skydiving

[Journeyman]

You're looking for an "A CoP" (I know you don't like the term : ). An "A CoP" is the initial Certificate of Proficiency -- an "A-cup" is something different; I don't know if your Human Sexuality text covered that. Personally, I prefer A for cup, and D for CoP...but that's just me.

An A CoP is almost universally referred to as an "A license." If you're phoning actual, legitimate, accredited skydiving facilities (and not places selling Nintendo Mario Skydiver), they will know what you're talking about -- even in BC.

No, really.

 

[medaid]

:ROFL: ah Journeyman... You crack me up LOL. No really! LOL. Okay I will look into it. Thanks for all your help! +h! And Nintendo is soooo yesterday

 

[punkd]

Canadian Sport Parachute Association is who issues the licences.  (www.cspa.ca)
First off you will need to obtain your "SOLO CoP" then you can work towards your "A CoP"
The minimum amount of jumps to obtain your "A" is 25. Most people require more.

When you call a dropzone you should ask them which training methods they use. Could either be Static-Line progression, IAD (Instructor assisted deployment), Accellerated free fall. Those are the main ones used.

Its pretty much the end of the season for most places here in Canada. (Few dropzones open all year around, like parachuteschool.com in Toronto) so you will probably be waiting till next season to start.

Cost wise, your looking around $2000 for all the jumps needed to get your "A" (including gear rentals, jump tickets, training, travel, CSPA membership etc..) If you plan on purchasing your own gear plan on spending somewhere between 2-8k depending on new/used.

Heres a list of all the dropzones in Canada.
http://www.dropzone.com/dropzone/North_America/Canada/index.html

Hope this helps. Need any more information just ask..

 

[punkd]

Also a question for any one who has been on the skyhawks demo team. Minimum number of jumps required is only 50. How ever people at this experience level are completing down planes and other CReW jumps that most experienced CReW dogs wont recommend doing for at least a couple hundred jumps. Just wondering everyones opinion on this?

 

[SkyHawks]

You are able to do this because we spend 8 weeks in California with the worlds best instructors teaching it to us. No one does any CRW until they are ready.

 

[punkd]

Good to know. I take it that is a pretty demanding training camp for those 8 weeks. Although I dont think many people would complain about missing part of our winter here to goto Cali. Probably alot of "firsts" in training camp, hope you guys follow the beer rules ;D

 

[Benny]

Did it at Arnprior about a month back after an RCD mate took a whole 10 seconds to convince me to give it a shot. What a hoot! It's rather expensive though. One of those, "yep, I did it, enjoyed it, never doing it again" things for me.

 

[I_am_John_Galt]

Don't try this at home!  http://www.metacafe.com/watch/868917/flying_human_trickspro_com/ 

 

[Pte.Butt]

Don't try this at home!  http://www.metacafe.com/watch/868917/flying_human_trickspro_com/ 

That is by far, one of the most crazy things I have ever seen. Absolutely amazing how close they where to the cliffs.

 

[punkd]

Thats Wingsuit BASE jumping. Completely different ball game than skydiving.

 

[midget-boyd91]

Yep, going for my first jump tomorrow. Myself, my brother and my dad are all jumping at the same time almost exactly 6 months after Dad's heart attack.
This whole skydiving deal isn't new to me even though I personally don't have a jump in; My campground growing up was my Uncle's dropzone outside of Truro. So I'll be paying full price for the jump course even though I've sat through dozens of them since I was 6.

They even threw my toy parachuting Batman out of the plane on one of the jumps.

Any regular skydivers on the boards here?

 

[Sparkplugs]

I did a bunch more jumps after my original post here, and a couple of summers ago, myself, my brother, my mom and my dad all jumped on the same day!  (Mom and Dad went tandem), so I thought that was pretty awesome.

Originally it was just Ma, who's afraid of heights, who went, and then a really old dude told my dad on the ground, "Son, if you let your wife do this, and you don't, she'll be able to call you a chickens**t forever, so get your ass on the plane!"

So he did.

Once I get back from deployment I'd like to get back into it -- it's been over a year since the last!