skydiving

anyone?

[Habtom]

Looking forward to do skydiving in few months time. Anybody done it? There is this part of me which says, I will change my mind as soon as it is time to jump :)

Anyone here experienced it?

[davidpbrown]

For Sale: Parachute. Only used once, never opened, small stain.

[Habtom]

never opened? :)

David, my guess is you are an ebay super seller ;)

[rocknbil]

Raises hand.

I've fallen a few times, but haven't had time to do it again and have always wanted to.

You will never feel so alive, the only comparable life experience is your "first time." Many will argue, but your first dive is a far more memorable experience, probably because cheating death is not an element in most peoples' "first time". (Shotgun toting daddies excepted.)

There is this part of me which says, I will change my mind as soon as it is time to jump

But there is also a part of you that says if I can beat that fear, you can beat anything - and you would be correct. :-)

[willybfriendly]

Skydiving has never held much interest for me, although I must admit it provides good fodder for humor.

Q: What was the last thing to go through the skydiver's mind when his chute failed to open?

A: His ankles

Or, the story about the "dumb blonde" who was quite upset when she saw the news story about 6 Brazilian skydivers killed in a plane crash. Her husband tried to console her by pointing out that skydiving was an inherently risky hobby, to which she replied, "Yes, I know, but how many is a brazilian?" :o

[lloydb]

I enjoy quotes and here is one that is related. "If at first you don't succeed, skydiving is not for you."

For a couple of years one of my favorite responses to "see you tomorrow" was "Assuming we are both still alive." I have worked with 2 people who went home perfectly normal and never came back because they weren't on the planet any more. I might have lightened up a bit because now my most frequent response at work is "Oh you never know. One of us might have a better job by then."

And one person I was working with died right at work, heart attack. This was 7 years ago and he was about 10 years younger than me. So to me there are enough possible ways to leave already, and anything that adds even a small amount of risk, especially when there is no pay off for it, is something I will avoid.

Feeling alive or more alive is a positive, but there are definitely better ways to do it than risking feeling really dead.

[buckworks]

My computer easily beats me at chess, but I clean its clock at skydiving.

[youfoundjake]

I've jumped out of a perfectly good airplane twice, one of the best experiences in my life. I jumped at 15,000 feet, and had almost a minute of freefall before I had to pull my chute.
I didn't do it tandem (strapped to someone else) so I had to take an 8 hour class about positioning and stuff.. but I had a jump instructor right next to me the whole time down...
the second jump, he had to pull the rip cord because we were working on turning, diving, and spinning, and when i was spinning, i kinda lost control and started flailing, and couldn't reach my cord (position was out of whack, which is why its so important) so he pulled it...
wife did it tandem with her jump instructor..
we both often talk about doing it again.. definately worth it if you do it, can get expensive though..
besides its not the fall that hurts, its the impact..
if i ever do it again and the chute doesn't open, right before i hit the ground, i'm going to yell "ouch" and when someone turns around to see what made the sound, they'll see me bouncing back up... heeh

[GaryK]

wife did it [tandem] with her jump instructor..

Are you still married to her? ;)

[jimbeetle]

Never did a free fall, jumped many years ago when I was in the Army. Having a deep seated fear of heights I found it quite ironic when it was strongly suggested that I "volunteer" for jump training to put me in a better position for an assignment I wanted. After three weeks I got my wings and the assignment followed. It was only for six months and I then went to an aviation company. Was quite surprised that flight pay was $110 per month as opposed to $55 for jump pay. The only explanation I could ever come up with was that as part of a crew you were paid for the round trip as opposed to jumping out of a perfectly good airplane halfway through the flight.

As for the jump part itself, yeah, it was kind of neat, especially the one at night. And surprisingly the fear of heights never really entered into it (maybe a bit during tower training), as it was "I'm jumping" rather than "Oh crap, I think I'm falling."

[tonynoriega]

remember jumping off of the couch with a plastic grocery bag as a kid... saying... "ohhh i felt my self floting... i think it works"

thats the extent of my jumping.

[briggidere]

I did it back in 2002 over Fox Glacier in New Zealand. It's a brilliant feeling, but was rather strange looking left and right and seeing the mountains above you as you freefall into the valley.

The weirdest thing was when we got back to the skydive centre, there were a couple that I knew from my home town back in Lincolnshire, UK. We had no idea they were even travelling. It's a small world.

[youfoundjake]

Are you still married to her? ;)

Silly, I was her jump instructor... heeh, not really, but yeah, that was funny..made her laugh..

[rocknbil]

[off topic anecdote . . . ]

I did my first jump with a buddy; not tandem, we went together, like any of those buddy-challenges you have at that age. This guy is one of those big macho guys. SHOW NO WEAKNESS. Right up to the jump he was scared out of his pants. But the real story is that he's prone to motion sickness. He can't ride in the back seat of a car without getting sick.

He ws fine until it came time to land. The movement as he came close to the ground forced a gastronomic regurgitation of epic proportions (he ralphed a big one.) His wife and kids were in the landing zone (with video camera . . .)

His daughter comes running up to him, "DADDY! Mommy said you tossed your cookies, can I have some cookies?"

Priceless, got it all on VHS. :-)