Skydive Gear

Larsen & Brusgaard, aka LB Altimeters, continues to show why they are one of the most trusted and respected altimeter makers in the skydiving industry. The company's customer service is well-known as anyone who ever has an issue with one of their products can return it to their headquarters in Denmark for a repair or replacement at little to no cost.

Well now LB Altimeters has gone another step further for its worldwide market and has added two service centers: one in the U.S. and one in Europe. Here are the details on how to have your LB product serviced if you ever have an issue.

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Performance Designs Europe has a batch of "pre-loved" canopies that are looking for new homes at reduced prices!

See the list below with all the currently available canopies, as of January 24, 2023.

The prices are in Euros and do not include shipping or any import taxes as these will ship to ChutingStar from Europe.

If there is a canopy that you want to purchase, contact ChutingStar at this link, and we can confirm availability and final price for you.

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Skydiving helmet innovator Cookie Helmets has once again listened to skydivers and developed a new full face helmet that is a cross between the raved-about G3, G4 and Fuel helmets.

The Cookie G35 is here in all colors and sizes! You can place your G35 helmet and accessory orders at this link.

Cookie's new G35 is a unique crossover helmet that will appeal to skydivers, tunnel flyers and camera flyers. This modular full face helmet takes a little bit of the best of each helmet in the Cookie lineup, while specifically replacing the retiring G3.

Improvements over the G3 include:

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We know...most skydiving equipment is crazy expensive. It can be a huge deterrent in staying in the sport past that first jump and/or student training.

While I was able to work, save and spend my cash through student training and the basics of a helmet, altimeter and jumpsuit back in 1995...it was only due to having secured a credit card that I was able to purchase my first complete skydiving rig a year later (an Infinity with CYPRES, Tempo Reserve and Triathlon Main through Larry Chernis at Skydive Kapowsin). It took me a few years to finally pay that off...but at least I was able to skydive with my own rig during that time!

Not everyone who wants to be a skydiver and have their own gear has immediately available cash. But ChutingStar has put several options in place to help skydivers get into gear they can jump now (and work through the payments as they work and skydive).

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Digital skydiving altimeters have continued to be improved upon the past few years, but the recent release of the DigiAlti plus the Dekunu One SmartAlti. Alti-2 Juno, and AON2 X2 has really shaken up the offerings for skydivers.

One by Dekunu is the first sport skydiving specific digital altimeter featuring GPS with 3D location tracking. After jump feedback includes jump-path mapping, G-force, swoop and landing zone analysis, which is all synced to the cloud to view, analyze and share. The AON2 X2 has similar GPS features.

The DigiAlti by Freefall Data Systems features a unique LED LightBar in addition to an LCD Digital display. The LightBar allows you to customize up to 33 different light alerts and affects.

So far, VISO II+ has stood strong and continues to be the best selling digital altimeter, but that doesn't mean it's the best choice specifically for you. Read on for a comparison of features to make that choice for yourself.

Skydivers in the U.S. essentially have 7 digital altimeters to choose from. So what are the features of each that would make you choose one over the other?

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I've put together the following gear price comparison information for skydivers in the market for new or used gear. This is a brief but direct overview on some of the more popular skydiving gear that we see come through ChutingStar. The following info will give you a brief education on how to value used gear against new gear, and then you can determine which is the best choice for you.

Note: Canopies/brands listed below are those that ChutingStar has had the most success with and are the most common within our area.

Also, please see our other articles on buying used gear and using ChutingStar as an Inspection/Escrow service to prevent the seller or buyer from getting scammed.

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Skydivers today have the widest choice ever in which Automatic Activation Device (AAD) to have installed in their reserve container as a backup safety device.

An AAD cuts the reserve container closing loop if the skydiver is exceeding a set speed at a set altitude. For most sport skydivers, the activation speed is the same (78 mph or greater), but activation altitudes vary from 750 to 840 feet. Regardless of the unit, it's a "last chance" deployment for a skydiver who has become incapacitated to deploy or has lost altitude awareness. For U.S. skydivers, there are four AADs that are in the majority of sport rigs world-wide. This article will focus on the CYPRES2, m2 Multi and Vigil Cuatro.

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15 years ago, open face helmets were the norm for skydiving and only RW teams used full face skydiving helmets. But with the increase of wind tunnels over our planet as well as so many different disciplines of closer proximity skydiving, many jumpers and tunnel flyers go straight to a full face helmet as their first and only helmet.

With several different versions and brands to choose from, which one should you go with? We'll lay out the features, differences, prices as well as highlight some customer reviews, so you can make the most educated choice possible.

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Firebird, which manufacturers the EVO container and RUSH reserve, now has a stock list of available containers for a quick turnaround time.

Click here for a link to the current list.

The base price is the same as custom, $3000, but you can get it faster than a custom order.

For more details and/or to place an order, contact ChutingStar at this link

Below, and above, are photos of the stock container patterns.

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Airtec offers a trade-in credit on your expired CYPRES unit when you purchase a new unit. ChutingStar participates in this trade-in program for any skydivers who purchase a new CYPRES from us.

Here's how it works:

• Purchase a new CYPRES unit at this link
• Within 60 days, send in your expired CYPRES unit to ChutingStar
• Include a copy of your new CYPRES order or purchase receipt
• We credit the original payment method $65 if sent with a cutter that has not been fired
• We credit the original payment method $45 if the cutter is fired or missing
• Expired unit returns after 60 days receive a credit on your ChutingStar account
• Expired CYPRES must be less than 1-year after unit expiration date

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