How to Choose the Right Skydiving Center

Finding the best skydiving center close to where you are feels kinda like online dating. Doesn’t it? After all: You want to fall, and you want to fall with the very best company possible! We understand the sweet romance you’re aching for, and we want to present you with a beautiful bouquet of pro tips to help you find a match made in heaven (or at least the stratosphere). Here you go– They’re for you!

1. Don’t choose the cheapest tandem skydiving you can find.

Saving money on breakfast cereal? That generic plastic bag of froot-ee-ohs might not knock your socks off, but it’ll do the trick. Bundling up to shave a few bucks off your winter power bill? You might end up feeling like the kid in A Christmas Story, but you’ll get through it. Saving money on skydiving? Yeah…you’re gonna regret that.

It costs money to run a safe dropzone, staffed by experienced, licensed professionals who have your best interests at heart. It costs money to keep an airplane in safe, comfortable working condition, and it costs money to buy and maintain the safest possible parachuting gear to convey you from the open door of that airplane to the ground. If the dropzone isn’t charging a reasonable rate to get that stuff done, you’re going to notice the difference, or you’re going to get slapped with extra fees to equalize the situation. For sure.

Do yourself a solid: Don’t let the cost of a chain-restaurant lunch come between you and the best tandem skydiving experience you can have. You’ll thank you.

2. Make sure you’re not playing a shell game.

There are a lot of online sharks that want to capitalize on your thirst for freefall to make an unethical buck. These third-party booking companies make their killing by knowing that this is your first time researching the cost of tandem skydiving, so they figure they can sneak a hefty fee right past you. Yikes!

The solution: Book directly with your preferred dropzone to get the best deal (and the straight story). If you’re not sure if you’re talking directly to a person on the dropzone, just ask them the airport code. They should be able to tell you without missing a beat.

3. Stalk any potential dropzone’s online presence.

Do as you do with all your online dates, silly! Google-stalk ’em. (Wink wink.) In this case, what you want to do is pop over and have a quick peek at Google to check out the reviews. When the people speak, listen! (Spoiler: as of the publication of this article, the Ozarks Skydive Center has a 4.6 star average rating on Google and a 4.9 average rating on Facebook. Boom!)

4. Don’t be a stranger.

When you’re trying to find the best dropzone near you, you’re looking for a place that’s run by great human beings. How can you tell if you’re dealing with great human beings? Get them on the phone!

Call up the dropzone and speak with someone to get a sense of service. Are they dismissive? Do they seem overwhelmed? If the person you talk to seems cheerful, welcoming and ready to answer your questions, then you already have a sense of the dropzone’s positive culture.

If it’s us that you call, you’ll quickly find out why we have the reputation of being ‘the friendliest dropzone in America’ by our legion of happy customers. Over here at the Ozarks Skydive Center, we specialize in teaching: not only tandem skydiving, but a fully-fledged learn-to-skydive skydiving certification program. Free online booking makes it easy!