If you live near any large city, you are probably within driving distance of multiple places to skydive. The good thing about that - you have options! The bad thing - lots of competition means some of those companies may resort to rather shady sales tactics to capture your dollars.

Some of the tandem skydiving marketing gimmicks out there are outright rip-offs. They take advantage of the typical first-time skydiver’s lack of knowledge about the sport.

Skydiving operators throughout the country are concerned about the decreasing price trend for tandem skydives. Many point to the prominence of daily deal websites for this decline. Groupon is the most popular in this category, and many dropzones rely on it as their core marketing strategy these days. It's a problem, pushing our industry to circle the drain and price ourselves out of business.

How did we get here? Why can't we break the cycle? Well, I may have started this mess, and I'm truly sorry. 

After four years in business in Kankakee, Illinois, Skydive Greater is about to call a new place home. In March 2017, the father and son team of Brad and Cody Vancina will begin working at Chicagoland Skydiving Center in Rochelle, as skydive operations end at Greater Kankakee Airport.

The Vancina duo started the family business with the aim of providing exceptional customer service while enjoying their shared passion for skydiving. CSC looks forward to welcoming them to the team.

At the time I'm writing this, I'm sipping a cup of hot tea at the dropzone, watching yet another inch of snow cover the ground. I haven't seen the sun in a few days, and the landing area looks more like a glacier than I care to admit. Truly living the midwest dream. Yet, the management team of CSC is hard at work.

Winter: It's not skydiving season, it's business development season.

Most people probably don’t know how Chicagoland Skydiving Center (CSC) transforms literally the day after we close down skydiving operations in late October/early November.