B_Charles

First off I really appreciate ALL of you that took the time to respond. It's been frustrating looking for opinions and advice from family and friends that in general think the sport is insane in the first place. All of your comments brought up reasonable points that go further in easing my concerns than making them worse like others have. jimmytavino, I especially appreciate your comment as the financial part of the decision is one of my biggest concerns. Up to this point I've not had much money in life (was military for most of it). So it's very important to me to put this money to the best use possible. I've set aside a certain amount to address many of the issues you spoke about and decided to set myself a certain amount to get started in skydiving, beyond that I won't touch the rest, jumps and gear will have to come from working for it. I figure around $10k would get me well on my way and starter gear when it's time? My wife and I have recently had the good fortune of both getting pretty nice jobs well above what we've been used to in the past so I should be able to afford jumps much easier once beyond my initial limit compared to affording the past 4 jumps I've had. Not to mention the jumps being cheaper in general from being license and having my own gear. Again, thanks to everyone that replied. I believe I'll take a little bit from many of the suggestions to guide me. I'am going to set a financial plan for it, start jumping and take my time, not get in a hurry to get my own rig, and see where it leads. Hopefully by the time I'am ready to make the large investment for a rig I'll know for sure if it's for me and will be able to justify the spending with a good conscience.

Damn, I'am only 28 I hope its not time already for an old man's sport like bowling I agree though and that's why I've been beating myself up about it since finding out about the money. No more is it a couple jumps to "try it out".. it's time to either put up or shut up.

First off, sorry this will be so long and sorry if it's stupid I've just been struggling with this and not a single person I know can even remotely relate or help. The deal is, I have a large sum of money coming my way. I can finally afford to jump as much as I want and as often as my schedule provides, I can afford my first rig and all my gear. Essentially I have the means to accomplish this dream of mine finally but my history with the sport up to this point makes me concerned I may have my first mal or something will change my mind in the future and I'll quit and all that money could have went to something else. I've wanted to jump for as long as I can remember. Sadly it took awhile due to deployments right out of school, marriage, kids, etc.. the dream was all but forgotten at one point. When I was let go from the military I asked myself what to do now and one of those things was to finally jump. So I did, 2010 I made two IAD jumps and fell in love with the sport. I couldn't read, watch, or talk about it enough the following week. However due to some outside input and my own second guessing during the period following while waiting on more funds to jump I decided maybe it's a selfish and irresponsible thing for a husband and father of two kids to do and I tried to forget about. Three years of constant battling with myself, I'd forget about it but it would always come back begging me to keep going. Finally end of last summer I made two more IAD jumps since a buddy was going to do a tandem. That all but sealed the deal for me. I told myself I was ok with the risk, and I would do it as safely as possible and that would be a good compromise so I can follow this dream but also not be completely disregarding my wife and kids in the process. My wife went from not even wanting to be at the DZ when I jumped to doing a tandem herself in November. My obsession kicked into high gear through the winter and our house is littered with books, mags, DVDs, etc related to the sport. We took a mini family vacation to a wind tunnel 6 hours away and all 4 of us got some tunnel time in. That brings us to today, almost jump season, I finally have the money to jump to my hearts content and buy all my gear... I just fear the doubt will resurface and I'll stop at some point and I don't want that.. if I do this thing I want to do it right and go all the way, I want it to be a big part of my life. Not sure what kind of responses I'am even looking for here honestly, maybe reassurance that if I've spent this long and still have not given up then it must be something I cant live without.... or maybe you guy's have seen my type plenty of times and can truthfully tell me I likely won't stick it out, I don't know.. maybe I just needed to vent.

As one of the "people" that this thread is talking about maybe I can shed some light on the issue, at least from my personal situation. Quick backstory: Always been obsessed with the idea of jumping and wanted to do it since a teenager. Never got around to it due to deployments, marriage, kids, finances, etc. Wasn't until I got out of the military in 2010 that I was able to jump. I got out in Jan of 2010 and one of the first things was I knew I was going to jump finally that summer. In June I finally went and did two IAD jumps. Man was it everything I expected and more, had I had the money I would have jumped even more that day. So here I'am 3 years later and still have only done those two jumps. Why? a lot of reasons.. the main being finances. I've been a full time married student with two kids these past 3 years. I also have had other expensive hobbies such as car racing, keeping exotic animals, etc. that ate up funds. All this time though I have never stopped lurking forums, watching videos of jumps almost daily and re-reading my skydiver's handbook continuously. I've recently gave up car racing to be able to pursue jumping regularly. I have a younger brother that is about to ship off to basic. I'am taking him and paying for his first tandem and IAD this weekend or next and going to start jumping again myself and pre-pay for a good number of jumps. Hopefully from here on out there will be no more obstructions or delays. So sometimes some of us disappear because we have to, yea to some my reasons may sound stupid. You may think "Pshh I would have found a way to jump, screw those excuses" but to me it was just not possible in my situation. Hopefully now I'll be on my way to not being a "short term" jumper.