CanuckInUSA 0 #51 February 9, 2004 QuoteWell, I have spent over 50,000 on skydiving. Thats half a house. You'd be lucky to get the driveway around here for 50k. Dude we all know skydiving is expensive and for many of us, it is worth it. Why are you trying to drive people away from the sport? There is more to life than money. I find myself going in the opposite direction from most other people (you know the money hungry people who claim that we must do this and do that in order to be happy). In a few more years (who knows maybe it'll only months) once I'm done soaking corporate America, don't be surprised to find me selling my house and travelling around Europe (the cheap parts). Try not to worry about the things you have no control over Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ron 7 #52 February 9, 2004 QuoteYou'd be lucky to get the driveway around here for 50k OK here in FL (where I spent most of that 50,000)...You can get a nice house for 12000, and a really nice one for 180000. QuoteDude we all know skydiving is expensive and for many of us, it is worth it. Why are you trying to drive people away from the sport? Nope, just pointing out THE OTHER SIDE....Ya know the side that people can see after they have been in the sport long enough to know more than just the good side. QuoteThere is more to life than money. Yep, but you can't eat fun, and your kids can't go to school on your found memories. QuoteI find myself going in the opposite direction from most other people Ok, cool for you, but you don't think its possible you might drift back at some point in your WHOLE life? Like maybe after you have several thousand jumps? Or maybe a few kids?"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ron 7 #53 February 9, 2004 Quoteyeah i hear you Ron, but jumping is more than just fun to me (although it IS a huge amount of fun too, no disputing that). I guess that time you described above will happen when i come to think "i want a house now" instead of renting, or when the car dies and i cant afford a new one, or when i want to start a family. Right now though i can enjoy the freedom of little of the real reponsibility of adult life, even though im nearing 30, and i knwo that won't last forever. Well you have your own answer...It depends on what part of the life cycle you are in. A good number of jumpers are screwing their future by jumping so much...I know an ex world champion that drives a cab to make ends meet. Now thats his right, and I bet he would not change a thing...But its also a fact. QuoteHow comes you are still jumping after spending all that $ if it amounts to "nothing but fun" in your words? Good question... #1. I have the money. I don't have a nice house (In fact I live in a trailer on a DZ) But I have a real job (13 years), make real money, invest like crazy, and I am going to college. #2. I don't fun jump anymore. I don't do boogies, I train and compete in RW. I occasionally do tandems or work with students cause I like to..Not because I need to..(BTW all the money I make coaching or from Tandems, students, video, magazine articals I write..ect goes right into my IRA). #3. I don't have a family....So I can be selfish with my money...I don't have to pay for little Bobby's braces, or Monicas new blue dress. I don't have to pay for my wifes new car, and All I need to live in is a trailer....I fiqure its better to live cheap, and save like hell right now than buy a house I don't need. But that could change if I get married and have kids. But thats me....I have done the boogies (I organized at Quincy in 1995, and have never been back), I have been to the Nationals 3 times (1998,2002,2003) Placed in the top 10 in open twice, won 8 way Intermediate, and have a gold from 4way Advanced. I have been an instructor since 1995. All I'm trying to say is after you do a bunch of stuff....Well your shift MIGHT change...It might not..But it could. I used to want to jump on every plane...Now I only really train."No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Douva 0 #54 February 9, 2004 I don't think dropping skysurfing from the X Games had anything to do with "spectator sports." The X Games earns most of its revenue from advertising sponsors gained by televising the events. Entertaining local fans is a secondary concern. Have you ever tried to watch downhill skiing? It has the same limitations--You get to see the competitors for about two seconds; then they're gone. If I recall correctly, the skysurfing events were filmed with live air-to-ground feeds and broadcast on Teletrons for the fans. The official reason given by ESPN for dropping skysurfing was that it didn't have the million-plus fan base they were looking for. Other sports, like street luge and speed climbing, would also soon be dropped. The X Games started out as a venue for the less mainstream sports, but commercialism (be it good or bad) soon turned it into simply a venue for the newer mainstream sports, such as skateboarding and BMX biking. Skysurfing was, in my opinion, a great sport to watch on TV. There were usually three camera angles covering the jumps--the team camera flyer who flew in sync with the surfer and matched his moves, an ESPN camera flyer who covered the teamwork between the surfer and his camera person, and a helicopter shot that provided a great perspective of the speed involved. I still think skysurfing is a great artistic event. It's like watching wakeboarding and snowboarding and figure skating at 120mph, with a very serious time limit. Prior to the 2001 X Games, ESPN debated including freeflying as an event, but after the 2001 X Games, skydiving was dropped altogether. Obviously there was a serious priorities shift and restructuring from within. If you want to hunt for it, ESPN still has up the web page where you could vote in 2001 on whether or not freeflying should be included (I came across this page a couple of weeks ago). Oh, how the mighty have fallen. --DouvaI don't have an M.D. or a law degree. I have bachelor's in kicking ass and taking names. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Douva 0 #55 February 9, 2004 QuoteQuoteIf you watch the "good stuff " video during the Rob Harris segment, it shows him landing right beside a big pier. That was a while back though. Don't forget there was more than one X-Games in CA - and Rob was in most of them. I'm not sure if you're speaking literally or figuratively, but Rob Harris was only in the first X-Games (then called the "Extreme Games"). He won in June of '95 and died six months later while shooting the famous James Bond Mountain Dew commercial.I don't have an M.D. or a law degree. I have bachelor's in kicking ass and taking names. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ron 7 #56 February 9, 2004 The #1 reason why skydiving is not part of the Xgames is very simple..... People don't understand it. They can't grasp it. NASCAR is popular due to the fact that most of us know how to drive...Football we all can throw a football, Baseball most of us have hit a ball before...ect. Even downhill skiing....Something I have never done, I can understand it....... People who don't jump don't really understand the sport. It is the same reason you don't see shooting sports on TV all the time...People don't do them, so they don't know about them. If they can do it in their back yard (base ball, basket ball, Foot ball, ect, or they can do something like it (NASCAR, Dragracing, Power boating...ect) then they understand it. Jumping from a plane 2 miles up is hard for a "regular joe" to understand. And in a society that thinks a guy with long hair that rides a board on wheels is XTREAME.....Thinks a guy jumping from a plane is beyond their grasp. And they are right. Skydiving will never be a "popular" sport....It will have fanatics, but it will never issue trading cards with bubble gum."No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jlmiracle 7 #57 February 9, 2004 Something else that might be an issue is age. Most x-game sports can be "started" as a very young person. It doesn't cost much for just a skate board and a cheap helmet, and almost every little kid gets a bike by the time they are 6 years old if not before, but with skydiving, you have to be at least 16 years old and 18 to compete (waiverable), not to mention the cost, JBe kinder than necessary because everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
WrongWay 0 #58 February 9, 2004 QuoteQuoteJust an FYI... Freeflying was never an event in the X-Games. Hmmm. I swear I saw a segment on the X-Games competition on the Flyboyz Party Mix video. Can anybody verify that Freefly has never been part of the X-Games? Freefly was indeed part of the X-Games, but I think only for one or two years. And yeah, the Flyboyz took the Gold in the first one. Wrong Way D #27371 Mal Manera Rodriguez Cajun Chicken Ø Hellfish #451 The wiser wolf prevails. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ChasingBlueSky 0 #59 February 9, 2004 QuoteQuoteQuoteIf you watch the "good stuff " video during the Rob Harris segment, it shows him landing right beside a big pier. That was a while back though. Don't forget there was more than one X-Games in CA - and Rob was in most of them. I'm not sure if you're speaking literally or figuratively, but Rob Harris was only in the first X-Games (then called the "Extreme Games"). He won in June of '95 and died six months later while shooting the famous James Bond Mountain Dew commercial. I was still a whuffo when I first started watching the X-Games...I thought I had the memories in order, but I guess I was wrong. The vineyard LZ I was refering to would have happened in 2000._________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again..... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DJL 232 #60 February 9, 2004 Because the X-games are stupid, as is everything with the eXtreme label."I encourage all awesome dangerous behavior." - Jeffro Fincher Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Zenister 0 #61 February 10, 2004 QuoteSomewould say that when you DO grow up, then you will wonder why you spent 10,000 bucks on something that really added nothing but fun to your life. Imagine that you get laid off....You start to wonder about all that money and how much you could use it now. Give it a few years...At some point I think you will go..."Aw shit, I sure wasted a lot on jumping". It might take many more years, and it may only last a few seconds...But it WILL happen. some would be wrong... its only green pieces of paper, there are always more of them and more ways to aquire them if that is what you feel is important.. time, on the other hand you are only given so much of, use it wisely. i'd have to say i've spent far to much of the later in ways i wish i hadnt, but skydiving isnt one of them...____________________________________ Those who fail to learn from the past are simply Doomed. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
klingeme 0 #62 February 10, 2004 What I've heard from past competitors is this. The reason the X-games does not have skysurfing anymore all deals with target markets. The target market for the X-games in like 12-15 year olds. These kids can all buy a BMX Bike, Skateboard, Rollerblades, Long board for Road Luging, but one thing they can not do is a skydive, because they have to be 18 to do that, so, the advertisers said "skydivers are not in our target market, so we don't need it." At least that is what I had heard. Mark Klingelhoefer Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
