Well, as far as I’ve been able to read, as it stand, Lance has got it way better than I do in Canada…
A jump ticket here is 35$ Canadian (34$ us give or take)
Packing is only 6$ though. So if you have your own rig, it’s 41$ if you have your rig packed. Add another 30$ if you rent a rig.
It’s July, I’ve done 2 jumps this month so far, (Not kidding)
I’ve done 48 overall this year, 10 of which were my AFF, 10 were my RW course, 2 were with camera men to film my “flip” attempts and the rest fun jumps and have easily spent 6000$ so far… This doesn’t include buying a jumpsuit or helmet.
As it stands, my money can go much farther in Lodi California than it can here or in South Africa, but it’ll cost me a fortune to go there in the 1st place. (In Lodi it’s about 9$ a jump+ packing) But given the choice, I’d rather jump in South Africa… Lodi isn’t exactly the nicest looking part of the world.
As for wing loading, the DZs here don’t limit you with anything, they just want to make sure you’re comfortable jumping with whatever loading you choose.
Right now, I’m jumping a 1.16 loading and am looking at downsizing to 1.32 by the time I buy my rig next april (We can’t jump in the winter, so it’ll be the equivalent of downsizing in October).
So I stick to my grounds on saying that SA’s got it somewhat better 😛
Then again, I’m not really sure of the average income/cost of living there though but judging from all the “sponsor a child in Africa” commercials, I guess I can see why it’s not affordable for most people.
Fill me in Lance!
– Adam
Haha – Okay Adam, not taking cost of living and general income into consideration, you win 🙂 It is quite hard to compare purely on a cost basis.
Come jump in SA and we’ll decide then 🙂 I also have a couch that you are always welcome to crash on.
SA is actually a very awesome place to jump, in my opinion (probably a bit biased) it is one of the most beautiful countries! But hey – that’s just my opinion 🙂
Well Lance, I’ve got a friend who works at Air Canada who I travel with (It’s way cheaper that way)
So I may actually take you up on that one hehe!
We’ll have to go into more detail about cost of living to really compare though, you’re right.
An apartment here with 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom (4 rooms total) costs between 800 and 1200$ a month depending on location, but Montreal’s fairly cheap for that compared to the rest of Canada.
A car payment varies on the car, but for a purchase of my 2006 Mitsubishi Lancer, I paid 11000$ last August for it, payments are about 300$ monthly for 4 years.
Insurance is about 60-75$ for a 25 year old male.
Cell phone, about 70$
Food is expensive here… A meal at a normal restaurant (not fast food) will run you between 20 and 100$ depending on what you eat and whether or not you drink.
Fast food (good comparison) is about 10$.
A 591ml bottle of Coca Cola is 2.25$ + tax (5% federal, 7% provincial)
Income taxes are high here though.
You’re usualy paying about 30-40%, but it can go as high as 48.2%