Skydiving op suggestion on Oahu

Just putting out feelers to my fellow underwater divers to find out if you know any good/bad info on any of the skydiving ops here on the island. I want to get my husband a skydiving adventure for his birthday in April and just wanted some suggestions on the operations here. I do have a couple of those tourist guide books, but nothing beats personal experience!!!

I spent 5 years living in Mokuleia, with our beach as one of the emergency LZ's. My first certification class as lead instructor included one of the drop zone's anchors, Yes Man. The answer is his very favorite band is Yes. He is a camera flyer and if he is still involved he has the skinny on what's going down. Here's a pic from his first Corsair dive; impeccable camera flyer descent trim but his alternate could be better attached.


pm me if you'd like an email address.

Hmmm.... he won't give me the Roundabout will he? (ok, baaaddd Yes joke!) Yeah, send me his e-mail! Thanks!

Several years ago I met with another SBer visiting from Texas and he was really into skydiving. We had a brief conversation about it since I had recently returned from a trip to New Zealand and had gone skydiving there. I think he said that all of the drop zones have ratings - and I don't recall what he said about which governing authority makes the ratings - but at the time the rating for Hawaii was not so good, probably due to the accidents that had happened around that time.

I have no idea myself if what he said is accurate - but if what he said about the drop zones being rated is true, you might want to look into it. Haven't heard about any recent skydiving accidents, so I imagine if the rating was not so good before, it's better now.

Mrs. Fdog and I skydive a lot. We have friends that work at the drop zone(s) on Oahu. We've jumped there.

There are actually several different jumping operations on the airport. Oddly, they all seem to "get along" with a degree of civility; most closely spaced DZ's (even if in the same county) get along like oil and water. The jump ops on Oahu are so close you can reach out the window and touch the next one.

The Oahu jump ops are what we call a "tandem mill", which is to say, they are centered around taking first-timers on tandem jumps with production-line efficiency. If you are an experienced jumper, you will have a bland, unfufilling time here.

The jump ops are so focused on tandems, that when the last pre-scheduled tandem passenger has landed, they put away the gear and close up shop.

They all use similar TSO'd with exemption gear, and the Tandem Instructor programs are all essentially the same, so the product will be roughly the same for you. The most dangerous part of all this is the airplane ride, I'm sorry I'm not up on the current jump aircraft there.

The weather tends to the windy side, so the spots are often out over the ocean, and the views are undeniably spectacular.

Since this is ScubaBoard, I'll also pass on that someone on Oahu on vacation should do their jumps first during their vacation, then, hit the water. Tandem jumps exit from 13,000' or so, definitely flying after diving.

Janet and I are personal friends with the owners/manufacturers of two of the popular brands of tandem parachute assemblies, Strong and Racer, and both are well-built and tested products. The third prevelant manufacturer, Relative Workshop, makes quality stuff as well in their Vector, but the owner won't talk to us since we snubbed his offer to ditch our current gear sponsor and use his rigs.

What this all boils down to is an overall homogenous product offering. Just close your eyes and pick a name from the phone book. The DZ (jump operation) owners will claim their ops are better because of (fill in reason de jour here), but having seen all this ourselves, and jumped around the world, I feel confident in telling you they are all essentially the same product.

Hope this helps you!


All the best, James

I used Sky Diving Hawaii. I'm not sure how they stack up against the others, but you are my dive buddy so you know I made it safe & sound (yes, tandem).

I suspect this is a sky diving adventure so you want the tandem thing. The ops are all out on Dillingham field and the view is spectacular. But I agree that it is up, and then down as fast as possible (you can't enjoy the view that much) so the next client can go up. I would have liked a longer float down.

If you time give it to him in April, and he goes in May, we can dive afterward.

Actually Becky, I was thinking about scheduling it for him to do on his birthday. I am just going to sit and take pics when he comes down, the only diving I do is UNDER the water!!! He will definitely NOT want to go scuba diving after though, knowing him, the big puss. I didn't realize you had been skydiving before! I will probably bombard you with questions between now and then on his behalf!!!

BTW, we found the IHOP!!! Thanks again for the help!!! When we got there, we told them we had such a hard time finding them, not being in the directories we looked at and all. They then told us that there is one that just opened up in Pearl City...

Thanks to everyone for your help!

i jumped with Wally Johnson (really friendly white haired guy) from Pacific Skydiving. They are awesome!! The hubby got me the jump for my b-day 4 years ago (when we lived there). I got the video and pictures also. Military gets a discount (as well as kama'aina). The operation next to it really was crappy seeing as how the had a guy over correct and slam into the ground- he worked with the Golden Knights (ARMY) and did his own chute and what not, but still after he was lying on the ground waiting for an ambulance to show up the other company sent another group in the air. The medical helicopter had to end up waiting at the other end of the field until all the jumpers were on the ground (from the other company) before they could take him. We really thought he wasn't going to make it, but the last we heard he was doing "good" at Queens. He had his femur snapped in two and sticking out his leg and the right side of his head was crushed. Nice little story, but I still jumped (tandem) after all the chaos. Pacific is the best.

Jamie, depending on how adventurous your husband is, I would try Hawaii skydiving. They offer the AFF (Accelerated free fall program). He'll be able to free fall from 13000 feet and pull his own cord. They use two instructors on his heels along with the cypres AADs. So there are several layers of safety OR you can have him submit a DD form for a option 4 for the US Army jump school Pretty cool gift.......