Skydiving Currency: Use it or Lose It! 

Ah, wintertime. We’re lucky enough here at Spaceland-San Marcos to have jumpable temperatures year-round, but cooler days and holidays often result in many of us taking a bit of a break from jumping this time of year. This break can result in a lack of currency, which is an additional risk factor for injury in skydiving. No one wants that!

If you are a licensed jumper, but you haven’t jumped in however many days your license level requires for currency, you will have to complete ground training and/or a recurrency jump with a coach or instructor to demonstrate survival skills before you can skydive here unsupervised. If you’re not yet licensed, you’ll need to jump every 30 days to avoid a recurrency jump.

As you already know, skydiving is a very technical sport. Taking a lot of time away from it means our brains aren’t thinking about jumping as much, and our bodies aren’t going through the motions. Our ability to recall the details of how to skydive safely decreases over time, as does our knowledge of anything else! And then there is the additional risk with very long layoffs that equipment or safe skydiving procedures may have evolved during our absence from the sport, and thus recurrency training will be critical to safety.

Sometimes people feel recurrency jumps are money grabs (and they aren’t shy about telling us!), but this has nothing to do with money and everything to do with safety. Uncurrent skydivers are at higher risk of injuring themselves and those around them, and no drop zone wants that additional risk in their skies. Our currency requirements are those recommended by the United States Parachute Association, with additional requirements for C/D license holders after years of layoff time.

Currency requirements vary by your license level, with higher license levels requiring less frequent recurrency training than lower levels. We all learned about currency requirements as students, but it’s easy to forget them. So here they are from our policies and the United States Parachute Association Skydiver’s Information Manual (as of January 2015):

License Held Time since last jump Must do
Student (none) 30 days STP-15 or last passing dive flow
A license 60 days Coach jump
A license 90 days STP-15
B license 90 days Coach jump
B license 180 days STP-15
C license 180 days Coach jump
C license 2 years STP-15
D license 180 days Coach jump
D license 3 years STP-15

Please note: If your last jump wasn’t done here at Spaceland, we will need to see your logbook to verify the date and place of your last jump, and the signature of the experienced jumper who witnessed your jump. Don’t leave home without it!

2 Replies to “Skydiving Currency: Use it or Lose It! ”

  1. For those of us unfamilar with the Spaceland jargon, what is the difference between a “coach jump” and a “STP-15” jump?

    1. Hey Jim! Coached recurrency jumps can be done by a Spaceland-approved coach, whereas an STP-15 (Skydiver Training Program Level 15) jump is a jump with an instructor for a higher level of supervision. Coach jumps are $60 not including gear rental ($85 + tax with gear rental), whereas instructor jumps are $150 including gear rental, not including tax on gear rental. Thanks for asking!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *