You get what you pay for in life. And Skydive The Farm teaches that lesson loud and clear.
Like many other college students, skydiving has always been on my list of activities to cross off. Like many other college students, money has never been plentiful either. Skydive the farm or Skydive Georgia is found on several deal aggregate websites like Groupon, always offering 40% discounted deals and major cut downs from their original price, which makes sense now that I think about it. Upon purchasing the tickets, we made reservations and received this very informative email detailing our jump, additional video packages, and directions to get there. It was actually pretty well formatted.
When you arrive at the site, you enter this wide, messy room. At first glance, it was unsettling. Equipment was scattered everywhere, walls and floor needed repairing, and dogs were roaming around the place. An instructor was even sleeping, sprawled out on the floor. Other employees were just idling around waiting for the next group of customers to come, deal with, and leave. It was a mess. After awkwardly standing there for a minute, one of the staff led us to the waiver station. We were given a list of 30 agreements to sign, which seemed typical for any skydiving business, but still pretty unsettling.
After the waivers, we had no more required training or safety briefing, other than an optional video which basically flaunts their involvement with the development of tandem technology. No instructional video, lesson, book, or manual. Nada. We were just told to wait and be harnessed by our instructors. This is where they fall through. I don't care if the instructors have done 1000+ jumps in their lifetime, without a parachute, hands tied, or whatever. This is my first time jumping out of a plane, same goes for most other customers. Of course I'm nervous and scared. It's natural, it's human nature. All first time tandem skydiving participants should be given adequate, standardized instructional material to answer commonly asked questions, address issues, and to inform the participant. The email covered a lot of information about the dive, nonetheless, but it doesn't replace safety and training time.
From the moment you arrive at the location to the moment you boarded plane, your knowledge of safety and training depended SOLELY on the instructor you were assigned to (though you can request instructors in advance). This is a major flaw as I discussed above. Luckily, I got a very informative instructor. Meet Jimmy the Kid, this peppy, young bald man. While we were harnessing up, he guided me through the basics of tandem jumping, how to board the plane, shimmy to the door, exit properly, and not get in his way going down. Jimmy, however, was a slightly rude with me, and seemed like he wanted to get it over with immediately. My other friends got the short end of the stick. As I talked with them afterwards, most of them did not receive proper information prior to boarding the plane. This is unacceptable.
If you make your reservation on a relatively free day, be prepared to skydive in less than 15 minutes upon your arrival. Immediately after being harnessed, we were guided to the plane. This seemed a little too short for me, but that's what happens when you have no instruction time. The airstrip was a short walk away from the main building. A propeller plane was already starting up the moment we got there and took off once everyone was aboard. The plane was fine: it was stable, safe, and did the job properly. It did seem a little worn down, but fine nonetheless.
On the way up, according to some of my friends in the group, two instructors were joking about skydiving intoxicated and under the influence of drugs. This is absolutely unacceptable. I am speechless, abhorred that my friends had to deal with these thoughts on their way up for first skydiving jump. I do not care a single bit if these statements were lies or not. I care that my group and I have a fun, safe, life-changing experience with Skydive Georgia that day.
Contrary to the other events today, the exit, free-fall, and parachute-deployment were seamless and enjoyable. I felt safe with my instructor, who went over exit procedures one more time before we exited the plane. The free fall was amazing, and after the parachute came out my instructor took his time for a few tricks and pointing out birds and landmarks. He then went over landing procedures (note: first time ever mentioned), which was smooth and effortless.
The lack of adequate safety and training material prior to the jump is absolutely unacceptable. This is why there is a divide between positive and negative reviews on this page, because your knowledge of safety depends solely on your instructor. Choose wisely, or better yet, choose a different business until Skydive Georgia confronts their negligence firsthand. read more