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I really don't think I will find a balloon jump for that amount. The only balloon jumps I'm aware of in the UK are much more expensive (that's ok), have fairly high experience/licence requirements, and are hugely over-subscribed and places are allocated randomly. It's the kind of thing you might get lucky with once or twice in a lifetime of skydiving, unless you're in with the in crowd. And I am decidedly not.

The cost of a balloon ride makes it unlikely that I'll bother. I could get myself to Norway or Switzerland for not much more, y'know?

I believe that is the point that the flaming began. flaming/explaining

It's not the fact he asked the question, it's the fact that after* it was explained to him the many reasons it was a bad idea he came back on here to say he didn't see how it could possibly be that bad. That put him in the short bus to me. *before

I didn't purchase or even use a single text book during my degree (a science subject). Other people did, but I just never found a need for it. Much more recent and up-to-date material was available online - or at least through the university's subscriptions to various services and publications - and most of the material we were actually examined on was in the lecture hand-outs and so on.

I think he would be much happier at another boogie, any other boogie. "Boogies" seem to be mostly about drinking and taking your clothes off. Like every other sport. I'm not socially functional or capable which is why I failed in conventional sports and turned to strange activities like skydiving. If I went to a boogie would I be shunned and disliked if I just wanted to jump and not perform homoerotic dances with my instructors or wax my legs on a makeshift stage in the hangar while four-way teams vomit in synchrony?

I am not sure but I think I smell roast troll. Sparky http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=4361387#4361387 http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=4366349#4366349 http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=4339921#4339921 http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=4345112#4345112 http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=4360436#4360436 http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=4340411#4340411 wtf, what's wrong with those posts?? They're all perfectly reasonable and normal discussions about skydiving. I'm not "trolling" - sure, I predicted this question would see some passionate responses, but it was still a genuine question. There are loads of things I would never ask my DZ in person, and aren't you glad I did ask someone at all instead of just trying it?

See? All of the above quotes from your earlier post seem to indicate that you feel skydiving lacks dimension or a variety of things to persue. Then, in the quote from a later post of yours, you seem to indicate the opposite, that there is a variety of things to do and presue within skydiving. There is no sarcasm here, you just seem to put forth two opposite opinions on the same issue. I don't feel that those are opposite or contradictory opinions at all. Typically people pick one "side" of a discussion and stick to it no matter what, welcoming absurd or exaggerated arguments in their favour even if they're improper or over the top - as skybytch's was. Now I know that it was intentionally like that, but my reply was to disagree with it. If someone seriously suggested that there was no joy in skydiving at all and they'd rather be at work than skydiving, I'd disagree. My opinion is in a certain place, not just on one side or the other of a black & white issue.

If I have the former then I may well not be aware of having either. It does seem likely.

Ah right, ok. I've never been sure how to translate "sarcasm". I realise that she kind of means the opposite of what she said, but there are many ways to invert her post. I'll try, does she basicall mean this: "False. RW, freefly, CRW, wingsuits, instructing and swooping are all very different. If you've done one skydive in any discipline, you've done very little of what there is to do in that discipline. There are many new challenges once you've earned an A license." Is that right? I wish people would just talk normally, it's quite strange to say the opposite of what you mean. And then there's And who could forget Quite a stark contrast to what your quote above, eh? No, those seem all to agree.

Yours is a much more extreme opinion - I don't agree with it. Those things are not the same - they're obviously all related and similar. I suppose "pretty much the same" could apply. I definitely don't agree that doing one skydive of a certain sort means that you've done everything there is to do, or that after an A licence there are no new challenges. Do you still skydive?

Normally I love that phrase. It works so well in most cases. It doesn't work when you can hurt or possibly kill others like in this case though. Better to ask permission if you are going to possibly endanger others. This thread has give me a number of reasons not to attempt this, but the risk of physically harming anyone else seems completely insubstantial. I might well emotionally distress them, yes, and piss them off a great deal. But I don't imagine that the integrity or balance of a hot-air balloon is really comprimised when it loses, what, less than 10% of its load. Nor is it going to then be too light and drift off into space.

maybe that is why your skydiving and your sex are boring.. .lack of imagination... Fuck, do you think Marco Manna thinks like you ? Even I can think of plenty of ways to funnel a 2 way exit Slight variations on the same theme. Compared with many other activities where you can go anywhere, any way you like - skydiving is limited. There are many aspects of the game to promote but it being varied and wide-ranging is not one of them. That's ok, not everything has to be varied with loads of very different possibilities for it to be interesting. For example I enjoy solving certain puzzles over and over again. It’s slightly different every time but pretty much the same. That’s a lot more repetitive than skydiving, for sure, but I can still enjoy it. Like I said, compared with other activities which are centred around moving your body in non-standard ways (often in unique environments, and/or with special equipment), skydiving is slightly towards the limited end of things. There are certainly pursuits with a lot more variety and scope. That doesn’t bother some people, some times. I do plenty of other repetitive and limited things as well, but they’re usually not astronomically expensive. It’s not a matter of having more “imagination” or what have you – a more imaginative person might be able to think of more new ways to pass time in the sky but he would be able to think of even more things to do with a fundamentally more open and wide-ranging activity. There’s a lot to be said for skydiving but I always thought it was a bit forced when I read about “the huge range of disciplines” or “unlimited possibilities” and what have you.

OP: http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=4361387;page=unread#unread

OP - bear in mind that this is a forum for skydivers, indeed especially enthusiastic skydivers who, when not jumping, are online talking about jumping. Rarely will people who got bored and quit jumping stay on the forums to tell their story. I got bored initially after about 15 jumps. Other people who learned around the same time as me are still incredible excited by it and just go up and down, up and down, up and down all day long. For me, the sensation of flight is fun and enjoyable but really no better than some other nice movement like skiing, swimming, cycling, and so on. The cost, at about £1200 per hour as a minimum, just doesn't make sense to me. Some people really enjoy the synchronised-swimming stuff but that doesn't appeal to me much, so I will likely just keep skydiving as an enjoyable and pleasant activity to do once a month or so, just for a bit of fun. Compared to other sports or movement-based activities it's actually extremely limited in terms of what you can do, as well of course as when and where you can do it. The initial excitement passes after just a few jumps for most people. After a while, you will literally fall asleep on the plane ride up. Actually it is rather like sex in that there comes a time when you really want to do it and it takes over your mind, then afterwards you "remember" that it's actually kind of a chore and not that great. Until a little while passes and you want to do it again. That's the plan. Yea, anyone in the UK basically gets spit out of their AFF consols and then thinks... "now what?" FS coaching is available if you have enough force of personality to secure a coach for a jump or two, and it's usually quite expensive. Anything other than solo clock-watching or FS is so many jumps and £'s into the future that it's barely worth thinking about. I would like to see some figures on retention after AFF - I imagine it must be very, very poor indeed. I see loads of AFF students every time I go, but there are only a handful of club jumpers. I wouldn't be surprised if 90% of AFF graduates pretty much disappear before their B licence.

I've got a better answer, which is another question. Why? Go jump off a bridge in Idaho instead. At least then you're not endangering someone else. There aren't many Idahos in the UK, and a balloon is much higher and much safer (for me!). Obviously if I could do a legit over-the-DZ balloon jump then I would, but they're rare, places are usually allocated by a raffle, and you need to be Z-licensed with 40,000 helicopter jumps.

Are you trying to seduce me?

among OTHER things.... rss_v.?? is this question supposed to be our LAUGH ?? for the day???? or are you just Bored? "Unauthorized ANYTHING"... always works better when all the primary players, are... IN ON IT!!! I M H O you would be acting very selfishly, to pull such a stunt... j I just don't imagine hot air balloon pilots as being the rebellious type. More like teachers that you have to hoodwink and misbehave behind their back, then run for it.

What would be the consequences of the following act: You book a hot air balloon ride across your local area, over countryside you're kind of familiar with. You arrive nice and early on a chilly autumn morning wearing a long coat. Trying to distract the pilot and other passengers from the large hump on your back, you act cool and chat with them as you climb to altitude and nervously monitor your location over the ground. At an opportune moment you point and say to the pilot, "Hey, look at that!". While his head is turned you drop your coat to the floor of the basket and flop over the side. Would the pilot be very, very angry? Would he hunt you down and involve the police? What if you stuffed some cash in his hand before you hopped out? This hypothetical situation would hypothetically occur in the UK, by the way.

As in the title. Will a DZ inspect BASE rigs normally or might he stay well away from them? I know, I should ask my local rigger. And I will when I see him :D

This is excellent, all very true. --- Skydiving is strange because the experience non-skydivers think it is, and the experience it is to new jumpers and so on, is COMPLETELY different to what it actually turns out to be once you've done a few jumps. I never did a tandem but it must be a very different experience, perhaps far more challenging actually. I don't look down on tandems. They think I'm pro when I put MY OWN RIG on my back, but for me and the other solos it's about as scary as getting into the bath - while they're facing a much greater challenge than us. Most non-skydivers assume that it always remains a terrifying experience, hence the whole "adrenaline junkie" stereotype, which for most of us is way off the mark, of course. As someone mentioned here recently, once you're a little bit experienced skydiving is basically a relaxing and enjoyable (and quite gay, see above ) way to play around with friends. If people knew what skydiving becomes after the first few jumps, I wonder if more people would try it, or fewer? I'm not sure.

Thanks for the replies, all. I've looked into it a bit further, and talked in person with some people at my DZ. An important point has come up which is that focussing on size can be misleading because different canopies - according to their shape, material, age, etc. - behave very differently and a larger canopy is never necessarily a slower/safer/easier one. One option I have is a Fury 220 that's 23 years old, with 500 jumps. It's been suggested that the 9-year-old Sabre 2 190 with 600 jumps would have a lot more flare in it and would generally be easier to control than the old, porous Fury. What do you reckon to that general idea? It sure makes things trickier for an idiot like myself who knows nothing of different canopy characteristics.

So you are trying to convince us that skydiving is boring?

Do you find solo jumping boring as well? Is "synchronised swimming" really a lot better?

The referenced enjoyment comes in particular from finding extremely cheap/improvised gear solutions. Jumping got pretty dull by about #20 - I really pity camera men and, to a lesser extent, instructors.