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promise5

What made you start jumping?

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It's probably been asked a million times, but I love hearing people's stories. What made you take your first jump? Did you tandem first? Was there a life event that you wanted to celebrate? memorialize?
No matter how slowly you say oranges it never sounds like gullible.
Believe me I tried.

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It's probably been asked a million times, but I love hearing people's stories. What made you take your first jump? Did you tandem first? Was there a life event that you wanted to celebrate? memorialize?



I was sitting in the door, not wanting to go... my jumpmaster said if you don't jump right now, I'm going to fuck you in the ass.........
"I may be a dirty pirate hooker...but I'm not about to go stand on the corner." iluvtofly
DPH -7, TDS 578, Muff 5153, SCR 14890
I'm an asshole, and I approve this message

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Someone that I worked with back in the late 80s was a jumper and always said he was going to take me sometime. We actually flew into the DZ in Locust Grove,Ga. in a private plane to check it out one day and for whatever reason couldn't jump that day.

Years later, in the late 90s, I had the time and money at the same time and scheduled a level 1 AFF. Took all my extra time and money for the next 8 or so years.

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It's probably been asked a million times, but I love hearing people's stories. What made you take your first jump? Did you tandem first? Was there a life event that you wanted to celebrate? memorialize?



I was sitting in the door, not wanting to go... my jumpmaster said if you don't jump right now, I'm going to fuck you in the ass.........



Did you jump?
“The only fool bigger than the person who knows it all is the person who argues with him.

Stanislaw Jerzy Lec quotes (Polish writer, poet and satirist 1906-1966)

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It's probably been asked a million times, but I love hearing people's stories. What made you take your first jump? Did you tandem first? Was there a life event that you wanted to celebrate? memorialize?



I was sitting in the door, not wanting to go... my jumpmaster said if you don't jump right now, I'm going to fuck you in the ass.........



Did you jump?



A little, at first.
"I may be a dirty pirate hooker...but I'm not about to go stand on the corner." iluvtofly
DPH -7, TDS 578, Muff 5153, SCR 14890
I'm an asshole, and I approve this message

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It's probably been asked a million times, but I love hearing people's stories. What made you take your first jump? Did you tandem first? Was there a life event that you wanted to celebrate? memorialize?



Someone tossed a six pack of beer out the door and it was all down hill from there.
I'm not usually into the whole 3-way thing, but you got me a little excited with that. - Skymama
BTR #1 / OTB^5 Official #2 / Hellfish #408 / VSCR #108/Tortuga/Orfun

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I had thought about it many times. Then I met someone who jumped regularly - he talked incessantly about it, spent all his time at the DZ, and together we watched ALLLLL his (mindnumbingly boring) skydiving videos... At one point I got sick of hearing about it and thought I'd try it for myself. Told my mom I would be doing it, and she said "OH MY GOD... I *soooo* want to go with you!!!!" So she did!! We both took the jump course (IAD out of a C-182) and she even went first... She had a perfect arch and landed like a pro - I was so proud :) She was satisfied with just the one jump, I was not :P

"There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse."
- Chris Hadfield
« Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. »
- my boss

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I was an air force brat and was always drawn to flying. I messed around with hang gliding a bit in the 90's but when I moved out here life kind of preoccupied me for a few years. I had a week of vacation time come up last year and absolutely nothing to do in it. So I decided to give it a try. I wasn't even sure I'd like it before my first jump, but was pretty much hooked from the moment I got out the door.

I went straight into AFF -- Didn't really want to jump while strapped to someone else. It worked out well because ground school was the Saturday that my vacation started. That first jump was pretty scary -- I didn't feel that scared but I saw the video later and I looked terrified. I wonder if my instructor still has it around. It'd be pretty cool to show how far I've come. I got the video for my AFF 4 and 5 jumps and posted them up on youtube, but I was already pretty much over my door fear by that point.
I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

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It was 2011, I was 54, not getting any younger, had wanted to jump for as long as I can remember, decided to do it while I was still healthly enough to manage it, the kids were grown.

First jump, AFF.
Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”

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Hi promise,

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What made you take your first jump?



I was about 15 yrs old, home from school sick. I was watching an Arthur Godfrey ( ask your grandmother who he was :P ) show and he said that he had made a parachute jump. He did it because when he flew his acrobatic airplane he was req'd to wear a parachute, and he wanted to see what it would be like in the event he had to use it.

I decided then & there that I wanted to make a jump.

A few yrs later, as an Air Force GI in Basic Training, I saw the film 'A Sport is Born' ( Google it ) and that made me even more committed.

A couple of yrs later, a sergeant that I served with in France, had made a jump at the original Orange, MA dz. He said that it scared the S*** out of him. And that made me even more committed.

The day that I got home from the service I ran into a couple of guys who I had gone to high school with and they told me that a good friend from high school was skydiving.

I looked him up, went out to the dz & was completely amazed that they wore two parachutes. Why??? :o

I made the one jump and just kept coming back. Masochist, I guess.

Anything else you would like to know?

JerryBaumchen

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In college in 1974. A buddy did it the week before, and convinced me to try it (he never made another jump). I've always been sort of a thrill seeker, and utterly enjoyed it. (although I wasn't that good, lol!) Made 10 jumps in a static line training program (last 3 hop and pops), but my drive kinda of declined after my 10th jump, when I needed to use my reserve (due to really crappy main chute), and then later witnessing a fatality.

Restarted 2 years ago (did a tandem the day before my AFF-1 course and jump, just to make sure I could keep my wits about me in free fall). Probably similar to dthames's situation, my one child was out of high school, so thought I could take a bit more risk at this stage of my life. I spent hours here and elsewhere studying up on modern gear and the causes of incidents, etc., and concluded the risk was something I was willing to accept (and manage to some extent: my goal is to try to be 10 times safer than the industry average.)

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Someone tossed a six pack of beer out the door and it was all down hill from there.


Mine was kinda like that, except they greased my hips and threw a Twinkie out the door. :P


Did you start jumping in Key West, or San Francisco?:D
I'm not usually into the whole 3-way thing, but you got me a little excited with that. - Skymama
BTR #1 / OTB^5 Official #2 / Hellfish #408 / VSCR #108/Tortuga/Orfun

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Someone tossed a six pack of beer out the door and it was all down hill from there.


Mine was kinda like that, except they greased my hips and threw a Twinkie out the door. :P


Did you start jumping in Key West, or San Francisco?:D

:D:D Naw, that's actually an old joke about "How do you get a BYU coed out the door?"

Besides, I said "hips" not . . . :o

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Someone tossed a six pack of beer out the door and it was all down hill from there.


Mine was kinda like that, except they greased my hips and threw a Twinkie out the door. :P


Did you start jumping in Key West, or San Francisco?:D

:D:D Naw, that's actually an old joke about "How do you get a BYU coed out the door?"

Besides, I said "hips" not . . . :o


Are you even allowed to get out of an airplane legally in Utah?
I'm not usually into the whole 3-way thing, but you got me a little excited with that. - Skymama
BTR #1 / OTB^5 Official #2 / Hellfish #408 / VSCR #108/Tortuga/Orfun

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Something I had always wanted to do although I can't explain why. I look at a lot of things that most sane people would go "no way" and think "thats so cool". Then I caught an interview on TV with Patrick Swayze just after Point Break came out. He talked so passionately about jumping that I knew then and there that one day for sure I would be jumping out of a "perfectly good" plane. I was heavily into rock climbing at the time and never seem to have a spare $400 cash laying around to do it (wanted to do AFF straight up as I wanted to find out if had what it took) so kept it on the list but didn't really try to raise the money. Then I met my beautiful wife and she was kind enough (read stupid) to buy me a voucher for my AFF 1. She was 4 months along with our first kid. The moment I landed, I ran up to her like a little kid bouncing around saying "I wanna go again". She didn't mind me jumping so much but money was a BIG issue. Was climbing every weekend in the mountains 2.5 hrs drive away right up untill she popped. Didn't touch rock for 8months after that and was going bat shit CRAZY and told her as much. She asked me what I wanted to do about it and I said JUMP! Made a deal with her that if I could fund the whole course by selling some of my climbing gear then it was ok by her. Been jumping (although never as much as I would like) ever since. I still tell her that it's all her fault.:D [/laugh]

Remember you don't stop laughing because you grow old, you grow old because you stop laughing.

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as stupid as this is going to sound, the first thing that put the idea in my head was watching the scene in Pointe Break when I was about 12 years old.

I researched skydiving like hell for the next few months and learned about AFF and all that, and knew well the flaws in the scene. I looked forward to the day that I turned 16 so I could maybe ask my parents about signing a waiver, and 18 so I could actually jump.

As it was I didn't jump until I was 20. It was actually because I was working particularly hard day after day at my job that I finally said "fuck it, it's time to do this". Scheduled AFF 1, did 2 in the same day, had a blast but was uncertain about it I think just because I wasn't used to it. Jump 3 was amazing and I love it now and plan on continuing for a long time.
well...I was going skydiving anyway. let's go.
Earn your pancakes.

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Mine is coming, But, I do have a pic to post lol I was talking to my mom and she found a super old pic of when I was 5 with 3 skydivers, that preformed at a show at our local airport. Maybe someone will know them oooorrrr maybe then will recognize themselves lol now that would be fun.
No matter how slowly you say oranges it never sounds like gullible.
Believe me I tried.

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