When was your skydiving epiphany?

[npgraphicdesign 2]

When did you realize that you're not just trying skydiving a few times, but you've actually fallen in love with the sport?

My epiphany was jump #11. I was at about 2000 feet playing around under canopy right above the landing area, and I saw another skydiver about 500 feet away from me. No biggie, as I was used to seeing other insane people under a parachute in the same airspace. Then, when i glanced at the other skydiver again, I saw a hawk soaring right between us. It was not flying away, not diving down to nail some poor unsuspecting field mouse, but it was just soaring in the wind. At that moment, all I could think was "Wow. This is incredible. I'm so glad I started jumping out of a plane"

Cheesy I know...but works for me.

What was your 'moment'?

[shah269 0]

WOW.....hu....well...I bought all 21 jumps for the AFF upfront. Before I even did my first jump.
Which I'm told is kind of odd.
How did I know I wanted to do this? I had this funny feeling I would find peace via partaking in this sport.
And after three jumps I can say it has brought me a good amount of inner peace and this sport will help me keep this level of peace.
Shah

Life through good thoughts, good words, and good deeds is necessary to ensure happiness and to keep chaos at bay.

The only thing that falls from the sky is birdshit and fools!

[airtwardo 6]

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When did you realize that you're not just trying skydiving a few times, but you've actually fallen in love with the sport?

Jump number 2.

I was young & dumb, but I knew I'd stumbled upon something that was life altering in more ways than I could fathom.

I was right.

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

[flyfast1966 0]

Jump # 2, My second AFF. I knew this was for me.

[DShiznit 0]

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Jump # 2, My second AFF. I knew this was for me.

same here......

[rlucus 0]

I knew I was going to be a skydiver long before I jumped but it was #5 when I had my moment...

I'll start this off by saying I'm terrified of heights.
It was 1 weekend after my first jump and the first time I did more than 1 jump a day. I huddled up to the door of the caravan with my instructor at my side. I looked over the edge with butterflies in my stomach and my brain screaming "hold on so you don't fall..." Then a second voice calmly said "so what if you do?"


Yes I have voices in my head that tell me to jump out of planes

[wmw999 2,122]

While I was taking the FJC I was offered the choice between a logbook and a first jump certificate. I took the logbook
But it really, really epiphanized on my first freefall. My last few static lines had been incredibly stressful and fearful, but the first freefall was magic.

Wendy P.

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)

[ufk22 32]

Actually happened twice.
1st time, 1st jump. Static line, as soon as I let go of the strut, watched the airplane "jump" away from me, everything got quiet and still.....
2nd time, around 200 jumps, got down from a 16 way at Quincey and realized I had done my job without having to stress out about it, but also could remember everything else that went on in the dive. I no longer had to spend the skydive just focusing on what I needed to do.

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.

[skybytch 259]

When I landed after my first jump (static line), I asked Paul, who had come out to help me pick up the canopy, if he was sure it was legal. Cuz nothing that fun should be legal.

19 years later, I still feel the same.

[Baksteen 84]

During my first jump...

I had line twists after the static line pulled for me...and I laughed. Then I solved the line twists.

I knew I was hooked.

"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

[mircan 0]

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Jump number 2.

I was young & dumb, but I knew I'd stumbled upon something that was life altering in more ways than I could fathom.

I was right.

+1

dudeist skydiver #42

[BikerBabe 0]

jump #1

I fell for 10 seconds, pulled, my big round parachute opened and i thought two things:

1: "I did it!"
2: "OMG, i HAVE to do this again!"

Even if i hadn't made the Academy team, i would have found a way to jump again anyway after my initial 5.

Never meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!

[fasted3 0]

I wanted to fly in a wingsuit from the moment I saw one, but had convinced myself that I was too old. What the heck, I could at least do a tandem, so off I went. There was a guy jumping that was even older than me, and before we took off he told me that he had just ordered a wingsuit. I think that was it for me. The jump was just a formality.

But what do I know?

[shah269 0]

You know it's like sex.
You know you want to do it from the age of 2.
Then you do do it and well...you have to do it again and again ang again!

Life through good thoughts, good words, and good deeds is necessary to ensure happiness and to keep chaos at bay.

The only thing that falls from the sky is birdshit and fools!

[Andy9o8 0]

During S/L progression, it was on my first stable 10-second delay. What with the sensory overload (and often not being stable ) on the first few seconds of each prior jump, it was the first time I was able to take a deep breath, look around at the terrain in freefall and say "Wow!" aloud before it was time to pull. In my mind, it was the first time that I was doing more than just jumping out of a plane and riding a (round) parachute back down: I was actually skydiving.

[npgraphicdesign 2]

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You know it's like sex.
You know you want to do it from the age of 2.
Then you do do it and well...you have to do it again and again ang again!

What do you know? You only have 3 jumps..

Or is that also the amount of times you've had sex?

[madhatter 0]

5 years before my first jump. I wanted to skydive at 16, but my dad wouldn't sign the waiver.

My 1st jump was 9 days after my 21st birthday

A VERY MERRY UNBIRTHDAY TO YOU!!!
D.S # 125

[JerryBaumchen 1,048]

Hi Jim,

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Jump number 2.

I was young & dumb, but I knew I'd stumbled upon something that was life altering in more ways than I could fathom.

I was right.

That was about it for me, also. I bought a rig after my 2nd jump; paid all of $125 for it.

But the 'real' hook got sunk at about jump #30 or so when a long-time friend, with all of ~40 jumps more than me, said to go out & fall stable. The next thing I know he is in a track/swoop and grabs my hands for a 2-way.

Almost as good as when you're doing the nasty and she grabs you by the buttocks and says, "You're mine!"



JerryBaumchen

[bob.dino 0]

Jump #9.

I started AFF to prove to myself that I could do it. It scared the snot out of me.

In Australia, AFF Stage 7 includes backloops. We were between 8 and 9k and had just done the backflips and my instructor was grinning like an idiot. Something in my head unclenched, I felt a huge grin steal across my face and I can still clearly remember thinking "So this is why they do it!"

I decided to do 25 jumps or so. When I hit 20, I figured I'd do a couple of hundred. Getting close to that mark, I was training 4-way for Nationals, and I said "500". Somewhere around the 400 mark, I decided to shut up and jump until it was no longer fun.... and last week I did the Arizona Challenge. Complex 78-ways from 16k5. Still fun!

[skinnay 0]

Jump #1. The first time i felt something i could only describe as beautiful. After years of an existential crisis, i finally found something thats "good enough" to cope with such a small existence in an infinite universe.

[airtwardo 6]

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Jump #1. The first time i felt something i could only describe as beautiful. After years of an existential crisis, i finally found something thats "good enough" to cope with such a small existence in an infinite universe.

You should try fryin' ants with a magnifying glass...works for me whenever the ole existential crisis thing rears it's ugly head!

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

[shah269 0]

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What do you know? You only have 3 jumps..

Or is that also the amount of times you've had sex?

Ouch burn.....
I know I like it and want more of it! Give me give me!

Life through good thoughts, good words, and good deeds is necessary to ensure happiness and to keep chaos at bay.

The only thing that falls from the sky is birdshit and fools!

[npgraphicdesign 2]

Wait...so how many jumps do you have? :P

[SivaGanesha 2]

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When did you realize that you're not just trying skydiving a few times, but you've actually fallen in love with the sport?

I've had many epiphanies but probably the first was on my second jump back in the 1980's--like the first jump it was a static line jump under a round but unlike the first, everything was perfect on the second jump--I had a good exit and did a good PLF.

Even more so than the jump itself, though, was the observation that, out of a FJC of about forty first jumpers, I was almost the only one who came back for #2. I realized immediately that I was 'drawn' to the sport in a way that most people weren't. Most people just wanted the T-shirt but I wanted to be a skydiver.

"It's hard to have fun at 4-way unless your whole team gets down to the ground safely to do it again!"--Northern California Skydiving League re USPA Safety Day, March 8, 2014

[grannyinthesky 0]

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When did you realize that you're not just trying skydiving a few times, but you've actually fallen in love with the sport?

Jump number 2.

I was young & dumb, but I knew I'd stumbled upon something that was life altering in more ways than I could fathom.

I was right.

Yep, except when I did jump number 2, I wasn't young and dumb anymore. Old and foolish maybe, but I sure wouldn't want it any other way.

"safety first... and What the hell.....
safety second, Too!!! " ~~jmy

POPS #10490