TrickyMike

So, I'm about as new as they come.. 1 tandem! Does that mean I owe the whole internet beer or something? (Don't answer that) Seems like someone always owes SOMEBODY beer! :D Anyway, as I was riding up in the Otter it became clear pretty much immediately that I wasn't going to be happy with just crossing this off of the "bucket list." My plan is to get through AFF in the spring. In the meantime I can't stop thinking about it, lurking on the forums, stopping into the local DZ to watch, reading the USPA SIM (and actually understanding some of it), asking tons of questions, doing my best to filter out the BS, trying to figure out all of your acronyms, etc. I have so much to learn. So, my question is this, and I KNOW this is potentially a giant can of worms (apologies in advance for any shitshow this creates), but I feel like I have to ask anyway.... For those of you who have been doing this a long time, how have your thoughts about how dangerous skydiving is changed over time, with experience, more jumps, etc? Would anyone care to offer some insight on how your perception of the dangers may have changed over the years? Is there anything you look back on now and think, MAN, I wish I knew this back when I started out. I can read the statistics, but they just don't do it for me. I can read the statistics for motorcycles too, but they paint a pretty grim picture that I haven't found to be entirely accurate over the years. Of course, motorcycles ARE in fact dangerous as is skydiving. The difference for me is that I know a lot about motorcycles, the inherent risks and how to mitigate them where as with skydiving I know precisely jack. shit. Thanks in advance from the new guy.