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Is it in poor taste to make fun of a couple of tandem passengers who I saw in Eloy last week?

The funniest one I saw was a guy, probably in his 30's, kind of strutting around like a rooster after he landed. He turned towards me and I read his t-shirt. It said, "Got Balls? SKydive".

I couldn't help but giggle as I sat there with my big old heavy 220 on, waiting for my load to be called and feeling nervous as hell about my first hopnpop.:D

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Yes you will encountered plenty of guys who are all macho about their one-time lifetime achievement. The best thing to do is carry on with your jumping goals. Out of these two groups (yourself and the macho one-timers) we know who's got the bigger cajones ... and it's not the one-timers. ;)


Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

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exactly........;)

I always called them "barstool skydivers"

make a jump.. letting a real skydiver ( the TM ) handle most all of the 'hard stuff'...
then
spend the rest of their lives using the event to somehow try to impress people...

they are actually the worst sort of reps..... for the sport...
oh wellllllll life's not fair....

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It was really funny this weekend. There was a guy doing his recurrency jumps to be a tandem master and he jumped with Kyle who is a tm to do his test. As soon as they landed Kyle screamed and jumped around and started hugging and screaming and going ape - which you know he did acting like a student. It was great fun.

As for the one-timers, hey if they wear the shirt and get someone else who is serious to come out and learn the sport, that's a good thing - so let them feel macho and we can all know that the cute blonde who has the gear on her back is the real woman! ;)
Because life is an adventure - it may not be the one you planned, but then it wouldn't be an adventure!

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Hey now, we all started from that one "first jump". I think it is ok to walk around like a rooster with its chest all puffed out after jumping from a perfectly good plane. Not everyone is willing to do it AND not everyone has the balls to do it. Come on give the guy some slack.


:P:D


Bobbi
A miracle is not defined by an event. A miracle is defined by gratitude.

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Is it in poor taste to make fun of a couple of tandem passengers who I saw in Eloy last week?

The funniest one I saw was a guy, probably in his 30's, kind of strutting around like a rooster after he landed. He turned towards me and I read his t-shirt. It said, "Got Balls? SKydive".

I couldn't help but giggle as I sat there with my big old heavy 220 on, waiting for my load to be called and feeling nervous as hell about my first hopnpop.:D



Its no more in poor taste then someone with a few thousand jumps making fun of you being all happy about her 1st hop and pop ;)

I think that even the skygods were 1st jump wonders at one time.....

Picture........lets say Bill Booth after his 1st jump...bet ya he was pretty damn excited...although it may have been hard to tell with the big beard and all;):P

Tis a funny thing....I am a newb who's been around for a couple of years...I can remember many dizzy.commers who posted to the greeting forum and asked silly questions in general and other forums who now have many many more jumps then I....some in the thousands and TI's and AFF instructors..

BTW....thay are not whuffo's anymore...they made a jump;)


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BTW....thay are not whuffo's anymore...they made a jump



True, but he was a whuffo when he put that shirt on.

I think it was just the t-shirt that made me giggle. That and the fact that I was so nervous (I'm supposed to get on this plane alone and do what?) I was gazing enviously at those that were going to jump out strapped to someone else who was going to do all the work and land them safely.

It probably is in poor taste to laugh at him. I felt pretty darn proud of myself when I did my first two tandems in one day. However, I'd been reading stuff on dz.com long enough to know that that didn't make me anything near a skydiver. And I'm still not. But I'm working on it!:)

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I kinda sorta didn't exactly tell my friends about my first jump... :$ at least not imediately.

and I haven't ever strutted around like a rooster about anything... :):D:D

there's nothing wrong with the people that only do it once... in fact there's nothing inherently wrong with the people that don't ever do it. :P
Livin' on the Edge... sleeping with my rigger's wife...

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there's nothing wrong with the people that only do it once... in fact there's nothing inherently wrong with the people that don't ever do it. :P



And some would argue that there's less wrong with them than those of us that decide to go back for more!:)

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And some would argue that there's less wrong with them than those of us that decide to go back for more!:)

:D:D I'm just excercising my addictive nature in a legal (in lieu of illegal) manner... :P

and to Carpediem... I could care less about the beer as I don't drink it... :o;):P
Livin' on the Edge... sleeping with my rigger's wife...

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The friend I first jumped with was like that, thought he was hot shit because he's now jumped out of an airplane, but would probably never do it again if only for the fact that he can't afford it.

Guess what? I can't afford it either, but I'm doing it anyway. Fuck living rich, skydive baby!

As for coming down on a high, I did too, but I limited it to internal satisfaction, knowing that it would only get more interesting when I started training for my licensure. Great, you've jumped out of an aircraft, but what's it mean unless you're ballsy enough to do it again?
"If at first you don't succeed... well, so much for skydiving." - aviation cliche

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Hey now, we all started from that one "first jump". I think it is ok to walk around like a rooster with its chest all puffed out after jumping from a perfectly good plane. Not everyone is willing to do it AND not everyone has the balls to do it. Come on give the guy some slack.



Precisely. Most of us have been there to some extent (OK maybe not the ridiculous t-shirt) but I was pretty proud of myself first time out. I had the butterflies my first time and felt I had the right to feel good about having overcome that to pursue something I was interested in, so I did tell my family and couple of freinds. Maybe that guy went a bit far but give him a chance and he may come around.

Strutting first timers don't bother me as much as guys with a couple of hundred jumps who act like they wrote the book on the sport and assume thier royal right to shit all over newbies.
My biggest handicap is that sometimes the hole in the front of my head operates a tad bit faster than the grey matter contained within.

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Strutting first timers don't bother me as much guys with a couple of hundred jumps who act like they wrote the book on the sport and assume thier royal right to shit all over newbies.

Excellent point. Students are the future of our sport, and deserve the basic respect given anyone else. In fact, I tell them they are the bravest people on the DZ that day, because for us, jumping is normal. They're the ones that had to gather up the courage to come out. With that said, if someone if obnoxiously celebrating their first jump (like yelling "F@#$ yeah, man!" repeatedly at our family style DZ) you can pull them aside and let them know what's considered more appropriate behaviour at a DZ.

The T-shirt? Oh hell, why not? It's good advertising for my favorite sport. :D:D

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For the record, I would never do anything to discourage anyone from participating in the sport, or of being proud of themselves for doing so.

But I really have to say, it IS kind of funny seeing the strutting going on when I know so many who have hundreds (or thousands) more jumps and are so laid back about it.

But I was not impolite to him and any giggling I did was to myself. In between the bouts of, "Oh shit, what am I doing with a rig strapped to my back?"
:)

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But I really have to say, it IS kind of funny seeing the strutting going on when I know so many who have hundreds (or thousands) more jumps and are so laid back about it.

They probably strutted too after their first jump :)
Be yourself!
MooOOooOoo

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But I really have to say, it IS kind of funny seeing the strutting going on when I know so many who have hundreds (or thousands) more jumps and are so laid back about it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
But what makes you think they weren't strutting around when they made THEIR first jump? I've seen people with thousands of jumps tell people who had 600 jumps 'you don't know s***t yet'.

You were doing your FIRST hop & pop. And you let us know you did your first hop & pop. Would you like it if someone laughed at whatever tshirt you were wearing or the fact you were happy that you jumped on your own? You don't know what that man will do after he's had a taste of the sky..so why make fun of him? Be careful not to exhibit the promise of obnoxious behavior of those who count jumps and tells someone with less they don't know 'sh**' because there's always someone with more than you.:)

I bought the same shirt at WFFC2004. I laughed out loud because its the same logo as 'Got Milk?' and I thought it was funny, not ridiculous.~~April


Camelot II, the Electric Boogaloo!

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But what makes you think they weren't strutting around when they made THEIR first jump?



That was me. Actually, I've never really quite grown out of it. I get down from a jump and I'm happy, pumped up and excited. Then I can't wait to go again and again and again...
--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

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You missed the point of me mentioning doing my hop n pop. I was scared to death, not happy about it!!

Draw whatever conclusions you like, I don't, and never will, think I'm some hot shit because I've jumped out of an airplane.

If I want to grin at someone strutting around like a rooster, I will do so. Regardless of the circumstances. And people have my permission to laugh at me all they like. Hell, they had plenty of opportunity last week and the week before when I demonstrated in front of the entire drop zone that I can't land worth a damn.

And you know what? I was the first person to laugh at myself.

Life doesn't need to be taken so damn seriously.[:/]

edited to add:
As a matter of fact, if there happened to be anyone there that was witness to all of my ineptness, please, feel more than free to start a whole thread about it. I will enjoy the laughs.

:)
And maybe I'll do a little strutting when (and if) I actually start standing up some landings!:D

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I didn't miss the point. I think you missed the irony of it.

....Is it in poor taste to make fun of a couple of tandem passengers who I saw in Eloy last week?

So there was more than the funny shirt. You asked the question. Sorry you don't like the answer.

...And people have my permission to laugh at me all they like....

Thats nice. Did the guy in the shirt give his?. And no, its not serious and its not even 'life'. Its just an moment....~~April


Camelot II, the Electric Boogaloo!

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