Is recreational four-way belly flying dead?

[bdb2004 28]

Is it? Particularly at smaller seasonal dropzones across the country?

I really have no interest in freeflying or angles or tracking jumps. I'm unlikely to ever want to get into wingsuiting. I don't want to just go out and screw around playing freefall games or flying through hulahoops. 

I just want to find a few people who want to dedicate two or three weekends a month to turning some points, debriefing the video, and then doing it again to try to improve as a group. Apparently that just isn't what most people think of as fun anymore.

[wmw999 2,442]

There's something called the Cloud Games, where newbie 4-way teams (with a ringer) compete at their own drop zones, using the video to compare times etc. It's one way -- yes, it means competition, but newbie teams are pretty laid back.

Wendy P.

[gowlerk 2,190]

3 hours ago, bdb2004 said:

Is it? Particularly at smaller seasonal dropzones across the country?

I really have no interest in freeflying or angles or tracking jumps. I'm unlikely to ever want to get into wingsuiting. I don't want to just go out and screw around playing freefall games or flying through hulahoops. 

I just want to find a few people who want to dedicate two or three weekends a month to turning some points, debriefing the video, and then doing it again to try to improve as a group. Apparently that just isn't what most people think of as fun anymore.

At our small Cessna DZ we still do 4 way. But our average age is quite high and the younger jumpers we do have are not really very interested in it. Not yet dead but definitely dying. 

[dudeman17 339]

10 hours ago, bdb2004 said:

I just want to find a few people who want to dedicate two or three weekends a month to turning some points, debriefing the video, and then doing it again to try to improve as a group. Apparently that just isn't what most people think of as fun anymore.

You only need 3 like-minded people. Maybe find people who are thinking of taking an AFF instructor course. It's good practice for them.

[bdb2004 28]

On 4/22/2024 at 7:23 AM, wmw999 said:

There's something called the Cloud Games, where newbie 4-way teams (with a ringer) compete at their own drop zones, using the video to compare times etc. It's one way -- yes, it means competition, but newbie teams are pretty laid back.

Wendy P.

Taking a look, might not be time to recruit people for the upcoming competition, but perhaps.  Thank you!

[Alborne 3]

We still do 4 way but the people I jump with are all around 60 years old. It seems that the younger jumpers enjoy different disciplines like sit flying and tracking which is fine I’d probably like them too if I tried them, but it’s hard to teach an old dog. 

[SCS422 27]

I was sorely disappointed years ago when the 10 man speed stars and large round stars declined, that was my only interest at the time and I told Steve fielding "I'm going to take some time off and see how this progresses"

[billeisele 130]

Skydive Carolina has an active belly group. We'll have 3 - 25 at the DZ depending on the day. It didn't happen by accident.

There are two older groups and one younger group that promote belly and jump with the newbies. One older group prefers competition and has switched out teammates over the years. They go to Nationals every year. The other older group is a fun bunch of 20 or so jumpers. They prefer free flying the exits and typically do multi-point jumps in the 3 - 8 person range. The younger group has a casual competition group, they periodically do camps and do free flying. The DZ flys a Super Caravan and doing larger jumps is less fun for us. The DZ also hosts a New Heights program that helps student program graduates learn the additional info to safely and quickly advance their skills with organized jumps.

The point is it takes, at minimum, a few folks to keep it alive. It takes effort to show the newbies that it's fun. 

IMO Unfortunatley, there are free flyers that either don't remember how difficult it was to learn competent free flying without a strong belly background or they just don't care. We encourage newbies to spend time belly jumping to learn skills before moving to free flying. It makes it easier and it's much safer.

Watching free fly vids with the fast closing speeds and the almost crashes is scary. We learned about fast closing speeds in the '80's by killing a bunch of skydivers. That doesn't need to be relearned.

[wmw999 2,442]

Yeah, we have organizers for newbies and experienced on the weekends, generally announced on the club’s Facebook page and on the DZ bulletin board.

Wendy P.