SkyDiving in blighty (England)

I’ll be honest, this is more of a rant than an actual skydiving post, but it does have a purpose (of sorts) other than to just let me spew a load of vitriol and bile out there…

So, I returned from LA, leaving the good old Perris Valley a long long way behind me, a little too far to just drive down and jump for a day or two (about 5500 miles ;o), but I figured it would be no big deal, skydiving is an international sport and there must be plenty of places to go and jump in England and I could just pick up where I left of with no problems. Well, I was half right.

Yes, there are loads of places to jump over here in England, certainly enough that no-one should have any problems, but, to be honest, if you’ve started learning elsewhere then they really don’t want your business. There seems to be a very arrogant attitude at the UK DZ’s that if you’ve started learning with someone else, then they don’t want to touch you. Also, what the heck is up with making you do static line first? They just want the cash for the extra jumps you’ll have to do… Not surprising I guess, seeing as it seems to cost twice as much to jump over here as it does anywhere else in the world…

Don’t even get me started on the bureaucracy, the forms, the doctors note, the insurance, the hair pulling teeth gnashing nanny state of it all… and I thought the video taped disclaimer I had to do in the U.S. was over the top… Oh, and that USPA member ship you have? if you aren’t already A licensed then it don’t matter for crap, back of the line, take out a BPA membership (after you’ve filled out all the forms in triplicate and had them verified by the queen… okay a small exageration).
AirKix seemed to be the best candidate, but after the first e-mail reply asking where I had made it up to, they couldn’t be bothered to return any contact, the other DZ’s have basically said that as I didn’t start training with them, they would only be willing to take me on if I started from scratch including doing some static line jumps. Now, call me stupid, but the free-fall is the best part of the skydive, so I begrudge spending the whole cost of a jump plus instructors to not even get the benefit of my favourite part.

Anyway, all is not lost, I plan to just get a cheap flight over to spain and a spend a week training there… I will make it even if it kills me (but hopefully it won’t).