A New Future: SKYDOWN 2.0
How Skydive Skydown Became Idaho’s Future of Skydiving
From a simple desire to improve the culture… to rebuilding an entire drop zone from the ground up.
When Skydown’s original era came to a close, one thing was clear: Skydown v1 was done. The owners who built the foundation retired, the community had scattered, and what remained of the drop zone stood still—waiting for whatever would come next.
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We never planned for that “next” to be us.
We werent chasing ownership and no one was dreaming about running a drop zone.
I was just an instructor and we all just wanted more for the people around us—more culture, more discipline, more safety, and more pride in the place we called home.
What we wanted was simple: To help build the coolest, safest, most forward-thinking drop zone in Idaho.
What happened was something none of us expected.
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From Skydown Sport Skydiving TO Skydive Skydown
It was subtle but it was the rebrand that marked a new era.
With the passing of the torch came the realization that Idaho deserved a drop zone built for where the sport is going—not where it used to be. We weren’t just refreshing a logo. We were rewriting an identity.
The cowboy DZ days were over and we refused to be a dropzone that focused soley on tandem production.
We wanted culture, community, and a future.
This was the beginning of a disciplined, safety-driven, community-powered operation—one designed to elevate the experience for tandems, students, and licensed jumpers alike. The rebrand from Skydown Sport Skydiving to Skydive Skydown became the symbolic start of Version 2.0: a modern drop zone preparing athletes for the future of skydiving.
Day One: A Dirt Lot, Weeds, and a Hangar Full of Chaos
When we arrived, the drop zone wasn’t ready for anything except hard work.
The “facility” was basically:
• an uneven dirt lot front
• weeds taller than the windsock
• and a hangar packed wall-to-wall with decades of forgotten things, trash, and equipment that hadn’t been touched in years
But that didn’t stop us.
In fact, that’s exactly what united us.
The core group of local sport jumpers—the heart of the Skydown community—showed up with gloves, rakes, trucks, and a commitment to rebuild something worth believing in. What happened next changed the trajectory of skydiving in Idaho.
The Community That Built a Legacy—Again
We cleaned.
We hauled.
We sorted.
We threw away literal tons of junk and brought the DZ back to life piece by piece.
It wasn’t glamorous, but it was powerful.
For months we worked nonstop to transform what had become a forgotten patch of land into a drop zone ready for serious skydivers, serious training, and serious growth.
And while the physical work mattered, the cultural work mattered even more.
A New Landing Area. A New Rulebook. A New Standard.
Safety wasn’t just a talking point—it became the backbone of Skydive Skydown V2.0
We selected a new landing zone to create safer approaches and avoid air traffic.
We introduced new rules and procedures modeled after the most respected DZs in the country.
We set expectations for gear checks, canopy control, training standards, and community etiquette.
We made it clear that this wasn’t just a DZ where people came to jump…
It was a DZ where people came to grow.
Those changes inspired more instructors, fun jumpers, and students to join the mission. The energy shifted. The culture elevated. The vision became shared.
Leadership With a Vision for the Future of Skydiving in Idaho
Under new leadership, Skydive Skydown wasn’t just reopening—
it was rewriting what skydiving in Idaho could be.
The goal wasn’t to copy anyone else.
The goal was to build a drop zone the entire Pacific Northwest would talk about—
a place where safety and progression lived at the center of everything.
And the results speak for themselves.
We modernized operations.
We grew our student base.
We expanded our tandem program.
We rebuilt the sport jumper culture.
We created a drop zone where people felt proud to jump, train, and bring their friends.
Skydive Skydown v2.0 didn’t happen because one person wanted to own a DZ.
It happened because a community united behind a vision of something better.
From Dust to Discipline: The New Era of Skydive Skydown
Today, Skydive Skydown stands as a testament to what happens when passion, leadership, and community collide. The transformation was physical, cultural, and operational—and it set the stage for everything that would come next.
We didn’t just reopen a drop zone.
We reinvented it.
Skydive Skydown isn’t just the next chapter.
It’s the blueprint for the future of skydiving in Idaho—
and the foundation for everything we’re building from here on out.
The journey from dusty lot to disciplined DZ started with one simple idea:
We can do better.
And together—we did.