Archive

The ritual

Published on January 23, 2008 in Skydiver blogs. 0 Comments

Below is an excerpt from Autumncruz’s blog. In particular I like her post (from which the below excerpt is taken) which contemplates a 60 second freefall time versus the cost of a $22 jump ticket. How on earth am I going to rationalise a £30 pound jump ticket when I move to the UK next month. I think I’ll just read this post once more…

…enjoy the view.
close your eyes and relax.
kiss your boyfriend on the head.
make bad jokes with Dan.
geek a camera.
give a thumbs up to a tandem student.
be excited.
be quiet.

But always be alive and in the present.

Then one last mandatory ritual.

Look each person on the plane in the eye.

To each one - give a high five or peace sign. “Have a good jump.”

www.autumncruz.blogspot.com

[Slashdot] [Digg] [Reddit] [del.icio.us] [Facebook] [Technorati] [Google] [StumbleUpon]

Managing fear on the way up

Published on January 23, 2008 in Humour. 0 Comments

The plane ride up to altitude makes me n-n-n-n-nervous. But not as much as it used to. Now I start breathing deeply and really trying to chill myself out near the jump run. I visualise what I need to do on the jump at hand. I really see it happening in my head. It seems to work so far. I normally do this at least three times. In between doing this, the JM will ask me what I’ll do at 5500 feet. Why pull of course….

It all starts when the JMs are getting ready to exit. They’re tightening their leg straps, checking my rig, handshakes all round, that’s when the heart increases.

What can you do though? Once the JM is out there hanging outside the door, copping all the wind, you can’t really ask them to politely step back inside the plane.

One of the tandem masters told Basia that experienced skydivers also get butterflies, they’ve just taught them to all fly in formation. Below is something I found ages ago on the net. I forget where, but I kept it as some of it is funny. Some of it not.
Here’s 61 “Things to Do” on the ride to altitude:

1) Blow your nose and offer to show the contents of your kleenex to the
other jumpers.

2) Grimace painfully while smacking your forehead and muttering “Shut up,
damn it, all of you just SHUT UP!”
3) Whistle the first seven notes of “It’s a Small World” incessantly.
4) Sell Girl Scout cookies.

……more continued

Continue reading ‘Managing fear on the way up’

Living the risky life

Published on January 22, 2008 in General info and Skydiver blogs. 0 Comments

I recently found a blog with some interesting skydiving articles. One particular post on this blogger’s website that I liked, discussed our everyday perception of risk. It’s also worth checking out some of the other articles on that website under the skydiving category.

Below is an excerpt from the original feature discussing risk perception.

…Few of us think of ourselves as risk takers. Skydiving, bungee jumping or street luge are not in the vocabularies most of us use to describe our daily activities. Yet we live with risk all day, every day, without jumping out of airplanes or off bridges, or zipping down the street on our backs. Most risks we take are unseen among the minutiae of getting through the day. They’re there, but few of us spend a lot of effort thinking about them. Most of us live our lives as if we could escape from risk by being careful…

[Slashdot] [Digg] [Reddit] [del.icio.us] [Facebook] [Technorati] [Google] [StumbleUpon]