Florida in 2 weeks time - which DZ's should I visit ?

[lintern 1]

I am going to Florida in 2 weeks time for 14 days

Ive always wanted to go to Florida and this is my first time.

Which dropzones should I visit ?

At the moment I am thinking of Zephyhills, Deland, maybe Sebastian and maybe the Space Centre.

I have over 400 jumps and my girlfriend has over 200.

Both of us are into freeflying.

We will be there with our 18 month old daughter... who is a DZ bum

[skymama 37]

Sounds like you have a good plan!

Better check the weekday schedules though to make sure the dz's are open. I know some of them are closed certain days during the summer, and I'm not sure if they are on full schedule yet since the northen dz's are still open. I know DeLand will be jumping all week long because there's usually test jumping going on, but I'm not sure about the others.

Try to schedule some tunnel time and visits to the factory reps. The factory tours are pretty cool!

She is Da Man, and you better not mess with Da Man,
because she will lay some keepdown on you faster than, well, really fast. ~Billvon

[lintern 1]

thanks skymama !

when does the summer end in florida ?

it bugs me a bit when you say some DZ's might be closed in the week

last year we went to australia with high hopes and were thouroughly disappointed with skydiving out there.

we lugged all our equipment out there and only did 4 jumps each.

there just isnt the demand for skydiving in oz.

alot of the DZ's in oz were only open weekends.

or werent actually a DZ but just a beach landing for tandems who took off from a nearby airport.

we were in sydney for 3 days and planned to visit Picton, one of the biggest dropzone in oz.

I rang them to check it was ok for us to jump and they said they had a lift of tandems going at 8.30am the next morning, with 2 spare slots on it.

I was shocked that was all they were doing that day... 1 lift !!

I expected something like empuria with 20 or 30 lifts.

So we never went to Picton in the end because me and my girlfriend have to take it in turns to jump anyway, because one of us has to look after our daughter.

if we had gone only one of us would have got to jump.

its only because the equinox boogie was on at toogoolawah that we managed to get any jumps in at all !

i hope we arent going to find alot of the DZ's in florida are shut in the week as well ?

[skymama 37]

Tempurature-wise, the summer ends in about January and starts again by March. Jump-wise, the "season" in FL is when the dz's up north shut-down when it gets cold up there, usually around November.

But, I'm saying some of the dz's close on certain days, not the entire week. Hopefully, someone from Z-hills, Sebastian and Titusville will chime in and tell you the exact days, if any. Last I heard, only C license holders could jump in Titusville though.

One good thing about DeLand is that they have a fenced-in playground that your little one should enjoy.

She is Da Man, and you better not mess with Da Man,
because she will lay some keepdown on you faster than, well, really fast. ~Billvon

[MarkM 0]

Quote

At the moment I am thinking of Zephyhills, Deland, maybe Sebastian and maybe the Space Centre.

Hit ZHills, Deland and Sebastian for sure. You can skip Titusville. It's pretty much a tandem factory these days.

Hit the calendar at http://www.skydiveseb.com/ for when you'll be down. I'm sure ZHill's and Deland's websites have similar calendars. Base a schedule around that and expect to do a lot of jumping.

[drdive 0]

From my experiences:

Lake Wales - awesome people, great landing area, but seems to be getting quiet on weekdays

Z-Hills - Friendly DZ, great landing area, busy even on weekdays

Sebastian - Also friendly, awesome view, always plenty of loads on the days I was there, even weedays

Deland - The least friendly DZ I have visited, but they are usually busy all week long.

Doc

"We saved your gear. Now you can sell it when you get out of the hospital and upsize!!" "K-Dub"

"

[NeedToJump 0]

ZHills, DeLand and Sebastian are all great dropzones; visit all three if you can. DeLand will probably be putting up the most loads during the week. During the week days, you probably won't find a lot of other fun jumpers to jump with at any of the dropzones.

Sebastian is closed on Tuesdays during the summer months but flies loads the other 6 days. If you're planning on going there during the week, I'd suggest calling them to find out when they have tandems/AFF scheduled. Generally during the week they'll fly loads from about 9-2 or 3, but not back to back. Weekends there are very busy and there are almost always load organizers for RW and freefly. It's a really fun dropzone and you'll have no problem finding people to jump with on weekends. They also usually do beach jumps on weekends.

DeLand usually flies loads every day. I find it to be a very friendly dropzone, it just takes a little more effort to go up to people and talk to them rather than expecting people to come up to you. Weekends usually have a lot of fun jumpers, but I don't know if there is anyone organizing there right now.

ZHills is closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays. I'm not sure how busy it is the other days during the week, but weekends are always busy and a lot of fun there. I think there are organizers there as well.

Wind Tunnel and Skydiving Coach http://www.ariperelman.com