| Author | Message | ||
     Rick_a |
Skydiving. The girlfriend and I just did it. It was terrifying and not particularly enjoyable. My tandem partner also spun me into a stupor soon after the parachute opened. By the time I hit the ground I was in a cold sweat and feeling motion sick. The freefall was somewhat enjoyable once I got a chance to catch my breath...then the chute opens and more drama ensued. I'm glad I did it though. I'm afraid of heights and the experience did not help  | ||
| Zane |
Not a chance I'll every try that. I have a problem with heights. I get a little adrenaline rush just seeing some one climb a tower on TV. If I tried, I'd most likely stroke out on the way down. Rick, you've got bigger stones that I do. | ||
| Court |
I'll have to take you to work with me someday . . . :-)  | ||
| Crusty |
Is that a Sky Crane on the ground? | ||
| Whisperstealth |
Rick, You're a lucky and cool guy. Glad you got to have the experience and were able to push away your fear! I've been wanting to skydive for years. I told myself if I got down to 200lbs, it would be my present to myself. I got down to 208. Then I totaled the Buell X1.... Court, what boots are those that you're wearing? They look like Danner Combat Hikers, but I saw some new Red Wings that look similar as well. | ||
| Zane |
That sound you just heard was me puckering, and no it wasn't my lips! | ||
| Hootowl |
Closest I’ve been is bungee jumping from a hot air balloon. Puckered doesn’t touch it. | ||
| Macbuell |
I did it. Terrifying before I jumped. Once in free fall and after the chute opened ... just flat out amazing. Loved it and want to fo it again. | ||
| Mnscrounger |
The only way I would voluntarily leave an airplane is after the pilot, and only then if the airplane were on fire. I have faith, but I doubt God would make me a bird on the way down.... but He might make me a pilot. | ||
| Rick_a |
The feeling of panic and sheer terror when on the edge of that plane in indescribable. I was questioning my decision then, but once you're on that plane, there's no turning back This is a couple moments from it. It was a seventy second freefall from 14,000 feet...which doesn't sound like much...but is a long time falling! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RU2nX2qP49A Court, I used to work construction...and would sweat bullets atop any structure. Let me tell you sometime about falling off a fifty foot ladder... | ||
| Rick_a |
The girlfriend and I got this idea to fulfill each other's bucket lists. Last year we swam with whale sharks in the GA Aquarium...which isn't my cup of tea...but it felt like swimming in a giant aquarium...which it in fact was. Truly something special as well. I told the girl I'd rather nearly die on my motorcycle one thousand times than feel that kind of fear again One of my friends has done it around a hundred times. That's a special kind of (crazy) person. | ||
| Pwnzor |
Cool! I've been wanting to go forever. I'll get around to it someday. I'm not scared of it, so it's not very high on my list of priorities. Bungee jumping doesn't interest me at all. I don't trust that big rubber band. | ||
| Aesquire |
When I was skydiving we didn't have tandem nanny jumps. So I pretend to mock you for your luxuries that I couldn't have since they didn't exist in the ancient times I come from. Obviously I'm more macho ( not like there was a choice ) and had a more pure experience. ( before go-pro cameras... ) That nonsense out of the way ( yeah! And we used KICK STARTERS! ) Congrats on overcoming your own, natural fears of slamming into a planet at speeds that result in words like "splash" or "closed casket service".  Seriously. Good job. Skydiving isn't for everyone. I personally preferred the flying around under canopy part much more than the plummeting towards doom part. And hang gliders did that much better and with slightly less drama. That's why I have a LOT more logged hours doing the latter. And I say slightly, because in either case you need absolute commitment to properly do the unnatural act of flight. | ||
| Rick_a |
Statistically tandem skydiving is an incredibly safe activity...though we skipped on another company due to a recent fatality.  The G.F. wants to try hang gliding next...though I'm probably more leery of that. | ||
| S2t_bama |
Congratulations, and welcome to the club! I enjoyed skydiving for several years, making over 200 jumps. I, too, am afraid of heights. For me, that only came into play during the landing. When exiting the plane, the sense of height was not apparent to me. It just looked like a map. On the other hand, when they opened the door in flight for the very 1st time, that did cause a true pucker factor. Performing the maneuvers needed to build formations in freefall was fantastic. It really felt like I was flying. Of course the Toy Story description is actually more accurate...."falling with style." LOL I have also been thinking about hang gliding and plan to try that in the Chattanooga area if we ever get past the pandemic restrictions. | ||
| Aesquire |
Hang gliding starts with learning to carry the glider, running, hop & land, bigger hops... A gradual process unlike the Big Jump you have with skydiving. Working up to big altitude and high launches is psychologically easier than the sudden adrenaline squirts in sports with names containing "jump" or "dive". Landing pretty & gently takes some practice, and learning that part first helps. When I learned to skydive it started with jumping off a short platform into a pea gravel pit. Landings first. Then emergency training. What to do when things go wrong. Which handles to pull in which order & with what body positions. Bungee jumping is the yuppie carnival ride version of a life changing coming of age ritual Darwinist process to sort out the unfit from the tribe. We probably need more of that process in modern society. | ||
| Rick_a |
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| Hootowl |
The ground is a distant and vague concept from 14000 feet. Don’t discount the heart-in-your-throat fear that comes with seeing the ground for what it is from 250 feet. Carnival ride, my ass. | ||
| Rick_a |
I kinda like that ride where they shoot you like a slingshot. Looks like fun. | ||
| Rick_a |
Not for me! I knew damn well what I was lookin' at. I seriously can't recall ever have being so scared. Even at times where I could have literally died...I get over it in seconds. This was...different. My girlfriend who cries at height that make me laugh, handled it better than I did. She didn't get spun like a top on the way down. Her guy had mercy on her | ||
| Hootowl |
I was terrified. I honestly think I’d have backed out if my buddies hadn’t gone before me. Peer pressure. I don’t remember jumping. I bragged that I would do a backflip off the platform, and I did, but I didn’t find out until I watched the video tape later that day. | ||
| Aesquire |
Carnival ride, my... Please don't confuse my admiration for your courage to try something scary, with my disdain for an activity ( commercial bungeeeeee jumping ) that doesn't require skill, training, or talent, just money, and usually dutch courage. ( aka alcohol ) That's the voice of someone who spent countless hours hauling a cumbersome, marginal flying machine up a training hill, learning to carry it in winds that want to tumble it with you, and trying time and again to learn how to fly in an age where there wasn't actually any schools near me. Sure, I read Stick & Rudder, and took the written exam for my Private license, and studied the Olde school guys that started mankind on it's path to the skies and stars beyond. The ones that lived to do it twice, anyway. But they didn't teach weight shift flight in any schools at any airports anywhere, since the idea went obsolete with Wilbur & Orville. Building and flying replicas of Octave Chanute's machine was a wonderful history lesson. With bruises. Also, somewhat hilariously, there's a hierarchy of crazy... What some people that do odd things think of others, doing other odd things. Private pilots, Cessnas & Cubs, think Glider guys are crazy for trying to fly without an engine. The Sailplane guys think the Hang Gliders guys are nuts for not having, you know, an Airplane around them. Hang glider pilots think skydivers are nuts for jumping out of "perfectly good airplanes" ( they never saw the 182 held together with Grateful Dead bumper stickers we jumped from ) and Skydivers think Base jumpers are nuts for not having nearly enough room to deal with a malfunction before the Earth Rises Up And Smites Them. And everyone involved in aviation thinks the Squirrel Suit guys are utter nuts, with a hint of admiration that after more than a century, they Finally got it to work, since Batsuit guys had a 100% fatality rate for the history of aviation, going back at least to ancient Greece. Even the "take a ride with the legal excuse it's training" operations that do tandem Skydiving, Hang Gliding and Trikes at least usually pretend to involve some skill building, as opposed to "hold my beer" bungee jumping operations. But I freely admit I'm biased. And I assume you aren't the typical drunken frat boy with more money than sense. Which is a group I always feel free to mock. | ||
| 86129squids |
"And I assume you aren't the typical drunken frat boy with more money than sense. Which is a group I always feel free to mock." Didja hear about the UTK frat boys butt-chugging boxes of Franzia wine??  | ||
| Whisperstealth |
Butt-Chugging? What is that? | ||
| Whisperstealth |
Never mind, I looked it up.... | ||
| Ducxl |
Rick is very brave.I go by a skydive place twice a day.And wonder.Heights are a problem for me....... Now we need that Badweb Dude "Skyguy" for advice  | ||
| Glitch |
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| Aesquire |
 Heights... For some reason flying is different. I don't like ladders. A cliff without a wing? scary. With a wing? Still scary, but in a different way. The difference between "I can do this" and "Oh, Sh^%!"??? Heck, the video game Borderlands actually gets me "startled/gulp/rush" when the imaginary character I'm playing almost falls to their doom. That's either a testament to realistic gameplay ( in a game with guns that set enemies on fire ) or my old scared guy fears. As I learned, falling doesn't hurt. It's that sudden stop that messes you up. | ||
| Hootowl |
No skill?  | ||
| Big_island_rider |
I want to and will skydive at some point. Not that many operations here in Hawaii and all shut down at the moment. As for being scared, here is a great quote from a horrible movie that sums up how I view fear: “Fear is not real. The only place that fear can exist is in our thoughts of the future. It is the product of our imagination, causing us to fear things that do not at present and may not ever exist. That is near insanity. Now do not misunderstand me, danger is very real, but fear is a choice.” |
