WA Skydiving Academy

I find the DZ well equiped and setup to cater for tandems and sporties. There is enough room to have a comfy seat while waiting for loads. Some refreshments are on hand if you need any. The intructors are quite helpfull and with the numbers on hand it was a pleasure to learn and do BRells at this DZ. I appreciate the CI's passion for sports jumping, he has no dramas calling a quick twilight jump for example. The DZSO is all over it and keeps everyone safe. I would recommend this DZ to a friend any day.

I do not understand why everyone is having such a big cry over the toilets. You aren't visiting the dropzone for the toilets, you're visiting to go skydiving which is amazing. The most important thing on their minds is safety, not the toilets. I don't find the toilets to be as bad as everyone is saying, they are completely fine. Staff are all so friendly and extremely helpful. Definitely recommend WA Skydiving Academy to anyone who wants to go for a skydive. So far I have done two tandems and my first 2 AFF stages there. I will be continuing to go back. (:

I had booked a skydive to celebrate me and my boyfriends anniversary but unfortunately due to weather conditions we was unable to go ahead with the jump. Although this is not the staff's fault I couldn't believe how unfriendly and rude the staff were. I called the lady in the office the day before to confirm my jump and ask where the location was she was very rude and unhelpful and stated "it's an airfield it has no address" she told me to call back later that day to which I did and was then told to call the next morning. I spoke to the man who I think was in charge of the Pinjarra location who was just as rude and unfriendly with nowhere to go we decided to ask a local for directions and drive to the airfield to be greeted by a number of moody unfriendly men who questioned why we had arrived, we was then given the option to stick a round for a couple of hours to see if the clouds cleared up to which we did throughout this time the owner went of flying in his own plane and we got talking to the pilot who was very friendly and informed us that there was a chance we would get to jump but may not be from the 14,000 ft we had booked. We sat there for 5 hours and was told by the owner if we was happy to land there instead of the beach to give it 10 minutes and we could go up to then be told 5 minutes later by another man that no way would we be jumping so we had to re-book. we were at the end of our holiday so this was not really an option for us and after their attitude I didn't want to pay these people! Someone handed me a phone and it was the lady in the office again who was most unhelpful just like she was the day before I asked her for a contact number so I could call her back when I was back at my accommodation to arrange a refund for my deposit to which she replied "its the number your calling me on" seeing as I didn't dial this number I found her sarcasm completely unnecessary. I understand it was not the guys fault that we had bad weather but there was really no need for their rudeness and they could have kept us in the loop as to whether they thought we would jump or not instead of each saying different things. A couple of hours later I called the lady in the office to request a refund as we were flying back to England a couple of days later being her usual "friendly" self she tried to tell me they don't do refunds like it was my fault we were unable to jump and it was my fault I was flying back to England!! All in all I do not recommend this company whatsoever I did however receive a full refund and am glad I did not waste my money on these people.

I had a GREAT experience at WA Skydiving Academy. Professional, friendly and funny staff, welcoming atmosphere, nice and comfortable aircraft and the view over the coast is absolutely amazing. I read some comments about the toilets, but they are building new ones at the moment :) There are no fancy facilities, but for me that didn't matter, it's all about the skydive itself and the nice vibe. The whole experience was amazing, and I would definitely recommend WA Skydiving Academy to all people who visit WA. I also really love the DVD, it's such a good way to remember this spectacular experience :D

Pinjarra is a small but friendly DZ just to the South of Perth. I called a day before I intended to jump and was filled with confidence by Rob's enthusiasm.
I arrived the following day, paperwork done, I was sorted out with kit and jumped within no time at all. A pity I wasn't able to stay longer.
Will certainly be calling in again on my next visit to Perth.

Had my first tandem jump the other day and was petrified for two weeks prior, so a warm welcome wouldn't have gone amiss. Unfortunately it didn't happen.

The woman who seems to run the place was civil but far from welcoming. When you arrive in the big 'shed' there is no-one to tell you what to do or where to go. The staff are unidentifiable - shirts or uniforms of some sort with the company logo might be an idea...

I love dogs, but was a little disconcerted that there was one running all over the rigs being packed. I'm sure he couldn't have done any harm, but it didn't add to the professionalism.

I opted for the DVD package, an extra $120, and from the website this suggests a separate jumper will be filming. It is in fact just a handheld camera attached to the tandem masters wrist. I was disappointed with the coverage and the film cut off the last two minutes of recording so unprofessionally ended mid-sentence.

The guy that helped me get rigged up and did the 10 minute training session was great and very friendly. The tandem master though didn't give me much of a warm fuzzy feeling and did nothing to reassure me. He didn't even introduce himself to me until 5 minutes before the jump. I really felt like I was inconveniencing him.

The jump went fine (except apparently I didn't hold my head quite right on exit and was told that "perhaps next time I should listen to my instructor when he tells me something").

I did enjoy the jump and felt safe, but for something that was such a huge deal for me, the accomplishment and day was really soured by the staffs' poor attitude and overall lack of professionalism.

Oh yeh, and the toilets are terrible.

I went skydiving today at Pinjarra, and I must say I was a bit hesitant after reading some of the reviews posted here.

I agree the facilities (bathroom, kitchen etc) may need a bit of an upgrade, but overall, it was an amazing experience. The view you get from jumping at 14, 000ft was awesome as you could see Rottnest, the Swan River etc.

My instructor was very supportive (as I was pretty scared!) and I felt very safe and looked after during the lead up to the dive and when jumping off the plane.

Overall, I would highly recommend skydiving with WA Skydiving Academy.

In response to our own experiences and the owners less than professional response to criticism (albeit from a couple of years ago! has nothing changed??)...

Our experience has been similar to that of others and I am shocked to see that nothing has really changed. We did get explanations (only after getting visibly irritated about the lack of communication and confronting 3 staff members at various times - no one OFFERED a discussion on the why's nor did they listen to why MrX was irritated)as to why MrXgene couldn't jump (happened several visits in a row). We were told that this had to do with safety and weather yet we did get told at one point **when weather was good to go for AFF's** (their comment) that they would "just get the tandems out of the way first" - contrary to being told "no, its about safety" - well on the day it was also about bookings.

Now, having said this, it is clear that there is a sense of camaraderie between the staff however, none of the customers have access to that. I would add here, that I think communication was the key to keeping customers happy on the day. To laugh at critiques (which quite frankly can help you to build your business) is simply and utterly unprofessional.

Your statement (Robyn?) "I personally would be ashamed if a client ever slipped through our fingers because of our attitude" well, we called around after being let down and being spoken to like we were really undervalued and we have to say, we certainly are considering going to the competition. If you are truly worried about your attitude losing you customers perhaps the response should have been "Thank you for your very valued feedback. We endeavour to make your experience with us superb!! and we are continually learning and growing as a business. I can assure you we are taking your feedback on board and hope to address those issues asap" and then... behold! actually follow through on such a statement. But we got neither and instead saw that you insulted unhappy customers. How could you not want your business to be better? How can you suggest you value customers with that response being there?

Our feedback/suggestions are below and I hope you consider this because we prefer your safety record but not your service... and we would love to continue going to you as long as we see improvement rather than stubbornness:

CLEANLINESS
You guys seem to make a killing, pay for a cleaning group to come out regularly and remove the webs etc especially from your kitchen! ewww!!

Probably time to get rid of old faded posters and broken furniture/material/equipment -it devalues your safety record and undermines your professional credibility.

SERVICE
Practice smiling and listening THEN respond with respect. The customer pays you for a service not an ear full. They may not always be right but they have a right to ask questions or share frustration with your service. If that's not you, hire a knowledgeable customer service representative - someone who is great with people. To be frank, none of you are.

COMMUNICATION
Most of the problem we had was simply poor communication and insulting response to the frustration communicated by that. I think if you have someone perhaps in charge of updating AFF's (especially), on the hour at least but preferably after each load comes down in the plane they don't feel so ripped off! Not your style again? Get a massive whiteboard and get Mrs Manifest to mark up jump conditions for AFF's after each load. Try to fit it in to the schedule of things to do - customer service is just as important. You need to let people know you ARE looking at weather and safety issues as we just see you guys walking around - don't assume we know your job.

OK, so you are in the business of putting jumpers in the air - but you are also IN A BUSINESS - I truly hope you want to grow and improve because no one is that perfect that they can't improve!

Just a note on safety, on your board it states that being irritated or upset before a jump is a danger - it should be on your radar for customers- keep em happy!

I just did my first tandem jump with wa skydiving academy, all i really wanted to know was that there had been no fatalities at the site, i have heard other sites are pretty nice but safety was my big issue as a first timer and a bit of a wuss! i will agree, the place could use a bit of a clean but i was there for the jump so who cares about that. To address the other ratings above, staff were fine, i too got delayed due to the wind but thats not their fault. the owner cracked me up and the guy i jumped with was teasing me a bit in the plane but i never felt unsafe. the view is really nice you can see all the canals in mandurah and he pointed out bunbury. Overall i had a great time but i guess its a personal thing, if you want safety and a good view i would certainly receommend them, i cant really comment on planes and rigging (?!) but if you wanna hang out by a pool all day maybe head elsewhere

I totally agree with the other reviews. I wish I found this page before I decided to take my group for their skydives. We were so excited to be going skydiving, but the entire experience was distasteful. We waited until nearly lunch time and made many phone calls in the mornign as instructed to find out if it was ok to head to the skydiving club. We called so many times and were told rudely to "call back in another hour" with no real explanation of what was happening. When I tried to ask I got a lecture that things were out of his control and we had to be patient.

Once we finally arrive at 2pm, we were booked or 9am, there was no fuel available for the aircraft so we did not jump until 4pm. There was no food or drink facilities and we ended up driving to town for food and drinks afterwards. The entire establishment did infact stink and smell rotten as reflected in other reviews.

The staff who were present were very uncommunicative, hardly a word was said between any of them, let alone to our group. It really was disconcerting to entrust our lives to people who seemingly did not want to know each other, let alone us!

I really hope this is not a reflection of the skydiving clubs in Australia as I can not imagine how they stay in business!

To Robyn who runs the business, I think you need to take a good hard look at yourself and decide if you should really be doing this? You continual sexual comments are entirely out of place.

Hi had to laugh at the owner's own review in responce to another review from a legitimate unhappy customer.

I have been to this drop zonm it is FILTHY, there was no toilet paper, there is no fresh running water, the kitchen is disgusting, I would not feed an animal from the kitchen. There is no "cafe" as advertised, it is a self service kitchen with RATS and MICE everywhere, it is filthy. The packing area is also used to store the aircraft at night, the packing area is also used for the recreation area. It is disgusting. The equipment is old and often wet and damp as the only hangar leaks water and floods regularly. There are NO facilities at all, only a broken drinks machine that took my money and the owner would not refund me. There are no clean facilities at all, and the entire place SMELLS, it has probably never been cleaned ever.

I had a laught at the owner's laugh saying there are 5 instructors at any one time to keep all 3 planes in the air. I waited all day for my jump and there was only 2 instructors who were both extremely rude and unsympathetic while I waited all day fora skydive for my girl friend.

Take your money some place else and I would never suggest jumping at WA Skydiving Academy in Perth or Pinjarra.

They also advertise that they skydive at other locations, which is rubbish, I was declined any other location and only offered a jump at Pinjarra. It was cold and misserable and clouds everywhere.

the summary from Nibor (the DZO) is a very colourful use of poetic license.
The facilites are spartan and not very clean.
There is no clean running water.
The covered packing shed is also the hanger and creeper area.
The load organising could be done a lot better than it is.
But the guys who jump there are good people.
The prices on here are not correct $19USD is $26AUD this is NOT the cost a a jump to 14000

An extra 20 mins from Perth will take you to a much nicer place.

My first review on this dropzone was fairly harsh but at the time I was dissapointed with how my first visit went.

After my recent visit I have to say that things have improved and I was quite impressed with the amount of enjoyment I experienced.

The facilities still need some attention but apart from that it was great fun. The views are amazing and its a shame this place isn't more well known.

Had a laugh at the other reviews about our DZ and had to respond. We have operated since 1987 and are in the business of getting jumpers up in the sky. We only keep our planes on the ground if conditions are not suitable and with 5 Instructors on duty at any time filling all our 3 planes at the same time with students is physically impossible. I personally would be ashamed if a client ever slipped through our fingers because of our attitude and refute the claims of the onominious given in the other reviews.

Went there with brother inlaw to book tandem, some staff were very rude towards my "WHUFFO" girlfriend, who likes skydiving but is not interested in jumping herself, her choice. When I had words with staff about their attitude, we all were treated with no respect. Sniggling coments in the background and evil looks.

In the end we walked out taking our money to another DZ, I myself have been jumping for 5 years, have jumped many Drop Zones around Australia and met many a character, but none like this.

I sugest a course in how to talk to people.