Update on European Dropzone Vibes

After jumping since 2002, I was out for a couple years without jumping; got back into jumping in 2018 only to be interrupted for a couple years due to the COVID travel problems. 

My oldest son is turning 16 this month and will be doing AFF during the school mid-term break in October.  As my DZ info is now quite “stale”, I’d be interested to know what DZs now have the best vibes and most fun.

I live in London, so primarily looking at European or Mid-East DZs (as you must be 18yrs old to jump in the US, we’ll have to give that a miss for the next two years; though I loved Zephyrhills as my US favourite).

I'm more about “fun” dropzones than competition-oriented DZs.  Also if the local area/hotels are nice that is a plus, so that my wife and younger son can travel also – though probably looking  mostly at weekend trips with my older son.

I’ve jumped a lot of DZs in many countries, but am out-of-the-loop as to what is good now.  Historically Empuriabrava, Spain featured with most jumps in my logbook – so something nearest to the "heydays" of Empuriabrava would be nice.

On 9/5/2022 at 2:29 PM, RMK said:

After jumping since 2002, I was out for a couple years without jumping; got back into jumping in 2018 only to be interrupted for a couple years due to the COVID travel problems. 

My oldest son is turning 16 this month and will be doing AFF during the school mid-term break in October.  As my DZ info is now quite “stale”, I’d be interested to know what DZs now have the best vibes and most fun.

I live in London, so primarily looking at European or Mid-East DZs (as you must be 18yrs old to jump in the US, we’ll have to give that a miss for the next two years; though I loved Zephyrhills as my US favourite).

I'm more about “fun” dropzones than competition-oriented DZs.  Also if the local area/hotels are nice that is a plus, so that my wife and younger son can travel also – though probably looking  mostly at weekend trips with my older son.

I’ve jumped a lot of DZs in many countries, but am out-of-the-loop as to what is good now.  Historically Empuriabrava, Spain featured with most jumps in my logbook – so something nearest to the "heydays" of Empuriabrava would be nice.

Hey RMK: I saw you're London-based, hope I can pick your brains...

I'm a 66 year old US skydiver (USPA D license, 2000+ jumps) semi-permanently living in the UK since 2019. I've joined the BPA and passed the medical exam for jumpers over 60. But time has flown and suddenly it's 5 years, 9 months 17 days since I last jumped.

Now I've enough free time and am ready to jump again I'm looking for a dropzone in Europe that I can drive to (so the Canaries won't work).

Apart from reliable 'good' weather it needs to be windy (at my age and after such a long hiatus, I really don't want to break anything!).

Almost any EU country would be OK tho' Spain, Portugal or France would be easiest language-wise.

If you can suggest somewhere that meets my windy and other requirements, I'd be very grateful

With thanks in advance,

BSBD,

Nigel

e: [email protected]

c: +44 7597 369 815