Martin McDowell's Blog

I visited this very good DZ after the main group returned back to Ljubljana. It turned out to be a great idea, especially as the alternative was to go up north into Georgia, but that plan had to be scrapped due to severe weather warnings and big snowfalls in Georgia.

The photo on top showing Padalček and myself.

The Z-Hills dropzone, called SkydiveCity, is located on the outskirts of Zephyrhills, a small town on the west side of Florida, 30 miles out of Tampa, FL.

At the DZ we met the other group based in Maribor, Slovenia. Some of the instructors from the SkyVenture tunnelcamp were also there a day earlier. Actually, there were only a few Maribor skydivers there as many more were yet to come during March. As I write these lines they are probably still there – hope you having a great time guys!!!

I managed to do just one jump, but that was fine. I found out what the DZ looks and feels like, it seemed very friendly and it is a very good candidate for next year’s skydiving pilgrimage to Florida. The only thing I thought was very inappropriate was the demand for spectators to pay a fee for watching the skydivers. I have not seen this anywhere else and I think it is wrong. The DZ should encourage visitors and they could get the revenue from selling food or at least refreshments of some kind.

As accommodation is concerned it felt a lot like a summer seaside camp. It has a camping area and its own mobile homes that skydivers can rent out. One small tip at this point: beware of the payphones on the DZ. They seem to not be to keen on returning change to you. In that respect DeLand was better as it had two phones you could use for free for local and toll free calls.

The visit to the Z-Hills DZ was also an opportunity to finally meet our colleague Peter Hernavs a.k.a. »Padalček« who is a regular on our local Slovene skydiving forum Padalstvo.com and as a pass time likes to »re-shape« local DZ vehicles