skydiving fear

[Icefalcon5 0]

hey all, im really new to this and hope im posting in the right place.

i am working on my AFF, i only have 2 AFF jumps. Im not gonna lie it scares the hell out of me haha
is that normal?
i watch other ppl up there jump out of the plane like its nothing and i wonder does everyone start out with this fear and it just goes away as your force yourself to do it?

i mean i feel like i love skydiving, i love watching videos, talking about it, i love being in the air, but i hate leaving the plane! haha and the plane ride up makes me crazy nervous, maybe i just think to much. but am i alone in this? is skydiving not for me haha

[auburnguy 0]

If your not scared somethings wrong with you. I was scared shitless until AFF6, then something happened and it all got better. I only have 40 jumps but I still have the fear in the back of my head, especially after getting injured last month. Talk to high jump # guys at your DZ and ask them about it.

"If you don't like your job, you don't strike! You just go in every day, and do it really half assed. That's the American way."
- Homer Simpson

[labrys 0]

Quote

hey all, im really new to this and hope im posting in the right place.

i am working on my AFF, i only have 2 AFF jumps. Im not gonna lie it scares the hell out of me haha
is that normal?
i watch other ppl up there jump out of the plane like its nothing and i wonder does everyone start out with this fear and it just goes away as your force yourself to do it?

i mean i feel like i love skydiving, i love watching videos, talking about it, i love being in the air, but i hate leaving the plane! haha and the plane ride up makes me crazy nervous, maybe i just think to much. but am i alone in this? is skydiving not for me haha

Most people feel some fear / anxiety about jumping. If you think that your fear will prevent you from handling problems then skydiving isn't a good idea. If you think you can push through your fear and deal with an emergency then you're on your way.

If you handle asking questions that make you uncomfortable with a few "haha" kind of quirks that's normal. If you think that "haha" will help in an emergency think twice.

Owned by Remi #?

[Icefalcon5 0]

i dont know if im cursed or what, but in my two jumps ive had two malfunctions. nothing huge but scary to a begginer. jump 1 was end cell closure, really not a big deal. but jump two was line twist, it was freaky but i kicked out of it pretty quick. i definatly dont panic and lock up. i just dont like the fear. it sounds like it will prob go away tho, im glad to know other ppl were freaked out too haha

[bfilarsky 0]

As another newb, I can say yes, I feel the fear too. When I'm riding the plane up, I get a little nervous. Everyone is different, but for me, as soon as I'm out of the airplane, I'm not the least bit nervous anymore - go figure. I've become less and less nervous the more I do it though.

[CSpenceFLY 1]

You can probably plan on some anxiety till about 50 jumps or so. If jumping out of a plane does not scare you a little I would worry about you.

[Moose123 0]

IMHO you'll be scared about something for a long while, right now it's the fact of getting out of a plane, then oneday you'll be put in a 4 way or bigger and be scarred shitless because you've never done that before and so on ... if it wasn't scary everyone would jump out of planes.

[auburnguy 0]

Quote

i dont know if im cursed or what, but in my two jumps ive had two malfunctions. nothing huge but scary to a begginer. jump 1 was end cell closure, really not a big deal. but jump two was line twist, it was freaky but I kicked out of it pretty quick. I definatly dont panic and lock up. I just dont like the fear. it sounds like it will prob go away tho, im glad to know other ppl were freaked out too haha

I'm not sure I would classify those as malfunctions, more of nuisances.
My nervousness let up early on with respect to jumping by myself but thats because I'm completely insane. Don't get me wrong, I still get nervous just not nearly as nervous as I did early on.
I was just concerned about jumping with others early on because I didn't want to kill anyone else.

"If you don't like your job, you don't strike! You just go in every day, and do it really half assed. That's the American way."
- Homer Simpson

[monkycndo 0]

How you think of something affects how you react to it. Instead of thinking of it at anxiety/fear/nerves, think of it as anticipation. The first three are often thought of as bad and the latter as good. That little twitch in your stomach just means your body is ready to respond. I consider that a good thing.

50 donations so far. Give it a try.

You know you want to spank it
Jump an Infinity

[Chubba 0]

Mines finally going away, I've done AFF6.

I wish I could say it will keep getting easier, but for me the move from 2 instructors to 1, floating exit to diving exit, plus the "release" dive on AFF4 was 100x worse then AFF1... so I guess you have that to look foward to :)

From then on it got easier though, now I really enjoy the diving exit and got angry because my instructor wouldn't release me till we hit terminal

Also, SMILE! Just make a joke of the whole situation and smile the entire ride up, on your way to the exit and the entire freefall... it definietely helps.

[stinkyho 0]

Oh yeah, don't worry, you'll get over it. I have almost 200 jumps. I had anxiety on the first jump of the year this year, but it was mostly due to the funky winds. Getting out of the plane is usually the hardest part when you're first starting. It's at opening altitude or landing that the anxiety comes when you're more experienced.

Getting out of the plane is the easiest part now!!

[pcnut 0]

As someone who just started AFF last month I can remember that fear like it was yesterday....(well it practically was)

For me the first 4 were nothing short of terrifying....

The next 4 were just extremely scary and my first solo was back to terrifying

I also wondered at some point during AFF if I was just one of those people that would never 'get it'

Around jump 11 or 12 the fear of jumping in general turned into fear of looking like an idoit on my exit...(which were a bit short of graceful)

Now I just get scared I will only get 6 jumps in for the entire day... j/k I still get the 'flutters' in my stomach on most rides to altitude but it hardly qualifies as fear compared to what I used to go through.

For the first 9 jumps on the ride to altitude I seriously considered landing with the plane but always jumped. I would say you are going through exactly what most, if not all, new jumpers do.

And now that I feel halfway compent with my exits jumping out has become my favorite part...

Good luck and just stay with it!

cya,
pcnut

[blackout 0]

I get end cell closures on every jump only had 1 line twist. it was scary but hey. I only have 39 jumps and im still fearful sometimes especially when doing new stuff

[pontiacgtp00 0]

I used to get pretty scared on the ride to altitude, but it subsided a good bit at about jump 10 or so. I kinda miss it because it always made the ride to altitude feel "shorter" I guess. Now the 20 or 25 minute ride feels like forever! I get more nervous now when I pull and it feels like it takes longer for the parachute to deploy even though it hasn't really changed.

[maestrabella67 0]

Isn't being scared normal? Especially after only 2 jumps?

What's weird for me is that I wasn't totally scared Sunday when I did AFF1, but last night as I was falling asleep it suddenly hit me... I did THAT?? I got scared in retrospect! But it's not enough to keep me from continuing! I have a feeling, though, that when I get to having NO instructor holding me in free fall that I'm going to be a little more (ok, a lot more!) nervous.

From what I've been reading on here, you will get over it. Hang in there, fellow student/newbie!!

[MomDaBomb 0]

The process of feeling that fear and pushing through it is what makes it so worth while for me.

[Icefalcon5 0]

haha thanks everyone, this makes me feel a lot better knowing it will prob get easier. im stickin with it dont worry

[VincentVL. 0]

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As another newb, I can say yes, I feel the fear too. When I'm riding the plane up, I get a little nervous. Everyone is different, but for me, as soon as I'm out of the airplane, I'm not the least bit nervous anymore - go figure. I've become less and less nervous the more I do it though.

seconded

[kgreen41986 0]

I have 80 jumps and I'm not really fearful jumping.The fear that you're experiencing does diminish quite a bit as you continue skydiving. At my college's club a static line student with ~8 jumps accidentally did about a 20 second delay when he should have did a 10 sec delay and scared the fear of death into him. He was really scared after this as he did not do it intentionally. I was speaking with his instructor and his thought on the jump was that although he did pull late, the fear can be a good teacher. We talked to him and got him to come out last weekend (he wasn't sure if he wanted to continue skydiving) and he made an excellent jump and enjoyed it much.
Anyways, learn from your fear and examine yourself... you can actually learn quite a bit about the psychology of fear from skydiving. So, stick with it and you'll learn to be less scared (a little fear is healthy and normal).

[poe62 0]

The only time I've been scared was under canopy the first few times. I'm a heck of a lot more comfortable now. The only time I get a twinge of real nervousness hitting me is when a cross wind rattles my canopy. It's an unsettling feeling, but it keeps me alert at all times. Fear is a good thing. Don't let it overtake you, but don't forget it completely either.

~Nikki
http://www.facebook.com/poe62

Irgity Dirgity

[Tuna-Salad 0]

Same here, I had a case of the door monster recently. It subsides after a while and becomes normal. Do it 4-5 times a day and you will be pretty relaxed.

Millions of my potential children died on your daughters' face last night.