Congratulations to our new USPA AFF Instructors!
May 11th, 2010
The New Zealand Skydiving School was first established in 2001 as a dedicated training establishment offering formal skydive training through the New Zealand education system. It is an NZQA (New Zealand Qualifications Authority) approved PTE (Private Training Establishment), similar to a vocational college in the United States.
Director’s Steve and Kirsty Smith’s involvement in skydive business dates back to 1981 and they are Directors of Three dropzones in New Zealand, winning the New Zealand Tourism’s Supreme Award for their business’s Nzone based in both Queenstown and Rotorua.
Difficulties in staffing these dropzones with suitably qualified personnel coupled with the desire to have a qualification that gives students’ access to government funded student loans and allowances was a major motivator in developing the courses on offer.
The school is dedicated to producing graduates who are focused in a career in the commercial side of skydiving.
The Diploma in Commercial Skydiving offers 200 jumps in 32 weeks for beginner to intermediate skydivers, which actually places the students at a fully operational dropzone for Work Placement for 12 of the 32 weeks. Over 90% of the students who complete the Work Placement continue to work at that dropzone after completion of the course, many of them gaining outside Camera positions.
The Diploma in Advanced Skydiving offers 350 jumps in up to 65 weeks for more advanced skydivers looking to gain Tandem Master and AFF Instructor qualifications. It is also offers a progression path for students who have completed the Diploma in Commercial Skydiving.
As a group member of the USPA, the school offers USPA Memberships and Licenses to all of the students. The school currently averages 50 diploma students a year and continues to grow. In addition are the independent AFF students who undertake training. The school also offers USPA Coaches Courses to each of the four course intakes. To date, Raul Bocanegra, and Stephan Lipp from Flight Club have conducted these.
Part of the Diploma in Advanced Skydiving includes a Tandem Rating course and an AFF Instructor Rating. Each year the school invites outside coaches and evaluators to monitor the courses. This year the school was honored to have Jay Stokes run the evaluations for our Advanced Course. Students Sam Perry and Brian Martin gained their rating as well as Tukes Iwamoto gaining a USPA conversion as one of our full-time instructors.
Here’s their story…
Sam Perry started jumping in 1991, not completing his AFF until 1996. He bought his first rig in 2005 and started jumping more consistently, but only had about 300 jumps by the time he heard about the new Diploma in Advanced Skydiving Course on offer at the New Zealand Skydiving School. Thinking it may be a good way increase jump numbers and earn ratings that might lead on to work opportunities, he enrolled in the first course in April 2009. “Never did I think or aspire to work in the industry. I have a business; and that was my work… the drop zone was where I went to get away from work. Skydiving was just a hobby.”
As he spent more and more time and money skydiving, he thought he might as well think about being employed in the industry. “Being at the school has given me the opportunity to learn better skydiving skills and disciplines for myself. I get to learn to teach, and to practice teaching skydiving to beginners on an everyday basis. It has changed the way I look at the sport overall, its not a hobby anymore but an industry I want to work in! “Jay is obviously a man of great experience; it was an honor to have him as an evaluator. He had a cool way of getting the point across while at the same time, stuck to the business. ‘Not a bad bloke’ as we’d say down here in NZ.”
Brian Martin accumulated 420 jumps since completing a static line course at Skydive Taranaki in February 2001. He never really thought seriously about being a Tandem Instructor until he heard about the Advanced Course in February 2009. Even then, he didn’t really consider it until he found out his friend Sam Perry was already on the course, “I was feeling a little envious so just two weeks before the start of the course I gave notice to my employer and a week later had relocated to Methven and enrolled to start my new adventure.
The last year has been a total immersion in skydiving. Myself and three other advanced students assisted the other instructors with first jump courses, teaching packing, coaching and various other ground skills required to keep a dropzone operating.
The vast mix of cultures and personalities of 15 or so new students every 3 months from the Diploma in Commercial Skydiving course certainly provided challenges and rewards and also a lot of new friends in the industry.”
Brian completed his USPA coaches rating in December 2009 and completed his Tandem Rating by the end of January 2009. He then he focused on training for his AFF Instructor Rating.
I was extremely lucky in being able to complete 45 coach jumps with Stephan Lipp to prepare for the evaluation process. I have never been skydiving with anyone as passionate about the sport as Stephan. The man is quite simply a skydiving machine who is able to communicate with anyone on any level and get the message through. I had no idea what to expect but my best guess was the ground evaluations would be easier than the air evaluations. Close, but no cigar. Both parts of the process were equally important with Jay and Stephan being very meticulous about conveying information and instruction to the students. Clear and specific were the key words with no scope for any misconceptions. Probably one of the most important lessons I learned from Jay and Stephan was that you have to have a lot of belief in yourself and never assume anything”
Tukes Iwamoto, originally from Japan, has spent the last 11 years in NZ and started parachute packing in 2002. He didn’t start jumping until 2004. He continued in the industry & started working at NZSS in mid 2008 with 4,000 jumps as a junior instructor. He competed successfully winning many titles at the national skydiving championships. In his two years at the school he has managed to pass the 5,500 jumps level. He currently has Tandem and AFF Instructors ratings, gained his USPA Coaches rating last year, and took the evaluation with Jay Stokes to convert his current ratings to USPA approved Tandem and AFF Instructor ratings.
“For me it’s such a unique place because the focus isn’t on just a Tandem operation, but to train up to 18 students from zero to 200 jumps in less than 20 weeks. Add to that a new intake of students every 3 months, and you’re constantly teaching everything from AFF to individual coach ratings. It doesn’t matter what the weather is, there’s always training going on. With Jay, it was the greatest honor to jump with someone with that much knowledge and that much experience, and super-nice guy on top. I like the USPA structure and openness the organization has to share all of the information available. Jay shared different techniques and philosophies throughout the course that allowed me to learn a huge amount of new information.”
Jay Stokes arrived on March 24th. He was here to evaluate to Brian, Sam, and Tukes for their ratings. This is what Jay had to say & why he traveled all the way to New Zealand.
“The uniqueness for students of NZSS relies on the fact that not only do the students do intensive training for up to 4 months at a time, but also places the students at a dropzone to gain real world experience.
NZSS trains the students to work within the commercial industry and have skydiving as a career, not just a sport. It’s not just the jumping, but the students learn DZ operations, and have a duty roster which teaches them not only responsibility at the dropzone, but also teamwork in a very supportive environment.
It’s extremely important what Stephan (Lipp) is doing here to introduce the couching side to the students at the beginner level as it helps instill and pass on the passion for skydiving within the industry.
The way structured continuity lends itself to high standards and instills in the students pride and a professional attitude towards the sport.
It’s also unique for all of the instructors and support staff here, because they work as a team. There isn’t any ‘I’m better than you’ attitude. They all have a shared goals and the group dynamic is very synergistic. There are no leadership issues thanks to the structure that is in place. “
The school provides consistent, year-round work, for up to 7 instructors at a time. And allows the instructors to have a variety of roles throughout the year as AFF Instructors, Coaching in Formations, Free Flying, and Canopy Control. Jay comments, “The instructors are constantly learning from each other and passing their passion on to the students in all aspects of the course. You don’t get AFF burnout, or Tandem burnout here, as an instructor, as you get to take students from 0 up to 350 jumps in a year’s time.
For the AFF Instructor and Tandem Rating evaluations that I’ve done while I’m here, the level of candidates was average, which is an incredible thing considering I’ve done evaluations for students with thousands of jumps, and these students have good solid ground and air skills and they’ve been in an environment where they’ve been constantly tested and evaluated in a relatively short period of time. (Advanced students were all under 700 skydives)
The Instructors help the students become ambassadors for the industry as well-trained, experienced professionals. It’s not how long they’re in the sport, it’s the amount of jumps they do and the amount of experience they find within the time they are at the school.
The structure of the advanced course argues the theory of time in the industry versus the amount of jumps you do.
As for the facilities, NZSS has well-maintained gear for the students, large indoor packing areas, soft grass landings with alternate landing areas, excellent transportation with a Cessna Caravan, and a huge potential to grow.
Overall, the school has a huge potential to grow, as it is a well-established and credible skydiving institution.”
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