When did you stop being nervous?

[LordRatner 0]

About jump 75 I stopped being afraid of jumping out of a plane.

My first time out of a balloon, at jump 120, was a different story. LOL

[timbarrett 0]

Funny thing i have noticed is that, while i am still nervous, i feel a lot calmer if I am jumping with or leaving the plane just before someone who is clearly more nervous/scared than I am...i guess it is that i feel if they can overcome their fears then i shouldn't have so much to worry about...
for me the first 1500' in the plane is the worst but i also love the butterflies you get when you feel the lurch in the aircraft as the first chunk leaves the door...once I am in the door it's too late to worry and time to have fun!

"Work hard, play hard and don't whinge"

[Foggy 0]

Tuesday. Then I know the check has cleared.

Foggy

[sagan 0]

To take off on the complacency and safety messages --

Make sure you ARE distinguishing between being nervous (normal as others have said) and feeling rushed/unprepared.

I know that wasn't part of your original question and I'll let others weigh in... to me, feeling rushed (trying to make a load, having people expect you to jump at green without looking and taking your time) is something you CAN control and is something you should not get used to.

Any others have thoughts?

-Patrick

[chrismgtis 0]

The first jump (a tandem) I wasn't all that nervous. I had faith that my instructor knew what he was doing and considering he had thousands of jumps I figured why in the hell would this one happen to be the one that someone gets killed on. That pretty much got rid of the fear mostly for me.

On AFF levels 1-4 I was nervous sitting on the plane. It seemed to get worse until about my 6th jump when I was thinking to myself "Why the fuck am I doing this?". I didn't hesitate to do what I came to do though.

After that I pretty much just learned to relax and have faith in the gear and what I had learned. Now at 22 jumps I don't really get nervous. I'm 99% calm all the way. Stepping up to the door is the only thing that really bothers me at all. The adrenaline starts hitting me, but it's more about stepping up to the edge of a 14,500 drop that takes getting used to. Your body is still worried about falling out. As an instructor told me, thats what your here for so...

It's all about learning to trust your gear, what you have learned and just looking at things a different way. Yes, it's unnatural to jump out of an airplane, but with some practice you can train yourself to get over the fear.

Although, I was never really afraid of heights all that much, but when standing on the edge of a large drop (on a tower for example) I felt like I had to grab ahold of something. It's the same way now when I step up to the door. I've learned to relax so it's no big deal.

I think what it takes to learn to calm yourself down and think positively requires a different thought process for everyone and more work for others. I never thought I would ever do something like this or that it would come so easily to me to step out out and drop 10,000 feet, but thats the thing about this sport you have no idea how your body is going to react until you do it and it's probably a entirely different experience/feeling than you ever imagined. Actually I can guarantee it is.

I get a little nervous when I jump with someone though. Not really sure why. When I jump alone it's no big deal at all.

Personally, I would rather not be nervous at all. I screw up when I am nervous not the opposite. The more calm I am the more I pay attention to what I am doing, make sure I get gear checks and everything is the way it should be. I've been nervous before and forgot to do some of these things. So I like it this way.

Rodriguez Brother #1614, Muff Brother #4033
Jumped: Twin Otter, Cessna 182, CASA, Helicopter, Caravan

[yeyo 1]

I still get nervous, but I was SCARED till about jump 40.
Driving to the DZ during AFF, I wished for rain and bad weather so I wouldnt have to jump

HISPA #93
DS #419.5

[Taikoen 0]

I still get a little nervous, but there's no fear. I feel excited and anxious for the rush. When I first started jumping I wanted time to move like normal and get over the sensory overload. I remember getting around jump 10 or so and watching the plane flying in front of and above me. At that point, I started to become much more aware of what was going on.

I thought I was doing much better with my sensory overload until I got to my A License check-out jump (I think it was jump 29 -- I must've done every coached module offered). My coach and I were doing a float exit (I was front), and I was supposed to do 360 right and left turns on heading with the plane. She said that by the time I got done, she should be in front of me and we could continue the dive. I'm sure it was a combination of the fact that I'm a total newb and she was on the World Team but in in the couple of seconds I spent immediately after the exit making sure I had good body position and was on heading she was already right in front of me.

So less nervous, yes, but still so extremely inexperienced. Plus I have a blank look on my face 90% of the time (data input mode :P), so everyone thinks I'm scared shitless on the way to altitude. People always ask me if I'm okay.

[countzero 7]

turned 35 the day of my first jump.

the nerves of "holy cannoli" i'm jumping out of a plane lessened by my 3rd jump. and i became more nervous about completing the AFF level objectives.
after my 22nd jump i wasn't "nervous". it was my first solo. after landing i realized that "i can do this!" and now the fun really begins.

i still have a healthy respect for the danger and am very safety conscious. i also know i have a long road of learning ahead but i'm glad because i know the journey is going to be a blast.

diamonds are a dawgs best friend

[ScottTX 0]

I only have 7 jumps, and I am more than nervous, I am still outright scared. On my last jump (the first one after I sustained an injury) I was so scared, downright frightened that I believe I came very close to not jumping and riding back down with the plane. Dont know where I got the courage, but I jumped.

I hope to graduate from "scared shitless" and move on to being just plain ol nervous, IF and when I start jumping again, and right now its becoming a bigger IF that I will jump again everyday that goes by that I dont jump.

Being nervous, as I have been told by other more experienced jumpers is a good thing, it keeps you from becoming complacent, and complacency can and will hurt you or kill you if you ever become that.

[L.O. 0]

Fear, fear is good. We fear at first because it's a natural response to that which we don't understand. As we become more and more familiar with jumping from a plane, the fear slowly fades.

For each person it is different.

My situation is not the norm. I was a Commercial pilot before my first jump. I started flying for skydivers the week after my first jump. I became familiar with the sport within my first 5 static line jumps.

on my fifth (last) staticline, I let go of the strut with my left hand, waved, then let go. I had very little fear after that.

Fear returned to me a year or so ago. I bought a FX 89. I couldn't get it to open well. It kept slamming me. I had several openings that took my breath away. this went on for about two months. I would jump the canopy from time to time, but only about 20 times in two months. I first experimented with packing, that didn't work. Then body position, that didn't work. Finally, I put different sliders on. Wala, this canopy now opens better then my other 89 with the X-mod.

Fear is always there, it helps us not kill ourselves. I wish I had more fear.

Fear is why I do video. Fear is why I put out more students then anyone else on the DZ. You can feel that fear, you can almost taste it. I feed on the fear of others, it's fun. If your not afraid, you'll wreck my day.

So be afraid , be very afraid.

HPDBs, I hate those guys.
AFB, charter member.

[chrismgtis 0]

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So be afraid , be very afraid.

No.

Rodriguez Brother #1614, Muff Brother #4033
Jumped: Twin Otter, Cessna 182, CASA, Helicopter, Caravan

[divegoddess 0]

I get a little antsy jumping in new places... or after i haven't jumped in a while.... or in certain cases jumping with people that i have not jumped with before.....but I stopped being utterly terrified whenI was cleared for solo. That was the best jump ever.

Now when the door opens I can't wait to get into freefall.

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[steveorino 7]

I get anxious over certain jumps (demo carrying a huge flag, trying to get a rating -- ask my tandem evaluator about me swalling puke to keep from puking on him!) But for the most part I'm not "nervous" -- I "think" it went away around 30-40 jumps.

steveOrino

[brianfry713 0]

I'm still nervous before every jump, I'm just a little less nervous during a small RW jump than I am climbing over a railing to do a BASE jump at night.

I learned a lot about fear from listening to Brian Germain's Skydive Radio interviews and during his canopy control course. He wrote a book about it too.

[Johnsisland 0]

When the static line opened my chute.
But I wasn't nervous before I let go of the strut.

I decided to jump because my Dad was in Airborne during WW2, and broke his back (somehow recovered and has reasonable function these days), and my Uncle (Dad’s younger brother) decided to jump many years later, and broke both bones in one leg (has since passed away, but most relatives these days think he was out to show my Dad he could jump, even though Dad couldn’t.) So, I was intent on “Breaking the family curse.” And I was jumping because I figured out that I had realized I was terrified of heights only when I don’t feel as though I have a reasonable level of safety. Prior to my first jump, I have been known as “The person most likely to have their eye’s closed, if higher than fifteen feet off the ground.”

I chose static line because I wasn’t 100% sure I would be able to stand outside of the plane AND let go of the strut (oh, and it was cheaper.) If I was only able to make one jump, I wanted to say I did it myself, without being attached to someone else, and without someone on either side of me, holding my harness.

I had thought about the jump a bit, and knew the plane would be fairly high off the ground, and I needed to let go of the strut, in order to jump. But I had also discovered that I was scared of heights only when I didn’t feel safe. I decided I was reasonably safe with two chutes on my back. And I was making this first jump with another guy from work, since it was first jump for both of us, there was the don’t want to back out factor.

My JM thought I was a bit different because I wasn't nervous before the jump. He thought the nerves would kick in on the walk out to the plane. They didn’t. The other guy from work had a “bit” of nerves. The plane took off, climbed, and the door opened. I sat in the door, and took a look at the drop zone (different location than the airport.) After I looked at the landing area for a “few” seconds, the JM started to say the DZ was there, and don’t worry about it…and I remember thinking then why had they been so insistent in the FJC about sitting in the door, and making sure I saw the DZ. JM said step out. I did, and SURPRISE, I was about to jump, and hadn’t chickened out. I was surprised that I wasn’t nervous when I was standing on the Cessna’s little step. JM said to GO (yep, he wanted me to go NOW, perhaps since I had spent a bit of time peering at the DZ.)

I still smile as I recall my reaction after stepping off and LOOKING DOWN. All I could think of was “OH SHIT, I AM FALLING.”

What did I think I was going to do when I stepped off and let go of the plane?

J

Guess I had visualized that I would be standing outside a plane, quite a ways off the ground, but hadn’t thought through the part after letting go of the plane.

And when I called my Dad to tell him I had jumped, he said, “I don’t believe you.” After he said he didn’t believe me a few more times, I said I had pics, and then he was silent for a bit of time. Guess he believed me then.

[PWScottIV 0]

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Hi, I have jumped two times and I was nervous as hell, my instructors told me that it would take about 10 jumps to get over that feeling. So I was wondering how many jumps it took you.
I would also like to know how old you were when you started skydiving?(I am/was 15 years old)

For me, the thing I believe helped the most was to saturate myself with knowledge. I read the SIM (almost twice now), a book called "Skydiver's Survival Guide", read every incident report (including descriptions and much of the discussions), and many, many posts on this website. I think it's helped me a lot to know what's likely to go wrong, what mistakes people have made in the past, and what I can do to minimize my risk.
I know I have a huge amount I can still learn, but I feel that I've done my best to inform myself. And if I still end up dying for some freak reason, then so be it... I mean you can go on worrying about everything for your whole life and never end up feeling alive. And then get hit by a truck or dying of cancer or some shit.
I'm definitely not recommending that anyone develop an "I'm not gonna worry about dying" mentality... I just think that if you're going to participate in any activity where you assume higher risk (including things like walking across the street), then thoroughly educating yourself about the associated risks, determining methods of mitigating those risks, and keeping them in mind during the specific key moments of the activity is an effective way to both stay safe (relatively) and have fun (not dwelling on "I could die right now").
Although I'm new to skydiving, I've been rock climbing (traditional and sport) for about 21 years now... I think my experience with climbing helped me to quickly adjust to the skydiving environment, at least with respect to my comfort level from a safety standpoint. To me, not knowing what can hurt/kill me is waaay more scary than knowing what can, especially if there are things I can do to to mitigate the risks. I hope my track record with skydiving can be as good as my climbing career... As I've only had two sprained ankles in 21 years... Interestingly enough, I've actually been way more scared being run-out 30 feet on a climb, than I've been on any skydive... Probably because the rock was gonna hit me sooner, lol. I'll have to let you know if that changes WHEN I have my first cut-away...

Gravity Waits for No One.