Real TV and "Expert Skydivers'...My rant....

[LawnDart21 0]

I was watching Real TV a few days ago, and saw a skydiving clip that really pissed me off. It was a jump in Hawaii and they showed the jumper in the plane on the way up and the voice over said "This is so and so, he is an "expert" skydiver, with over 200 skydives", and then they show a caption under his picture with his name and title of "Expert Skydiver". Anyways, after a totally unstable freefly, the video then shows Mr. "Expert" who decides to hook in his landing and basically he touches the ground about the same time as his canopy......two broken legs later.......(he hit HARD, he is one lucky son of a bitch!) Real TV called the hook an "advanced canopy landing technique that should only be attempted by experts" (like this yahoo with 200 jumps). The best part of the clip was a post crash interview with the jumper in a hospital bed with two full leg casts. He was laughing and joking saying "well, I won't be trying that again any time soon...ha ha ha", not even realizing how close he came to dying. This guy should trade in his rig for a bowling ball in my opinion........Anyways, that's my precoffee rant for the morning! That guy is a darwin award waiting to happen.
"I live to EFS"
Tom
(as a post script, it's not the jump numbers of the guy or that he hooked it in that pissed me off, I mean I know jumpers with 100 jumps that hook landings successfully, and thats cool if they respect the danger and know the consequences, but it was the totally arrogant attitude of this jumper and how Real TV tried to portray him as a cool danger seeker type, when in reality his caption under his name should have just said "DUMB ASS". Okay, I'm off my soap box!!!

[SkydiveMonkey 0]

It's people like this that give our sport a bad name to all whuffos. This is why my parents think that you will die on every 3rd jump you do.
You shouldn't put a knife in the toaster - but you're an adult now !!!

[billvon 2,453]

>I was watching Real TV a few days ago, and saw a skydiving clip that really pissed me off.
>It was a jump in Hawaii and they showed the jumper in the plane on the way up and the voice over said
>"This is so and so, he is an "expert" skydiver, with over 200 skydives" . .
Hard to fault them for that - USPA, the "official" regulatory body in the US for skydiving, used to call the 200-jump license level expert, and it's still our highest license level.
>but it was the totally arrogant attitude of this jumper and how Real TV tried to portray him as a cool danger seeker type . . .
Well, most skydivers _are_ pretty arrogant danger seeker types, compared to the audience of that show.
>when in reality his caption under his name should have just said "DUMB ASS".
To most people, we're all dumb asses for jumping out of perfectly good airplanes.
About five years ago I realized that the average person will never understand what we do, and it's futile to try to make him. I think the best possible reaction a whuffo could have to skydiving is a vauge desire to ignore it. We will have far less friction with the rest of society that way.
-bill von

[LawnDart21 0]

I understand what your saying Bill, but I just think there are two types of skydivers out there: 1) Safety conscious jumpers (of course that is a relative term to our sport) and then 2) The "accidents waiting to happen" jumpers. This jumper on RealTV was definitely an accident waiting to happen. I'm sure in your experience you've seen a few low time jumpers that think they are invincible skygods, that was how this guy was protrayed on Real TV. I mean, I've jumped at Dillignham field and landing there is no joke. Anyone with that few jumps that's showing off and decided to hook it in there deserves the "bowling talk' in my opinion. In the long run, they do more damage to our sport than it's worth.
"I live to EFS"
Tom

[rapper4mpi 0]

Check out my post on a similar topic in Talk Back, under "skydiving portrayal in the media", I think you will all find it very interesting.
-Rap

[rgoper 0]

tom:
sad...but true, this is the general potrayal of sky divers, this guy was probably doing his first or second sky dive, and probably trained himself! :) i don't like the way the media portrays us at all. my favorite of all time is the scene in dropzone when wesley snipes is sitting on his ass in that jump plane with a trap door underneath his ass and the chick pulls the handle to drop his ass out from the bottom of the plane, she has a 8 second conversation with the pilot, the bails and tracks to him, grabs him and deploys and saves the day for both of them. i'm thinking, yeah, RIGHT! then there's the scene in the swayze/reeves movie where there'e in freefall for 4 minutes in a speedstar, and swayze (sp?) is telling johnny "pull" and he responds "after you alphonse, i insists" that's RICH! i will attempt neither sky dive! take care, be safe!
R.G.

[quade 3]

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This is why my parents think that you will die on every 3rd jump you do.

Technically speaking, I think you can only die once. ;^)
quade
http://futurecam.com

[billvon 2,453]

> Anyone with that few jumps that's showing off and decided to hook it in there deserves the "bowling talk' in my
>opinion. In the long run, they do more damage to our sport than it's worth.
I agree 100%, but I have long since given up on hoping the media figures that out. Heck, it takes 20-30 jumps, and a few months in our culture, to even start figuring out who's about to go in and who's skilled enough to pull off dangerous stuff like that.
Should someone who jumps a VX69 get a bowling talk? I'd have to see them land it, and know their experience and attitude. Try explaining that to the media - that some people jump ultra dangerous canopies and that's OK, but another jumper might be unsafe jumping one that's twice as safe. They're just not equipped to understand it.
Should Greg Gasson get the bowling talk, because he does stunts in which he seems to take off his rig in freefall? I know him, and I'd have to say no. Should Ray have gotten the bowling talk, even though he doesn't do things that seem as dangerous? Yes, and he got one, and he kept jumping, and now he will never walk normally again. Again, hard to explain that to someone who's not a skydiver, someone who doesn't come within 10 seconds of a messy death 10 times a weekend.
I used to hope that the media portrayed skydiving in a positive light, because I liked it and I wanted other people to see it like I did. Then I started just hoping they got the basic facts right. Nowadays, I sort of hope we're portrayed as incomprehensible risk-takers who practice this dangerous sport, but who are harmless to everyone else. That, I think, is best for our future - we will cut down on the number of people who show up to make a jump thinking they can never be hurt, and the waiver is a funny joke, while at the same time getting left alone by those agencies (FAA, town boards) who would seek to regulate what they don't understand.

-bill von

[LawnDart21 0]

Well said Bill. I agree.
Hey, let's go bowl a few and see how the other half live!
"I live to EFS"
Tom

[Kirils 1]

.
Our sport is a small collective. As members, we have to maintain a certain standard of competancy and responsibility
about how we appear to the general public. The threat of government regulation of the sport is very real. "Experts" like the guy you speak of are a threat to our existance.
Skydiving is not a static excercise with discrete predictability...

[billvon 2,453]

>Hey, let's go bowl a few and see how the other half live!
A few of us (all skydivers) went to Wisconsin to visit someone's parents this winter, and we spent a day bowling. While there I finally figured it out - bowling is an excuse to drink beer! It even has interesting distractions, like heavy objects to throw, things to knock down that make a lot of noise, and a colorful video screen that shows you numbers and graphics. There was a bar attached in case you got sick of the noise.
After realizing that, bowling made a lot more sense to me.
-bill von

[scottbre 0]

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bowling is an excuse to drink beer!

Well, duh! I thought everyone knew that. 20 million bathtubs can't be wrong. . .

[Slowfaller 0]

I agree w/ you but don't rip on bowling.
I'll go to college; learn some big words; I'll talk real loud god damn right I'll be heard.

[airdrew20012001 0]

I totally agree. Fuckers!
Drewfus McDoofus

[JDBoston 0]

Besides, if you've bowled then you've gotten to feel the dirtiest place on earth, the finger-holes of a bowling ball... now THAT'S extreme.... yum....
Joe

[GrumpySmurf 0]

Hate to break it to ya, but in Wisconisn - EVERYTHING is an excuse to drink beer

[Slowfaller 0]

That's why you ask for a bowling ball and a pair of shoes for you B-day when you're 12. I don't want to know what lies in the darkness of a public bowling ball's finger holes. Now I'm a real dork because I have two bowling balls, one for strikes (16lbs.) and one for spares (14lbs.).
I'll go to college; learn some big words; I'll talk real loud god damn right I'll be heard.

[fred 0]

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Besides, if you've bowled then you've gotten to feel the dirtiest place on earth, the finger-holes of a bowling ball...

Ew. I've never thought about that. Thank god I have my own ball. It least it's my filth.

[adamjenner 0]

sure this is an older topic but I can't help but laugh
I taped that and watched it...But yeah the whole expert thing. But he hit really hard! If you happen to see it again, listen closely (you can hear the legs snap) OUCH!

[JeffGordon 0]

Speaking of skydiving on tv, I saw a clip on AFV where a guy made a beach landing and his canopy fell on a seal. The seal got wrapped in the lines and started lunging toward the water almost dragging the jumper with him. I was laughing out loud yelling "CUT AWAY MAN CUT AWAY"

[riddler 0]

Note to seal: from wet-water training. Loosen chest strap, prepare to PLF, swim down and away from canopy avoiding lines.

Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

[Tonto 1]

Ditto. Best we can hope for is benevolent misunderstanding.
t

It's the year of the Pig.

[Liemberg 0]

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I'm a real dork because I have two bowling balls, one for strikes (16lbs.) and one for spares (14lbs.)

You are almost obliged to do something very very stupid, while skydiving, so as to provoke the ST&A or DZO into telling you to go bowling... (Just picture the look on their faces when you answer them...)

BTW: Hats of for you of course - telling in THIS forum you bowl... LOL - any golfers in the audience, wanting to come out of the closet?

"Whoever in discussion adduces authority uses not intellect but memory." - Leonardo da Vinci
A thousand words...

[riddler 0]

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used to call the 200-jump license level expert

Speaking of "used-to", I did a search through the latest SIM and I can't find anywhere that the D license level is called "expert" anymore. I think USPA is being very cautious with their wording these days. Has this been removed from all UPSA publications?