How did you get into skydiving?

[Merkur 1]

Military

vSCR No.94
Don't dream your life - live your dream!

[davedlg 0]

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I suck at bowling so I thought I would try jumping instead.

Me too... I kept losing gutter awareness – so they kicked me out of the alley and told me to try skydiving instead.

My bowling instructor gave me the "maybe you should take up skydiving" speech

[obelixtim 100]

Drunken bet.............d'ohhh!!!!!!.....

My computer beat me at chess, It was no match for me at kickboxing....

[Amanduh 0]

My dad told me I was around 12 years old that the second I saw the movie Dropzone on TV I said "Daddy, one day I'm going to go skydiving" and that I went off about it for "a long time" after. (crap, just gave my age ) He told me this only after I did my 1st tandem and went through the training. He said he thought I was crazy back then and just talking out of my a$$ as a kid, but actually believes I'm crazy now! HAHA

Did my 1st tandem February 16, 2004 on a last minute decision (Called Spaceland and said, Hey I wanna jump..can I come out today?) and that was it. Had my 20 jumps and graduated the student training program on March 21st.

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[ladyskydiver 0]

It was always on my list of things to do.

Life is short! Break the rules! Forgive quickly! Kiss slowly! Love truly, Laugh uncontrollably. And never regret anything that made you smile.

[GeordieSkydiver 0]

I woke up with a stinking hangover, feet dangling from a Islander at 3500ft with some dude shouting

"Ready"

Me "What????"

Him "GO"

The rest has been a blur. (thats all 129 other jumps, not just that first one)

Lee _______________________________

In a world full of people, only some want to fly, is that not crazy?
http://www.ukskydiver.co.uk

[skyjules 0]

I've always wanted to fly - I must have been a bird in my past life - I had some friends that wanted to try skydiving, but when they found out the price, they all backed out. I seen some base jumping on T.V., and I think thats what pushed me. I wasn't going to wait any longer, so I did it on my own. I am extremely happy that I did.
***Free bird Forever

[speedformula 0]

I used to be a real hardcore comic reader/collerctor ...(silver surfer and flash).

hence at one point I decided to skydive solely to jump the board. which I did.. ever since ,that first tamdem jump I have always made skydiving part of my life.

I just cant see myself without it.

best regards
Paul

Keeping it real 22x7

[UKKid35 1]

Mum dad gave my mum a Tandem jump for her 60th birthday, as a non- jumper he was petrified, but she loved it.

I really couldn't face being outdone by my mum, so a couple of years later I did an AFF course after being encouraged by a girl who I talked with online who had just done hers - thank you whoever you were!

[arlo 0]

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Saw this crazy looking building in florida... Ya know... this "Sky Venture" place...

So like $40 later I had 4 min of tunnel time and this really nice person behind the counter (Arlo) had told me and the guy I was there with all about skydiving.


So anyways... here I am

... and 300 jumps later you never looked back. dude, this is one of my favorite stories.
blues,
arlo

[NickDG 23]

>>My boyfriend dumped me. I got depressed and wanted to hurt myself. It took me 60 seconds to forget the bastard :) <<

That's a Nugget . . .

Nickd BASE 194

[bobsled92 0]

GOt talked into it by a friend of mine, 13 years ago.
ALL the good things that I've done are do to family & friends pressuring me.

_______________________________
If I could be a Super Hero,
I chose to be: "GRANT-A-CLAUS". and work 365 days a Year.
http://www.hangout.no/speednews/

[Cayce 0]

It was my wifes idea! She wanted to do it for our 34th birthdays. Tandem seemed lame so we did AFF. She continued up to AFF-4 I kept going am about to get my A.

Funny, because it was never on my list of things to do. I catually get scared on roler costers but this it one of the best things I've ever done. Hard to quantify, but it really does give a new perspective on life.

[Fast 0]

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Saw this crazy looking building in florida... Ya know... this "Sky Venture" place...

So like $40 later I had 4 min of tunnel time and this really nice person behind the counter (Arlo) had told me and the guy I was there with all about skydiving.


So anyways... here I am

... and 300 jumps later you never looked back. dude, this is one of my favorite stories.
blues,
arlo

I'm gonna be at the tunnel next weekend for a camp with Kyle and Jon Pinyon... Should be good times. I am looking forward to it.

~D
Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me.
Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

[arlo 0]

i definitely will be stopping in to hang out with kyle for a bit, so maybe i'll see ya there. :)

a

[Faicon9493 114]

I am an educator. I had to go to a high school one Friday afternoon in the Spring of 1980. When I got there, the entire school was sitting outside in the football stadium. One of their ROTC instructors told me they were outside to see an exhibition of the Golden Knights. That was the first time that I saw skydiving in person and it was amazing. I didn't pursue it right away because I thought you could only do it in the military. Some months later, I happened to meet a man who was a skydiver at a party and the rest is history.

Mike Anderson
D-9493

[heidihagen 0]

it's just one of thse things i've always wanted to do ever since i was little. we loved going to air shows w/my dad & my & my friends would make up games that came close (okay, the came nowhere close.. we just climbed trees and jumped). i think the movie chitty chitty bang bang started the flying obsession... then saw fandango about 10 years later and thought it was the best movie EVERRRR.
i tried to get a friend to go with me for the longest, but talking about it was a lot easier than actually getting them out there. so, finally i went by myself three months ago (tandem)... quit ballet, then moved onto aff a month later (funds)!!!
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062803/
other "hot picks" from when i was a kid:
annie - the helicopter part
willy wonka - the bubble room/float part

i didn't lose my mind, i sold it on ebay. .:need a container to fit 5'4", 110 lb. cypres ready & able to fit a 170 main (or slightly smaller):.[/ce

[packing_jarrett 0]

I was born on the DropZone

Na' Cho' Cheese

[bob.dino 0]

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maybe its because they spend all their money on lift tickets they can't afford the drugs

Ha ha ha ha ha . Right. That must be the case .

[tbrown 26]

I got into it because I heard Jimmy Tavino was one of the Jumpmasters at the Ripcord Skydiving Club in W. Bloomfield, NY ! Well, almost - Jimmy really was one of my JM's back in my student days.

I think I first heard about parachutes when I was six years old, that's as early as I can remember them. I loved them right from the start. Any time I had a toy soldier, some string and a bit of cellophane, Voila ! - I'd make another parachute and be throwing them out of whatever tree or second story window was available. Then in 1962 God created the "Ripcord" series on TV. Friday nights at 7:30 you couldn't pry me away from that show with a crowbar, I'd have jumped right through the picture screen if I could have. Ripcord was the first time I'd ever seen film of people in freefall and it was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen (still is, although the female physique is also right up there). After that I'd watch ANYTHING with parachutes or skydivers. Gypsy Moths, ABC's Wide World of Sports, war movies with paratroopers, you name it. By the time I was seven years old I KNEW I was going to jump someday, somehow. I was jumping out of trees, flying off of swingsets, seriously preparing myself for the day I knew was coming. Every now and then I'd find a book at the library about skydiving and I'd read them from cover to cover. I studied them and learned all I could.

My parents wouldn't give their permission to jump, so I had to wait 'til I was eighteen. During my freshman year the Seneca Falls, NY dropzone sent some people down to our school and they showed "Masters of the Sky" at the student union. I turned around and sold a whole stack of my LP's to scrounge together $35 for the FJC - the normal price was $50, but we had a really big group and got discounted way down. And that was that, we drove up to Seneca Falls on a Friday night in 1974. Got there in time to watch the sunset load coming down under Paracommanders and this one strange thing that looked like a big square mattress. We took the course that evening and then they sent us into town to get smashed. Next morning we woke up in our sleeping bags and they rousted us out early. It was cold and they had coffee on and started suiting us up. I think I was in the second or third load to go up and I volunteered to sit in the door position and go first. Next thing I knew, I was underneath an opened T-10 at 2500 ft, thinking "Wow, I really did it !" After that, you couldn't keep me away from the place.

Eventually I did hang it up and was away for 22 years without a jump. But one quick little visit back to Perris, just for old time's sake and to look up some old friends - I found two of them within ten minutes of arriving - shook me up inside. It was the same voice I heard when I was a kid "Gotta jump Tom, you NEED this". And it wasn't long before I was back and now I've been back almost two years.

Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

[pajarito 0]

- Grew up around it.

- Used to sit in the harness while my Dad flaked his Para-Commander when I was VERY young.

- Got exposed to WAY more than I probably should have at a young age (warped my mind ).

- My Dad (Bob Phillips), uncle (Buddy Blue), cousin (Chuck Blue), friends (Ray Porterfield), and many pseudo uncles did it and expected me to if I was going to hang out with them.

- Got addicted to it.

- It's all downhill from there.

Oh right...and my uncle owns a couple of airplanes and used to be the leader of the military parachute exhibition team on which I got my first ~400 jumps.

[DZJ 0]

I've just always been fascinated by the sky, the air, aircraft, anything that gets my feet off the ground. I'm massively keen on aviation sports - I've been microlighting and skydiving, but want to try gliding, hangliding, and paragliding as well. I am simply addicted to the visual, the cloudscape and the sight of the world spread beneath me. It just gets me so excited, and to leap into the blue is almost like becoming at one with the world - no outside pressures, no other concerns, not even resisting gravity.

I had always wanted to try, and did a tandem two summers ago. After that, I knew I had to keep going, and AFF last summer was just the logical next step.

[Peej 0]

I'd wanted to jump for as long as i could remember, i'm talking since i was five or so. And every year i'd tell myself "this is it, i'm going to it this year".

Eventually at 22 i'd made friends with a guy who jumped and he said to us (my housemate and i) "c'mon guys, you've just been paid, book the first jump of your AFF". The rest is history.

Advertisio Rodriguez / Sky

[bob.dino 0]

I hate heights. So, I decided to learn to skydive .

[slug 1]

By jumping out of airplanes Of course

R.I.P.