Squeak 17 #51 June 22, 2012 Quote Quote Quote My general view on life and death is highly celebrated in many cultures This should be on a T-Shirt My views are "eat, fuck, skydive" you must E & F a lot 'cause i dont see you "S" muchYou are not now, nor will you ever be, good enough to not die in this sport (Sparky) My Life ROCKS! How's yours doing? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
nigel99 143 #52 June 22, 2012 [url] Quote Quote Quote Quote My general view on life and death is highly celebrated in many cultures This should be on a T-Shirt My views are "eat, fuck, skydive" you must E & F a lot 'cause i dont see you "S" much Sadly having kids mean that I don't get to do very much of any of it at the moment counting the days till I stop paying 3 sets of schooling!Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kallend 1,619 #53 June 22, 2012 NOTHING is 100% safe. Not getting out of bed in the morning (that's when most heart attacks occur). Not taking a dump (ask Elvis - oh, he died doing that). Being alive is inherently risky.... The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Motumoyo 0 #54 June 26, 2012 It may take away some of the mystery. In addition, if it is 100% safe, I'll bet wuffos still did not get it.Found the lost fashion Sexy pumps shoes black all over! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Chris3D 0 #55 June 27, 2012 I know it's a hypothetical question, but yes, I would absolutely want skydiving to be 100% safe. I've only jumped twice, I absolutely loved it, and I'm currently struggling to decide if it's a reasonable and responsible activity to pursue with a child and a wife to consider. If it was 100% safe, that decision would be much easier to make and justify. While the risk may add a certain amount of thrill to skydiving, I think it can also detract from fully appreciating the experience. I also scuba dive, and through the combination of training (I'm a certified Dive Master), and the much less immediate danger, I find I can really relax and just experience all the sounds and sensations - how the bubbles start to take on a sort of metallic sound below about 90 feet, how I start using my breathing to fine-tune my buoyancy without even thinking about it, how I can move around in 3d space with almost no effort, all the life that's down there, on the bottom and in the water column. You can really zone out and open all your senses to the experience. I think skydiving's inherently immediate danger and the focus it takes to monitor that danger limits how much you can loose yourself, so to speak, in the experience. So while removing all the risk might remove some of the thrill, for me at least, I think that would be more than made up for by being able to completely focus on taking in the experience of falling through space. Just my 2c Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
airtwardo 6 #56 June 27, 2012 Once you become proficient at Skydiving, after you train your mind and your body to react quickly and efficiently...you relax and enjoy similar sensations that you describe scuba diving. ONLY BETTER! ~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~ Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rss_v 0 #57 June 27, 2012 QuoteI know it's a hypothetical question, but yes, I would absolutely want skydiving to be 100% safe. I've only jumped twice, I absolutely loved it, and I'm currently struggling to decide if it's a reasonable and responsible activity to pursue with a child and a wife to consider. If it was 100% safe, that decision would be much easier to make and justify. Is this process based on accident statistics and a cold comparison of them to other activities and areas of your life, or a "it seems quite dangerous" kind of thing? With regard to having family, the main "risk" skydiving poses is probably financial. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
airtwardo 6 #58 June 27, 2012 With regard to having family, the main "risk" skydiving poses is probably financial. nope...divorce ~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~ Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
No42 0 #59 June 27, 2012 I think with the proper mindset, preparation and training, skydiving could already be pretty damn safe. A large part of the sports appeal to me is to perform under stress, to plan a dive in a way that minimizes the risk and not least of all the thrill to overcome my instinct of not putting myself in danger. I think skr summarizes it pretty good: I don't like being afraid but I like what I've learned from it. I'd be happy if everyone would stay safe and avoid being hurt, but I do not think this will ever be possible. The initial assumption aside, I agree with the general opinion that for every push towards making sydiving safer, the limits of the sport will be pushed at least as far into the opposite direction. My AAD is infallible? Ok, so why pull at 3k? 1,5k will do, right? And the ground rush is so much better! There is a swoop limiter on my canopy? Let's tweek it to swoop longer and faster than my buddies! Look at the development in the motorbike market. You get all sorts of electronic assistance these days, and of course the motorheads use them not to make riding safer by staying at the same level, but to hold the risk as high as before while riding a lot faster. That's just the way it is. There will always be a lot of people ready to accept risks in order to stand out, get thrilled or whatever, and the skydiving scene is one big spot where you can find them. I'm not sure I can exclude myself from this group. Taking the risk away would change the sport completely. But a nice discussion, though ;) Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Chris3D 0 #60 June 27, 2012 Quote Is this process based on accident statistics and a cold comparison of them to other activities and areas of your life, or a "it seems quite dangerous" kind of thing? It's several things. Statistically, skydiving is probably in the middle of the activities I already engage in (scuba diving, which is probably a fair bit safer, rock climbing, not sure where that would fit, and riding motorcycles, which is almost definitely considerably more dangerous). Equal to the risk of dying, there's also the risk of a serious injury that could/would impact my ability to do other things. My wife and I met hiking, and we've taken our son hiking with us since he was 3 months old. It's a big part of our lives, and a spinal or some other debilitating injury would be pretty devastating. Lastly, there's the issue of my wife most likely wanting to take up the sport as well. She absolutely loved her first jump (tandem). The issue for me is that I have some reservations about her ability to maintain composure and respond appropriately in the case of a malfunction. Over the years, I've had bad scuba dives, some seriously close calls riding, and while I haven't had any major slips rock climbing, the general situational stress really forces you to control your body's natural reactions, remain calm, prioritize and think through the problem. Without any of these prior experiences, my wife tends to freeze up when she gets scared, and freezing up in a skydiving malfunction is a pretty bad thing to do. I would love for us both to be able to enjoy the sport together, but I'm questioning whether it's worth risking so many other things that we enjoy. We have a great life and already enjoy many exciting and adventurous activities, am I/are we being a little greedy in potentially adding in yet another high risk (relatively speaking) sport? If it was 100% safe, then we wouldn't be risking all that we already have and the decision to take up the sport would be easy. On the flip side, we've had several family members or acquaintances who've died in all sorts of ways - car accidents, motorcycle accidents, simple slips/falls, health issues both a long time in the making and completely out of the blue. I had done a tandem with the instructor who was recently killed along with his tandem passenger just 5 days after our jump. So, we know at some point, it's all a crap shoot - you can take all the immediate risk out of your life and still die completely unexpectedly from something else. So yea, despite how much I/we loved it, and how much I in particular desperately want to do it, there's a lot of factors to consider when a family is involved and it's not an easy decision to make. Quote Once you become proficient at Skydiving, after you train your mind and your body to react quickly and efficiently...you relax and enjoy similar sensations that you describe scuba diving. ONLY BETTER! I'm sure it is!! I've thought skydiving is like packing all the excitement of a 45 minute scuba dive into 60 seconds... but I'm not even sure that would adequately equal it. Maybe if you throw in an encounter with a bunch of sharks, a manta ray and a whale, then it'd be the equivalent of a single sky dive. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mjosparky 3 #61 June 27, 2012 QuoteI think with the proper mindset, preparation and training, skydiving could already be pretty damn safe. A large part of the sports appeal to me is to perform under stress, to plan a dive in a way that minimizes the risk and not least of all the thrill to overcome my instinct of not putting myself in danger. I think skr summarizes it pretty good: I don't like being afraid but I like what I've learned from it. I'd be happy if everyone would stay safe and avoid being hurt, but I do not think this will ever be possible. The initial assumption aside, I agree with the general opinion that for every push towards making sydiving safer, the limits of the sport will be pushed at least as far into the opposite direction. My AAD is infallible? Ok, so why pull at 3k? 1,5k will do, right? And the ground rush is so much better! There is a swoop limiter on my canopy? Let's tweek it to swoop longer and faster than my buddies! Look at the development in the motorbike market. You get all sorts of electronic assistance these days, and of course the motorheads use them not to make riding safer by staying at the same level, but to hold the risk as high as before while riding a lot faster. That's just the way it is. There will always be a lot of people ready to accept risks in order to stand out, get thrilled or whatever, and the skydiving scene is one big spot where you can find them. I'm not sure I can exclude myself from this group. Taking the risk away would change the sport completely. But a nice discussion, though ;) http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/safety/detail_page.cgi?ID=19 SparkyMy idea of a fair fight is clubbing baby seals Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Shredex 0 #62 June 27, 2012 Naw, I prefer my container be filled with steak knife's, spoons, and a copy of Justin Bieber's DVD titled "Never Say Never". YOLO! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DaVinciflies 0 #63 June 27, 2012 Quote With regard to having family, the main "risk" skydiving poses is probably financial. nope...divorce In my case, divorce caused my skydiving! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jinlee 0 #64 June 28, 2012 Quote The point is moot. Skydiving will never be 100% safe. Not that it isn't a worthy goal, just an ultimately unattainable one. Life will never be safe! lol don't worry about dying, worry about breaking your neck and living. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rss_v 0 #65 June 28, 2012 Quote don't worry about dying, worry about breaking your neck and living. Fact Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
