phonics1981 0 #1 July 22, 2003 Looking through the posts and seeing everyone give there input on various topics i started wondering how everyone came about starting to skydive. How long had you wanted to do it? Why? What made you stick to it? I have always, as long as I can remember, wanted to skydive. I can remember when I was probably about 7 or 8 and my uncle who was in the RAF at the time was showing me how to draw fighter planes and how, when he wasnt looking, i would draw a stick man decending under a parachute away from the plane! So as far as I can remember i've been aiming to jump out of a plane. I didnt want just a teaser so I didnt bother with a tandem cos I knew it wouldnt be enough. I just saved as much as I could since I started work and paid for my AFF course in April this year. I'm now 21 and my AFF is complete and its phucking amazing!!! Hopefully ive got a long and safe jumping life ahead of me. Whats ya story? ------------------------------------------------------ "Ive given up on sigs cos I make a mess of them!" ------------------------------------------------------ Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TheBachelor 4 #2 July 22, 2003 Skydiving was something I always wanted to do, but never got around to it. One day I saw an ad for a dropzone, and decided to try it once. After the first one, I just couldn't stop.There are battered women? I've been eating 'em plain all of these years... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SonnyChiba 0 #3 July 22, 2003 I was living in Cali and a group of like ten friends decided to make a tandem skydive. On the big day, seven backed out. So there were three of us. Somehow or another we decided that we wouldn't go either. Instead, the three of us took up SCUBA diving. I did it for years, diving the SoCal Coast, Florida, Australia, Japan, Indonesia.......and a few other places too. A few years later, I moved to Virginia. Didn't have any dive spots readily accessible, so I needed something to fill my weekends. I planned on making one skydive just to "get the t-shirt" but I fell in love with it. I actually thought about quitting at one point during my student progression, but didn't. Sold my SCUBA gear to help pay for my first rig too! Not a terribly interesting story, but my story nonetheless...... See you guys aroud! ---------------------------- "Insert witty quote here." Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SkyMissy 0 #4 July 22, 2003 My story is pretty cool. My dad swears he heard me talking about wanting to jump in high school. So he got me and him first jump courses for my graduation in 92. I really think he wanted to jump more than I did, but we both got hooked, and now I get to jump with my dad. So that's pretty cool.________________________________________________ Mike Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Blahr 0 #5 July 22, 2003 I've been flying in my mind all my life :-) Even my tatoo's are all of winged flying critters. Dragon, Pegasus, Phoenix... I always knew I wanted to try skydiving and when I was old enough and able to pay for it I went. Life forced an 8 year long hiatus on me but I always knew I'd be back. Here I am again Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Blahr 0 #6 July 22, 2003 QuoteMy story is pretty cool. My dad swears he heard me talking about wanting to jump in high school. So he got me and him first jump courses for my graduation in 92. I really think he wanted to jump more than I did, but we both got hooked, and now I get to jump with my dad. So that's pretty cool. That IS cool :-) I wish I could jump with my Dad. He wouldnt jump if you paid him a million dollars. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
phonics1981 0 #7 July 22, 2003 Quote I wish I could jump with my Dad. He wouldnt jump if you paid him a million dollars. Me too, My dad would NEVER jump. Although I have managed to persuade my mam when she was drunk that if and when I get my tandem instructor rating, she'll jump with me! ------------------------------------------------------ "Ive given up on sigs cos I make a mess of them!" ------------------------------------------------------ Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Malev 0 #8 July 22, 2003 Like most people here, skydiving was always something I had thought about trying sometime, but never got any further than that. What sparked me off was seeing a tandem on TV, and I thought "hey, I've always wanted to do that - why not go for it!", read around the net a lot and decided this was something I really wanted to get into as opposed to a one-off, and booked my AFF. I started in May, my AFF course is all but complete (a few consols, plus Hop 'n' Pop to go - bloody weather is the only thing in the way!), and I wonder how I lived without skydiving. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Vertifly 0 #9 July 22, 2003 Never really crossed my mind to go jumping when I was younger. In the Marines, I had a roommate that went on a static line jump and said it was cool. I remember thinking, "I gotta try that 'sometime'." After the service, I spent 4-5 years waiting for winters to come around so that my friends and I could go snowboarding. In the summer, we would just twiddle our thumbs and pass the time doing road trips and stuff. In 1996, my girlfriend (at the time) wanted to try skydiving soooooo bad. With the thought still in my mind from the service, "I gotta try that 'sometime'", we planned a 14-person trip Sussex. Back then, Sussex was not even a full trailer-home large with one, very ugly looking, Cessna 206. The door was a piece of material that you rolled up and velcroed before exit. To say the least, I did not feal very secure about what we were doing. Regardless, I was there the very next day (after work), with $250 for the jump course and a tandem AFF. My girl and I went through AFF together, one jump per week-or so-until graduation. Looking back, it wasn't the skydive that kept me returning to the DZ (well, maybe a little ). After meeting the people there, and seeing their commitment to safety, and realizing how truly 'FREE' and concerned they were, it didn't take long to be hooked to my new life. Jumping there was also very cool. My first solo was a "T" and a standup...I'll never forget it. The staff there encourage me to do freestyle because of my natural balance up there. (I didn't even know what freefly was) Even though I do not speak to them anymore, I will always be appreciative of them teaching me a new sport and a new perspective on life. I miss it there sometimes...My Cessna Home-DZ has a special quality unlike the world class ones. Can't really explain it. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
surf4life11 0 #10 July 22, 2003 My story starts when I was in highschool watching ESPN and the X-Games when they had skysurfing and other competition on there. I saw how fluid they were in the air and wanted to see what it felt like to do it. Of course I was scared shitless but hey I wanted to do it. I graduated highschool, joined the military and ended up not being able to jump...money was not there. Then 2 knee surgeries later I finally got the chance to jump after 3 straight years of not being able to. I started in March of 2003 and just got my A-license on the 21st of July 2003. Jumped my rig for the first time off student status this past weekend and now wonder how my life was ever any fun without skydiving. I love it and live it every moment of every day. It is now an addiction and I cannot see myself ever stopping. Blue skies and be safe. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
teach1400 0 #11 July 22, 2003 My story is nothing remarkable, but it goes like this - About 6 years ago I did my first tandem and loved it, immediatly wanted to do my AFF. I was only 18 at the time and couldn't really afford it, and none of my friends would go with me either. So I gave up. A few weeks ago, I was in Vegas for the 4th of July, and 1 of my friends wanted to do a tandem. So a couple of us went and when I got back to the ground I knew that I couldn't wait any longer. I got home from Vegas, started my AFF 2 sunday's ago and this past sunday graduated and jumped my first solo. I wish I hadn't lost those 6 years :) Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
phonics1981 0 #12 July 22, 2003 Quotestarted my AFF 2 sunday's ago and this past sunday graduated and jumped my first solo. I wish I hadn't lost those 6 years :) Congrats!! ------------------------------------------------------ "Ive given up on sigs cos I make a mess of them!" ------------------------------------------------------ Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Yoshi 0 #13 July 22, 2003 it was always something I wanted to do as well. finding myself at 12 years old on the top of a 2 story house with nothing but a sheet in hand trying to slow my descent down enough not to brak anything. So after I graduated highschool (and stopped jumping off of housed with sheets) I went on a road tri[p to colorado (from indiana) I was sitting there in a dennys (or equivelant) and looked at my friend wondering "what the hell are we going to do today?" I stood up ran out to the pay phone and ripped the page out of the phone book for the nearest dropzone...freemont county airport in colorado. the next day we went to the static line course (which lasted till about 9pm) and the next morning we jumped. I then took about 1 yr off to go to europe and back pack for a while and came back and did 3 more jumps... without any money I then took another year off and then got back into it pretty heavy and have been jumping since. I cant even imagine what my life wold be like if I had never done it before.. -yoshi_________________________________________ this space for rent. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tinfoil 0 #14 July 22, 2003 Well, it all started around grade 10 when I came up with an awesome way of showing up at my high school grad dance. I wanted to skydive in! Land, collapse my chute, take of my jumpsuit and reveal my tux as I walk in the front door as though it was nothing. HAHA, it would have beaten any guy borrowing his uncle's BMW! But then again I also wanted to drive up in an APC. I guess I'm just a dreamer. However, the dream of skydiving stuck with me even after reality had crushed my spirits. When a friend of mine did a project about skydiving, I started bugging for him to take me. And, 4 months later, he did (3 months after the grad dance). And my dad still hates him for it Thanks Ben! “- - Sumo is the greatest of sports. It has power, grace, speed and cluture. And most importantly, two fat bastards smacking the shit out of each other. ” Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SkydiveNFlorida 0 #15 July 22, 2003 Just did my first 2 jumps last wknd. Always wanted to skydive, so long as I can remember. Guess I just got busy with other things. Boyfriends, engagement, breaking of same, buying own condo, setting up coral reef tanks, started college last year. I ended up meeting a guy not too long back, and we got together. Turned out he wanted to dive, too. So, I was going to take him for a tandem on his b-day this month... but we ended up breaking up last week. I said, screw that, i'm going, and I booked myself for the AFF1 7-19. I don't think there is any place i'd rather be right now than back in the sky! I wonder why I waited so long. Angela. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ozthebum 0 #16 July 23, 2003 When I was 10 or 11 me and Dad would drive from my house to his house every other weekend or so...and on the way was Skydive Lodi. We'd stop in and watch all the "crazy people" jump outta planes and land nice and softly right in front of us...from those moments I was hooked (thanks Dad). I never did it till I was stationed at MacDill for the first time (14 years later). I was walking to lunch when I hear a C-130 flying over-head and I looked up to see a group of Spec Ops dudes static line-ing out the back and I thought...that's f*ckin cool I need to do that, so when I got home I called Z-hills and the next day I was going through AFF. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
skymick 0 #17 July 23, 2003 I cant remember what actually got me to start thinking about it but I remember when I was 16 I wanted to do it so I talked my Dad into taking me down to the local DZ but I never ended up jumping..both parents managed to talk me out of it until I was 18.. they must of thought it was a passing phase or sumthing Anyway I had forgotten all about it by the time I was 18 but one day was I was bored at home during a beautiful sunny day and the idea popped in my head so I booked in to do a SL course for that w/e. I spent a year doing the course but managed to fail many jumps (unstable all the time but always pulled on time at least Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites ZoneRat 0 #18 July 23, 2003 My best and oldest friend was sailing around the world and asked me to join him on a leg of the journey (Phuket Thailand to Israel… about 4.5 months of sail with stop offs to check out places). I quit my job and took him up on the offer. During the sail I made a stupid mistake (one that he'd specifically cautioned me about...but I'd forgotten) and ended up wrapping a 1" nylon floatline around the propeller and shaft... in the middle of the Indian ocean... at night. Someone had to go cut that line off the prop... and, as I said it was MY stupid mistake. We turned off all the lights on the boat so as to not attract fish, which attract sharks and other things. I put on some flippers and a mask. I had a little maglight on a lanyard and took the best knife we could find which was a crappy steak knife. I'm a decent swimmer, and I'm not particularly scared of sharks (unless I see one), but what got me was that boat going up and down in the ocean about 5’. It just scared the hell out of me. I knew intellectually that the same waves pumping that boat up and down would do the same to me, (keeping me relative to the boat), but I just couldn’t shake the idea of that boat would conking me in the head and I would float off unconscious into the darkness of the Indian ocean. I tried anyway. Had to try. I was scared shitless. My breathing was shallow. My heart was trying to leave my chest. I'd crawl down the ladder and sit there feet in the ocean, working up the courage to swim beneath and cut a line. About the time I'd get there I'd loose my nerve and bail out back to the ladder... Only to fail again in a couple minutes. I understood that I was physically capable of swimming down and cutting the rope off the prop, but my body just wouldn't comply no matter how hard I tried. My friend sat there with his chin in his hand quietly fuming at me, waiting for me to finally give up and surrender the mask, knife and flippers to him. He'd never been so angry with me before or since. Eventually I gave up. 15 minutes later he had the rope off and we were back in the wind. I'd never been so ashamed. Anyway. That was about 7 years ago. It's always bugged me. I needed to find a way to test myself. To see if I could put myself in a situation where I understood intellectually that everything would be ok if I could just make my body do something it was instinctually not designed to do. You just can't recreate that kind of thing easily, so I needed a suitable approximation. Eventually I came up with the idea of Skydiving. Could I make myself jump out of that plane? I found Skydive Dallas on the Internet, arbitrarily choosing it over other DZ's in the area. I toyed with the idea for about a month before I gathered the courage to give them a call. I signed up for AFF LVL1 as I felt that a Tandem wouldn't provide a true test. I only had to do one jump to know. I went there alone, in case I failed. I didn't fail. I jumped. I also passed, performing all the things you do for AFF1, but still felt dissatisfied. I could tell that mentally I was still overwhelmed by the experience. Performing the exercises more out of trained habit on the ground than actual awareness in the sky. "Could I actually get to where I felt this to be a normal experience?" Well. sorta. Later I asked myself "I wonder if I could actually learn to fly?" The rest is history. Sorry for the novelette, but that's why I started skydiving. Just writing that part about the boat made me all tense again.“There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.” Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites mikkey 0 #19 July 23, 2003 When I was a little kid in the 60's there was a TV Show called "Ripcord" (2 jumpers and a Cessna on adventures ;-). I was totally spellbound by these guys with the neat jump suit, big boots, white helmets, belly reserves and "TU" Roundies jumping. I knew then I had to jump. More then 10 years later at University I met a couple of guys who had started jumping at the local club and got me "hooked up". The power of TV --------------------------------------------------------- When people look like ants - pull. When ants look like people - pray. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites tbrown 26 #20 July 23, 2003 QuoteWhen I was a little kid in the 60's there was a TV Show called "Ripcord" Yeah, "Ripcord" got me suckered in when I was seven. It was the first actual freefall film I'd ever seen. It confused me at first, because these guys didn't appear to be falling, but they had to be, right ? Then in Jr. High, I found a cool book on skydiving by Bud Sellick. It was always a passion in the back of my mind. Finally, my first year in college, the Seneca Falls, NY drop zone sent a few of their guys down to our student union with a copy of "Masters of the Sky". We got a $35 discount price because more than 15 of us signed up at once. The jump course was Friday night, then they took us into town to get shatterpated (drinking age in NY was 18 at the time). Then we all crashed out on the floor back at the DZ. Around 7am somebody flicked on the lights and told us to hit the deck and suit up. Was up and down by 8 in the morning. Before leaving for breakfast we watched the local gods do an 8 way from 2 Cessnas and I thought "this really is for me". Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity ! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites mikkey 0 #21 July 23, 2003 Quotethe Seneca Falls, NY drop zone sent a few of their guys down to our student union with a copy of "Masters of the Sky". Spot on, - showing these movies was typical "bait" by skydiving clubs in the 70's when visiting Educational institutions and at other promotional activities. It was always: Wings, Masters of the Sky, Skydive and Sky Capers on 16 mm. I am sure a lot of "tbrown's" and my generation were sucked in by these movies. They were really unusual for their time. Packing a 16 mm when free falling was a hugh task at the time and Boenish & Co. were real pioneers. The technology was very different then. I remember being in total awe of the guys in the movies.--------------------------------------------------------- When people look like ants - pull. When ants look like people - pray. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites conhails 0 #22 July 23, 2003 My Dad jumped with the British Army back in the 60's. As a kid i always remember his uniform had a parachute badge on the sleeve. I'm 25 and have wanted to jump ever since I started doing a 60+ hour week in rainy London. Kinda gets to you after a while. Ummm I also get bored very easily. (Probably something to do with my attention/hyperactivity disorders!) Jumping is fun. _______________________________________ Life is not measured by the breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away..... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites slotperfect 7 #23 July 23, 2003 I dropped out of college after 1 1/2 years because I hated what I was doing. After a few months, I decided to join the Army. The recruiter showed me a video of Airborne School at Ft. Benning, GA and I was hooked. I knew I had to do that. I have been jumping ever since.Arrive Safely John Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites DYEVOUT 0 #24 July 23, 2003 Always wanted to, but always had something "more important" to spend the money on - dirt bikes, cars, etc... Got married in '88, still glazed over any time I saw some skydiving footage on TV or a movie. Moved to eastern PA in '95, now the local Super Walmart is right next to Hazleton Municipal Airport, so I have to actually watch REAL skydivers have fun. Still thought of such an expenditure as "selfish", what with the mortgage and all. Valentine's Day 2002 - took the lovely wife out to dinner, at which time she handed me an envelope with my (AFF) first jump course schedule!! Turns out she works with a skydiver, and set the whole thing up without me knowing!! She must have noticed the way I used to stare up at the canopies from the Walmart parking lot (when I should have been driving the car). First jump early June of last summer. Off AFF (and radio, thank god) last October. Progress this year has been slow, due to weather - but I was on the same (C185) load when my wife made her first tandem last month for our 15th anniversary!! ----------------=8^)---------------------- "I think that was the wrong tennis court." Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites feuergnom 22 #25 July 23, 2003 i don't remember when skydiving came to my mind for the first time - but definitely somewhere in the time when i was like 20. it was a dram that i thought it would become reality some distant day. in fact my ex-girlfriend made me a birthdaypresent, after i mentioned it to her one time during conversation on what we dreamed of but didn't dare to do yet. it took me another year to do the tandem - no time, overworked, bad weather etc. i was in trance for a week and knew taht it was a great experience. still i didn't want to take classes or leran it. a year later i was invitetd to do a bungee from a 150 meter tower. and it was exacteley that day when i decided to learn how to skydive. hung on the internet, found me a dz that operated nnot only on weekends and made my license in two weeks. that was three years ago. now i'm on my way to become a coach and i'm still thankfull to my ex-love for that very special presentThe universal aptitude for ineptitude makes any human accomplishment an incredible miracle dudeist skydiver # 666 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Prev 1 2 Next Page 1 of 2 Join the conversation You can post now and register later. 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ZoneRat 0 #18 July 23, 2003 My best and oldest friend was sailing around the world and asked me to join him on a leg of the journey (Phuket Thailand to Israel… about 4.5 months of sail with stop offs to check out places). I quit my job and took him up on the offer. During the sail I made a stupid mistake (one that he'd specifically cautioned me about...but I'd forgotten) and ended up wrapping a 1" nylon floatline around the propeller and shaft... in the middle of the Indian ocean... at night. Someone had to go cut that line off the prop... and, as I said it was MY stupid mistake. We turned off all the lights on the boat so as to not attract fish, which attract sharks and other things. I put on some flippers and a mask. I had a little maglight on a lanyard and took the best knife we could find which was a crappy steak knife. I'm a decent swimmer, and I'm not particularly scared of sharks (unless I see one), but what got me was that boat going up and down in the ocean about 5’. It just scared the hell out of me. I knew intellectually that the same waves pumping that boat up and down would do the same to me, (keeping me relative to the boat), but I just couldn’t shake the idea of that boat would conking me in the head and I would float off unconscious into the darkness of the Indian ocean. I tried anyway. Had to try. I was scared shitless. My breathing was shallow. My heart was trying to leave my chest. I'd crawl down the ladder and sit there feet in the ocean, working up the courage to swim beneath and cut a line. About the time I'd get there I'd loose my nerve and bail out back to the ladder... Only to fail again in a couple minutes. I understood that I was physically capable of swimming down and cutting the rope off the prop, but my body just wouldn't comply no matter how hard I tried. My friend sat there with his chin in his hand quietly fuming at me, waiting for me to finally give up and surrender the mask, knife and flippers to him. He'd never been so angry with me before or since. Eventually I gave up. 15 minutes later he had the rope off and we were back in the wind. I'd never been so ashamed. Anyway. That was about 7 years ago. It's always bugged me. I needed to find a way to test myself. To see if I could put myself in a situation where I understood intellectually that everything would be ok if I could just make my body do something it was instinctually not designed to do. You just can't recreate that kind of thing easily, so I needed a suitable approximation. Eventually I came up with the idea of Skydiving. Could I make myself jump out of that plane? I found Skydive Dallas on the Internet, arbitrarily choosing it over other DZ's in the area. I toyed with the idea for about a month before I gathered the courage to give them a call. I signed up for AFF LVL1 as I felt that a Tandem wouldn't provide a true test. I only had to do one jump to know. I went there alone, in case I failed. I didn't fail. I jumped. I also passed, performing all the things you do for AFF1, but still felt dissatisfied. I could tell that mentally I was still overwhelmed by the experience. Performing the exercises more out of trained habit on the ground than actual awareness in the sky. "Could I actually get to where I felt this to be a normal experience?" Well. sorta. Later I asked myself "I wonder if I could actually learn to fly?" The rest is history. Sorry for the novelette, but that's why I started skydiving. Just writing that part about the boat made me all tense again.“There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.” Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mikkey 0 #19 July 23, 2003 When I was a little kid in the 60's there was a TV Show called "Ripcord" (2 jumpers and a Cessna on adventures ;-). I was totally spellbound by these guys with the neat jump suit, big boots, white helmets, belly reserves and "TU" Roundies jumping. I knew then I had to jump. More then 10 years later at University I met a couple of guys who had started jumping at the local club and got me "hooked up". The power of TV --------------------------------------------------------- When people look like ants - pull. When ants look like people - pray. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tbrown 26 #20 July 23, 2003 QuoteWhen I was a little kid in the 60's there was a TV Show called "Ripcord" Yeah, "Ripcord" got me suckered in when I was seven. It was the first actual freefall film I'd ever seen. It confused me at first, because these guys didn't appear to be falling, but they had to be, right ? Then in Jr. High, I found a cool book on skydiving by Bud Sellick. It was always a passion in the back of my mind. Finally, my first year in college, the Seneca Falls, NY drop zone sent a few of their guys down to our student union with a copy of "Masters of the Sky". We got a $35 discount price because more than 15 of us signed up at once. The jump course was Friday night, then they took us into town to get shatterpated (drinking age in NY was 18 at the time). Then we all crashed out on the floor back at the DZ. Around 7am somebody flicked on the lights and told us to hit the deck and suit up. Was up and down by 8 in the morning. Before leaving for breakfast we watched the local gods do an 8 way from 2 Cessnas and I thought "this really is for me". Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity ! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mikkey 0 #21 July 23, 2003 Quotethe Seneca Falls, NY drop zone sent a few of their guys down to our student union with a copy of "Masters of the Sky". Spot on, - showing these movies was typical "bait" by skydiving clubs in the 70's when visiting Educational institutions and at other promotional activities. It was always: Wings, Masters of the Sky, Skydive and Sky Capers on 16 mm. I am sure a lot of "tbrown's" and my generation were sucked in by these movies. They were really unusual for their time. Packing a 16 mm when free falling was a hugh task at the time and Boenish & Co. were real pioneers. The technology was very different then. I remember being in total awe of the guys in the movies.--------------------------------------------------------- When people look like ants - pull. When ants look like people - pray. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
conhails 0 #22 July 23, 2003 My Dad jumped with the British Army back in the 60's. As a kid i always remember his uniform had a parachute badge on the sleeve. I'm 25 and have wanted to jump ever since I started doing a 60+ hour week in rainy London. Kinda gets to you after a while. Ummm I also get bored very easily. (Probably something to do with my attention/hyperactivity disorders!) Jumping is fun. _______________________________________ Life is not measured by the breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away..... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
slotperfect 7 #23 July 23, 2003 I dropped out of college after 1 1/2 years because I hated what I was doing. After a few months, I decided to join the Army. The recruiter showed me a video of Airborne School at Ft. Benning, GA and I was hooked. I knew I had to do that. I have been jumping ever since.Arrive Safely John Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DYEVOUT 0 #24 July 23, 2003 Always wanted to, but always had something "more important" to spend the money on - dirt bikes, cars, etc... Got married in '88, still glazed over any time I saw some skydiving footage on TV or a movie. Moved to eastern PA in '95, now the local Super Walmart is right next to Hazleton Municipal Airport, so I have to actually watch REAL skydivers have fun. Still thought of such an expenditure as "selfish", what with the mortgage and all. Valentine's Day 2002 - took the lovely wife out to dinner, at which time she handed me an envelope with my (AFF) first jump course schedule!! Turns out she works with a skydiver, and set the whole thing up without me knowing!! She must have noticed the way I used to stare up at the canopies from the Walmart parking lot (when I should have been driving the car). First jump early June of last summer. Off AFF (and radio, thank god) last October. Progress this year has been slow, due to weather - but I was on the same (C185) load when my wife made her first tandem last month for our 15th anniversary!! ----------------=8^)---------------------- "I think that was the wrong tennis court." Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
feuergnom 22 #25 July 23, 2003 i don't remember when skydiving came to my mind for the first time - but definitely somewhere in the time when i was like 20. it was a dram that i thought it would become reality some distant day. in fact my ex-girlfriend made me a birthdaypresent, after i mentioned it to her one time during conversation on what we dreamed of but didn't dare to do yet. it took me another year to do the tandem - no time, overworked, bad weather etc. i was in trance for a week and knew taht it was a great experience. still i didn't want to take classes or leran it. a year later i was invitetd to do a bungee from a 150 meter tower. and it was exacteley that day when i decided to learn how to skydive. hung on the internet, found me a dz that operated nnot only on weekends and made my license in two weeks. that was three years ago. now i'm on my way to become a coach and i'm still thankfull to my ex-love for that very special presentThe universal aptitude for ineptitude makes any human accomplishment an incredible miracle dudeist skydiver # 666 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
