How did you feel the first time you saw someone hit hard?

[Sillygirl100 0]

A few weeks ago I watched a very close friend of mine hit the ground very hard, I had never witnessed this happening to anyone before. Luckily she was ok and some how walked away with out any broken bones. I know at these times we take a step back and remember the dangers of this sport and what one wrong split decision can cost and to then be more aware and give respect to what we do... However, the image and sound of that incident is burned in my mind. Standing there so helpless waiting to see her get up, hoping she will. I haven't jumped since the ordeal, not out of fear for myself so much as fear of seeing someone dear and close to me get hurt or even retired by the sport. Do you somehow forget? Become numb to the reality of this sport? I guess I always some what walked around in denial that I, or my friends would never get hurt. I don't want to stop jumping, but I want my friends to be there in the hangar with me after every skydive. I'm sure plenty of you have been there, how did you cope?

[Vertifly 0]

I understand that feeling. The first time an incident occured at the DZ while I was there, I didn't jump for a couple of months just to think about the sport and what it meant.

But after coming up with several conclusions about skydiving, just kept going non-stop after that.

[bodypilot1 0]

Quote

Do you somehow forget?

No, you NEVER forget.

Learn from it and dont let it happen to you.



Be safe.
Ed

www.WestCoastWingsuits.com
www.PrecisionSkydiving.com

[BillyVance 34]

I have seen quite a few hit hard. A 240 lb beefy friend of mine biffed in just as I had laid my canopy on the packing tarp laid out at the LZ edge and I looked up just in time to see the impact. Broke his femur and had a concussion. We all stopped for a while until he was taken away and some of his closer friends left to go to the hospital with him while the rest of us kept jumping. We all eventually visited him in the hospital.

I've seen worse. I saw the Dead Mike incident at the WFFC 1997 when he slammed onto the runway after a canopy collision and barely survived, and I was personally involved in a another canopy collision that sent the other jumper to his death under a heavily loaded collapsed canopy earlier that year. I kept jumping. Yeah, I thought about the incidents, but I had friends in the sport to talk to, and they all encouraged me to keep jumping. Fear is healthy when taken into context, but if you let fear rule your life, you'll never enjoy it fully. Might as well take up bowling in that case.

"Mediocre people don't like high achievers, and high achievers don't like mediocre people." - SIX TIME National Champion coach Nick Saban

[Peej 0]

Quote

Quote

Do you somehow forget?

No, you NEVER forget.

Learn from it and dont let it happen to you.

That's sage advice right there Ed, thanks.

I watched a friend biff in hard at Perris last year, thankfully he didn't break anything, and i was trying to find a way to say that without sounding harsh. That's exactly what i was trying to find words to express.

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[skr 1]

>However, the image and sound of that incident
>is burned in my mind.

I still remember my first one.

We opened a couple hundred feet apart at about
1,500 ft.

He had a line over. A reserve started out, started
to tangle, pulled it back in, got one riser released,
reserve tangling in main, lower, lower, the sound
of the impact, the little ring of dust that went out.

Landing beside him, the chute was partly covering
him, raising up one edge to see who it was, the
emptiness of his facial expression, the horrible
smashed body of a vertical impact.

That was 1967.

I couldn't get it out of my mind for days. What finally
broke the obsession process was Jerry Bird telling
me that people on the ground heard him scream
just before he hit.

That made it so horrible that my processor broke.



>Do you somehow forget?
>Become numb to the reality of this sport?

I don't think I've forgotten, I just don't think about
it very often any more. It's not a new idea. The shock
and disbelief aren't there any more.

When it happens now the pain and loss and grief
are just as sharp, but they don't last as long, and
there is no longer any surprise or shock or resistance
to the idea of it even happening.


I've lost a couple hundred friends, not all of them
to skydiving, but most of them, and not all of them
close, but enough of them to be pretty painful.


I think it does somewhat explain my short fuse when
I see shitty training or corner cutting, unsafe procedure.

I can understand young guys getting carried away
with testosterone and ignorance and doing stupid stuff,
but I just don't have much tolerance for experienced
jumpers being sloppy about taking care of new ones,
or endangering others.

I want all my friends to be in the hangar at the end
of the day too.


I remember the last thing Alan said to me. We were
at Taft and he had just bought some zippy little sports
car and he wanted to show it off, so we jumped in
and he put it through its paces down to the end of the
runway and back (we were young guys doing stupid
stuff :-) :-)

After the airport manager finished chewing us out Alan
looked at me and said:

"Don't let the small minds get to you."

And then we put on our gear and went up and jumped
out and he died.



So I guess the way I cope now is I just go through the
process of feeling the loss and grief, it's a really familiar
process, and renew my efforts to watch for all the little
things, the undone chest straps, the dubious loads,
the accumulation of circumstances.

I'm pretty introverted so I tend to do it alone, but if you're
a more outward person sharing the process with a few of
the right people can really help too.

Skr

[phoenixlpr 0]

Last year I gave first aid a first timer having the same kind of injury I had 3 years ago. It was a strong feeling.

[Tonto 1]

I watched YOU biff in. And many, many others.
I think watching others biff in helps prevent you
from doing the same thing.

t

It's the year of the Pig.

[Travman 6]

I remember the first time I saw some one frap in. It was amazing to see someone hit so hard under a perfectly functioning canopy - low hook turn under a 120sqft canopy.
I don't think I will ever forget.

[phoenixlpr 0]

Try no to forget before you start flying those :).

[BRYANGOESBOOM 0]

It freaked me the fuck out


i had maby 30 jumps and only seen ppl have shity but not hard landings. The day after safety day one of the best hp canopy pilots at my dz came in hard. He was one of the ppl always talking safety and took time to show me how to be safe. he was one of the first ppl i got to know at my dz and i think thats what really got to me.

No broken bones but took him a few weeks to get back in the air

Not only will you look better, feel better, and fuck better; you'll have significantly increased your life expectancy. --Douva

[Stacy 0]

Time stands still and it etches in your memory. The sound stays with you forever.

[mattsplat 0]

In Goergia about three years ago. I wached a lady prpoboly weighing about 190 lb. Stall the canopy at about 25' She crumbled into the ground About 10' frum me. She was lucky she only shatterd her ankle.

[jerry81 10]

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Time stands still and it etches in your memory. The sound stays with you forever.

It's interesting, but try as I might, I can't remember anything I heard at the last crash that I witnessed. Guy hit maybe 10 feet from me and most of the people later commented on the sound of his leg breaking, but I guess the visual just overrode everything else in my mind.

As for the memory...yeah, it stays. And even though you might understand (or believe you do) that the ground won't move or care if you fuck up, I think seeing what happens adds a whole new dimension to it. Personally, that means the healthy dose of fear/respect I get when I'm setting up for landing now has a more defined shape in my mind...and I might chew someone's ass a bit more if I see them doing stupid things.

---

[Peej 0]

Quote

I watched YOU biff in. And many, many others.
I think watching others biff in helps prevent you
from doing the same thing.

t

Agreed.

Except in my case i watched people biff in and i kept telling myself that i'd never do it. I'd be responsible. And i was.
And then all it took was a moment of cockiness and the desire to show off and i forgot all about being responsible.
In the end it took me biffing in to teach me that i never want to do it again. Ever.

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[SkymonkeyONE 3]

Quote

I don't think I've forgotten, I just don't think about
it very often any more. It's not a new idea. The shock
and disbelief aren't there any more.

When it happens now the pain and loss and grief
are just as sharp, but they don't last as long, and
there is no longer any surprise or shock or resistance
to the idea of it even happening

These quotes from Skratch's post sum up my feelings entirely. In 24 years of skydiving I have seen many, many ugly things. I continue to jump because it's what I do. I am neither shocked nor in awe of anything I see anymore.

Chuck

[Tonto 1]

Quote

I am neither shocked nor in awe of anything I see anymore.

Chuck

I am!

I'm always amazed by how far people fly after a near vertical impact. How many points they would score for post impact gymnastics.
How some bits are so totally nailed, but their Pro Track still works fine. How a watch can nearly take your hand off when the hand stops and the watch keeps going.

Stuff like that is shockingly cool, like Quality Control breaking things to
see how strong they are.

Testing humans to distruction.

I don't like it. I don't want it to happen, but if the meat grinder must be fed, better it be fed by someone other than me or my students!

t

It's the year of the Pig.

[MarkM 0]

The last time I saw someone hit hard I was pissed. It was the day after Gus died, the media was all over the sport and the last thing we needed was another fatality that weekend at a DZ down the road from Deland. And the guy in question had no business trying to do what he was doing.

[skyyhi 0]

It will forever be etched in my memory. A teammate of mine crash landed in the swoop pond. I watched from about 800 feet above him. Scary stuff. Made me rethink for a bit, but I still got right back on the horse and went back up. Had to. Cannot let fear rule.

I've seen others, but when it is someone you know, it is just scary and hard to clear out of the brain. . .

________________________________________
Take risks not to escape life… but to prevent life from escaping. ~ A bumper sticker at the DZ
FGF #6
Darcy

[robbinschmitt 0]

I felt sick and I'll never forget the sound.
But it didn't stop me from skydiving.

[BigSky 2]

I have not spent a ton of time at the DZ yet but it happened to me on my first day there. I was doing my AFF ground school, we had just got done hanging in the harness and were taking lunch break. All of us students where setting out on the picnic tables waiting for our instructor who had gone up on the load. The spot was way off the field and one jumper turned way to low to miss a ditch and I remember seeing him bounce in the air. Then every body was running and yelling. Needless to say it scared the shit out of all of us students siting there! I was having some second thoughts but I just told myself, I knew this was dangerous before I drove out here and It is still something I want to do. Seeing that wasn't what made me realize the sport was dangerous but it sure made me realize just how dangerous low turns can be. The jumper fractured his back but is doing ok, and I am way to hooked to get scared off.

“Sometimes when I reflect back on all the beer I drink I feel ashamed. Then I look into the glass and think about the workers in the brewery and their hopes and dreams. If I didn’t drink this beer, th

[rushmc 18]

I was standing near the landing area with this girls husband. Both were frinds of mine. He and I both stood for a couple of seconds waiting (hoping) she would get up.

Got a helo ride to the hospital.

I still see it in my mind

She is doing well today but it really makes one take stock of what they are doing.

"America will never be destroyed from the outside,
if we falter and lose our freedoms,
it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
Abraham Lincoln

[Zoter 0]

Quote

No, you NEVER forget.

Learn from it and dont let it happen to you.

I saw someone go in under a fully inflated canopy at Headcorn....didnt even look that bad so all I felt was confusion when the ambulance and helo turned up....just confusion ,disbelief and profound sadness that someone having fun could be hurt like this.. these feelings were amplified when I heard he died later from his injuries.
I didnt even know him other than to look at him, cause i was new there.
I know he was loved there as a regular and hearing the pain of others loss, doesnt make my memories of the event any better

Read the quote...exactly what he said especially the second line

[dgskydive 0]

The first time I saw someone hit hard it was me!! It sucked. Everyone thought I broke my back. Kuckly I juist didn't walk right for month or so.

It sucks to see someone you know hit the ground like that! It does remind you of how fast things can go wrong in this sport. Just try and use wha they did (or did not do to learn from.

Al Frisbee once told me "You hang around this sport long enough, you will get to know a lot of dead people." At the time I thought he was an asshole. in the end he was right. The sad thing is that most of the ones that are dead could still be alive if they had just listened to the many people that told them to stop whatever it was that killed them. Those types......well.

THe ones that suck the most are the peopel that did everything right and murphy just ended up kicking there ass. Those are the ones I miss. The others I won't forget them and it is awful the way it ended. I just feel worse for there family and loved ones. They are the ones that truely suffer.

Dom

[crotalus01 0]

seen 3 people hit HARD, hard enough that all 3 times i immediately thought they were dead. one was a femur from a bad swoop, one was a bad swoop with minor injuries, and one was a double malfunction resulting in a broken pelvis, collarbone, and punctured lung. it is absolutely amazing how hard the human body can hit the ground and still remain functional (i.e. alive).
and no, you dont forget.....

As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD...