Why do you love skydiving?

[Guest]

Going out the door and into the breeze is the only time I feel alive. The rest of the time, I merely exist.

Hope no vets are offended...

"Trong Mieng Cua Con Meo Cua Dinh Mang."

("I have flown into the jaws of the Cat of Death.")

"The mouse does not know life until it is in the mouth of the cat."

[skybytch 259]

1. Did my first jump a week after my boyfriend did his. We'd both been wanting to do it for a few years.

2. 13 years as of last February.

3a. Love - I can fly! The people.

3b. Hate - Missing my absent friends.

[akaGQ 0]

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1. How did you get into skydiving?

Well I just did it. I decided this would be the best way for me to face my fear of heights and actually I only planned to do it once...but after the first second I was addicted it was like nothing I could compare it to.

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2. How long have you been doing it?

For around 2.5-3 years

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3. Why do you love/hate skydiving?

Why love it? Cause its an excellent form of release if Im pissed about something I can go out scream my head off of course not too loud with my Z-1 on and noone will hear or really care and in retrospect its awsome to just go out and enjoy the scenery the world is a beautiful place much more so than you see from the ground. We as skydivers truely know why the birds sing. And also I love being able to be around others that at one point may have gone the same road as me and now weve all met together and come topgether to enjoy each others company and soak up everything that life has to offer. And the only thing I hate about it is WHUFFOS and the lack of BOOBIES hehehe had to say it but true.
You must jump to know. No words can describe the incredible rush when the wind invites you to play. You are one of the few. For a brief moment you doubt, but the doubt is short lived. As gravity pulls you from the safety of the plane you understand. This is freedom. No turning back now, but who would want to? The dream of human flight is yours. For 60 seconds you are free. You know what it means to be a JUMPER.

- GQ

... it was the love of the air and sky and flying, the lure of adventure, the appreciation of beauty ...
-Charles Lindberg

[Gawain 0]

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1. How did you get into skydiving?

I was looking at getting into motorcycling again, but the roads and drivers in Oregon aren't friendly to two-wheels. The guy I bought my computer from was a Tandem Instructor at Skydive Oregon and the light came on, "That's what I want to do." June 9th, 2001 was AFF I.

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2. How long have you been doing it?

1 year, 11 months, 280 jumps

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3. Why do you love/hate skydiving?

I love it for the people and for the experience of flying.

So I try and I scream and I beg and I sigh
Just to prove I'm alive, and it's alright
'Cause tonight there's a way I'll make light of my treacherous life
Make light!

[lazerq3 0]

1. saw canopies in the air and thought hmmm that would be fun!!

2. been jumping since april 2001

3. love skydiving?? are you nuts !!! I hate it. every time I fall out of an air plane I have to save myself!!! but see in how I have all the gear I might as well use it!!

jason

Freedom of speech includes volume

[Casch 0]

Q. How did you get into skydiving?
A. I have wanted to skydive since I was a kid, movies and skydiving events triggered this. I had never known anyone that skydived when I started. One day I just went to the dropzone and my mom and I both made a jump. I did static-line and progressed through that course.

Q. How long have you been doing it?
A. I've been skydiving since August 10th, 2002, so just over 9 months. I have only 37 jumps as I'm a Senior in High School with a part-time job and I have payed for all but maybe 4 or 5 jumps.

Q. Why do you love/hate skydiving?
A. Well if anyone here hated skydiving, I doubt they would be here. I LOVE skydiving because...um...crap. It's really really really fun! That's about it! It is a completely different experience, and introduces a world I could never live in before. I can easily turn on all axis. I can do crazy flips and barrel rolls and I can fly forward, backward. Side to side. I am no longer living in a comparativly 2D world, I have a 4D environment. Height, width, depth and time. I absolutly love the feeling of flight, there is nothing like it. And the feeling of personal achievement I get from every jump. I just jumped out of an airplane, did some flips and turns and landed a RAM air canopy. All by myself. 6 times in a row in a day...sweeeeeet...let's do it again tomorrow

[lippy 773]

1: I was very new to town, some people from school had a trip going, seemed like a good way to meet people.

2: Three years, seven days and 268 jumps

3: The people. Almost every person I've met in this sport, in some small way, makes my alcoholism seem less raging

I got nuthin

[whocares 0]

Best legal buzz around

[Magistr8 0]

1. Got into when some friends and I decided we needed to do something daring back in 2001.

2.See above

3. I love skydiving because so far it's the only sport that I have tried that makes me feel so good when I am done.

[Snowbird 0]

1.
About to turn 30, my dad had died recently, I was in a rut, hated my job, disappointed with my life. Needed to do something life affirming, prove to myself that I still had a pulse. And I'd always had these seductive dreams about flying.

2.
My skybirthday was September 14, 2001.

3.
I love the freedom; physical, mental, and spiritual. Nothing else in my life comes close to comparing to that moment when I let go of the plane. Nothing. I really do live for that first step. Also, after 30 years I finally found the social group that fits perfectly. These people are family.

3b.
I hate how blank my life feels when something (weather, money, other commitments) prevents me from jumping. I also hate feeling guilty for the amount of time I spend at the dz instead of with my friends and family.

Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea.
-Robert A. Heinlein

[cop 0]

1. My mom took me to course
2. Since 1988 ( few (4) pause years)
3. And I hate it because it takes all my money!

c

"You can call me Mike"

[Cava 0]

How did I get into skydiving-
I was in the grey zone for a while. You know, staring off into space alot, no strong emotions either way, feeling run down by the me-first consumer culture go-to-work-pay-for-your-life routine. Saw a billboard for the local DZ. Thought to myself..."That's it. I'll jump out of airplanes."

How long-
Two years.

Love/Hate about it-
I don't hate anything about it. Sure all my spare cash pretty much goes to it, but doesn't spare cash always go to something?
I love it for the same reasons the others above do, such as the thrill, the adrenaline, the self-reliance. But I think the key attractions for me are that skydiving is the thing I both look forward to all week and am afraid of as well. It's a strange feeling to have toward something. Inside the door I am nervous and apprehensive. Outside the door I am exstatic. Just like that. Weird. The other main thing is that the DZ is a total escape from all of the nonsense and dishonesty in this culture we live in. When I'm even just hanging out at the DZ too broke to jump, I'm happy. Because all the bullshit is....way over there somewhere.

[ralu 0]

1. I had 2 reasons for that: my grandfather was a skydiver in the second world war and my childhood was filled with stories. The second reason: when I was about 10 I saw an airshow and I fell in love with it...

2. 5years now

3. I love the freedom, the friends, ... and really hate winter

ralu

what would be a woman without her dreams....

[tbrown 26]

When I was seven years old I used to watch a Friday night TV adventure show "Ripcord". It was about these two skydivers (one of 'em was Ken Curtis, the Festus Hagan guy from "Gunsmoke"), who jumped out of a Cessna and battled evildoers - sometimes in freefall! But that show was my first exposure to the concept that freefall is a weightless experience, with no sensation of falling. I fell in love with it hook line and sinker, way back then. The whole Ripcord thing came around full circle in '79, jumping at Perris with an old timer named Terry Ward. When we opened there were 9 squares and a red & white lopo round canopy with the Ripcord logo on it! I freakin' flipped ! I asked Terry where he got that canopy and he told me he'd been one of the stunt men on the show. I told him I'd always been his biggest fan. Terry died in the Taft Beech crash of '82 (?).

Jumped 1974 - '80 and have just started back this year, 2003. 569 jumps so far.

I love the freefall, the way the air can feel different on different days, different seasons, even different times of the day. I love falling through a slight mist that makes the air look like veils, I love how soft the air feels on sunset loads. We risk it all (but intelligently) for this most incomparable beauty. It's so clean up there, the boss, taxes, jobs I've hated, they're nowhere to be seen, they're all down there in those puny little houses where all the puny people hide from their lives.

What do I hate about it ? Idiots who don't think I should "be allowed" to skydive, for my own good.

Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

[Designer 0]

1.My Dad was a pilot for jumpers for awhile.2.25 years.3.when all else fails,(people,situations,emotional women breakdowns(lol))gravity always remains a constant.When I,ve had my fill of everything and everybody it,s time to go make a skydive.Sets me back to normal again.Skydivers are different.We like to go fast!

[freeflir29 0]

Hmmm...well...

1. I volunteered to go to jump school in the military.
Finally got off my ass 4 years later and hooked up with Skymonkeyone and the GB club to learn how to do it for fun.
2. Since May 2000. Should have started AT LEAST 3 years earlier dammitt.
3. Easy question...friends.....Boobies....Beer...sunsets....spocks...swooping...BFR head downs....etc...etc etc...

[Iflyme 0]

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1. How did you get into skydiving?
2. How long have you been doing it?
3. Why do you love/hate skydiving?

1. Talked about off and on for ten years ... finally got invi9ted bya friend, did the First Jump Course, and loved it!

2. 5 years and a day (started 16 May, 1998).

3. Loves: Cleans all the cobwebs out of my brain, and makes me forget for a while the mundane routine of daily life ... requires courage, dedication and hard work to advance in skydiving -- a good challenge ... meet and get to know cool people. And most of all -- I can fly, really fly!!!!!

Hates: Waiting for my load, or for other jumpers to arrive (I jump at a small dz) ... it's damn expensive! ... when people get injured or worse.

[MoValFlyer 0]

I want to thank everybody for their reponses, they were VERY helpful with my project. There were some responses that were so good, I will be quoting you in my speech in a couple of weeks!

Since I asked this question, I also completed my first jump. I went through the first step of the AFF program at the Perris Valley Skydiving school...here in Southern Cali about 20 minutes from my house. Before recently, I never even knew I had a DZ so close. My official skybirthday, May 15th, 2003! It was simply amazing. I see what all the hype is about now. Being a high school student, it will be tough to continue jumping, but I am going to try as hard as I can to continue this sport.

My snowboard is getting nervous!