Experiences from Childhood leading up to Skydiving

[Bolas 5]

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I'm gonna have to wait until tomorrow to look at those, because if I look at them tonight, I probably won't be able to sleep.

On the contrary, they may help you sleep.

Stupidity if left untreated is self-correcting
If ya can't be good, look good, if that fails, make 'em laugh.

[NWFlyer 2]

For the most part I was a pretty boring child, not really much of an adventurer.

But I was pretty fearless as a little one ... especially around water. As long as I had my little floaty thing strapped on my back, I was fearless. Perhaps it was an early sign that I would eventually end up doing two sports (skydiving and scuba) that involve strapping lifesaving devices on your back.

I used to go off the high dive when I was 2 or 3 ... scared the shit out of my mother, but damn, I loved it. I'm less than a year old in the attached photo.

"There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

[LisaH 0]

Adorable picture
I was a water baby too. Taught my mom how to swim. I still don't know how to dive though

Be yourself!
MooOOooOoo

[Unstable 8]

YES!!! I knew ever since I was little that I was going to be a Skydiver - it was never a question.
When I was little (maybe up to15 years old) I was obsessed with parachutes. All sorts of designs - usually made out of Garbage bags, strings, and whatever sort of weight I could find around. I got pretty good at it too - I won the Boy Scouts Egg drop contest for Kansas when I was 14 with a self-deploying container they tossed out of a chopper - A 6-foot long flag acted like a Pilot chute and deployed a main made out of string and a trashbag - hell, it worked.
All sorts of different experiments I designed and tossed off the local dam face - most worked, some sent stuffed animals or weights to their deaths.
When I was about 10 years old - My dad took me to a Local DZ (where I jump now) to watch the jumpers - it was a really great experience and from then on I wanted to jump. I even put on a rig and had my picture taken -

I started jumping in High school the day after I turned 18. My parents only remark was "what the hell took you so long?" I did okay - I had my own rig and a coach rating by the time I graduated High school. People always asked me at WFFC what my white bracelet was - underaged skydiver.... They were just jealous.

=========Shaun ==========

[freeflir29 0]

Well...........my Dad was an aircraft mechanic pilot, skydiver, and even rode a motorcycle for a few years. I have pretty much followed in his foot steps. I was also an aircraft mechanic, somewhat of a pilot (Never professionally), and I also had a bike for a couple years. I took skydiving a lot further than he did. He stopped at 68 jumps and a B license. Decided flying was more important and spent 42 years working for Delta. As a kid........I did all the stupid stuff. Built ramps to jump my bike. Jumped 30ft off the barn into huge piles of wood shavings. Grew up flying in in small planes. Then spent 10 years in the air force. Aviation is just in my blood. I can't help it.

[mnealtx 0]

I was "hooked" the first time I saw a parachute on TV... was some sort of special (Nat'l Geographic, maybe?) about the smoke jumpers.

That afternoon, took some twine and a few garbage bags and made a parachute. My Mom heard me thumping around on the roof and came outside just in time to see me jump and deploy... and miss the patio slab by a couple inches.

*sigh* I spent MORE time as a kid getting my butt whupped....

Mike
I love you, Shannon and Jim.
POPS 9708 , SCR 14706

[peckerhead 0]

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I didn't think there was anything from mine until my mom reminded me of an incident when I was about 4 years old. This was before the child safety seat laws. I was sitting in the front seat without even so much as a seat belt. Mom turned the corner and I tumbled out the door. I remember getting up and running after her, as she frantically tried to figure out which gear to put the car in (standard). Little did any of us know an adrenaline seed was planted that day, and that it would blossom some 17 years later.

Wow! I had the exact same thing happen when I was 5 except I was the one who opened the door. I skinned my knees up real good when I fell out of the car. My mom thought the door just came open because it wasn't closed all the way and I didn't tell her the truth until some time later.

I also had an uncle who owned a cessna and he used to take me flying when I was 4.

[bazelos 0]

When I was in the island for summer vacation, my friends and I tried to find the tallest cliff to jump from, I think the tallest was around 60 feet i.e. from jumping to hitting the sea you could count to three thousand. And since I was 16 I wanted to join the army so I can jump from planes.

He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man.

[wes. 0]

i guess having 2 generations of skydiving family and been brought up as the CCI'S kid probly contributed to me beeing a skydiver

Falling from the top floor
your lungs fill like parachutes

[za_skydiver 0]

I remember sitting on the roof of our 2 storey house watching the skydivers 10 km away. This was when i was 6 years old. Sometimes used to cycle there and watch em too.

Then one day a friend mentioned doing it, 2 weeks later i met a skydiver, and i did my first jump. Friend that mentioned it kept coming up with reasons why he couldnt do it. I spent every weekend for the next 3 years at the skydiving club

Some dream of flying, i live the dream...

[bodhibody 0]

I had an uncle that used to skydive years ago at Orange, Mass. Lew Sanborn (D-1), Nate Pond (D-69..he apparently waited for that number specifically) Jaque Istel and others were jumping there and my uncle was this eccentric psychologist dude that was attaching electrodes to skydivers and monkeys to test their heart rate and adaptation to stress. One of the monkeys climbed the lines and collapsed his canopy...anyways I used to watch him jump when I was a kid, then got into it myself as soon as I was legal and able. Skydiving eventually helped me calm and channel my self destructive, juvenile delinquent, drug addictive urges...

[ImGunnaJump 0]

Nothing dramatic for me, but there was a small airport a few miles from my house that had a small skydiving operation going on back in the early 70's. Whenever we were going by and saw the parachutes coming down, we'd pull the car over and watch for a while.

I always thought it looked cool, and everytime I saw something on t.v. about it I always watched and thought that one day I'd like to try it.

It was just one of those things in life that I always wanted to do, but didn't have a clue of where to start until a coworker came in one Monday talking about her great weekend skydiving...and that was it!

"...I've learned that while the "needs" in life are important (food, water, shelter), it's the "wants" in life (ice cream, chocolate, sex) that make it worth the effort." Kbordson

[Guru312 0]

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Do any of you remember anything from your childhood that might have contributed to your becoming a skydiver?

This is a interesting subject. Although most of the experiences mentioned can be explained by genetic influences.

I had a conversation a few years ago at my old drop zone airport which proved it to me and I wrote an article you may find interesting. [Includes clickable references.]

See this: http://www.aicommand.com/D4DR.htm

I'd argue that many of the experiences responders have mentioned in this thread were influenced by D4DR. In other words, we did the crazy stuff we did as kids because of our genetic predisposition to do them.

Guru312

I am not DB Cooper

[Royd 0]

When I was 12yr. old, a couple of friends and I were playing pirates in the barnloft with the trapdoors open.

During swordfighting, I was driven backwards and fell 9 ft. onto the concrete floor on my back.

Who knows?

[Douva 0]

3 years old - Dad took me to an air show. Air Force skydiving team jumped in, trailing pink smoke, while the speaker system played the theme from Superman.

4/5 years old - I enjoyed getting my dad to cut up old bed sheets and make tiny parachutes that I could tie to old soda bottles. I'd put insects in the soda bottles and make them my little paratroopers. I wanted him to make me a big parachute I could use to jump out of my tree house, but he informed me that wouldn't work.

10 years old - A drop zone opened next to my cousins' farm in Missouri, where I used to spend a few weeks each summer. Each day we would see jumpers coming down under canopy, so finally we decided to see where they were landing and took off running across corn and soybean fields, finally chasing the canopies to the small airport next to their farm. The jumpers talked to us about jumping and showed us their gear and let us watch them pack.

10 years old - I saw Patrick de Gayardon skysurfing on TV. I tried to make a skysurfing simulator by tying a pair of shoes to a skateboard and tying the skateboard to the branch of a tree in my back yard. I was sitting on the edge of the trampoline strapping the thing on when my dad caught me and stop me. Now, having a basic understanding of physics, I realize that I would have been unable to balance on it and would have immediately flipped over and hit my head on the ground. But it was a cool idea.

15 years old - All my friends swore they were going skydiving at a nearby drop zone when they turned sixteen. I was the last of my friends to turn sixteen, so I was afraid they might go without me. This lead me to forge a birth certificate and keep it on file, just in case I needed it. In the end, none of them ever jumped. When their sixteenth birthdays rolled around, they were much more interested in driving cars than jumping out of airplanes.

18 years old - On my annual trip to visit my cousins in Missouri, I stopped by the drop zone next door and informed them that I was ready to jump. My dad agreed to pay for AFF as my high school graduation present. I asked the people at the drop zone how quickly they could get me through the training program (I was on vacation, so my time was limited). They suggested that four days might be possible but that five days was a more realistic goal. Getting through two tandems and six AFF jumps ended up taking fifty-four hours. I was hooked.

I don't have an M.D. or a law degree. I have bachelor's in kicking ass and taking names.