Quitters!

[jumperconway 0]

How many of your friends thsat started jumping with you have stopped jumping for whatever reason?

[sd-slider 0]

Quitters?

How can anyone, even with 1 tandem who chosses not to return be called a quitter, especially when only a small fraction of us choose to take the plunge in the first place?

Whether it's 1 or 10000, the fact that anyone once felt the rush, the release, the freedom, etc. of skydiving, it is no small feat.

I applaud anyone who has the courage to walk away. For me, the constant yearning and regret would eat away at me until I returned.

I will say this.....They're missing out!!!!!

Anvil Brother #69

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

[grue 1]

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How many of your friends thsat started jumping with you have stopped jumping for whatever reason?

I have only seen two people from my FJC at the DZ since then, a father/son pair. So three out of a class of twelve.

cavete terrae.

[Maxx 1]

Started my AFF-course with 9 people. I'm the only one left now...


Max

[hexadecimal 0]

Of the 8 or 9 people who graduated the AFP while I was taking it, I've only seen two at the DZ, and only one of them jumps as far as I know.

[Hooknswoop 19]

There are other things in life, skydiving isn't everything.

Derek

[EvilLurker 2]

I went through the FJC twice at my DZ (12 and 10 students, counting myself). I'm the only one who got an A license out of the bunch.

[jimshred 0]

I did 2 AFF jumps this summer. I am now done for this year so that I can focus on my continuing-education goals. I guess we all have other priorities in life.

Skydiving was a fun and unique experience that put a smile on my face that I haven't had in a long time.

Hopefully I can give it another try next spring.

______________________________________
"Find your passion, find that thing you love, and, well, get out there and do it" - Jeb Corliss

[feuergnom 22]

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There are other things in life, skydiving isn't everything.

Derek

Yep

The universal aptitude for ineptitude makes any human accomplishment an incredible miracle

dudeist skydiver # 666

[grue 1]

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There are other things in life, skydiving isn't everything.

Derek

I call bullshit.

cavete terrae.

[headoverheels 291]

Almost all. Some quit a long time ago, some quit after they got hitched, some died jumping, some drifted away. After all, it has been a few years. Two weeks before my first jump, I didn't know I was going to make one. I don't think that I would have thought I'd still be at it, 33 years later.


Rehab is for quitters!

[FrogNog 1]

One stopped jumping when he died in a bad landing...

-=-=-=-=-
Pull.

[Travman 6]

This sport has a very high drop off rate. Most people do tandems as a once off. Then some go onto the FJC.
At my DZ only a handful from the FJC go on to complete AFF, and then less complete their B-Rels.
It can be hard for some students, not knowing anyone at the DZ, espicially if they fail an AFF or 2 and they get discouraged.
The Australian Parachute Federation has said people generally are in this sport for 4 years and then leave or stay on forever.

[pincheck 0]

only one left from starting staticline last year and going AFF 3 months later

this is something the sport as a whole has to address jumper retention .

Billy-Sonic Haggis Flickr-Fun

[Tonto 1]

All of them. One plodded along for a decade or so - but got married.

t

It's the year of the Pig.

[Andy_Copland 0]

Of 5 or 6 AFF students i think i've only not seen 1

1338

People aint made of nothin' but water and shit.

Until morale improves, the beatings will continue.

[feuergnom 22]

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There are other things in life, skydiving isn't everything.

Derek

I call bullshit.

if you are seriuos - take a deep breath, step back from the computer, take off your rig and get a life

The universal aptitude for ineptitude makes any human accomplishment an incredible miracle

dudeist skydiver # 666

[fmmobley 0]

Lets face it, it's not cheap.

I bet the expense is the biggest reason more people don't follow through.

... Marion

[nate_1979 9]

Believe there was 8 or 9 people in my FJC... I am the only one who has gotten licensed (so far), however I am 1 of 2 from the class who has not "quit", and the two of us rock!

FGF #???
I miss the sky...
There are 10 types of people in the world... those who understand binary and those who don't.

[voodew1 0]

There was 6 in my FJC --- One was the first friend I knew who was killed in this sport --- she had 201 jumps
I attended the AFF instructors course with one of the others in the course -- we both passed

The other 3 made 1 jump and went home never to return

The pimp hand is powdered up ... say something stupid

[skymama 35]

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I call bullshit.

Spoken like a true newbie!

Believe me, in the beginning we all felt like you do. I bet you that after a few hundred jumps, you'll understand what he means.

She is Da Man, and you better not mess with Da Man,
because she will lay some keepdown on you faster than, well, really fast. ~Billvon

[jumperconway 0]

I wasn't speaking so much of people that you met in the fjc but more were regular jumpers that just petered out. I don't think that anyone from my fjc stuck it out and got licensed. More of people that you used to jump with regularly that just walked away.......

[rushmc 18]

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Quitters?

How can anyone, even with 1 tandem who chosses not to return be called a quitter, especially when only a small fraction of us choose to take the plunge in the first place?

Whether it's 1 or 10000, the fact that anyone once felt the rush, the release, the freedom, etc. of skydiving, it is no small feat.

I applaud anyone who has the courage to walk away. For me, the constant yearning and regret would eat away at me until I returned.

I will say this.....They're missing out!!!!!

You are sooooo right. I was out 21 years but I never completely quit thinking about it. When people ask me why I quit ............ I have no answer.

But I am back now and I like NOT doing PLF's on every jump!!

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

[popsjumper 2]

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..I was out 21 years but I never completely quit thinking about it. When people ask me why I quit ............ I have no answer.

But I am back now and I like NOT doing PLF's on every jump!!

Out 27 years but that was because back then I could never be sure that I could handle the complicated EPs if necessary.....much simpler and more dependable nowadays.

Yeah. And tip-toe landings are much more fun than PLFs.

My reality and yours are quite different.
I think we're all Bozos on this bus.
Falcon5232, SCS8170, SCSA353, POPS9398, DS239

[winsor 187]

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How many of your friends thsat started jumping with you have stopped jumping for whatever reason?

Hard to tell. My first military and civilian jumps were so long ago that I'm kind of fuzzy as to who was there with me.

My guess is that damned near all of them have gone on to other things. This may well be a good thing - though it is not the "young person's sport" that it once was, it still isn't well suited to most of the Geritol set.

Another thing people don't seem to grasp is that this sport is by no means for everyone. Some people like the intense rush, but go with economy and convenience and simply use drugs. For other people, the level of fear they experience outweighs any enjoyment they might get out of jumping.

In addition, given some people's decision-making skills, they are but statistics in the making. Make no mistake about it - when you step out the door of the airplane, you are dead until you do something about it (yeah, I know, you have an expensive, magical bit of electronics that will save you...).

Some people compete, and find that they have lost interest in such things as four-way that involves less than 25 points per jump. I know rather a few people who went to the Nationals or whatever, won in their division, and hung it up immediately thereafter.

There are also people for whom it became a job, and, when they found a job that paid many times what they got when jumping, they didn't return to the sport side of skydiving - it was either work or stay on the ground.

I have tried to keep from burning out in the sport, and to do enough varied stuff that it stays interesting. Some things scare the hell out of me, and I try to avoid doing them.

I expect to continue to jump, and my goals are to do so safely while having fun. So far, so good.


Blue skies,

Winsor