gcfreefly 0 #1 July 1, 2002 Hi All, Having fallen in love with skydiving I have decided that I would like to work in the industry. www.skydiving.co.nz/index.cfm/diploma_in_skydiving offers a diploma in commercial skydiving & I would like to know if this is a good point of entry in to commercial skydiving & is this the only school offering this type of tuition. Any advice very welcome thanks, Graham Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
PhreeZone 20 #2 July 1, 2002 If you are serious about working in skydiving, realise you will never get rich first off. And the best thing you can do is get ratings such as AFF Jm, Tandem JM, etc. Most of those require at least 500 jumps and specialized training. Your DZ can point you in the right direction for the training. Another thing you need to get is your riggers ticket. So if its rainy you can still do work if there is rigging needing done. Be prepared to pack to make enough money to pay for food, long stressful days and not getting to fun jump much anymore. Most my friends who are now staff might make one or 2 fun jumps a month and thats it. The rest of the time they are either too broke or too busy to do anything. Also unless you work at the biggest of the DZ's most time there are only like 5-6 loads all week long unless they are flying a 182.Yesterday is history And tomorrow is a mystery Parachutemanuals.com Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
skybytch 273 #3 July 1, 2002 Like phree said, don't expect to earn a comfortable living and be ready and willing to work your ass off. If you want to survive as a full time jumper you need to be versatile. Get rated in each method of skydiving instruction (tandem, AFF and static line/IAD), get a rigger's ticket and learn to fly a camera. The more things you can do, the more likely you are to be able to make enough paid jumps to afford things like food. There are other ways besides instruction/video/packing to support yourself in the sport too, but most all of them require that you have some years in the sport and some experience either rigging or instructing. Selling gear was my choice; my riggers ticket, years in the sport and experience teaching S/L and tandem helped me get the job and what I learned while doing those things helps me a lot as I work with my customers. You'll likely find that at least a rigger's ticket will help you a lot if you want to work for a container or canopy manufacturer. Even working in these areas, don't expect to be paid a wage equivalent to what you can make in the "real world" - this industry is notorious for low pay but, for me anyway, the rewards of being surrounded by parachutes and skydiving are worth it. Good luck! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
