Wuffos and Tandems

[Balls 0]

I've told a few of my friends that I recently got my Skydiving licence. The most common response is "wow, so now you can take me up." Does anyone else get that very often from wuffo friends? I usually compare it to a drivers licence, and a 16 yr old not teaching drivers ed.

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....so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."

[Travman 6]

I've had that a few times. The more common question I get is "How many tandems do you have to do before you can skydive on your own?"
They are usually pretty surprised when I say none!

[Skyliving_Dave 0]

Yeah, I get that shit all the time. Or the old, 'cool have you been wingsuit flying/skysurfing then?' I always compare it to driving, it works really well as an analogy even when you develop it quite a bit. For example you say no, getting my license is like a driver's license - you're a bit shakey on the road and don't have much experience but you're judged safe to be let out on your own. I tell them that the skydiving stunts they see on TV are the equivalent of the crazy driving stunts, and no one expects everyone who can drive to be able to do that stuff. That seems to work pretty well.

The one that really pisses me off is when you say you're going to a competition and they're like 'what, how the hell do you *compete* at skydiving? You just jump, fall and pull your parachute, right?'

Aaarrgghhh!!!!

Even if you do explain about FS, FF, accuracy, big ways and all that other stuff they still don't quite get it.

Whuffo you jump out of them planes? Whuffo you don't play golf at the weekend?

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'Everybody needs a mate called Dave'

[piisfish 137]

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The one that really pisses me off is when you say you're going to a competition and they're like 'what, how the hell do you *compete* at skydiving? You just jump, fall and pull your parachute, right?'?

What is there other competitions than trying to open as low as possible ??

A couple of friends asked me (after seing my wingsuit) when I would do the Loic swoop on the mountain I only had like 3 wingsuit flights at that time...

scissors beat paper, paper beat rock, rock beat wingsuit - KarlM

[justaflygirl 0]

heard it before, the un-educated whuffo mind is hillarious...

[mr2mk1g 10]

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What is there other competitions than trying to open as low as possible ??

The one I've always had suggested to me is that the competition is who doesn't die.

[AggieDave 6]

I get that, but then again, I can and do "take them up" since I'm a TI.

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[lizzieuk 0]

I friends who know I haven't even qualified yet and still ask if they'll be jumping with me if they do a tandem...

...it's easy to forget how easy it is to be clueless, but it is far too easy for some!