Did you really know the risks?

[MarkM 0]

I spent a solid month reading the skydiving fatalities list before really getting into the sport. From what I read there it seemed to me that while risky, you really had a good amount of control over that risk.

[skydance1954 0]

Not a clue. The DZ that I did my first jump at didn't have a waiver. For that matter, they didn't even have a real FJC. I was given 15 minutes of PLF training, bundled into some gear and off we went. My reserve procedures were: " if you look up, and it isn't round, pull on this handle here."

I fell out of the plane like a sack of potatoes. Arch? Didn't know what it was since I wasn't told about it.

I went to Z-hills about 6 months later and was given a real FJC. That's when it started to really sink in. Even so, the realization that it COULD happen to me still took a while to become reality.

Ah to be 20 and that innocent again.......

Wait, that means we'd have B4s and T10s again, nevermind.

Mike Ashley
D-18460
Canadian A-666

[drae 0]

I had no idea how many different ways one could die or be permanently damaged. Some of the incidents that have happened to friends...I never thought of.

[psychoswooper 2]

I thought it was much much more dangerous than it turned out to be. Everybody lived the day I made my 1st jump and I thought that was probably not a typical day. I was absolutely astonished to find out how rare fatalities were compared to my impression.