You’ve done it. You’re a licensed skydiver. You’ve spent the last season (or perhaps even two) working your way through the growing pains involved with starting out in the sport. You’ve either been jumping rental gear and racking up pretty impressive spending habits each weekend, or you’ve cobbled together a decent fitting container, a workable main, reserve, and an AAD with some life left in it. You’re a lifer now, and you know it.
Perhaps you’re a bit further down the rabbit hole. Starting out with an oversized canopy jammed tight into your container to now having downsized so many times that you can’t tighten your closing loop enough. It’s time to upgrade, like it or not!
Regardless of why, you are now ready, willing, and (mostly) able to put together your first ever brand new rig. Talk about an incredibly exciting (and intimidating) number of decisions you have to make. A lot of us need to sit down and take a deep breath… But this is a great thing. Just like everything else in our wonderful sport, there is simply no reason you need to do this all at once.
Say you’re starting from absolute scratch. You are faced with choices that range from picking out the right altimeter, helmet, and jumpsuit to container, main, reserve, and AAD. That can be a whole lot to try and sort through! Luckily, a number of these simply boil down to personal preference.
Do you prefer a digital altimeter or an analog? That really is just a matter of deciding between a pointing needle or numbers on a screen. Are you a wind on your face kind of jumper, or do you like the comfort of a full face helmet? And with your suit, the discipline you prefer to play in will help dictate what type of jumpsuit you will want and need. Likely though, by the time you’re deciding on a rig, these are probably decisions you’ve already made.
But a rig? There are a whole lot of factors that go into what’s going to work best for you. Talking containers first, What type of container will suit you hinges on a number of different factors, like:
- First, and probably the least important in the big scheme, which one do you think looks coolest? I mean let’s face it, when we’re talking about this kind of investment, that’s always high on the list priority for most.
- Second, what kind of body type are you? Are you tall and thin? Short and stocky? Somewhere in-between?
- Third, What kind of bells and whistles are you looking for? Articulating harness? Fancy back pad? Skyhook (MARD)?
- And finally, which rig and options are going to best support your chosen discipline and path within the sport?
When it comes to canopies, the choices can be a bit easier, but there are still factors to consider, like:
- What kind of performance are you looking for? Are you working toward a dirt-water-dirt kind of experience? Are you looking for a workhorse? Is mellow and consistent your kind of ride?
- Are you working toward flying a wingsuit? Camera flying?
- Do you prefer a low pack volume reserve or is it not a factor?
Have you got a solid grip on exactly what you want, or do you need some serious guidance? Well, we are most certainly here for you!
CSC has you completely covered with absolutely all of your gear needs. Not only can we help with recommendations to suit your body type, experience level, and goals in our sport, but we can also work with you to ensure you’re properly fitted! We can help walk you through all the ins and outs of all the different options you’ll have to choose from regarding container design, hardware, canopies, and AADs, and we can get it all ordered for you!
Throughout the entire winter season, we’ll be available online with the CSC gear store to help provide you with answers to all your gear questions, get you all measured up, and get those orders placed to get you into the air in your one of a kind, custom rig. So hit us up and let us get it all started for you!
