Equipment

Simply Skydive only operate with the latest equipment technology. The main parachute is a Hoppi, well renowned in the industry for soft openings and it's high performance canopy rides.

Each parachute rig is also equipped with a reserve parachute. Tandem parachuting also requires the use of a Cypress. What is a Cypress, you ask? It is a small computer that automatically opens the parachute if the jumper fails to do it themselves for whatever reason.

The student harness we use is a Sigma. It is state of the art and is well renowned for it's comfort and safety.

Why have we chosen the Sigma harness for our operation? Your safety and comfort is our number one prioity. Other information regarding the harness is outlined in the extract below.

The Sigma Tandem Student Harness - The information below was supplied by Parachutes Australia 

Sigma tandem
passenger harness 

Old style passenger
harness

Students in training
at the dropzone

The Sigma Tandem Student Harness was designed in answer to the question, "Why do so few people who make a tandem jump, continue in the sport?" After reviewing hundreds of comment cards, filled out by first timers, the answer became obvious. 95% of the respondents said that they were either sick, in pain, or both, during the canopy ride.

To find out why, I hung a doctor / jumper I know up in a standard student harness, and asked him if there were any physiological reasons why pain and nausea were such constant companions on tandem jumps. After a few minutes hanging there, he gave me the reason. The way the harness straps were configured, blood flow was cut off at several points, with obvious results.

The problem identified, I asked him how I could reconfigure the harness to elimate the problem. He drew me a "map" of the major blood vessels of the body, and showed me where the harness webbing could go without shutting any of them down. Based on this information, I designed a new harness that was just a secure as the old, yet allowed normal blood flow through the body. As added benefits, we found that same harness:
1. Guided the student into a better body position on exit, making stability easier, and quite possibly eliminating side-spins, and
2. Actually pushed the student's legs forward under canopy, for a more comfortable ride and safer landings.

In the spring of 1999, Skydive Chicago bought 40 of these new harnesses. To say that they are pleased is an understatement. In the over 7,500 hundred jumps they have made since then on the harnesses. almost no one has complained about discomfort, or gotten sick, and landing injuries are almost non-existent. As a predictable consequence, their tandem business has doubled, and the number of first timers who go on to become full time jumpers has increased 14 fold. Dropzones around the world are having similar results.