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Rogersmoke

When does a Tourist become a skydiver?

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run through the bar naked.
the next day everyone will know who you are. they may not want to jump with you, but at least they will know of you.



With my luck i would get arrested for offensive behaviour.. and get called sexist
I tend to be a bit different. enjoyed my time in the sport or is it an industry these days ??

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run through the bar naked.
the next day everyone will know who you are. they may not want to jump with you, but at least they will know of you.



I think I have finally worked me out I wanted to be noticed (as believe it or not I am a bit shy) so made a complete and utterfool of myself on SS. At least alot of Aussie folk know who I am.... of course no one would ever want to jump with me and at one DZ I would be lucky to leave alive.

Do I regret alot of it yeah. but I got in too deep and tried to fight my way out but made it worse. (but keep all this to yourself cause no on else is reading this in Australia and I would never admit it there) now about skyhooks...

As a wise man said "greg is a sad man ".. as usual he is right.
I tend to be a bit different. enjoyed my time in the sport or is it an industry these days ??

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As soon as you exit on your first tandem you're a skydiver.



At 66 jumps ( 23 tandems) I stil get called a whuffo

i would call you a bowler
You are not now, nor will you ever be, good enough to not die in this sport (Sparky)
My Life ROCKS!
How's yours doing?

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As soon as you exit on your first tandem you're a skydiver.



At 66 jumps ( 23 tandems) I stil get called a whuffo
i would call you a bowler


Is that like Cockney rhyming slang..... Bowler hat .... T@:P

--------------------------------------------------------
@'The Whinners'
At the end of the day, we're pretty much all different (which make life interesting) ... Some folks make friends easier than others, some are more annoying than others.. But what ever type you are, it's no one elses fault. Either live with it or work on changing. A lot of the whinny posts seem to come from Glass 1/2 empty personality types - News Flash ... NOBODY CARES.

(.)Y(.)
Chivalry is not dead; it only sleeps for want of work to do. - Jerome K Jerome

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As soon as you exit on your first tandem you're a skydiver.



No...you've MADE a Skydive, takes more than jumping out of an airplane to become a 'Skydiver'.

It's got little to do with how many jumps you have or how much money you've spent...like most things you get out of it what you put into it and money has little impact regarding social progression.

It's all about positive attitude & respect...you can't get one without the other.

I've walked onto drop-zones in other countries where no one knew anything at all about me, didn't even have a RIG with me... one time within 20 minutes I was on a downtown demo, another time I was in the base on an 8 way...B|...once in France some guy I'd never met gave me his slot and his rig to make a quick jump because I was 'just passing through' and couldn't spend hours hanging around. ~He knew what it meant to me, and I knew what a cool thing it really was to have him do that...he wouldn't even let me pay for the slot!

~THAT'S a Skydiver!!~

Truly it's NOT about money, number of jumps or time in the sport. Has more to do with walking the walk, if someone thinks they 'deserve' some special respect or pampering just because they show up with a credit card, they are just talking the talk and have yet to graduate from 'tourist' status.

;):ph34r:










~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

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I began to feel like a skydiver after i figured out how to control myself in freefall on jump 9, i was a slow learner. I felt like a parachutist after my first jump, aff lvl 1. I didn't care about what others considered me then and i continue to not care now. I got into this because im a propeller head and i love anything that flys, not because i was looking for friends(but boy did i get alot of those out of this ride).

To the OP: Suck it up and stop expecting other people to create the world you want to live in. That's not how it works in skydiving or any other part of life. Figure that out and its all down hill form there.

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I got into this because im a propeller head and i love anything that flys, not because i was looking for friends

I didn't care about what others considered me then and i continue to not care now.

Suck it up and stop expecting other people to create the world you want to live in



Amen, my brother.

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i dont know man, i have jumped regularly at 4 dropzones now, and particulary one of them was quite hard to break into as it was in the middle of the pacific ocean and you really had to earn peoples trust.

i have never had anyone come running at me with open arms, i had to hang around, talk to people even when it seemed i was annoying them, invite myself to after parties at the dropzone (armed with plenty of beer), and to be honest i have had a fuckin BLAST skydiving everywhere i have. some people are a little weird, but most skydivers are some of the coolest people ive ever met.

try jumping at another dropzone, and if maybe you feel like some people are being rude or leaving you out, go out of your way to try to break in with them. its all about attitude and perception. good luck man
gravity brings me down.........

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I'd say Twardo is close...

You're a skydiver when you believe you are!

When you're somewhere else, doing anything else and all you can think about is your next jump... you're a skydiver.

When you relate the cost of a new pair of jeans not to dollars and cents, but to how many "skydives" that will cost.... you're a skydiver.

You don't choose to be a skydiver, it grabs you by the heart and soul. And, my friend, it never lets go.... then, you're a skydiver.
B|

Birdshit & Fools Productions

"Son, only two things fall from the sky."

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DZ is just like high school.
You have several little cliques.

You have belly groups. Old and Young.
You have freeflying groups Old and Young.

You have groups that smokes pot.
You have groups that drinks alchohol.
You'll have groups that goes out and eat dinner with one another after jumping.
You also have groups that are interested in fucking one another takin turns.

Than you have wingsuiters
CRW
and
Swoopers.

Pick your poison and join one, and actively participate in that activity.

If you are only interested in non-skydivng shit which are not one of the above. I Suggest taking up Paragliding.

btw, I hated that skydiving community were so cliquey and high school like when I first started out. After years of skydiving I have become one of those people I used to hate. Didn't even notice until someone pointed out that, "You guys have become one of those guys that we used to make fun of". [:/]

Bernie Sanders for President 2016

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DZ is just like high school.
You have several little cliques.



Hah, so true. At my SO's 25th high school reunion last year, one of his old friends came up to him and said "Wow, I still can't believe the history nerd has turned into a skydiver!" We had a good chuckle about that and I said, "First of all, he's still a nerd. :D Second of all, clearly you have some illusions about skydivers that we must change! Skydiving is exactly like high school - you've got the nerds, the jocks, the cool kinds, the stoners, the class clowns, the go-getters, the suck-ups ..."

To the OP: The short answer is: in 10 years. I'm still a tourist.

As others have said, check out other DZs. Yours may just be full of assholes. But if every DZ you go to is full of assholes, then it might be time to reassess who the asshole is.
"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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If you are only interested in non-skydivng shit which are not one of the above. I Suggest taking up Paragliding.



Oy fuck you:P

Paragliding, climbing ... they all have their cliques to ... Life is like that

(.)Y(.)
Chivalry is not dead; it only sleeps for want of work to do. - Jerome K Jerome

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Just curious, for someone who is a "skydiver" in some ways, but not TRULY a skydiver because he/she doesn't jump anymore (except for tandems), how do people view that group?



IMHO, if you have ever deployed a parachute and landed it without assistance, you are a skydiver. If you don't jump anymore, you can still call yourself a skydiver, you're just not a current skydiver.

As for tandems, I knew a woman who was paralyzed. She had her own tandem rig and a favorite tandem master to jump with. She logged hundreds of jumps, including some mid-sized RW dives. If she wasn't a skydiver, then none of us are.

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DZ is just like high school.
You have several little cliques.

You have belly groups. Old and Young.
You have freeflying groups Old and Young.

You have groups that smokes pot.
You have groups that drinks alchohol.
You'll have groups that goes out and eat dinner with one another after jumping.
You also have groups that are interested in fucking one another takin turns.

Than you have wingsuiters
CRW
and
Swoopers.

Pick your poison



It's just like anywhere you go, there are going to be people you like and people you don't like. There are going to be people who like you and people who don't like you.

The DZ is there for one reason, so people can jump. It's not a social club, and just showing up doesn't suddenly make you everyone's 'friend'. Sure if I saw any skydiver at the grocery store, I'm going to stop and chat for a few minutes, but if I'm at the DZ, surrounded by jumpers and possibly other jumpers I like more than that person, I might just give them a 'What's up?' in passing.

You can't force people to be friends with you. Go to the DZ to jump, and whoever you happen to 'fall in' with will be your friends. I know just about everyone who jumps at my DZ, but there are only a handful who I talk to or hang out with away from the DZ. Those people are my 'friends', and the rest of them are my 'skydiving friends'.

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Just curious, for someone who is a "skydiver" in some ways, but not TRULY a skydiver because he/she doesn't jump anymore (except for tandems), how do people view that group? As "wannabees"?



Define "People".

Do your friends say "Hi" when you arrive?
Do they seem genuinely happy to see you?
Do they want to join you on your tandems?
Do they ask where you've been if you haven't been there for a couple weeks?
Do you hang around and join the after hours shenannigans?

And most of all - Do you feel at home on the DZ?

It's kind of funny.

I don't feel like I "fit in" in a lot of places and situations.
But I do at the DZ.

ANY DZ that I go to, I can find friends. Not everyone, but at least someone. Sure there are the "cliques", but even if I'm not "one of them" I can still talk to them, hang out and have a good time. I may not be able to participate in their type of jump, but I don't feel excluded because of that.
"There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy

"~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

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Switch, switch, switch dropzones!!!!! Pronto. Get off dz.com and go to a different dropzone. The bonus is it's cheap to start over again: You probably already bought your rig; if you're already at jump 75.

I was lucky I was at a dropzone that made sure I belonged (Accomodating a deaf skydiver like me, that needs special training, after being turned away by a few!) and there were efforts by friends to make it easy on me, one person sold me their rig and allowed me to pay in instalments to ease my burden too.

Some short notes because I've had friends who were upset about dropzone treatments (in two different countries)

There are different vibes in different dropzones, some of the ones I visited actually work hard to save you money and enforce beer-fairness (i.e. make sure everyone can afford the beer), and are apologetic.

It's a tougher economy than it used to be -- some dropzones are more tourist-oriented while other dropzones are less tourist oriented (For example, I know of a Canadian dropzone that does NO tandems)

Also, I know I found jumps after Jump 25 and before jump 100-ish is more lonely than average -- you are finally experienced enough to jump solo, but not experienced enough to go in highly experienced groups. This is a common complaint by new skydivers these days, but you may be at the end of that lonely tunnel. Earning respect from skydiving friends sometimes needs a triple-digit jump count (25 jumps away). I know one wants to rant if they've had a pretty tough time, and I've been there, but let's move on. Switch dropzones so you don't have to go through this. Choose the dropzone you want to celebrate the 100th jump with; that will help you make more friends. But ease off on the ranting a bit, it got me into trouble.

Cheers,

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Who gives a fuck if you can call yourself a skydiver or not... its not an elite group its a fucking hobby! call yourself whatever you want. skydivers are no better than the next guy.
You don't see people that make model airplanes arguing about what they can call themselves (how many planes theyve made before they're not tourists)
For fucks sake people GET OVER YOURSELVES!!!

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Who gives a fuck if you can call yourself a skydiver or not... its not an elite group its a fucking hobby! call yourself whatever you want. skydivers are no better than the next guy.
You don't see people that make model airplanes arguing about what they can call themselves (how many planes theyve made before they're not tourists)
For fucks sake people GET OVER YOURSELVES!!!



Clearly, you're not a "Skydiver" yet!! ;) And, you need to stop hanging with the "Grumpy" clique. ;);)
Birdshit & Fools Productions

"Son, only two things fall from the sky."

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...when you stop crying that no one likes you.

If there is a problem everywhere you go...consider the common element.

or be like ME,
DONT GIVE A FUCK:ph34r:
Have arrogance will travel ;):ph34r::ph34r::ph34r:
You are not now, nor will you ever be, good enough to not die in this sport (Sparky)
My Life ROCKS!
How's yours doing?

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