tunnelflyer.com / General discussion area / The future of our sport. Where will the wind carry us? / What do you think the future holds? / Latest Posts

RE: What do you think the future holds?

Jamie — Tue, 25 Apr 2006 05:16:31 GMT

I hope/think that tunnel flying will definitely grow in popularity. I think that one day tunnel flying will have a counter culture incorporated with it, similar to the other 'extreme' sports. I think that with proper marketing and exposure it could even turn into a spectator sport with a humble, but yet significant fan base, such as inline skating or snowboarding.
If this was to happen tunnels could increase profit by hosting competitions paid for by sponsors. This would allow many tunnels to lower prices for customers, which would also in turn drastically increase the popularity of the sport. When other companies and investors see people making money off of it, then they will be more likely to invest in the construction of even more tunnels. It would continue to grow because of this. As the price drops because of a more steady market, the popularity would continue to increase because it would be more readily available. It’s simple marketing causes and effect.
If this is to happen, however, an initial popularity boom must take place. So the ball is really in our hands. We need to promote our sport as much as we can.
I can just imagine the day when I wake up and turn on the TV and see tunnel flying on ESPN 2, all paid for by McDonalds, or Coke. Then I would drive a few miles down the road to my local tunnel, pay 10 bucks and hop in the tunnel for a 3-min. session. And as I walk out to the sports drink vending machine, see my fav. Professional flyers picture on the front of it, quenching his thirst with his drink of choice.

RE: What do you think the future holds?

cloudfall — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 14:00:17 GMT

Generally speaking, I would say that I have a reasonably adventurous group of friends (not ofcourse including my tunnel flying, skydiving, base jumping, bungee jumping friends) and over the years I have managed to persuade 3 of them to do tandem skydives. None of them regretted it, but 2 of them HATED it and would never do it again (as I say, they still don't regret the life experience though). The third didn't so much as bat an eyelash when we left the plane. I don't see him that much anymore - I think he is psychotic ;-)

However, I have taken 20+ people, easily to wind tunnels. Practically everyone I have taken wants to do it again even though all of them have found it more difficult than they first thought. It's a no brainer .. "hovering and flying" a few feet above the ground with your family close at hand is a TOTALLY different prospect to the very isolating and lets face it, scary, experience of jumping out of a plane and falling 10k towards the earth and depending on something that resembles your grandmas underwear to save you before you hit it. TunnelFlying is going to be massive and as said over and over again by myself and people on here, the sooner its dissasociates itself with skydiving the better for the industry. Skydivers WILL ALWAYS KNOW they can fly in a tunnel, but newbies NEED TO KNOW that tunnel flying holds hardly any of the pressures associated with skydiving.

RE: What do you think the future holds?

Johnboy — Tue, 24 Jan 2006 22:02:59 GMT

freefalljenn (24/01/2006)

Very good point Johnboy. Maybe I have been going about things all wrong. I need to start trying to convince friends to tunnel fly and maybe THEN try to convince them to skydive only after they have had a blast in the tunnel.

You know Jenn, the other thought is a pair of handcuffs and just drag your friends out kicking and screaming. Not that I've actually tried this, but the thought has occurred to me more than once.....

RE: What do you think the future holds?

RossDagley — Tue, 24 Jan 2006 15:11:19 GMT

daniel_owen_uk (06/01/2006)

I would love to know how many people that fly them are skydivers vs wuffos.

In the UK I'd estimate the figures appear to be

Bedford: about 80% skydivers, about 20% wuffos.

Airkix: about 80% wuffos, and about 20% skydivers.

daniel_owen_uk (06/01/2006)

I honestly can't see how you can disassociate tunnels with skydiving when so many jumpers use them.

Easily - the two have large overlapping skill areas, but are not the same. There are large groups of people (and plenty of tunnel rats) who do not (and have never) skydived. Equally, from a technical point of view the skills are not identical (tunnel flying Vs. skydiving).

I totally agree that we need to stop the whole "indoor skydiving" thing and promote the "body flying" message though. For at least another generation or so, skydiving still holds negative connotations for most people. As generations grow up and get older, the 'extreme sport era' that we seem to have been in the last decade or so should filter down, and it'll not be such a problem. Just MHO

RE: What do you think the future holds?

freefalljenn — Tue, 24 Jan 2006 00:32:43 GMT

RE: What do you think the future holds?

Johnboy — Mon, 23 Jan 2006 22:55:02 GMT

I think of it this way. Skydiving has been a passion for me for 14 years and I talk of little else (just ask my wife and kids!). I would say in that time period I've talked to probably 40-50 people a year about trying the sport of skydiving and have seen a grand total of 18 people (out of roughly 700) try it out. When talking to people of a wind tunnel (in my brief exposure of a year or so), almost everyone has asked me where the closest one is so they can try it. The idea of 150-200 bucks to try skydive vs. 40 bucks for an intro tunnel flight, that becomes simple economics, leaves out the part about the 10,000 foot fall, and gives whoever is signing up for the deal the same basic experience of flying their body. I've plenty of friends who've already said they would follow me to a tunnel long before they we follow me to a jump plane.

Just my 2 cents for whatever it's worth.

RE: What do you think the future holds?

daniel_owen_uk — Thu, 12 Jan 2006 22:47:38 GMT

Anyone seen the big (and I mean big) sign on the back of the colorado tunnel?

Hows that for associating it with skydiving.

RE: What do you think the future holds?

Jalexp — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 16:39:49 GMT

Interesting argument, it's difficult to peg a number of people to this but at the end of the day I don't suppose you have to, the fact remains that there are people out there who have loads of tunnnel time and have never done a skydive ..

I disagree with the fact that it will *always* be percieved as a dangerous sport because it is so closely affiliated with skydiving, some people made the mistake of calling Tunnel Flying "Indoor Skydiving" .. It just isn't!

If you said to someone, jumping out of a plane at 13,000ft is the same as Hovering above the ground at 10ft, surely they would disagree?

I think that these few people who have tried it once will talk and the gap between tunnel flying and skydiving will gradually widen, cause there are a lot of people who would go in the tunnel without a thought but NEVER dream of doing a skydive.. ?

RE: What do you think the future holds?

daniel_owen_uk — Sat, 07 Jan 2006 17:06:34 GMT

Your figures are surely skewed by the "trying it for the novelty" factor. If you are counting people that try it for 5 minutes and don't actually do a great deal of flying on their own, then surely you can count tandems? That would make the figures much closer I presume.

RE: What do you think the future holds?

Bodyflight.net — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 15:51:46 GMT

there are several million, I can only speculate in the area of 15+ million people PER YEAR that fly in a VWT for the fun or novelty of it

in the US there are only 30K skydivers registered, maybe less now since I haven't looked at that number in a while, I'm guessing from an old BPA stat the the numbers are significantly less in other countries... seems to me that the money that keeps this industry alive and viable for future investment is not coming from jumpers... please also remember that I am thinking as broadly as I can... while most newer tunnels are catering to skydivers.. this hasn't been going on all that long.. only the last few years!

It will be up to future tunnel owners to broaden the sport further, to bring it mainstream and I think it can be done. It's physical fitness aspects in this country alone could start a revolution!

RE: What do you think the future holds?

WindWorX — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 15:51:42 GMT

[quote][b]
daniel_owen_uk (06/01/2006)[/b]

I honestly can't see how you can disassociate tunnels with skydiving when so many jumpers use them.
[/quote]

Not trying to disassociate tunnels from skydiving, just trying to seprate them as two different sports in their own right. This would be much easier to do if the general public didn't have their first thought be of themselves falling out of the sky when they think of tunnel flying. When I started flying I didn't have any idea about how it would help me to become a skydiver. I really could've cared less at the time. I used to subscribe to skydiving magazine to read about wind tunnels(when they would write something) and that is how I learned of skydiving. Years, and years later I started skydiving for 2 reasons; curiosity,and lack of a tunnel to fly. My skydiving is only a small extension of my TUNNEL FLYING, and it really does not do the same thing for me at all. This makes it easy for me to think of FLYING in a tunnel as something totaly different than FALLING/jumping out of a plane, and totally disassociate the two sports.

RE: What do you think the future holds?

daniel_owen_uk — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 11:26:10 GMT

As much as I love flying in tunnels, it's an extension of my skydiving.

Tunnelflyer.com is in my skydiving bookmarks section.

Any tunnel vids get stored with all other vids in the skydiving folder.

Whilst the sport is associated with such a high risk adventure then I doubt it will get very mainstream.

Although it is getting bigger, in the UK we have just had two great tunnels built which obviously improves people's exposure, I would love to know how many people that fly them are skydivers vs wuffos. As the weather here sucks over the winter they are godsends for most skydivers who don't want to travel to another country to get some air time.

I honestly can't see how you can disassociate tunnels with skydiving when so many jumpers use them.

RE: What do you think the future holds?

WindWorX — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 02:39:37 GMT

A passing Fad.LOL!!!!!!!!

I think the future of the sport is going to be amazing! I see our family growing into hundreds, and then thousands of flyers around the world. I see a deep respect for the sport as a whole being found amongst the general public, and the bodyflyers that currently exist. I see, like Dawn said, 2 tunnels in every state, I see Lots and lots of AMAZING flying/facility video. Things we have never even thought or dreamed of!

This sport on a daily basis insipres me to do more, and more to be a part of it, and tell people about it. I see that happening in many more people. I am seeing it now everyday! I look forward to meeting and flying with everyone. (just let me shoot some video)

RE: What do you think the future holds?

Paige — Thu, 05 Jan 2006 22:47:29 GMT

Don't forget about the 'tweens'- too old to be a classified as a kid but not yet a teenager. As of 2003 they had ~ $100-150 a month of disposable income (this $ amt. they predicted to increase in coming years). This group could very well fund their own flying habits.

They'd still have to beg mom and dad for a ride

RE: What do you think the future holds?

freefalljenn — Thu, 05 Jan 2006 17:11:14 GMT

If there are 2 tunnels in each state, I think those of us who are addicts will have to sit by the side of the road nears the tunnels holding "Will fly for food." signs! Seriously, though, I really look forward to the day there is a tunnel closer than 7 hours away from me.

RE: What do you think the future holds?

Bodyflight.net — Thu, 05 Jan 2006 13:57:25 GMT

I think there will be nearly 2 tunnels in every state.. (those bigger than a couple hundred miles across anyway) and one in every country overseas that's not in total poverty etc.

This could take another 20 years..

I also think it will be more mainstream.. like skydiving.. something everyone KNOWS about but doesn't necessarily do

I think we'll have more participation than skydiving, provided we stop calling it skydiving in any way

I think the prices will go down slightly and level off for certain

I think it's too risky for MOST kids.. so I feel it will be an adult driven sport and since they are the ones who can afford to pay for it.. this also supports my theory.

What do you think the future holds?

Jalexp — Thu, 05 Jan 2006 11:37:14 GMT

I think it's an interesting question, I read on Dropzone.com a topic about Tunnel Flying being 'a passing fad' .. It seems some people have trouble seeing this as a sport in it's own right.

Just interested in what you guys think the future for tunnel flying is, do you think that one day we'll have just as many tunnels as .. say swimming pools?

I would like to think that the sport will continue to gain popularity and be recognised as a serious sport, not just a training tool for lemmings!