za_skydiver 0 #26 August 9, 2006 QuoteBecause jumping out of airplanes, and the people that I have met who do the same, together are the one thing that has really been missing my whole life. I have never met better people, and I have never been as happy in life as I am now that I am jumping!!!! DITTO! Some dream of flying, i live the dream... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rigger_john 0 #27 August 9, 2006 the door was open_________________________________________ Nullius in Verba Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
shermanator 3 #28 August 9, 2006 why.. because it is good stress relief/relaxation for me. for instance.. couple days ago, i f#$#D up at word, and will be getting fired within the next week/2. so, first thing that came to mind when i was upset at myself for this.. "shit i need to go skydive!" and don't have the money to go right now, but i am going on friday for stress relief. oh, not to mention the 'family' the people in this sport are the best.CLICK HERE! new blog posted 9/21/08 CSA #720 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
psipike02 0 #29 August 9, 2006 Great stress relief. The people and friends I have made in this sport, I am tighter with than some of my fraternity brothers and thats huge. I love the challenge and feeling of accomplishment after a jump goes really well and how you wanted or better! The sport itself is awesome and its great to be apart of something that only .01% of america and maybe 5% of the rest of the world can do....maybe a little more in both cases, but you get thepointPuttin' some stank on it. ----Hellfish #707---- Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jewels 0 #30 August 9, 2006 I think it's ironic that free fall is "stress relief" (this from the girl with big door fear)--but I completely get it! Talk about shifting gears from work to something entirely different.TPM Sister #102 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
StevieBoy 0 #31 August 9, 2006 It takes a special kinda person to strap some cloth to his/her back, then dive outta a plane door towards the Earth at 120 MPH & release the cloth to stop an impact with the earth & land it whatever way they want, stright in / hook to name a few, & call this stress relief If anybody asks just smile & say, do it & you'll know why I'm smilling it deosn't mttaer waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is frist and lsat ltteer is at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mustard 0 #32 August 10, 2006 Why? Opening up my beautiful canopy after an exceptional skydive, looking around, setting up my canopy pattern, flying to the ground with a perfect landing... The smile of a fellow skydiver with freefall face, white fluffy clouds in the background... All life is temporary, after all, but some scenes and memories will live for a long long time... When I'm lying on my deathbed taking stock of the life I have lived, these are some of the ones I will remember and be grateful for having experienced... *** DJan Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MotherGoose 0 #33 August 10, 2006 I went for a tandem jump 2 years ago and when I was a the DZ, a local news reporter was there doing a 6pm story on skydiving. She chose to interview me and show my jump on the news. It was really great and I called everyone I knew to watch. What I didn't know, is what the report was about . . . "SKYDIVING . . . A SPORT WROUGHT WITH DANGER!!" were the exact word that the reporter used, I couldn't believe my ears!!! That was the day that I realized what a Whuffo was and how much I was not one of them. I decided to come back and try it myself, without a meat-slinger attached to my back and that was amazingly even more incredible !! Sorry for the long response, but in a nutshell . . . I skydive for all the reasons that everyone has listed here so far, but mostly because so many people refuse to do it and because it scares the SHIT out of me. Every jump requires my utmost attention and ability. Every jump, I put myself in harms way, and every jump I rely on MYSELF to get me out of harms way. I don't believe that there a many other ways out there to empower yourself better and to make yourself a better all around person who can face any obstacle in life and overcome it. . . . oh . . . plus skydiver chicks are hot !! BLUE SKIES !!You think you understand the situation, but what you don't understand, is that the situation just changed. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mjosparky 3 #34 August 10, 2006 QuoteWhen I'm lying on my deathbed taking stock of the life I have lived, I never what to be on my deathbed saying to myself, damn I wish I had tried this or that. As you say life is short, but I want to taste all of it.My idea of a fair fight is clubbing baby seals Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
skydance1954 0 #35 August 14, 2006 Problem is here, all that has been written is very true. Those of us who skydive will read this thread, nod and smile. The wuffos that we explain this to will simply have their eyes glaze over and still not understand. In all my years, I've not once been able to get through to a wuffo the reason why. Either you're a skydiver or you're not. Try to explain the best way you can, but recognize at some point, you're going to have to give up. The best I've been able to get is "well, I'll have to take your word for it."Mike Ashley D-18460 Canadian A-666 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
udder 0 #36 August 15, 2006 Just tell them the absolute truth. It better than sex. (not to mention it lasts 3 times as long as the freefall from a 3k hop n pop) And you get to do it with other people all the time."In one way or the other, I'm a bad brother. Word to the motherf**ker." Eazy-E Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
cptchaos 0 #37 August 15, 2006 i skydive because i am an addict. i was addicted to chemicals(crack) for ten years+, the only substitute that i have been able to find is extreme sports, skydiving in particular. if ever i am injured i need to be very carefull cause those old rock star feelings come running!!all that is gold does not glitter not all those who wander are lost! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bradley77 0 #38 August 15, 2006 My first two jumps were 27 years ago while I was in college on the old round canopy via static line. It was something I just wanted to try. 27 years later I decided to give it another go as I had never done an actual freefall. This past summer at work some people mentioned going whitewater rafting....I thought that sounded like fun. But when it came down to it everyone pussied out...pissed me off. I thought to myself that I was gonna do something else...something I wanted to do. I wanted to have some fun and excitement and so screw the poeple at work. What do I want to do? Something fun! Something exciting! Something unusual! Something I've already done?....well kinda...but I really want to fall...or fly. Yep, I'm gonna jump out of a plane! That is what got me going. I told myself that after the tandem I would say, "That was great, lets do it again." assuming I enjoyed myself. Well 12 jumps + 2 static line jumps, I am having a ball. After a week of sitting at home/work I want to go back and jump again. Part of thinks "What the hell am I doing this for?" while the other part of me thinks, "Freakin eh, I am jumping out of a plane!". So I end up driving 3 hours to the dz, waiting if there are a lot of tandems, and then finally strapping on a large umbrella type thing and throwing myself into the air at 10-11K feet in the air. Why did I start taking lessons again at age 46? Why do I still do it (albeit still early in my jumping career)? It is fun, it is unusual, there is a little fear factor, it feels great, I feel relatively safe, it is something man is not supposed to do - only birds, and I've learned the people involved with this sport are simply really fun/nice people! Hell, it is just plain fun! I'm now amazed at all the people who say they would/have fly on planes but would never consider jumping out of one. These are likely the same type of people who in the early 1900 said they would be happy to travel by train but would never consider riding in a plane to somewhere. Planes go up and then land.......and so do I. I just land on my own!Damn, this is fun! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ScratchTX 0 #39 August 18, 2006 Quote... The wuffos that we explain this to will simply have their eyes glaze over and still not understand. In all my years, I've not once been able to get through to a wuffo the reason why. Either you're a skydiver or you're not. Try to explain the best way you can, but recognize at some point, you're going to have to give up. The best I've been able to get is "well, I'll have to take your word for it." I've had a different experience -- I guess it depends what you mean by "wuffo." If you mean someone who is closed minded and believes skydiving is stupid, then sure, forget it. But I know people who have no interest in ever making a skydive who have been sincerely interested in why people skydive and what skydivers get from it. And, short of actually KNOWING what skydiving actually feels like, they have really "gotten" a lot of what I've said. The feeling of freedom, the pure fun, the sense of utter self-reliance and focus, the facing fears, the sheer beauty, the being in the moment, the cameraderie, the personal challenge, even the desire to fly or be in a different physical element than the earth on which we usually walk -- these aren't really unique to skydiving, I think. They are part of life, part of our human nature, and skydiving is just one very incredible, very intensified way of experiencing them. I've found that non-skydiving people who are open minded to these flavors of experience in their own lives really have in fact understood my answers to their question "why?" Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Lastchance 0 #40 August 18, 2006 It's my release and escape from all the bullshit in day to day life. Plus its cool. I can also do all the things that I couldn't do off the high dive as a kid. I may be getting old but I got to see all the cool bands. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
skydance1954 0 #41 August 18, 2006 Quite so, it does depend on the definition. To narrow that - "wuffos" idea, the people that ask the question usually(but not always) do not have an activity of their own. I do kinda get some of the feeling across to those folks I've met over the years that have their own risky activity that they do on weekends. White water rafters, rock climbers (free and others), race car drivers, some bikers, hang glider pilots, and a few others. But the hard core wuffo - no. If I can put it into terms that they can understand, usually in the context of their own sport, it works. But those people also are adrenaline junkies in their own right, so in a way, we understand each other. It's still like trying to explain an orgasm to a 5-year-old, though.......Mike Ashley D-18460 Canadian A-666 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
