parachuting in the United States. There is a list of member dropzones on the website along with all sorts of great info on the sport.
The official site for the British Parachute Association is: http://www.bpa.org.uk/links.htm
The official site for the Canadian Parachute Association is: http://www.cspa.ca/
http://www.dropzone.com is another great resource for everything about skydiving and some BASE too.
http://www.skydiveradio.com is just fun and a good place to feel like you鈥檙e at the drop zone when you can鈥檛 physically be there.
If you鈥檙e not sure about skydiving but want to fly you should look at the vertical wind tunnels. http://www.skyventure.com/ is the website for skyventure which operates many tunnels in the United States, Europe and Asia. I love flying in the tunnel. I don鈥檛 do it very much, I鈥檇 rather spend my money on skydives, but it is a great place to learn, work on my flying skills and just have a lot of fun!
Make sure that you contact the drop zone you want to jump at directly. There are a few scams out there, one of which is 1800skyride. They will take your money and send you to any dropzone they want too but only about three dz鈥檚 in the country except skyride tickets. So please, please, please contact the dropzone directly.
The tandem is a great jump. I鈥檇 get video too. I made one tandem a little over two years ago and came back to start student training (good info about student training at uspa.org) and got my license. I鈥檝e been jumping for two years and have a few hundred jumps. I have earned the USPA Coach Rating and plan to continue to jump for fun and help teach others how to fly and be safe in the air. There is nothing better than flying your body through the sky with your friends. The canopy is a lot of fun to fly too. It only gets better and better. Every weekend seems to be more fun than the one before. You will get into the sport for the rush, but you stay because of the people. I love this sport and I sincerely hope that you鈥檒l become a full time skydiver and I鈥檒l be able to make some jumps with you at a boogie!
Blue Skies! Black Death! And EFS!!!! Skydive San Marcos is the closest place to skydive. I did it last year about this time, don't wait too long or it will be way too cold. It is fun I got the video and they put it to music that I brought. |
