Were skydivers wilder and crazier in the old days?

[steve1 5]

I skydived from 1972 to 1976 and quit jumping for about 25 years. I didn't know a lot of skydivers back then, but several of the ones I knew went to the big house. Two for smuggling drugs. I'm not sure why one was sent up, but I think it was for drugs. One jump pilot, went to the pen for murder. Then there was another jumper and pilot who was murdered down in Mexico. He had been flying guns into there.

Then I remember all those wild and crazy jump parties, way back when. I don't do a lot of partying now, but even the jump parties seemed wilder back in the 70's?

Today, most jumpers just seem to be older, saner, and richer. None of the jumpers I know today are even being arrested let alone being sent to prison.

So, what do you think? Were jumpers a wilder bunch back in the day?

[pop 0]

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Then I remember all those wild and crazy jump parties, way back when.

Can you elaborate on that for comparison purposes?

7 ounce wonders, music and dogs that are not into beer

[steve1 5]

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Then I remember all those wild and crazy jump parties, way back when.

Can you elaborate on that for comparison purposes?

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I remember a couple of jump parties where the dance of the flaming ass hole was performed by a group of talented Canadians....

[Zipp0 1]

Smuggling drugs and running guns? I guess jumping was expensive back then, too.

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Chuck Norris doesn't do push-ups, he pushes the Earth down.

[steve1 5]

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Smuggling drugs and running guns? I guess jumping was expensive back then, too.

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Well, not really.....Jumps to eight grand were $3.50. You could buy a main and reserve for a couple hundred. A brand new para-commander was about three hundred. You could train and make your first static line for $50. Even poor college kids could afford to jump back then.

[Zipp0 1]

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Smuggling drugs and running guns? I guess jumping was expensive back then, too.

........................................................................
Well, not really.....Jumps to eight grand were $3.50. You could buy a main and reserve for a couple hundred. A brand new para-commander was about three hundred. You could train and make your first static line for $50. Even poor college kids could afford to jump back then.

OK, well then yes, they were wilder back then.

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Chuck Norris doesn't do push-ups, he pushes the Earth down.

[kallend 1,648]

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Smuggling drugs and running guns? I guess jumping was expensive back then, too.

........................................................................
Well, not really.....Jumps to eight grand were $3.50. You could buy a main and reserve for a couple hundred. A brand new para-commander was about three hundred. You could train and make your first static line for $50. Even poor college kids could afford to jump back then.

Today the poor college kids are parking their BMWs in the college parking lots and taking out huge college loans.

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The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[diablopilot 2]

You say "wilder and crazier" and I say "go getters".

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You're not as good as you think you are. Seriously.

[rushmc 18]

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Smuggling drugs and running guns? I guess jumping was expensive back then, too.

........................................................................
Well, not really.....Jumps to eight grand were $3.50. You could buy a main and reserve for a couple hundred. A brand new para-commander was about three hundred. You could train and make your first static line for $50. Even poor college kids could afford to jump back then.

Dam you found a CHEAP place. My first SL jump was $100 AND a case of beer

"America will never be destroyed from the outside,
if we falter and lose our freedoms,
it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
Abraham Lincoln

[Gene03 0]

I started in '69.
I would have to agree with you, I can remember a lot of shit that was tolerated in public back then would get lots of attention these days. And not the good kind of attention.
I think society in general has lost it's sense of humor and tolerence.

“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)

[faulknerwn 37]

Definitely if even HALF the stories I've heard from those days are true then things have for sure been tamed. I just can't imagine anyone riding naked cross-country covered in glow-stick glue anymore :-)

Things seem to have noticably mellowed even since I started 15 years ago. Back then naked jumps were a non-event - nowadays everyone is afraid of them!

[dannydan 0]

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I started in '69.
I would have to agree with you, I can remember a lot of shit that was tolerated in public back then would get lots of attention these days. And not the good kind of attention.
I think society in general has lost it's sense of humor and tolerence.

One phrase... POLITICAL CORRECTNESS

[rushmc 18]

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I started in '69.
I would have to agree with you, I can remember a lot of shit that was tolerated in public back then would get lots of attention these days. And not the good kind of attention.
I think society in general has lost it's sense of humor and tolerence.

One phrase... POLITICAL CORRECTNESS

Priceless

"America will never be destroyed from the outside,
if we falter and lose our freedoms,
it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
Abraham Lincoln

[kallend 1,648]

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I started in '69.
I would have to agree with you, I can remember a lot of shit that was tolerated in public back then would get lots of attention these days. And not the good kind of attention.
I think society in general has lost it's sense of humor and tolerence.

One phrase... POLITICAL CORRECTNESS

" I didn't know a lot of skydivers back then, but several of the ones I knew went to the big house. Two for smuggling drugs. I'm not sure why one was sent up, but I think it was for drugs. One jump pilot, went to the pen for murder. Then there was another jumper and pilot who was murdered down in Mexico. He had been flying guns into there. "

I think having a problem with murderers, drug smugglers and gun runners goes a little bit beyond "political correctness". Good one-liner, though.

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The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[wmw999 2,149]

The problem is that the other side of political correctness can be abuse. Whether it's sexual abuse ("we're just having a little fun babe"), racial abuse ("we always talk like that") or whatever ("fucking hippies"). How much of it does one get to put up with? Should a group be able make a workplace so miserable that only people they want to (e.g. all white, all black, all men, all women) can tolerate working there?

Yeah, I think political correctness has gone too far. But it has its purpose, too. Thick skin isn't always what it's cracked up to be.

And as far as the parties are concerned: I'm a lot older now. I don't do a lot of the things I did when I was younger. But somehow I never got invited to most of those parties

Wendy W.

There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

[Hausse 0]

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I remember a couple of jump parties where the dance of the flaming ass hole was performed by a group of talented Canadians....

I just filled in the lack of knowledge around that dance and I can't wait to actually use it

[itllclear 1]

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Then I remember all those wild and crazy jump parties, way back when.

You mean like the '76 Elsinore SCRambles when we had 75 naked people dancing around the road flares and were desperate to get the 76th (for the bicentennial) so someone took the diaper off a baby and held it up as he jumped over the road flares?

Or the Boogies at the whorehouse in Beatty that have been discussed in other threads here?

Or ....?

"Harry, why did you land all the way out there? Nobody else landed out there."

"Your statement answered your question."

[popsjumper 2]

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The problem is that the other side of political correctness can be abuse. Whether it's sexual abuse ("we're just having a little fun babe"), racial abuse ("we always talk like that") or whatever ("fucking hippies"). How much of it does one get to put up with? Should a group be able make a workplace so miserable that only people they want to (e.g. all white, all black, all men, all women) can tolerate working there?

Yeah, I think political correctness has gone too far. But it has its purpose, too. Thick skin isn't always what it's cracked up to be.

One other side of the coin is tolerance. Another is acceptance. Politcal correctness came about, IMO, because self-centered people can neither tolerate nor accept others having differing viewpoints on (insert your viewpoint of choice here). Whining about it became the norm and PC is simply a response to stop the irritating whining.

From Sly and the Family Stone:
Well I was down, across the country
And I heard two voices ring
They were talkin' angry to each other
And neither other could change a thing

There's a message there...one extension of that message could be, "So why whine about it? Move on...nothing to see."

My reality and yours are quite different.
I think we're all Bozos on this bus.
Falcon5232, SCS8170, SCSA353, POPS9398, DS239

[popsjumper 2]

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...One phrase... POLITICAL CORRECTNESS

ROTFLMAOPIMP

My reality and yours are quite different.
I think we're all Bozos on this bus.
Falcon5232, SCS8170, SCSA353, POPS9398, DS239

[popsjumper 2]

I would have question "wilder bunch" but would have to say, "better hidden" nowadays.

You don't see many people passing Power Hitters in freefall these days.

You do see many more carrying guns to the DZ.

You don't see the laid-back, enjoy-life philosophy much anymore these days.

You do see Yuppieville at it's best/worst.

You don't see the comraderie from days gone by.

You do see a lot of the "all about me" attitude.

All that aside, people are still doing stupid shit...I don't foresee that changing. The major drug and gun running is done by pros nowadays and, seemingly, not so much by the local Mom & Pop fly-by-nights. The skydiver-related murders seem to be on the major downswing, and that's good. But what would I know...those "Wild Bunch" days have been long-gone for me.

Glad I survived my youth.

My reality and yours are quite different.
I think we're all Bozos on this bus.
Falcon5232, SCS8170, SCSA353, POPS9398, DS239

[dannydan 0]

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Glad I survived my youth.

ME freakin TOO!.... for both of us

Just wish I sorta had a clue when my number was up (within a couple of hours), so I could get the really important stuff done and not "pass it on" leave it for a family member to fix or finish it for me after I leave this BEAUTIFUL place we call earth!!!

"roflmaoPIMP".... funny you should mention PIMP! I drive a ford escort and was trying to think of a custom line for a license plate.. I came up with this;

"PMPSCRT"... I thought it was CUTE!!

unless your use of PIMP means something totally different??? Like an acronym of something else Pop.

elaborate for me Dad!

[usedtajump 1]

Skydivers I've known over the years:

1. Prison for federal armed bank robbery.
2. Prison for illegal automatic weapons and
explosives sales.
3. Three different individual cases of prison for
importing contolled substances into US.
4. Jailed in Mexico when crash landed Twin Beech
filled with illegally smuggled electronics from the
US.
5. Killed when car run off roadside at high speed in
suspected drug deal reprisal.
6. Pilot rumored to have been hit over the head with
blunt object and knocked unconscious by last
jumper out of jump aircraft. Killed in resulting
plane crash. 1967 crime of passion so to speak.
7. Killed when flew Beech Baron into mountainside in
Mexico with a load of smuggled goods.

I'm sure I'll think of more but those come to mind right away.

The older I get the less I care who I piss off.

[pirana 0]

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I skydived from 1972 to 1976 and quit jumping for about 25 years. I didn't know a lot of skydivers back then, but several of the ones I knew went to the big house. Two for smuggling drugs. I'm not sure why one was sent up, but I think it was for drugs. One jump pilot, went to the pen for murder. Then there was another jumper and pilot who was murdered down in Mexico. He had been flying guns into there.

Then I remember all those wild and crazy jump parties, way back when. I don't do a lot of partying now, but even the jump parties seemed wilder back in the 70's?

Today, most jumpers just seem to be older, saner, and richer. None of the jumpers I know today are even being arrested let alone being sent to prison.

So, what do you think? Were jumpers a wilder bunch back in the day?

I see the same phenomena in other activities. I think we are just too old and not getting invited to the wilder extraciricular activities anymore. Has to do with the circles we move in. I attended a couple get-togethers from groups I belonged to in college - one was radio DJ's, the other rugby players. Both were far more sedate; but I think it was because we old-timers were not really privy to or invited into the younger circles.

But in contradicttion to that, skydivers are less segregated by age than most activities. Regardless of age, it does not seem there is anyone at our DZ I can not be friends with. Maybe because it is a smaller circle.

" . . . the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

[Andrewwhyte 1]

Ya, good thing there's no drug dealing around the dropzones these days.

[Zenister 0]

I dont think so.. not having been around then i cant say for sure, but IMO skydiving was a 'fringe' activity then.. the advances in tech and the proliferation of dropzones have simply made it more mainstream. Which in turn means it becomes more 'normalized' to the population.

the 'seekers', those who are always looking for the edge, both personally and socially are never drawn to mainstream activities, to many paths already walked, horizons already seen.... the more rules, the more regulation, the more the collective attempts to make an activity 'safe for grandma' the fewer of those who feel compelled to push the limits (any and all limits up until the point they break) are attracted to that activity.

wither that is a good thing or not depends entirely on 'which group' you feel most comradeship with...

IMO those who were skydiving then would be BASE now... prior to the modern era and skydiving/flight at all.. the 'seekers' were the ones on the edge of the frontiers, reliant on no one and nothing but themselves

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Those who fail to learn from the past are simply Doomed.