INNOVATION
The sky’s the limit for local skydiver John Bindel who took home the STAR award from the Parachute Industry Association Symposium for his innovative app Funjumpr, presented by the United States Parachute Association. The Skydiving Technology Advancement Roundup competition highlights groundbreaking technologies in the skydiving community. Bindel not only jumps out of planes but he has been developing software since he was eight years old. His passion for free falling and computer coding is brought together through his app Funjumpr, which offers free access to sky diving tools to help divers plan and execute their jumps seamlessly and is used by over 3,000 divers at over 400 drop zones worldwide.
John Bindel grew up in San Marcos and has fond memories of driving past the crashed plane that sits at the entrance of Skydive Spaceland San Marcos as a kid. It wasn’t until six years ago that he finally took his first leap out of an airplane. Since then, he has jumped 1,500 times.
“I think for many people, it’s the kind of thing you try once and quickly get hooked, and then it becomes [a matter of figuring out] how can I spend all my weekends doing this,” Bindel said. “You wind up getting immersed in the culture of people that are here, and it’s such a great community.”
Bindel gave back to the community by developing an app that gives divers the tools to have a successful jump all in one place.
”I started working on Funjumpr, really out of the frustration of just having to look at so many different apps,” Bindel explained. “I was checking multiple apps for weather and wind information. I was sending friends messages to see if they were going to be out there on Saturday or not.”
He started with the idea of an app to summarize all the important information he was hopping to find from app to app. The app started with a function that would compile data and let the jumper know if the day was ideal for jumping, breaking it down by hour. From there, Bindel continued to add features to improve the planning experience. Features included a system that allows divers to mark when they plan to be at a dive sight so their friends can see. There are tons of educational features in the app as well for those interested in gaining more knowledge of the sport. A hugely helpful feature allows divers to plan out their jump.
“You can plan out based on the winds that might be coming from a certain direction. You have to fly your parachute a certain way based on the winds,” Bindel said.
The app includes educational videos, podcasts and teaching tools devoted to safety.
“The USPA has a wonderful reference they call the skydivers instruction manual that they have online so we just put it right in the app,” Bindel said.
Bindel’s passion for improving the skydiving experience continues on even after winning a prestigious award for his efforts so far. He has new app features in the works and more goals for how to grow the Funjumpr app.
“We’re working right now on a log book feature, so you’ll be able to put in information about your jumps and tag your friends in it. So it’ll be kind of like a social concept,” Bindel said. “Since we aspire to be the everything app for skydivers; we’re going to build the best in class logbook.”
He’s even working on a Drop Zone Management software that will allow skydiving companies organized tools to help staff with bookings, accounting and other operational software to upgrade the diving experience from an administrative side.
“It’s really cool to get to combine my passions of skydiving and software development and put them together,” Bindel said. “My goal is to help all skydiving operations to boost the number of tandems [beginner divers] that are coming and to boost the number of people that convert from being a tandem to being a student.”
Bindel is glad to give back to the skydiving community, which has given him “so much.”
Learn more about John’s app Funjumpr on the website at funjumpr.com. Check out more information about the United States Parachute Association at upsa.org and find out how to make a leap locally at sanmarcos.skydivespaceland. com.
John Bindel not only skydives but develops the award winning app Funjumpr, which helps improve the skydiving experience for divers all over the world. Photo provided by John Bindel
