Kinda glad I'm outta this sport

[motion]

Just dropped by the old skydiving stomping grounds, dropzone.com. This is the first page of the Incidents forum. As you can see, there won't be many people around much longer to enjoy the sport at this rate.

[gassy]

Good idea to stay on the ground.

[HardDrive]

Jumping out of a perfectly good airplane? No thanks.

I'll get my high speed thrills with 4 nice fast Pirellis keeping my a$$ on tera firma thanks.

[speeder]

I used to express an interest in skydiving when I was younger, and my Dad's best friend who was a paratrooper in WW2 told me, "get your kicks some other way"....

He had just seen too many people die just from the jump going wrong.

I'd still love to try it, and it falls into my assertion that most of life's big thrills involve cheating death. Race car driving, sky diving, motorcycling, boinking a super model who is the GF of a gangster, etc...

That sport might just be too dangerous, though.

[Mulhollanddose]

It's Bush's fault.

[David]

I enjoy barrelling around a track in a kart with no rollbar or seatbelts at 120mph, but for the life of me I can't understand the desire to freefall from a plane at 120mph.

[VINMAN]

Like we used to say about Airborne,when I was in the Military;

"Only two things fall from the sky, bird ***** and a**holes"

[Jims5543]

Wife wants to try skydiving. I have no desire at all to try it. I will show her that list. Thanks Motion.

[Eric 951]

We went skydiving for a buddies' bachelor party about 5 years ago--there were about 14 of us and 2 others we didn't know who rounded out the group. I had been skydiving prior to this at another facility. When the training began at the bachelor party facility I was a bit leery--harness instruction was done while hanging from the joists of an old barn. Landing techinique was taught by jumping off a sideways cinder block onto a blanket--I am not kidding--needless to say this was not as professional an operation as the first facility.
When we loaded up to jump, the first 3 were in the plane--2 guys we didn't know and one of our buddies--1 of the guys not with our group was the second jumper--he ended up landing amongst the parked cars--hitting and denting the door of my buddy's Maxima(these were individual static line jumps--where you jump by yourself and the line is hooked to the plane, which pulls your chute--youa re then given instructions during your landing via 1-way radio). I was thinking these idiots couldn't steer this guy into a huge open field to land, and told a buddy of mine--1 more screw-up and I am not jumping.
Luckily the rest of the time went off without a hitch, we all jumped and had a good time--the groom had a blast(especially since he thought we were going golfing untill we pulled into the airport).
Well, the point of this story--yes there is a point--is that 2 months later in the newspaper there is a story about a plane crashing at a local skydive operation which killed the owner and the pilot--sure enough, it was where we had jumped--same guy, same plane. I have a photograph of the entire bachelor party standing in front of that plane from that day sitting on my TV--I get chills now and again thinking about it. My days of jumping are over.

[Jim Richards]

Originally posted by Mulhollanddose
It's Bush's fault.

+1

j/k

[}{arlequin]

Originally posted by speeder
I used to express an interest in skydiving when I was younger, and my Dad's best friend who was a paratrooper in WW2 told me, "get your kicks some other way"....

He had just seen too many people die just from the jump going wrong.

I'd still love to try it, and it falls into my assertion that most of life's big thrills involve cheating death. Race car driving, sky diving, motorcycling, boinking a super model who is the GF of a gangster, etc...

That sport might just be too dangerous, though.

i'm in the exact same spot right now...

[ronin]

Originally posted by 125shifter
I enjoy barrelling around a track in a kart with no rollbar or seatbelts at 120mph, but for the life of me I can't understand the desire to freefall from a plane at 120mph.

interesting to see how human perception rules all. (don't worry, I understand your point. lately I've felt the same)

I've skydived (or is that skydove) in the 80s, but with a good school and highly trustworthy instructor. I had a hell of a lot of fun and learned some interesting things about myself. but as I get older, the desire to take that leap is getting lower and lower. why? is there any difference between splatting on the ground from a botched skydive and hitting a wall or lovely tree while effing up in turn X? not really. dead is dead. but interestingly enough, just because of a human's innate fear of heights (whether subconscious or conscious), we let that affect our judgement of which is safer. (fear of speed is not considered innate) I'm no statistician, but I wouldn't be surprised if any of the odds of suffering death from any of our thrill-seeking pursuits would be much higher than the other. who knows, skydiving may actually turn out safer than riding a motorcycle on public roads on any day. but given the choice between the two, I know which one I would choose

[Eric Coffey]

So Richard, you hangin' up the ol' rig, eh?

Well, those numbers certainly are a drag to see.
Although, there are a few points to consider:

I believe those (unofficial) figures reflect the number of fatalities Worldwide. Considering the hundreds of thousands of jumpers around the Globe, it's less shocking that it first appears. They are also total numbers, not a percentage. There are bound to be more fatalities with more and more people getting involved in the sport every year.

The real story is that an alarming majority of fatal incidents these days occur under a perfectly fine/functional flying canopy. As the sport progresses, more and more skydivers are piloting high performance elliptical chutes. A large percentage of those jumpers have no business under a high performance canopy.
It's NOT like a 16 year old given a 911, it's like a 16 year old given an F1 car. It takes many many jumps to acquire the skills needed to fly (and more importantly LAND) those types of canopies safely without wadding yourself up.
So, if you are smart and don't try and "accelerate" your skill level, or ask too much from your equipment, your chances of survival are 1000% higher.

Lastly, I don't think that BASE jumps, suicides, and "other" incidents (like sudden heart failure while in freefall) should make the skydiving fatality report. Granted they are skydiving-related, but BASE jumping is it's own (highly dangerous) fringe sport, and the other incidents aren't caused by a failure, accident, or breakdown of any step in the "skydiving" process.

Just $.02 from a biased skydog...