When skydiving is more than skydiving

[veri 0]

New here as you can see, though I've been lurking for awhile; hoping to tandem for the first time within a couple of weeks before fall '06 starts and maybe/eventually get to AFF (which'll be interesting with being a college junior and working on med/grad admissions, so that might just get delayed a good bit). So up to now, this is a sport that has had my attention for years, though I've been painfully slow in getting some exposure.

Anyway, question is: reading through some of the posts here, some people seem to suggest that for them, skydiving isn't just a sport, and that they don't do it just for a rush; instead, it gets to a point where it's a huge part of life not only in time taken but in adding to it in more ways than just being something adventurous they do when they can.

I know that's grossly simplified, and I totally understand that you often can't fully understand things until you experience them for yourself, but some of the stories here just have that sort of vibe to them.

Not that it's a terribly easy thing to explain, but if it's a sort of ethereal/magical thing to you, how so?

Seeing as how lots of activities are different to different people, I hope that's not too much of a whuffo question.

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[airtimebabe24 0]

What are you waiting for!? when i spent a few days at the dropzone watching my dad jump, i noticed, everyone is coming back alive. and that was good enough for me. im telling you- dont keep waiting. skydiving is amazing. and spiritual. not to mention the most exciting thing you'll ever do. besides, you get mad cool points from anyone who cares. jump!

"The most wasted day of all is that upon which we have not laughed..." Nicholas Chamfort.

[veri 0]

I fully intend on doing so, I was just looking for more on the spiritual side of it.

Hoping for next weekend. :)

[flyangel2 2]

For me I find I have a good balance in life.

I guess I'm one of the few that skydiving isn't controlling my life.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy it, but I also enjoy doing other things in my life.

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

[bob.dino 0]

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besides, you get mad cool points from anyone who cares.

Really? My gf just laughs at me .

[DSE 3]

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I fully intend on doing so, I was just looking for more on the spiritual side of it.

Hoping for next weekend. :)

I think the spiritual side entirely depends on where you're at in life and at what point you are in your personal growth.
For me, skydiving is spiritual for reasons I'll never attempt to put into English. Suffice it to say, that it's the only thing in life that I know I have virtually absolute control over. Once the aircraft is at altitude, it's all me. It's my acceptance of my training, my experiences on previous jumps, my pack job, my decision process. Sunset dives are so incredible, I've been moved to tears more than once.
For some, they're adrenaline junkies (as a motorcycle rider, former rodeo rider, scuba freak, and cliff jumper (water), I guess I am too) and they're looking for their next fix. Some folks just love the ground rush. Some want something different in their lives, some simply want to....jump with no other motivation behind it.
It can be a balance in your life, it can be an addiction, it can become a way of living, it can be a social experience, it can be all or none of the above...
It'll be whatever you make it to be. One thing for sure...once you get your knees in the breeze...you'll find an inner "you" that you maybe didn't know existed before. And for the rest of your life, you'll know you've gone up in more airplanes than you've come down in.

[MarkM 0]

Really I think for most everyone the "rush" of the sport wears off pretty quickly. Not that you don't get a hit of it now and then, especially when you're experiencing new stuff, but if all you get from the sport is the rush, you'll probably get bored and move on pretty quick.

Most people stay in it for maybe the challenge(it takes years to master just a single aspect of the sport), the people they meet and get to know(there's a large social aspect of the sport), and I suppose there's a Zen-like vibe you can get from it too.

[slug 1]

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Anyway, question is: reading through some of the posts here, some people seem to suggest that for them, skydiving isn't just a sport, and that they don't do it just for a rush; instead, it gets to a point where it's a huge part of life not only in time taken but in adding to it in more ways than just being something adventurous they do when they can.

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I think you have to read between the lines. Some people attracted to stay in skydiving like some folks are attracted to a cult

A lot of the folks your seeing posting here have made a lot of jumps in a short period of time Their the worker bee's who don't have to pay for their jumps.

Then there's the gender issue where else can a male hang out where their outnumbered 10 to 1

Every DZ is different just like every cult is different folks join them for different reasons. These days If you want to join the cult it'll cost you big $$$ to buy in

R.I.P.

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[psipike02 0]

Being a newbie in this sport isn't like being a newbie in other sports.

For me, this isn't/wasn't just something that I told my parents I was gonna do, try it for 2 months and quit. When I fell into it, yeah the rush initially was there, but as others have said, it wore off.

So what keeps me here?

First, I love the challenge. I love learning new things and then going up on a jump to try them...and then I feel incredibly accomplished when I bust it out successfully. I have aspirations of being an AFF instructor and maybe even a Tandem Master one day, but i'm taking it one day at a time.

Secondly are the people. I thought my fraternity was the only place that I would ever feel that unexplainable relationship you have with your brothers/friends.
Skydiving changed that. I have made so many awesome friends that are always willing to help me progress, jump with me, chill and have a beer and shoot the shit that its awe inspiring. Some of them have only known me for a short period, but often times I described it to them as the little brother following his big brothers around all the time. I'm always listening to what they're talking about, whether its pertinent to me or not. I ask them a gazillion questions every week and they answer every one. They've taken me under their wing and are constantly showing me the right ways and even the wrong ways that they did stuff so I can learn from their mistakes.

Its a friendship unlike none other and one that I dare even say stronger than some ties I have in my fraternity.

There is also a spiritual side as well, but I'm not gonna re-echo what others have said, as I feel as they do.

Puttin' some stank on it.

----Hellfish #707----

[ChrisL 2]

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everyone is coming back alive. and that was good enough for me.

Not everyone comes back alive. Not everyone comes back in one piece.
You can get hurt and/or killed jumping from airplanes even if you do everything right.

__

My mighty steed

[calledisrael 0]

for me the spiritual side came from:
- overcoming intense fear to do something i thought i was too afraid to do (this was the major one)
- learning to truly relax in an environment that i found overwhelming
- figuring (first) how to truly entrust my whole life strapped to the body of another person - and then how to trust it to myself
- seeing my natural and intial instincts truly get retrained. if i did what came 'naturally' i would probably die, i needed to be taught how to respond - and then to respond without too much thinking or feeling

life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.
(helen keller)

[rehmwa 2]

The only sport I've ever felt a spiritual side with was martial arts (not 'marital' arts, martial arts)

...
Driving is a one dimensional activity - a monkey can do it - being proud of your driving abilities is like being proud of being able to put on pants

[wildfan75 1]

I did my first tandem thinking I just wanted to be able to say that I jumped out of a plane. When I landed, I had a completely different attitude, one that I could and still can't explain. I am hooked. All my non-skydiving friends think I'm nuts. I tell them that "Those who haven't don't understand. Those who have, understand." There is no way to describe it. One of my friends did her first tandem this weekend. Her reply upon landing was "It's nothing like I imagined it was going to be. Now I understand when you said you can't understand until you do it. Are you coming back next weekend? I'm definitely going to jump again and maybe I'll come back next weekend!". On the night before she asked a bunch of skydivers their reason for jumping. One said he does it for relaxation. One said for the thrill and challenge. Everyone has a different reason why they jump and everyone has a different feelings about it.

But just jump already!!!!! Don't wait!

[KNewman 0]

Skydiving for me is much more than a weekend throwing myself out of an aircraft. I see it much like when I was a kid waiting to go fishing with my dad. The anticipation is almost overwhelming. Skydiving is more than the jump, it is the people that you meet, the lifelong friends that you will make, the absolutely beautiful sights you experience, and for me the most important thing skydiving has done is to bolster confidence in my abilities. I was, as a child, extremely afraid of heights. I couldn't even get on a ladder without getting queasy. Skydiving has shown me that I can conquer my fear, and believe me, that was one sweet victory.

Blue Skies and Stand-up Landings!!!!!!

[JohanW 0]

The rush has worn off, and I've never experienced ground rush. So that's not it, for me, not anymore. I am proving nothing.

The control freak in me makes me do my damnedest to perform my best in what I do. Skydiving and parachuting are things one can do well.

The stressed office worker in me knows he can go to a dropzone and leave the worries and responsibilities behind. On a dropzone, the entire weekend, I do not think about work at all. Which is nice.

I'm simply happy with my feet off the ground.

Johan.
I am. I think.

[mjosparky 3]

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When skydiving is more than skydiving

It is never more than just skydiving. Some people just like to tell them selves it more.

My idea of a fair fight is clubbing baby seals

[veri 0]

Well, it's all about perception, right? It's always skydiving, sure, but it obviously means something different to everyone; if it didn't, I'd think it wouldn't be nearly as attractive as it is to some people.

$.02

[Zipp0 1]

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everyone is coming back alive. and that was good enough for me.

Not everyone comes back alive. Not everyone comes back in one piece.
You can get hurt and/or killed jumping from airplanes even if you do everything right.

**clicks button on top of stopwatch**

Yep.... that's about how long I figured it would take....

--------------------------
Chuck Norris doesn't do push-ups, he pushes the Earth down.

[Elisha 1]

For me:

1. Partly the rush - it is still there to some extent.
2. Kinda agree about the 'relaxing' part.
3. I like flying. It's fun.
4. The people. I find it amazing how friendly and helpful the people can be...including many that I've met on this forum and in IRL as well.

[JUDYJ 0]

I like knowing what both sides of the clouds look like~~

IF you are going to be Stupid - you better be tough!

[wildman2231 0]

Amen. DSE,AMEN

I'm fine...crazy people don't know they're crazy...No,Really!

[skr 1]

> reading through some of the posts here, some people seem to
> suggest that for them, skydiving isn't just a sport

I don't think for me that it was ever a "sport".

That "sport" word showed up in the 60s when
PCA (the ancestor of USPA) was trying to make
whatever it was that we were doing somehow
appear more respectable / acceptable / comprehensible
to the general public and started calling it "sport parachuting".


I had an urge since before I can remember to fly,
to be free of this relentless, ground bound gravity,
to soar like a bird.

And then one day I got the chance, and I took it,
and I've never looked back.

Freefall is magic. Andy Keech is right. The skies call.


And for me it was about exploration and creativity.

Freefall is like a new kind of paint brush, and you
can say things with that brush that you couldn't
say before.

And as it developed over the years it became
about friends and family, my skydiving family,
scattered now all over the world.

And then in the 70s states of mind, consciousness,
meditation, LSD, that whole track entered the picture.


It's been lots of things. I don't do anything serious
anymore, I mostly jump with new people.

I feel like a grandparent over here playing with
the kids while the adults are out there taking
care of serious business :-) :-)


It's been lots of things, and I still have the urge
to get free of all this gravity.

I buy a Powerball ticket twice a year just in case
the universe is trying to funnel $20,000,000 my
way so I can go up to the space station.

I may have to reincarnate for that one and do it
by the standard route of becoming an astronaut.

Skr

[teason 0]

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When skydiving is more than skydiving

It is never more than just skydiving. Some people just like to tell them selves it more.

I don't know if we tell ourselves that I think the reality alludes to something more.

If skydiving is about jumping then relationships are about sex.

I make that analogy because for some it's about a quickie (tandem)

For some it's about family (DZ regulars)

For some they diluded about the greatness of it all (we've all seen them)

For some, we wind up bitter because we don't get what we think we should get out of it.

Skydiving is an intense experience combined with human interaction. It is certainly more than jumping but how much more is a factor of our perception and perspective.

Tim
skydive pimp...er...DZO

I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet.

[skyjules 0]

I'm not jumping that often but lately the jumps I do put me in a good mood and if I go a while without jumping I get miserable. Yeah i'm addicted

[airtwardo 6]

Skydiving is an intense experience combined with human interaction. It is certainly more than jumping but how much more is a factor of our perception and perspective.


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I don't think Sparky said it WAS about jumping. He just said it's never MORE than skydiving.

It is what it is...
Exciting, challenging, interesting, and to some a lifestyle that approaches a cult like existence.

We all do it for our own reasons and we all get something individual to us, out of it.

People grow everyday and in different directions, different ways. What skydiving IS to them changes with that growing.

But...it's all still 'just' skydiving!






I always think it's rather interesting to note the change in what skydiving 'means' to someone that has just replaced their 'swagger' ....with a limp!

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