I can't talk about it

[redshift 0]

What, exactly, distinguishes people who like to skydive and people who are completely freaked out by the very idea of it? I showed a video of my 18th jump to my wife, and she just about threw up -- interrupting my excited narrative of the high points of the jump. She said "it looks like someone committing suicide". A friend of mine decined, with a shudder, to view it at all.

Is it a difference between our levels of survival instinct? Unnamed, visceral dread vs. heedlessness? Love of risk vs. caution? Differences in risk assessment due to more and/or less information?

I tell my wife that I like skydiving because it's an experience you can't get any other way, and the risk is just what you pay to get that experience. But is the risk an intrinsic part of the reward, and if so, how much?

On a less existential note, how do experienced jumpers explain their motivations to those near and dear to them?

[aneblett 0]

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On a less existential note, how do experienced jumpers explain their motivations to those near and dear to them?

I just say simply. It (skydiving) makes me Happy. I think everyone has something that they do simply cause it makes them happy and can therefore relate.

Age

S.E.X. party #2

..It is far worse to live with fear, than to die confronting it.

[Poczynek 0]

Redshift,
Several months ago I watched a Discovery channel show about taking risks. They specifically used skydiving as the test platform. The gist of the show is that there are both chemical and physiological elements that greatly influence the amount of risk different people can handle. It was very interesting - I wish I would have thought about getting a transcript. My wife of 20 years gets white knuckles on the mall escalator - and thinks that I am whacko - watched me do a military demo once and has never been to a DZ since. We have a deal - I don't ask her to go to the DZ, and she doesn't nag me too much go to art musuems. lol

phat, dumb & happy

[rendezvous 0]

Well I try to explain that the risk we take is not mindless but measured. I try to explain to them how fatality in Skydiving is not a stand alone event but an outcome of a number of events chained together. That trying to understand this chain and prevent it from forming is how we try and reduce our exposure to risk. I find this "chain of events" explanation to be quite useful because most of the non skydiving community thinks that a malfunction is synonomus to fatality.

[staticnewbie 0]

Hey there - I just finished my Uni dissertation on risk-taking, except I used rock climbing as my field of study. I found there's all sorts of psychological theories to explain why people do 'dangerous' things. Here's a few of my favourites:

i) optimistic bias: the irrational expectation that any negative outcome will happen to those around you, but not you personally.

ii) risky shift: you are more likely to decide to do something dangerous if there are others debating the same decision, therefore you are more likely to take up skydiving as part of a group who all want to do a tandem.

There is a lot more detail in this book, although I wouldn't recommend it for casual reading, I nearly killed myself it was so boring in places.

This username sucks, so I'm BBKid now instead. Replies, insults, sexual favours and death threats to be sent there from now on.

[flyingferret 0]

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I wouldn't recommend it for casual reading, I nearly killed myself it was so boring in places.

See even reading can be dangerous

--
All the flaming and trolls of wreck dot with a pretty GUI.

[billvon 2,396]

Here's something I wrote a while back about the "why?" question:
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anyone who has ever been interviewed for something having to do with skydiving has probably heard the "why" question. it is usually phrased something like "why do you risk your life just to fall out of an airplane?" (actually, for me it's been "why do you risk your life just to jump off a stupid bridge?" but same idea.) and generally, if they have to ask, i just assume they can't understand. i usually give them some canned answer, some sound bite that's as accurate as anything else they'll put in the article.

some favorites:

"because the door is open"

"for the freedom and blah blah of flight"

"because it's better than sex"

but lately i've been thinking about it a bit more. a climber friend of mine, heidi howkins, has been writing a bunch of stuff about risk and challenge, and i've been talking to her about what she's writing. amy and i have been talking about what sort of risk people want (or need) in their lives. mike vederman's been writing his version of "why we jump" and what skydiving is worth to him. Kevin (note capital letter!) recently mentioned that he liked skydiving for many of the same reasons he liked golf, which seems strange.

so why do i jump? what about it draws me to it? what's so great about it that makes it worth risking my life to attempt it?

the most basic thing about it, for me, is that it lets me fly. for aslong as i can remember i've looked up at the sky and wanted to be up there. and i think that basic drive is responsible for a lot of the things i've pursued in my life - skydiving, flying, climbing, paragliding, BASE jumping, even SCUBA diving in a strange way. and, for me, skydiving seems like the purest form of flight. still imperfect - we'll never be birds. but for a few minutes we can come close.

why do i want to fly? why does a sensible land animal, with two feet and no wings, desire the sky? i have no idea. but it's one of the things about my psyche that i just accept. when i consider the things i might have been drawn to - alcohol, drugs, money, violence - i consider myself pretty lucky. and when i consider that if i had been born even 120 years earlier my feet would have never left the ground, i feel very lucky indeed. one of my earliest childhood dreams involved running down a hill, leaping in the air again and again, until finally i just flew away. how many people get to live out their dreams like that?

there's also something really basic about the challenge of skydiving that appeals to me. every single jump i make is a test, in a way. you have to pull. you have to deal with mals. you have to fly a fast little canopy through traffic, through the pattern, and land safely on the ground again. the penalty for failing at any of that is death or injury. and i think there's a deep part of me that looks for tests, that wants to pit my skills against the forces trying to drive me into the ground.

i think this may be a basic desire in many people. i see it in the macho posturing of drunk guys in bars, in kids playing chicken with the train, even in frat guys seeing how much they can drink. i think some people really need to be able to pit themselves against a dangerous opponent, even when it's something as basic as gravity.

it also explains some of the basic contradictions inherent to my participation in skydiving. some reporters get stuck on the S+TA thing - "you jump out of planes, then make a big deal about safety?" the way i see it, it's a contest between my skill, my gear, and gravity, and i'm going to bend the odds in my favor. for me that means i don't hook turn or jump super small canopies. for other people it means they always use an AAD or whatever. i will always look for new challenges. but at the same time, i'm going to stack the deck so my skills are enough to save my life, even when the shit hits the fan (which it does with monotonous regularity.)

a while back i heard a song that, i think, describes the longing for this sort of challenge. i forget the name of the song - i always think of it as "the whuffo song," in honor of the people who stay on the ground and then wonder why they feel like something's missing:

>have you ever had the odds stacked up so high
>you need a strength most don't possess?
>or has it ever come down to do or die
>you've got to rise above the rest?

>i've never had to, knock on wood
>but I know someone who has
>which makes me wonder if i could . . .

>i'm not a coward, i've just never been tested
>i'd like to think that if i was i would pass
>look at the tested and think there but for the grace go i
>i might be a coward - i'm afraid of what i might find out


we, as skydivers, are the tested. every single one of us has conquered our basic fear of heights, performed under pressure, and acted to save our own lives. most of us have dealt with problems that, unless remedied, would have killed us. some of us have done more altruistic things, swooping down on students who aren't pulling and saving their lives as well. and for each one of these things, each test we pass, we're validating ourselves, measuring ourselves not against a relative scale of skill or merit, but against the absolutes of gravity, speed and our own fragile existence.

that absolute scale is something else that attracts me, i think. four-way competitions are fun, but i will never be as good as john eagle, and it's not worth (to me) spending the rest of my life trying. but there are absolutes, where you are simply good enough or you aren't. i know i'm an OK rigger, for example, because from my first BASE jump, i assembled, packed and tested my own BASE rig - and it worked. i know i'm OK at jumpmaster-type flying because students don't get away from me. those are the scales i use, and they don't change.

i guess the thing that struck me about the skydiving-golf analogy was that, for me, the two most important parts of skydiving (flying and that absolute skill requirement) are missing from golf - or from pretty much any low-risk ground sport. i see a really big difference there.

there are many other reasons that i like skydiving. it requires skill, and i like working at something and becoming better at it. it lets me do fun things with my friends. it lets me hang out with some remarkable people. but all these things are common with nearly every other fun thing i do, from engineering to mountain biking to volunteer work on some hiking trail somewhere. they are not unique to skydiving, although they are definitely good parts of it.

i don't know if any of this is true for other people, but it seems like it's true for me. now if i could just compress all that into a ten-second sound bite i'd be all set.

[riggerrob 558]

Because I enjoy flying.

[Tf15 0]

Well, the first picture of me that exists is of me as a baby holding a toy airplane in my hand. I built model airplanes all through grade school, high school and college, and still do.

I always wanted to fly, but was essentially unsatisfied with my power and glider pilot's licenses because it didn't feel like *I* was flying, I was always in a machine that was flying. In fact I really get more pleasure from flying R/C models than from flying in my own plane.

Then I discovered skydiving.

Three times is enemy action

[Zenister 0]

because for me it is one of the few things that illustrate complete commitment.

dive out or stay in? no half way. no changing your mind after the fact (well you could but it wont change anything)

pull? or not? again no half measures..

very little in life can be divided into that kind of black and white decision, no "well maybe if"

to qoute yoda

do, or do not. there is not try.


that and the fact that freefall the most freedom allowed, you can go any direction you wish except one..

____________________________________
Those who fail to learn from the past are simply Doomed.

[spidermonky 0]

I had the exact same dream over and over. I would run down a hill and jump until I was in the air and then fly over the city I lived in.
I sometimes tell people about that and how I can fly over houses and fields every weekend now.

[betzilla 56]

One of the very first things I loved about skydiving was the way it caused me to live completely in the moment, and to focus only on what I was doing.That was what kept me coming back.

I also learned a lot about the way i handle fear. That new knowlege has helped me get over stupid irrational fears (for instance, calling a creditor to request a lower rate) and anxieties. it's that last one that non-jumpers seem to understand best.

But mostly people can see that when I talk about skydiving, I talk about it with great passion. They may not understand why I love skydiving, but they can see that I DO love it, and that keeps them from pooh-poohing it too much.

[dreamsville 0]

I used to have to fly from Detroit to Los Angeles to go to school when I was a teenager. I used to look out at the mountains and the Painted Desert (Arizona?) and the farmland, thinking about flying over them myself. Somewhere in the back of my mind was a feeling of confinement in the plane when having these fantasies, enhanced by the fact that I wasn't a pilot anyway. Could I really ever do this?

Later, I fantasized about having a little plane akin to an ultralight that I could take off and land on my parent's street, even sometimes with thoughts of flying over city lights at night. To this day, I still look out the window looking for beauty and color when on one of those regular passenger flights where we end up landing with the plane. This last memory came flooding back on my first night jump.

I'm glad that you pulled these thoughts out of the archive of my memory. Skydivers are the lucky ones, not because we survive, but because we get to do it. Others will never know this special shared pleasure that God has given us.
|

I don't drink during the day, so I don't know what it is about this airline. I keep falling out the door of the plane.

Harry, FB #4143

[stylin 1]

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I had the exact same dream over and over. I would run down a hill and jump until I was in the air and then fly over the city I lived in.
I sometimes tell people about that and how I can fly over houses and fields every weekend now.

Mine are little different. I always have this monster, vampire, witch, or whatever chasing me, then Id get cornered, and not knowing what else to do but die, I would just jump up and start flying. Remember that next time you have a dream like that, its pretty convenient. Gets you out of trouble too.

If I could just figure out how to do that in real life...

[KATO33 0]

My reasons also started with a dream falling not flying though. Falling from the sky but I was able to fly my body with enough control that I could either run out the landing or tumble without injuries. At that time I didn't know Skydiving Existed. But those were fun dreams. Now my falling dreams consist of various malfuntions. The latest ...I dump my main big ball of crap cutaway reach for reserve me thinking "wait I have a cypress lets see if it works" I dont pull resreve untill 300ft me thinking "stupid cypress and stupid Chris For waiting."

Blue Skies Black Death

[DivinDon 0]

I had this talk with my mother the other night and my reply was "some people pitch horse shoes some like jumping out of planes" to each his own .

[covey 0]

I really enjoy it cause it clears my mind. When the door call is made everything come into focus. During the freefall and the canopy ride down there are no worldly problems on my mind. Everuthing is down to the basics. It is a few minutes of freedom.

Believe those who are seeking truth. Doubt those who find it. -Andre Gide

[BlindBrick 0]

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>have you ever had the odds stacked up so high
>you need a strength most don't possess?
>or has it ever come down to do or die
>you've got to rise above the rest?

>i've never had to, knock on wood
>but I know someone who has
>which makes me wonder if i could . . .

>i'm not a coward, i've just never been tested
>i'd like to think that if i was i would pass
>look at the tested and think there but for the grace go i
>i might be a coward - i'm afraid of what i might find out

That would eb "The impression that I get" by the Mighty, Mighty Bosstones.

-Blind

"If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

[covey 0]

I skydive cause it helps me let go. When the DOOR!!! call goes mind mind clears of everything else except skydiving. For the freefall and the canopy ride down I am freed of all worldly constraints. Besides gravity of course. Perhaps this is just because I am a newbie. Maybe after a few thousand jumps my day to day troubles will follow me out the door too. I sure as hell hope not of course.

Believe those who are seeking truth. Doubt those who find it. -Andre Gide

[hsaddler 0]

Well, thanks everyone for all the great observations and reflections... they make me realize a few things:
1. We get deep satisfaction in doing something well that has serious consequences if done badly.
2. If there's a way to fly, we can't not do it.
3. As always, Edmund Hillary said it best: because it's there. Or in our case, it's not there.
4. It's a hundred and six miles to Chicago, we got a half a tank of gas, it's dark, and we're wearing sunglasses. Hit it!

[Samurai136 0]

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i) optimistic bias: the irrational expectation that any negative outcome will happen to those around you, but not you personally.

What if I have empirical proof that others have 'bad luck' and I have 'good luck'?

The best explaination I've found was in an automotive study about speed limits. No matter where the speed limit is set, drivers will operate their vehicle at a speed they believe is safe. Everyone has their own limits to the amount of risk they are willing to expose themselves too. Some are willing to knowingly accept more risk than others.

Ken

"Buttons aren't toys." - Trillian
Ken

[SkySlut 0]

I was on NESN (New England Sports Network) for a special on risktakers. They had skydiving, BASE jumping (look at me!), Solo Rock Climbing, Extreme Skiing, Bungee Jumping, etc. They interviewed all these people and asked them why they do it. I said "why not?", but they went onto the head of the dept of Neurology from Mclean Hospital in Belmont Mass (Rehab for rich people)...he said that there are some basic physiological differences in the frontal part of the lobe of the brain between risk takers and non risk takers. It was a pretty interesting thing that he was talking about. He went on to say that there is an evolutionary value to these differences. Back in the cave man days, risktakers were probably the best hunters, etc. Kinda funny...I cant even make toast in the morning, but I can get on the first load and jump out of planes all day long!!!!

[jumpy 0]

short answer... because skydiving is the most fun and the most satisfying thing i have found to do
Its the best feeling in the world!!

I hope one day i can become a dz bum and just live on the dropzone to pack and jump.. that must be the best feeling in the world!

[Iflyme 0]

Well, ever since I can remember, I've had this dream where I am running, and I take longer and longer strides ... with each subsequent stride, I can soar a bit more --- sometime, in my dreams, I can soar up to the tree tops as I am "running"... other times, I can start soaring so far that I pull my feet up, and just continue moving above the ground. I also remember, as a kid, running down my yard, and jumping into the bushes ... a brief moment of flight. And I was a great high jumper back in high school. And I was always jumping off the cliffs into lakes and rivers nearby... it all comes down to wanting to fly -- not the sitting in a plane type of flying -- just plain old flying free! And now that I am all growed up -- I really can fly!

[racer42 0]

I jump now for all the reasons stated here. Also because I can't thnk of anything else I feel so passionately about. I mean how in the hell do you top a sunset jump all by yourself looking west into the dissolving light of a perfect day??

L.A.S.T. #24
Co-Founder Biscuit Brothers Freefly Team
Electric Toaster #3
Co-Founder Team Non Sequitor
Co-Founder Team Happy Sock