I booked three days at Jurien Bay and left after two. Nothing went wrong in the air; what ended the trip was that I could not reliably get my main packed.
This was the first dropzone I visited outside DZT, Dropzone Thailand. I had 60 jumps, a USPA B license, and all my own gear, and I was there as a fun jumper.
Dropzone detail: https://app.extrmsport.com/skydive/dropzone/afb1ae67-6a4d-435e-b3a1-b404e950f4dc/
Their website: https://skydivejurienbay.com/
Getting there
I landed at Perth airport just after midnight on 2024-04-27 and stayed at the Sanno Marracoonda Perth Airport Hotel.
Jurien Bay is 227 km from Perth, about two and a half hours' drive.
A taxi or an Uber costs more than renting a car. I did not rent one: I had a ride back to Perth, and there is no reason to drive in town when everything is across the street from the dropzone. Worth knowing before you book - if you rent from the airport you can only return it to the airport, so a car only makes sense if you are going somewhere else too. I got my ride by posting in the JBay fun jumpers Facebook group.
The admin
I reached the dropzone around 8 am. They take cash, credit and debit, but not AMEX.
First, AUD 120 plus a 0.865 percent surcharge for a three-night private room at the Lucky Shack, paid on my Wise debit card. I left my luggage there to move around more easily.
Second, about twenty minutes filling in three forms, including the waiver and the Australian Parachute Federation paperwork.
By then it was about 9 am, and Kiwi, the DZ safety officer, was already taking a tandem up. I needed him to review my logbook, my forms, my APF license equivalence and my rig, and he was not free. So I went to the Jurien IGA for supplies and bought a pack of beer, AUD 61 from BWS Jurien Bay, to share with people at the DZ.
Kiwi reviewed, briefed and signed me off around lunchtime, when they shut the Caravan down. AUD 30 for a one-month APF temporary license.
The ground crew drove me out to the landing area to show me how landings are done there.
Raven, who runs customer service, manifest and ground crew, set me up on Burble. JBay uses it for credentials and dropzone functions, but adding money and booking onto a load is done manually by Raven.
It was 2 pm before I could jump. I got one jump that day.
The manifest monitor shows the load and the jumpers and little else. Raven walks to the packing area to tell people to gear up.
A shuttle van runs jumpers to and from Jurien Bay Aerodrome.
Prices and aircraft
As of 2024-04, a jump is AUD 60, the same for full altitude at 14,000 or 10,000 feet and for a hop and pop at 7,000.
I paid for two jumps up front rather than a block, because I did not know how many I would get in three days. Given how it turned out, that was the right way round.
The aircraft is a Caravan taking up to 16. The door is on the left.
It flies to two spots: tandems land on the beach, fun jumpers land in the paddock nearby. As a fun jumper your exit altitude depends on whether the tandem on your load is going to 10,000 or 14,000.
The landing area
Decent view, with the coast in it.
April and May are autumn there and the temperature is cool. I could wear my full-body suit without sweating, which was comfortable. In freefall my fingers got stiffer every 1,000 feet in the cold wind. I had never worn gloves for skydiving before, and that is the jump where I understood why people do.
It is a bit hard for me to judge altitude at a new DZ, but the landings themselves were fine. What was new to me is that you can fly either a left or a right-hand pattern.
There is animal mess through the grass, so watch where you put your feet down.
The accommodation
The Lucky Shack is next to the dropzone, which for location is as good as it gets. You can camp for AUD 15, take a bunk for AUD 20, or a private room for AUD 40. There is a kitchen and a washing machine.
I was underprepared. I had to buy a towel because none is provided, and the water heater came and went.
There is no wifi, the dropzone wifi in the next block is too weak to reach, and my data roaming was poor. Back in the room in the evening there was nothing to do but sleep, so I slept from 8 pm to 6 am. If I do it again I would want a heater, a TV I can put a Chromecast on, wifi and a reliable water heater - and I would pack for the cold, which I had not.
Why I left a day early
Packing is the main reason.
There is no dedicated packer. On the 27th, after a jump close to the last load, I left my rig out with AUD 12. It was not packed, and it sat there overnight. The next morning I paid a different person AUD 15 for the pack job.
The other packer told me I should pack it myself. That is fair in principle and hard in practice with a 210 main going into a 190 container, with a stiff container and a slippery new canopy - she struggled with it more than I had. I paid AUD 20 and put the rig back in my luggage. That was the point where I stopped wanting to jump, because packing had become the whole day rather than the gap between jumps.
The other things were smaller. The turnaround is slow, because the office and the airport are a drive apart. I did not want to put my new canopy down in the mess on the grass, which took the edge off the jumps.
Eating solo is awkward when self-catering, so I ate out, as it was a holiday. The pizza at Sandpiper Tavern & Pizzeria was fine and reasonably priced, at AUD 28 or under. I would not pay AUD 30 for fish and chips when it is SGD 7 at home.
