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Has skydiving lost the "hippy" vibe?

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I thought this sport was all about making 1 jump from 8500ft out of a 182, free love parties, tie dyed shirts, people smoking bongs after a day of making 1 jump, flailing around on the air like the brown acid will make you do and doing whatever you can to stop "the man" coming down on you.

Nowadays it seems that unless you have a matching rig/jumpsuit/sunglasses/helmet colour coordination going on, 100 hours in the tunnel and a personal trainer (see: world class coach) on tap, making a minimum of 500 jumps/year at multiple locations around the world, travelling on your own private lear jet and snorting coke with 15000 jump skygods, you are a nobody.

Discuss?

"Skydiving is a door"
Happythoughts

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I thought this sport was all about making 1 jump from 8500ft out of a 182, free love parties, tie dyed shirts, people smoking bongs after a day of making 1 jump, flailing around on the air like the brown acid will make you do and doing whatever you can to stop "the man" coming down on you.

Nowadays it seems that unless you have a matching rig/jumpsuit/sunglasses/helmet colour coordination going on, 100 hours in the tunnel and a personal trainer (see: world class coach) on tap, making a minimum of 500 jumps/year at multiple locations around the world, travelling on your own private lear jet and snorting coke with 15000 jump skygods, you are a nobody.

Discuss?



I have to ask where and who do you jump with that they make you feel that way? I've been around this sport for a long time, and not once have I ever been made to feel that way, no matter where I go and skydive.
May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds. - Edward Abbey

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Unfortunately, we have grown out of our infancy. The hippie attitude of the early years has gone by the wayside.

I think John has it right in saying,"I think yuppies are predominant today".

If you look hard enough, you can still see the shadow of a hippie being cast from those old jumpers.

We have grown up. we have to take the good with the bad. Thats the way it goes.

You could be "the one" who brings it all back, never know. Good luck.
HPDBs, I hate those guys.
AFB, charter member.

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Nowadays it seems that unless you have a matching rig/jumpsuit/sunglasses/helmet colour coordination going on, 100 hours in the tunnel and a personal trainer (see: world class coach) on tap, making a minimum of 500 jumps/year at multiple locations around the world, travelling on your own private lear jet and snorting coke with 15000 jump skygods, you are a nobody.



Oh come on, that is sooooooo last week! Now slumming is back in style, and besides that I traded the lear at the Bogota Boogie for a King Air 200 and two a half tons of blow.;)
you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

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I tend to lean toward the yuppie thing to. as the cost of things are always going up it takes a lot of money to learn this sport and get good equipment. at the end of the day though I still smell the doobies burning and hear the beer bottles opening. Don't get me wrong I think beer and doobies are good but never before I jump. I want to know that if Im ever in a situation that I have all of my senses about me.
HIGH SPEED NO DRAG

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Do you think it is just a trickle down from the change in society?

A lot of the hippie non conformists from days past are now wearing three piece suits and managing hedge funds, no?
"The restraining order says you're only allowed to touch me in freefall"
=P

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Nowadays it seems that unless you have a matching rig/jumpsuit/sunglasses/helmet colour coordination going on, 100 hours in the tunnel and a personal trainer (see: world class coach) on tap, making a minimum of 500 jumps/year at multiple locations around the world, travelling on your own private lear jet and snorting coke with 15000 jump skygods, you are a nobody.



Mr.Newbie...have you met Twardo....don't worry, he's nobody! ;)










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

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Well an AFF course (or even SL for that matter) is an awful lot of money to spend in order to go smoke dope somewhere......

And no-one wears tie dye any more (hey walt?) ;)



Really? Who else am I supposed to smoke it with, all the other accountants? They are too busy playing golf. :ph34r:

Kidding of course. :|
"The restraining order says you're only allowed to touch me in freefall"
=P

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Mr.Newbie...have you met Twardo....don't worry, he's nobody!



Feelings...nothing more than, Feelings. :P

,


My memory gets a bit fuzzy, but haven't WE watched the last cars leave a parking lot or two?! :P










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

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Most people are a mix of motives. Some people are very focused on one area.

Most people do some stuff to challenge themselves and improve their skills, but then take time to relax and play.

People choose their level and type of participation in the sport. Different people have different goals.
Those are personal choices.

For people who want the accelerated improvement, there are coaches and wind tunnels that will save the student years of practice.

When I had 60 jumps, people invited me to do stuff.
I try to do the same.

I am not as good a skydiver as the people who I pay to teach me. I am ok with compensating those professionals.

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Mr.Newbie...have you met Twardo....don't worry, he's nobody!


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Feelings...nothing more than, Feelings. :P

,


Quote

My memory gets a bit fuzzy, but haven't WE watched the last cars leave a parking lot or two?! :P


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Aaaah, the good ol' days. We should plan a reunion of the "Nobody Gang" and break the noob in the hard way!:ph34r:

Hell, I'll provide the Strippers AND Midgets...B|

.
Anvil Brother #69

Sidelined with a 5mm C5-C6 herniated disk...
Back2Back slammers and 40yr old fat guys don't mix!

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Skydivers are a cross section of society, no more, no less. We reflect what's going on in our culture at the time. Not to many hippies left, not too many hippies at the DZ either. Not too many snorting coke at my DZ either. The 80s are over, thank goodness. :P

Still, DZs take that cross section of society and bring it together like no other place. I skydive to skydive, but I enjoy that social mix on the ground. I get to know a lot of folks I would never know otherwise. B|

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I travelling on your own private lear jet and snorting coke with 15000 jump skygods, you are a nobody?

you forgot the busty blonde Ukrainian packers :D

Hey where do I sign up ??:D
scissors beat paper, paper beat rock, rock beat wingsuit - KarlM

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Hell, I'll provide the Strippers AND Midgets...B|






You said that last time..and the one legged stripper WAS a midget! [:/]




If he was bald with an eye patch, I need a contact number.:)

Bastage knocked up my dog! >:(










~ "Pack Fast, Pull Low... and Date Your Riggers WIFE!" ~

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I prefer not to draw attention to myself so nobody status doesn't bother me much.



Dude i totally know what you mean. Often i get chills just thinking about making that 1 jump in the cold heart of winter, feeling the cold vacuum absorb me and the sensation of truly being free, then getting back on the ground, blazing up a tree and opening a can of "Doctors Tonic" (cider) while sitting around a fire, talking about how government imposed cctv on every street corner is just "The Man" keeping us down.

However, at times i feel the sudden urge to make 15 jumps/day with a worldclass freeflyer and pay a days "consultancy rate" to the top videographer on the dz who only uses a 16mm camera - somtimes IMAX - depends on his mood and who he is shooting for, and have him follow me and my new "team mate" (see: paid for jumping buddy) out so he can shoot video which i can project onto the side of my house at night to show people passing by what a "badass" i really am, while doing lines of the white off my front lawn in my new jumpsuit made from the same material that NASA uses in the new astronaut suits because it helps you get "more lift during atmonauti", do you know what i mean?

I can't be the only one juxtaposed with these feelings?!

"Skydiving is a door"
Happythoughts

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Unfortunately, we have grown out of our infancy. The hippie attitude of the early years has gone by the wayside.

I think John has it right in saying,"I think yuppies are predominant today".

If you look hard enough, you can still see the shadow of a hippie being cast from those old jumpers.

We have grown up. we have to take the good with the bad. Thats the way it goes.

You could be "the one" who brings it all back, never know. Good luck.



Thanks mate, yeah i try and do my bit, you know, wander the dz in between jumps, talking about buddhist/eastern philosophy while passing out copies (on recycled paper) of my recipe of the month (it's mung bean and cottage cheese for April!).

However, sometimes i just get the urge to toss all that paper on the campfire and chat loudly about the latest trades i made in the market, and how my portfolio is up 45% year on year through my investment in the tobacco industry, while sipping champagne in my $500 hand stitched jumpsuit made from chinchilla fur.

It's a problem that others surely must be able to relate to?

"Skydiving is a door"
Happythoughts

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Do you think it is just a trickle down from the change in society?

A lot of the hippie non conformists from days past are now wearing three piece suits and managing hedge funds, no?



Really? My hedge fund manager is only 28 and doesn't even know what decade the 60's were in. :o

What am i even talking about! I don't have a hedge fund, and the only 28 year olds i know are into the Grateful Dead and all want to live in San Francisco, circa 1961-3 (before the "commercialisation" of the mid/late 60's happened).

I'm so confused!

"Skydiving is a door"
Happythoughts

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