SLATE on Skydiving

[howardwhite 5]

The online magazine Slate has a story -- keying on the recent incident when the tandem instructor died and the passenger landed safely.
You should also read the comments. One is by Doug Garr, a lon-time skydiver who has recently written a book about his skydiving career. He takes major issue with the Slate story.

HW

[Douggarr 6]

Thanks for this post, Howard. I did get a little exercised about that Slate article. I hope you thought my reply was worthy. I know my book gets out there when it comes to risk assessment, etc., but my feeling is if you're going to talk about it, talk about it honestly.

SCR-442, SCS-202, CCR-870, SOS-1353

[freestyle7457 0]

awesome reaction comments on that story...does anyone know if the author has even been on a jump before? That'd probably change his "survival" story...there's always "that guy" that likes to talk (or in this case write) about things they know little or nothing about

[Douggarr 6]

I doubt that he ever jumped, but from the tone of the story, it's obvious he spent some time around DZs. He picked up a lot of the vernacular. Part of the problem with writers who sort of survey a vast field is that they know a lot about one thing and a little about the related disciplines. I'm guilty of that as well. I once did a piece for The Village Voice, once NYC's most widely read weekly, called "A Skydiver Hangs Out," about going hang gliding. The point of my piece was to say that wow, from a skydiver's point of view, this looks really dangerous. Dan Poynter, who needs no introduction and was heavily into hang gliding at the time, read the piece, and wrote me a nasty letter basically telling me how full of shit I was. I have and always will have great respect for Dan, and that letter really stung me for quite a while. I doubt he even remembers it. Oh well, let's just keeping adding to the literature.

SCR-442, SCS-202, CCR-870, SOS-1353