What drew you to the sport?

[shortyj 0]

Lets hear your stories.

Playtime is essential.

[peek 20]

Well, here is my story. I hear a lot of skydivers say that skydiving is something that they wanted to do since they were very young, because of seeing an exhibition jump or something like that.

For me, aviation related things were something I assumed were expensive and difficult to attain. No one in my family was involved in aviation, and I had a lot of aunts, uncles, and cousins.

With the exception of a much older cousin that was Airborne, and had a picture on my aunt and uncles's living room wall, but no one ever talked about it at all. Maybe they all thought he was crazy. I never thought to ask him about the details until he was gone.

http://www.skydivestlouisarea.com/peekfjc.htm

[shortyj 0]

Thats pretty cool glad you enjoy it

Playtime is essential.

[countzero 7]

In the summer of 05' I took my nephew to Astroworld and we rode the Skycoaster. A few months later while at Clutch show a really good friend asked what I wanted to do for my upcoming birthday. I replied that I wanted to go skydiving, thinking I would get more of the drop sensation I felt on the Skycoaster.

After the first jump I was hooked. It didn't have a dropping feeling I thought it would, but I was introduced to a whole host of new sensations and challenges, and knew I wanted more.

Now 10 plus years into it I have shared and bonded through amazing moments with the best people I could have ever hoped to meet. I have friends across the country and am blessed that we are connected as a sky family, my life is certainly more fun and fulfilling because of jumping.

diamonds are a dawgs best friend

[StoppieJoe 7]

I grew up around the sport. My dad and I traveled all over from DZ to DZ from the time I was about 4 or so. Made my first jump at 7 years old and never second guessed the awesomeness of the sport.

Carpe Diem, Even if it kills me -- "Dead Poet's Society"

"Are you getting into trouble over there?" --- "Nothing that I'm going to admit to!"
____________________________________

[419gotaminute 0]

Point Break

[JohnMitchell 16]

Made my first jump in high school on a dare. Crazy amazing experience. Went back for more. As nervous as any student, but it was just so COOL.

As a kid, I would watch the skydivers at airshows, being amazed by them, but I thought it was nothing I'd ever have a chance to do. I mean, really, me, become a skydiver? No way!

[shortyj 0]

419gotaminute

Point Break

haha gotta love the media

Playtime is essential.

[BillyVance 34]

Some other deaf dude was raving about his own skydiving experiences and he was still on student status and kept trying to get me to give it a try and I was like hell no at first, but eventually I relented. Went out to the DZ with him. Signed up for a tandem. Did it. Blew me away. Signed up for the Static line training program right away. Started the next month. And never looked back. First jump in '93.

That deaf dude? Fucking asshole quit the very next year.

"Mediocre people don't like high achievers, and high achievers don't like mediocre people." - SIX TIME National Champion coach Nick Saban

[raftman 12]

Hot chicks in tight jumpsuits!

[shortyj 0]

BillyVance

Some other deaf dude was raving about his own skydiving experiences and he was still on student status and kept trying to get me to give it a try and I was like hell no at first, but eventually I relented. Went out to the DZ with him. Signed up for a tandem. Did it. Blew me away. Signed up for the Static line training program right away. Started the next month. And never looked back. First jump in '93.

That deaf dude? Fucking asshole quit the very next year.

Sorry but have made a lot friends still

Playtime is essential.

[shortyj 0]

Well cute jumpsuits are a must

Playtime is essential.

[airdvr 201]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFCD45nqeaw

I was 10 years old when I saw it for the first time on WWofS.

A year later it was Gypsy Moths

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dg_eYSQlM28

I can remember thinking how cool would that be. 12 years later I made my first.

Please don't dent the planet.

Destinations by Roxanne

[wmw999 2,292]

I don't remember what my first exposure was, but I remember telling someone when I was 15 that I'd wanted to try skydiving for several years now (which in 15-year-old terms probably means 6 months ).

So I started when I was 20.

Wendy P.

There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

[jimmytavino 16]

I was simply looking for an airplane ride.....
I had just turned 19.
Never in a jet, or a passenger plane or a small plane.... saw an Ad...
50 bucks for the first jump course...at the college, where I was a soph.
the town had an airport 3 miles south of campus, where we jumped.
The informational meeting was well attended and they showed a 16 mm movie... Masters of the Sky Between the music and the footage of 8 man Stars,,, I was intrigued !!
Training on a Thursday and Friday evening.. Maybe 25 in the class..

Jump # 1 was on a Saturday........I was on the 2nd or 3rd load... I sooo enjoyed looking out the window. No door on the plane, ( C182 ) and when we flew right over the campus and I could SEE the very dorm building which I had walked OUT of, 2 hours earlier... I Thought " WHAT could be cooler than THIS " ?? Five minutes later,, I found out That having a static line cheapo blossom over my head .... WAS cooler...Training, gear, lift ticket and logbook for # 1 = 50 bucks... 4 more static line jumps @ 10 dollars each and jump # 6 my first freefall.... at SIX Dollars ( it was 1972 ).. I had invested 96 dollars,, best $$$ I ever spent...
Made lots of friends..began teaching static line courses and Jumpmastering 2 years later. I am Still active, Still making friends and still enjoying our sport...
Just as I was promised in that Movie...
I found out that " I can be free, I CAN if I try " " There's just No Place that Iiiiii can't Fly " !!!!!

[shortyj 0]

How many more skydivers would there be today if first jump course was
$96!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Playtime is essential.

[BillyVance 34]

shortyj

***Some other deaf dude was raving about his own skydiving experiences and he was still on student status and kept trying to get me to give it a try and I was like hell no at first, but eventually I relented. Went out to the DZ with him. Signed up for a tandem. Did it. Blew me away. Signed up for the Static line training program right away. Started the next month. And never looked back. First jump in '93.

That deaf dude? Fucking asshole quit the very next year.

Oh hell yes. A lot of good friends. Great memories.

Unfortunately, the flip side is I've lost count of how many I knew that went in.

Sorry but have made a lot friends still

"Mediocre people don't like high achievers, and high achievers don't like mediocre people." - SIX TIME National Champion coach Nick Saban

[keithbar 1]

shortyj

How many more skydivers would there be today if first jump course was
$96!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

my static line first jump course was free. And my initial several hundred jumps all out of helicopters cost $10 bucks a month club dues. At ft Campbell in 80 to 83

i have on occasion been accused of pulling low . My response. Naw I wasn't low I'm just such a big guy I look closer than I really am .

[AlanS 1]

shortyj

Lets hear your stories.

This was a long time ago before tandems were common. I was an 18 year old in college and the thought of skydiving had never crossed my mind even once. I was never exposed to it, nor knew anyone that did it. I barely knew what it was.

I was walking to class with a friend from college and he out of the blue said, "Hey I just had my birthday and can now go skydiving!! Do you want to go tomorrow?"

Before my brain was full engaged to process that skydiving involves scary stuff. The words "Sure, let's go" came out of my mouth.

About one second later it hit me. (Holy crap you just agreed to jump out of an airplane, what in the hell are you thinking). But at this point, it was too late to back out.

So I didn't sleep to well that night and next morning there we were on a bus to the drop-zone. Even after the training, and maybe especially during the training, I still wasn't sure I could do it, so I decided to volunteer to go first. My reason was we were going up in a small Cessna plane and the first person is jammed up against the door. If they chicken out, the person teaching the class said "If you don't jump, I'm pushing you out of the door to make room for everyone else". That to me seemed like a good way to make sure I wouldn't chicken out.

Anyway we get up to altitude. This was a static line jump at maybe 4k and I get out on the step, hang on to the strut and then let go. My chute opened up immediately and I was going to live. That was great. Then the airplane flew away and the I was under a very quite canopy (compared to the airplane engine) looking at the world from a birds perspective flying around in the sky. It was at that very moment I was hooked, about 10 seconds after letting go of the airplane I knew this was something great and I was coming back to do this more.

As soon as I landed and saw someone from the drop-zone I asked when are you jumping next? When can I come back?

[wolfriverjoe 1,452]

I think I've told this on here before, but you asked.

I got home from a week at work and my (then) wife told me that she had gone out and watched her cousin (and my friend) Tim jump out of a plane.
I found out that a group of people that I hung out with had gotten together and done a S/L class at a nearby DZ. I said something like: "If they do it again, I'd like to go."

So when the group put together another event, I was up for it. At the last minute, they changed it to a weekend that I had to work.

But the following weekend, I said to hell with it and went to the DZ (a different one from the previous year) and signed up for the S/L class. It turned out that another friend had been unable to make the group class and took the FJC with me. It was too windy to jump on Sat, so I came back the next day. Tim had come back for a repeat jump and so had a couple other people. So I ended up doing my first jump with some of the friends that I was supposed to take the class with the previous weekend.

Nervous, but not too scared, I did my first jump. I don't have to tell anyone on here what it was like.

I landed and said "I am so doing that again. Did my second jump later that day. I was waaay more scared in the plane for the second one than the first.

And the rest is history. Tim and I are the only two from the group that continued on and became licensed jumpers. Tim got his TI a few years ago. I reactivated my dormant Commercial Pilot license and got my rigger ticket. The friends that put the group together kept doing it once a year. Some people came back for a few repeats, but nobody else kept going. After a few years, the guy that started it all turned it over to Tim and I. By then, we had become members of the club DZ (Wolf River Skydivers) and we had a ball putting it together every year.

We had ups and downs, some years were big, some were small. But is was always one of my favorite days of the year on the DZ.

WRS closed it's doors a few years ago and we went to another nearby DZ. That place closed last year, so we went down to Skydive Midwest in Racine and switched over to tandems. The DZO is a hell of a nice guy and gives us a discount. This year will be the 16th annual event. And we currently plan on keeping going as long as we can.

"There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy

"~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

[Phillbo 11]

I lost a bet.

[oldwomanc6 38]

Phillbo

I lost a bet.

That's pretty close to my story, too, except it was a bet with myself.

I went rock climbing with the group of college students that were the "the cool kids of the art dept." Surprisingly, I was one of them. Talent comprised the group of "elites", unlike the capricious "popular" of high school.

I climbed about 20 or 30 feet up and freaked! I had to be lowered down by line, because I could not get myself to reach to the lower hand-holds. Fear of heights, and vertigo got the better of me, to put it mildly.

Superembarrassing to say the least.

A little while later, our group wanted to go skydiving. I went along, fully expecting to die, but determined not to disgrace myself, AGAIN. After I did not die, I enjoyed it so much, I continued! No fear of these heights or vertigo.

Out of this group, I was the only one who did more than a few jumps.

lisa
WSCR 594
FB 1023
CBDB 9

[dzswoop717 5]

My Dad started flying jumpers when I was 4 years old in 1966. I remember the first time I saw a parachute. It was my Dad's first weekend flying jumpers and it was at a grass strip in East Berlin PA. I spent most weekends at the DZ watching and learning from the ground. My parents finally let me make my first jump in 1978.

Skydiving has been a part of my life for almost 50 years. I ended up buying that grass strip in 2014 and now live and work there.

I don't jump at commercial DZs much any more. I usually invite a couple of friends over, take the door off my Cessna 180, make a few jumps, and land on my back yard.

I sometimes miss the DZ life, But I'm getting over it.

[GooniesKid 0]

shortyj

Lets hear your stories.

Not gonna lie,,i do it for the ladies

[Niki1 1]

As best I can remember, "The show you are about to see is real. No tricks, no illusions. The only thing that stands between the jumper and death is RIPCORD!" On my 3rd freefall, a 30second delay,(an unorthadox progression) I was laying there holding a heading and my instructor came down and stopped 1 foot above and 15 feet away. I could see the horizon under him and I remember thinking, "This is just like Ripcord."
Ever since I could walk, my favorite thing was to jump off a height into a pile of loose dirt. The higher the better. In jr. high school it was trampoline and springboard diving. My last year in the army I was stationed at Ft. Jackson, SC and a guy in the same unit was going up to the Charlotte skydivers on the weekends. I went with him one time and wanted to try it. Little did I know that it RUIN MY LIFE. I didn't finish college, I had a lot more jobs than most people do. Nothing could get in the way of jumping. But I've had one hell of a good time and I would do things not much differently again.

Most of the things worth doing in the world had been declared impossilbe before they were done.
Louis D Brandeis

Where are we going and why are we in this basket?