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patworks

Whuffo they say that anyhow?

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Q: the Whuffo conundrum --On first learning you’re a skydiver, what stimulates non-skydivers to proclaim their individual emotions Re. jumping from airplanes? Some react like you’ve touched a nerve. Why do folks describe how they feel about skydiving when they were not asked that question? Any ideas? I’ve wondered for 50 years Whuffo they say that anyhow? . . . Anyone?
Pat Works nee Madden Travis Works, Jr .B1575, C1798, D1813, Star Crest Solo#1, USPA#189,

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I tend to think it's the long held and somewhat ill informed notion that those who Skydive are 'unstable' so to speak. :D

The times I've seen it happen, it's more of a 'never thought YOU were THAT way, stay away from my kids' kinda thing. :$


That and the ever present tales from said Whuffos regarding their uncles friends brothers babysitters boyfriend that cratered in ...traumatizing forever the bus load of pregnant nuns who witnessed the carnage! :o:ph34r:


What's even worse is how when someone learns that you jump, they feel the necessity to recall for you all the 'crazy' things they've done...usually it a manner of one-upmanship. :S











~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

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Q: the Whuffo conundrum --On first learning you’re a skydiver, what stimulates non-skydivers to proclaim their individual emotions Re. jumping from airplanes? Some react like you’ve touched a nerve. Why do folks describe how they feel about skydiving when they were not asked that question? Any ideas? I’ve wondered for 50 years Whuffo they say that anyhow? . . . Anyone?



When you say that you skydive, you set a bar directly in front of that person. He can not ignore it. His brain automatically sizes up whether or not he can rise above the bar or if it is a limitation. Chances are this person has no knowledge base to work with on the subject and blurts out the result of his view of that bar.

I've noticed that, too. Always within the first 2 thoughts from that person is a declaration of whether he is capable of rising above that bar. Usually he will not and defends his decision with the old "Why would anybody jump out of a perfectly good airplane?" defense.
Peace,
-Dawson.
http://www.SansSuit.com
The Society for the Advancement of Naked Skydiving

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Q: the Whuffo conundrum --On first learning you’re a skydiver, what stimulates non-skydivers to proclaim their individual emotions Re. jumping from airplanes? Some react like you’ve touched a nerve. Why do folks describe how they feel about skydiving when they were not asked that question? Any ideas? I’ve wondered for 50 years Whuffo they say that anyhow? . . . Anyone?


99 out of 100 people don't even know that it's possible for virtually anybody to go to a DZ and start jumping out of planes on their own, as a sport. They likely know that people do jump out of planes every now and then, but they probably feel about as distant from the idea of skydiving as they feel from going to the moon. So they're probably just very surprised to actually meet somebody doing something that's almost unreal to them.

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Q: the Whuffo conundrum --On first learning you’re a skydiver, what stimulates non-skydivers to proclaim their individual emotions Re. jumping from airplanes? Some react like you’ve touched a nerve. Why do folks describe how they feel about skydiving when they were not asked that question? Any ideas? I’ve wondered for 50 years Whuffo they say that anyhow? . . . Anyone?



Fear of the unknown?

Man's innate fear of falling?
My reality and yours are quite different.
I think we're all Bozos on this bus.
Falcon5232, SCS8170, SCSA353, POPS9398, DS239

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Q: the Whuffo conundrum --On first learning you’re a skydiver, what stimulates non-skydivers to proclaim their individual emotions Re. jumping from airplanes? Some react like you’ve touched a nerve. Why do folks describe how they feel about skydiving when they were not asked that question? Any ideas? I’ve wondered for 50 years Whuffo they say that anyhow? . . . Anyone?



When you say that you skydive, you set a bar directly in front of that person. He can not ignore it. His brain automatically sizes up whether or not he can rise above the bar or if it is a limitation. Chances are this person has no knowledge base to work with on the subject and blurts out the result of his view of that bar.

I've noticed that, too. Always within the first 2 thoughts from that person is a declaration of whether he is capable of rising above that bar. Usually he will not and defends his decision with the old "Why would anybody jump out of a perfectly good airplane?" defense.



Yeah, that's what I'm thinking.


"Don't! Get! Eliminated!"

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Well its prolly the same sort of reaction you would give if you met someone who defuses bombs, wrestles crocodiles, tames big cats or handles venomous snakes.

Its a lack of understanding why anyone of sound mind would put themselves in a life threatening situation on a daily basis, and is based on total ignorance of what is actually involved...hence the normal reaction of "you're crazy". which helps to reassure them that they are one of the sane majority.

People are uncomfortble with the unknown, and need to assure themselves that they are not the odd ones out (and therefore normal) in these situations....
My computer beat me at chess, It was no match for me at kickboxing....

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Well its prolly the same sort of reaction you would give if you met someone who defuses bombs, wrestles crocodiles, tames big cats or handles venomous snakes.

Its a lack of understanding why anyone of sound mind would put themselves in a life threatening situation on a daily basis, and is based on total ignorance of what is actually involved...hence the normal reaction of "you're crazy". which helps to reassure them that they are one of the sane majority.

People are uncomfortble with the unknown, and need to assure themselves that they are not the odd ones out (and therefore normal) in these situations....

yeah but those guys ARE crazy :ph34r:;)

MAKE EVERY DAY COUNT
Life is Short and we never know how long we are going to have. We must live life to the fullest EVERY DAY. Everything we do should have a greater purpose.

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Well its prolly the same sort of reaction you would give if you met someone who defuses bombs, wrestles crocodiles, tames big cats or handles venomous snakes.

Its a lack of understanding why anyone of sound mind would put themselves in a life threatening situation on a daily basis, and is based on total ignorance of what is actually involved...hence the normal reaction of "you're crazy". which helps to reassure them that they are one of the sane majority.

People are uncomfortble with the unknown, and need to assure themselves that they are not the odd ones out (and therefore normal) in these situations....

yeah but those guys ARE crazy :ph34r:;)


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

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...defends his decision with the old "Why would anybody jump out of a perfectly good airplane?" defense...
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

When they ask me that I tell them "It's the safest way to get a parachute ride."

I play regularly at a bar at an open-mike event. Last year an old sky friend came out wearing her DZ t-shirt. One of the other musicians said "You guys don't look like skydivers!" Damn. 30 years and I still don't look the part. Sigh.

Cheers,
Jon S.

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This:
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I've noticed that, too. Always within the first 2 thoughts from that person is a declaration of whether he is capable of rising above that bar. Usually he will not and defends his decision with the old "Why would anybody jump out of a perfectly good airplane?" defense.



Plus this:
Quote

Well its prolly the same sort of reaction you would give if you met someone who defuses bombs, wrestles crocodiles, tames big cats or handles venomous snakes.

Its a lack of understanding why anyone of sound mind would put themselves in a life threatening situation on a daily basis, and is based on total ignorance of what is actually involved...hence the normal reaction of "you're crazy". which helps to reassure them that they are one of the sane majority. .



Whuffos greatly over-presume the risk of fatality in sport skydiving, PLUS, they wrongly presume that the most likely cause of fatality is catastrophic double malfunction, PLUS, they greatly over-presume the likelihood of catastrophic double malfunction.

Oh, I almost forgot. It's also this:
Quote

it's the long held and somewhat ill informed notion that those who Skydive give a shit what they think about skydiving.



"Thank you for your unsolicited opinion, Sir. You can shut the fuck up now."

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I think we need to respond intelligently to people who comment about skydiving. They comment because of lack of understanding and that is not their fault. I might comment to someone about water skiing which I know nothing about and sound really stupid. The point is cut people a break if we want to promote the sport. And we should care about what people think if we want to remain reputable but we obviously can not make people think something. We can only educate them to the best of our abilities. Maybe some of us actually have bigger heads and think others really give a damn when they don't and are just trying to make conversation.

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Q: the Whuffo conundrum --On first learning you’re a skydiver, what stimulates non-skydivers to proclaim their individual emotions Re. jumping from airplanes? Some react like you’ve touched a nerve. Why do folks describe how they feel about skydiving when they were not asked that question? Any ideas? I’ve wondered for 50 years Whuffo they say that anyhow? . . . Anyone?


99 out of 100 people don't even know that it's possible for virtually anybody to go to a DZ and start jumping out of planes on their own, as a sport. They likely know that people do jump out of planes every now and then, but they probably feel about as distant from the idea of skydiving as they feel from going to the moon. So they're probably just very surprised to actually meet somebody doing something that's almost unreal to them.



+1

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I was in a public laundry the other day. A pretty girl was talking to some guy about New York City. She said she would never, ever go there again.....unless she was parachuting into Central Park and then got a helicopter ride out. I immediately responded " are you a skydiver ? I am too ". She said hell no, I'm scared of heights. I of course said there is no virtigo effect in a plane. I think she thought I was full of BS about being a jumper....a perfectly normal thing in my world. I could tell she felt pressured on the subject, so we changed the conversation to driving big rigs in the snow and ice......we went on to talking about driving in the snow for a good half hour........[:/].......but she was cute so what the heck.......what ever she is comfortable with....:S

Life is short ... jump often.

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Hi Pat

You've been around forever, been there done, and even wrote books about it.

FWIW The first time we heard the term Wuffo was while jumping in Ks and the DZ is sorrounded by farmers.

Farmer wals out . seeone landing in his crops and say wuffo? or wuffa?.

Farmers are hard working folks, multi skilled. working in in a very dangerous occupation and have all different kinds of regional accents.

Just because some people are jumpers , welll good for you you payed for it. Now anyone that has some $$ can do a tandem get the video and call them selves skydivers.B|

Whats the point of belittleing, the tandem people, the posers the wanna be's and the people that look down at jumpers because they don't know the facts and aren't interesst in learning.

The sport in now a industry, a dummy ripcord pull was changed to a practice ripcord pull etc. When sone one is paying $100's of dollars it not nice to call refer to them as dummies ;)

Calling people wuffo's isn't very nice either. How about something like a "UP" Just made that one up.:$ A UP would be a uninformed person. or some other texting term. A poser? PO. A one jump tandem person. A tandem Jumper;)

A professional skydiver' whats that .? I'd dont have a clue what a that is except they might be a full time jumper that can make a living doing it on a fulltime basis.


IMO The indusrty and the sport needs to change their lingo with the times.

Nice talking with you Mr Works.

R

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I think we need to respond intelligently to people who comment about skydiving. They comment because of lack of understanding and that is not their fault. I might comment to someone about water skiing which I know nothing about and sound really stupid. The point is cut people a break if we want to promote the sport. And we should care about what people think if we want to remain reputable but we obviously can not make people think something. We can only educate them to the best of our abilities. Maybe some of us actually have bigger heads and think others really give a damn when they don't and are just trying to make conversation.



I'll go along with that. I've lost count of the number of people I've talked into having a go at skydiving. Many of them spproached me with the hackneyed old line....

I regard them all as potential skydivers at best, and money in my pocket at worst. If you come across as "normal" to them, they can picture themselves actually doing it. My response to the "you must be mad" comment is simply: "hey if we were mad, we'd be dead".
My computer beat me at chess, It was no match for me at kickboxing....

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Q: the Whuffo conundrum --On first learning you’re a skydiver, what stimulates non-skydivers to proclaim their individual emotions Re. jumping from airplanes? Some react like you’ve touched a nerve. Why do folks describe how they feel about skydiving when they were not asked that question? Any ideas? I’ve wondered for 50 years Whuffo they say that anyhow? . . . Anyone?



A few weeks back a collegue asked me to donate a bit of internal tissue to their research project as they needed healthy volunteers, especially male ones.
They explained that the procedure was quite harmless and that "it wouldn't hurt a bit". I'd seen and assisted at several of these procedures, and knew that the patients have little discomfort except for a slight burning sensation when the local anaesthetic starts kicking in. My collegue assured me the tissue would grow back.
I have no problem with needles in general and don't flinch at donating blood or getting vaccine shots.
However, painless or not, I just couldn't handle the idea of this very long needle entering my body and taking a bit of tissue out of me, while it wasn't really necessary.

So I replied with a heartfelt "I'm sorry, but I'd rather go jump out of an airplane".

The point? Comfort zone. What is normal to one person is crazy to another.
My collegue cheerfully had such a biopsy taken, but wouldn't jump out of airplanes if you paid them.
For me, it's exactly the other way around.
"That formation-stuff in freefall is just fun and games but with an open parachute it's starting to sound like, you know, an extreme sport."
~mom

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Agreed 100% that calling people wuffo's isnt nice and is in same kindred as using the n word. Other people have their own interests and maybe we could validate the sport by HONESTLY being interested in their hobbies rather than back to me and skydivng skydiving skydiving. The world revolves around diversity and we as skydivers owe it to others to live and let live.

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Well its prolly the same sort of reaction you would give if you met someone who defuses bombs, wrestles crocodiles, tames big cats or handles venomous snakes.


What about people who defuse bombs with one hand, tame lions with the other, all while having a king cobra wrapped around their neck and crocs strapped to their shoes while in free fall?
You stop breathing for a few minutes and everyone jumps to conclusions.

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Well its prolly the same sort of reaction you would give if you met someone who defuses bombs, wrestles crocodiles, tames big cats or handles venomous snakes.


What about people who defuse bombs with one hand, tame lions with the other, all while having a king cobra wrapped around their neck and crocs strapped to their shoes while in free fall?


You mean SEALs?
This is the paradox of skydiving. We do something very dangerous, expose ourselves to a totally unnecesary risk, and then spend our time trying to make it safer.

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Well its prolly the same sort of reaction you would give if you met someone who defuses bombs, wrestles crocodiles, tames big cats or handles venomous snakes.


What about people who defuse bombs with one hand, tame lions with the other, all while having a king cobra wrapped around their neck and crocs strapped to their shoes while in free fall?

You mean SEALs?


Dude

I think devil dogs are marines, but of course you already knew that and you were just joking.[:/]

R.

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