How Experienced Is the Team at Skydive Snohomish?

Skydive Snohomish describes its team as bringing more than 100 combined years in skydiving, over 31,250 hours in the sky, and 75,000+ combined jumps. The roster includes USPA Coaches, PRO-rated demonstration jumpers, and tandem instructors. If your main question is whether the people strapping you in have real depth behind them, the site's own numbers and credentials point to a highly experienced staff.

The team's experience in numbers

Skydive Snohomish presents its staff credentials as a group total rather than individual résumés:

These are cumulative team figures, not averages per instructor. The site does not break them down by individual, so treat them as an overall signal of staff depth rather than a per-person guarantee.

Credentials you can verify

The team page names specific ratings and roles, which are the concrete things to look for when judging a drop zone:

• USPA Coach — a formal instructional rating within the U.S. Parachute Association system.
• PRO Rated Demo Jumper — a demonstration-jump rating, typically held by jumpers with advanced skill and currency.
• Tandem Instructor — the rating required to take first-time students on tandem jumps.
• S&TA — Safety & Training Advisor, a USPA role tied to safety oversight at the drop zone.

One named example is Bill Kelly, listed as S&TA, USPA Coach, PRO Rated Demo Jumper, and Tandem Instructor, with a first jump in 1995. His advice to first-timers: "Breathe in and breathe out. Try to take it all in but know you will miss something."

What this means for a first-time jumper

For a tandem student, the practical takeaway is that the instructors hold the ratings that matter for taking you on your first jump, and the drop zone has a designated safety and training role on staff. The site also states the center has been jumping over the Snohomish River Valley since 2000 and hosts nearly 20,000 tandem students and experienced skydivers each year — volume that generally correlates with instructors staying current.

Two caveats worth keeping in mind:

• The 100+ years and 75,000+ jumps are team totals, so they don't tell you the experience level of the specific instructor you'll be paired with.
• The site does not publish per-instructor jump counts or currency, so if matching with a particular instructor matters to you, ask when you book.

How to check further before booking

• Ask which instructor you'll be jumping with and how many tandem jumps they've completed.
• Confirm current USPA ratings and recent jump currency for that instructor.
• Use the drop zone's location as a practical factor too: it lists Seattle at 20 miles, Everett at 9, Bellevue at 24, and Tacoma at 58.

Bottom line: the published credentials — USPA Coach, PRO demo rating, tandem instructor, and an S&TA on staff — plus the team's cumulative totals support the claim of an experienced team. For your own jump, the one number the site doesn't give you is your specific instructor's experience, so that's the question to ask directly.