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although i dont post very often i do read these forums nearly every day and i always scroll down to the incidents forum first and most days it says 0 new and i breath a sigh of relief. But on the days when there are new posts my heart sinks because half of the time it means there has been a fatality. even though i dont know these people personally i still get upset when i hear/read about what has happened. i understand the importance of the forum and know that it has probably saved lives (i know that i have learned from it) but i guess serious injuries and more are a part of this sport. Do you ever get used to it? or do you learn to accept it and blank it out? just a thought...

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Well I spent about 15 minutes typing a long thought out post about my feelings on this topic only to hit post and find out that the thread was moved here and I lost everything I typed[:/]


I will sum up then. No matter if you dont like the person sitting next to you on the plane we are similar people. We are family and no matter how far we live from someone that goes in or gets injured it changes and causes emotions in all of us even tho some people deny it that is one of the processes that we must go through to get over things.
We are responsible for ourselves, each other, and the sport. The only thing we can do is EVERYTHING to stay safe the rest is not up to us.

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although i dont post very often i do read these forums nearly every day and i always scroll down to the incidents forum first and most days it says 0 new and i breath a sigh of relief.



Ditto. I almost made that post a week ago when the incident forums were really quiet.

My first week of skydiving last fall was rough - like an incident a day on the forums, some local - and at the same time our office manager had 4 of her family members killed by a drunk driver, - so I did the AFF 1 while she was going to a mass funeral. (I would have been at the funeral instead of AFF1 if it were local.)

There are two things I think about every once in a while that gives me perspective.

#1 - If every automotive incident/fatality was posted to a forum, would I ride my motorcycle or drive my car? Would there be enough bandwidth to support that?:P The point being, our small community knows about every incident world wide, something that is unique. It hurts a lot when we see the incidents, but we learn from them. But the downside is we can’t live in an anonymous world where we drive by someone’s mangled car on the highway and say, “shit, that made me late to work..”

#2 - There were 37 known vending machine fatalities between 1978 and 1995, for an average of 2.18 deaths per year. When was the last time I had to justify to a friend, "I find buying Coke from vending machines so rewarding I am willing to risk my life to do so." Vending machines killed 4 times more people than sharks. I am scared shitless of sharks. Seriously, I hate them. I walk by many vending machines without any change in heart rate. I sometimes even put money in them. Why do sharks scare me more than vending machines when statistically my fears are unjustified?

Just thoughts. Kind of touchy-feely for a Wednesday morning…

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It's an unfortunate fact that if you stay in this sport long enough, one of two things will happen.
1) You will bury a friend.
or
2) A friend will bury you.

It's the hardest truth to accept in this sport, and we all deal with it in our way and in our own time.

I have made peace with the fact that I can do everything right and still die. I have also made peace with the fact that I could make a bad decision and that could kill me too. I love my life, I love my wife, and I love skydiving. To me it's worth the risk.

--
My other ride is a RESERVE.

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Ditto to you the day I did AFF one 1 person was killed and his girlfriend was seriously injured while jumping at another dz. When I came back to do AFF2 that weekend a Jumper went in also. It was a rough start to my career. My mom almost had a heart attack hearing about the incidents.

BSBD JASON!

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My mom almost had a heart attack hearing about the incidents.



People that fear for you are gonna fear even more if they hear stories like these.
I do not choose to share incident reports with my family for just that reason. It only makes life harder for them and does nothing for me so why put them through it or increase their anxiety?
__

My mighty steed

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I think it depends on what kind of person you are. If your heart aches for every person you read about dying in the paper, then you will likewise grieve for each and every skydiver you read about.
For me skydiving fatalities fall into three categories:
1. Friends. I have buried skydiving friends who have died skydiving, and those who have died other ways. There is no difference in my grief.
2. Students. When students go in it bugs me a lot. When I go skydiving I make an informed decision about all the elements of risk involved; when a student jumps there is a large degree of faith involved. I know they agreed to the risks, but it still sucks.
3. Others. I tend to be rather clinical about these. If I don't know this person I try not to expend empathy on them. I used to work in entertainment, doing electrical work. During a gig this often meant leaving the power on while I worked. Reading about all the ways people electrocuted themselves scared me way more than reading about skydivers going in, but I simply do not have the emotional energy available to grieve every industrial accident.

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It's an unfortunate fact that if you stay in this sport long enough, one of two things will happen.
1) You will bury a friend.
or
2) A friend will bury you.


ive heard that said a couple of times now. thats a scary one but i suppose if there wasnt this inherent risk then maybe it would take the edge off of the sport.

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Honestly, it falls into two categories for me.

1. People that died in a routine skydive while exercising all due care and were jumping gear that was appropriate for their skill level. This type of incident bothers me; I feel sorry for the friends and family members of the person who lost their life.

2. People that died doing something that was foolish, e.g, jumping while drunk or high, swooping a tiny canopy they don’t have the experience or training for (usually against the advice of others), engaging in stupid behavior (Dog fighting canopies, cutting away intentionally when not necessary), etc. These people I have zero sympathy for. I’ve watched people die doing this type of stuff and it didn’t bother me one bit. Sorry if that makes me a bad person but stupidity is not something I have sympathy for.
"We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

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While I definitely appreciate the sentiment, let me try a variation that helps me deal with the sport (in the short time I've been in it, anyway...)

***It's an unfortunate fact that if you stay in this life long enough, one of two things will happen.
1) You will bury a friend.
or
2) A friend will bury you.

It's the hardest truth to accept in this life, and we all deal with it in our way and in our own time.



As others have said already, it hits home more in a small, tight community such as the skydiving community, especially when information is readily available and shared openly.

Thoughts like that occurred to me last night when I learned of the death earlier this year of a friend from college (with whom I'd lost touch). I'm in my early 30s and have lost three friends in that same age range in the past two years - one from a heart condition, one suicide, and one from an auto accident. I know others who are suffering from various illnesses that may or may not take their lives early. I was in a pretty bad accident myself last year that really opened up my eyes to the fact that any given day could be my last on this earth, whether I'm engaging in "high risk" activities or not.

I haven't been in the skydiving community long enough to know anyone who's died doing this sport, so reading the incidents is a very abstract thing to me. I'm sure once I've been around a bit, it'll become much more personal. I take each incident as a learning opportunity, whether it's opening my eyes to things I can do differently, or opening my eyes to the fact that sometimes you can do everything right and still lose your life. But that goes for pretty much everything in this world.

Skydiving is worth the risk to me, too.
"There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

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It's an unfortunate fact that if you stay in this sport long enough, one of two things will happen.
1) You will bury a friend.
or
2) A friend will bury you.



The last friend that said that to me died a week later. I am still very very new to this sport and I did not expect it to be something I would deal with so soon.

Needless to say it was also a rough beginning to my skydiving career and, after a couple months now, I'm still waiting to get up again. (Sort of laying blame on the cold weather right now if that flies)...

"Accepting" death (skydiving-related or non) seems to be something you are forced to learn rather than something you can apply in theory.

I think the people in this sport that have dealt with a friend dying and are still involved in the sport is a testament to their character. I think this is a good thread for those experienced people to share what kept them going in the tough times.

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Honestly, it falls into two categories for me.

1. People that died in a routine skydive while exercising all due care and were jumping gear that was appropriate for their skill level. This type of incident bothers me; I feel sorry for the friends and family members of the person who lost their life.

2. People that died doing something that was foolish, e.g, jumping while drunk or high, swooping a tiny canopy they don’t have the experience or training for (usually against the advice of others), engaging in stupid behavior (Dog fighting canopies, cutting away intentionally when not necessary), etc. These people I have zero sympathy for. I’ve watched people die doing this type of stuff and it didn’t bother me one bit. Sorry if that makes me a bad person but stupidity is not something I have sympathy for.



I completely agree on the first category. On the second one, the behaviour of the deceased makes one feel more angry than sorry. There is a third category though, when the deceased is a friend, no matter what was the cause of the incident it will move me deeply.

We choose the rewards and the risks. It is a choice and knowing it is a choice allows me to decently cope with the incidents.



HISPA # 18 POPS # 8757

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My mom almost had a heart attack hearing about the incidents.



People that fear for you are gonna fear even more if they hear stories like these.
I do not choose to share incident reports with my family for just that reason. It only makes life harder for them and does nothing for me so why put them through it or increase their anxiety?



Not necessarily - it demonstrates to them that you have a more realistic notion of the risks involved. If I told my mother it wasn't a dangerous sport, she'd think I was either lying or being ignorant in a sport that doesn't tolerate it.

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I think the people in this sport that have dealt with a friend dying and are still involved in the sport is a testament to their character. I think this is a good thread for those experienced people to share what kept them going in the tough times.
__________________________________________________

While losing friends jumping did lead me to some questions of behavior modification during skydiving, it simply never did nor would have occurred that I even consider giving up the jumping itself...
If some old guy can do it then obviously it can't be very extreme. Otherwise he'd already be dead.
Bruce McConkey 'I thought we were gonna die, and I couldn't think of anyone

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