awesome skydiving images

August 3, 2001 11:59 PM

awesome skydiving images
my brother posted this link in his blog.

i've never gone skydiving myself, though i've thought about it. there's always that nagging doubt about the chute.

any mefi'ers taken the plunge? did you dig it?

if you haven't yet, would you?
posted by bwg (23 comments total)

Disturbing...jumping out of a perfectly good airplane. Suicidal tendencies, indeed.
posted by davidmsc at 12:05 AM on August 4, 2001

did you catch that image of that nutjob holding onto his chute with one hand?

suicidal seems apt.
posted by bwg at 12:12 AM on August 4, 2001

Ow, that picture kicked me in the gut.
posted by skyline at 1:01 AM on August 4, 2001

I think it sounds like great fun. I'd love to try it.

Pretty much every day I see people flying around Elliot Bay on parachutes towed by speedboats. That looks like fun too, but not quite so dangerous...

-Mars
posted by Mars Saxman at 1:11 AM on August 4, 2001

Did it.
Thought I was going to die.
Fucking hated it.


Anxiously waiting to do it again ;)
posted by dong_resin at 1:23 AM on August 4, 2001

those are great pictures.

i did it once, tethered, like a growth on the stomach of the instructor. but i liked it a lot and always wanted to take lessons so that i can do it by myself, not like a fucking baby attached to mom in the front, but i'm a student and really don't have the money. maybe someday.

aside from the initial act of jumping i found it to be tranquil and very freeing despite of the loud wind and tether. but i guess hard core stimulation isn't instantly palatable to everyone, and not everyone can handle heights.

but in terms of the jolt that comes from fear and instant gratification, bungee jumping would beat skydiving for me personally, because it's the pure rush of the ground to your face. in terms of quantity, skydiving is a great deal comparing to bungeeing, at least it lasts minutes, not seconds.
posted by elle at 1:36 AM on August 4, 2001

You forgot this one ...
posted by RavinDave at 4:52 AM on August 4, 2001

I see some parts of the anatomy are aerodynamically designed, while others are not. Too much information.
posted by ParisParamus at 5:28 AM on August 4, 2001

I went on a course once (group of people at work decide to go, I joined in, then most of them dropped out, only two of us did it...). It's one of the most unpleasant things I've ever done.

I signed and paid for 4 (iirc) jumps, so I did 4 (in retrospect, pretty stupid, I know). But each was worse than the last because you already knew how bad it was. There's nothing at all enjoyable in jumping out of an aircraft - your subconscious is saying "this is going to kill me".

It's quite nice drifting down, but no better than being in any other isolated place, and certainly not worth the fear.

Wouldn't recommend it to anyone - although since the club was full of people who did enjoy it, I guess I'm an exception rather than the rule. There may be a correlation with enjoying it and drug use (I got the impression that a more than average number of the people there enjoyed recreational drugs) - I guess in both cases it's about taking pleasure in losing control.
posted by andrew cooke at 5:39 AM on August 4, 2001

BWG: Funny you mentioned this. Two friends recently came to me with the proposal of sky diving with them. With my scrotum thoroughly slammed against the wall by the suddenness of this announcement, testosterone flooded up to my head and the word "Maybe" escaped from my mouth.

I now have a few weeks to make my final decision on this. But it is worth noting that the cowardly sensible facet of myself is reminding me of the possibility of suicide. Another part of me, however, looks at the possibility and says, "Because it's there," in the manner of Sir Hilary postulating over whether or not he should climb Mt. Everest.

For now, it's up in the air, so to speak. But given the several minutes of screaming from my mouth that would probably involve the Decibel scale being recalibrated for my cries of fright at several thousand feet, I'm inclined to say no at this point.
posted by ed at 5:48 AM on August 4, 2001

ed... DO IT, !!!!!!!!!
posted by monkeyJuice at 6:05 AM on August 4, 2001

Somehow, having never tried any illicit drug or smoked a cigarette and finding no pleasure in roller coasters, and nausea in "things that turn parallel to the earth fast," it would take six figures to get me to do that.
posted by ParisParamus at 6:14 AM on August 4, 2001

Showing my age just a bit ...

My favorite line about skydiving came from Charley Weaver on the old Hollywood Squares Show (ie: the funny one):


PETER MARSHALL: If you're going to make a parachute jump, you should be at least how high?


CHARLEY WEAVER: Three days of steady drinking should do it.

posted by RavinDave at 6:48 AM on August 4, 2001

I have 60 HALO jumps. Highest altitude I jumped from was 23,500 ft on Oxygen at night, full military load out.
Freefall Jumping is one of the funnest activities I have ever done in my life. Flying around sharking your buddies, linking up, breaking off. Damn that was fun.
However, I was also static line qualified, absolutely not fun. Very uncomfortable rigs, low altitudes 800-1000 ft, no flying, only falling. No soft landings, hence the broken ankle right before I got out of the USAF.
I still say that nothing beats a day at the drop zone, multi lift, followed by some frosty beverages at the end of the day. ;-)
posted by a3matrix at 7:12 AM on August 4, 2001

monkey: We shall see. :)
posted by ed at 8:03 AM on August 4, 2001

I see lots of paratroopers around here on crutches etc. courtesy of some of those night jumps they do....

but it can't be any worse than riding a grumpy elephant.
Not doing THAT anymore either.
posted by bunnyfire at 8:45 AM on August 4, 2001

I was always interested in skydiving until I went bungee jumping. That was so scary that it took away my desire to jump from higher.
On the other hand, I'm very interested in ultralighting.
posted by drunkkeith at 9:01 AM on August 4, 2001

Skydiving is a blast. I'd highly recommend it to everyone.
posted by websavvy at 9:06 AM on August 4, 2001

I have never, but I would. I also have plans for some of those bunjee jumps off of famous bridges.

It's a very short life. I can die crossing the streets being hit by a NYC Cab. No point in fearing sky diving.
posted by tamim at 9:17 AM on August 4, 2001

A former co-worker of my wife, a banker with 2000+ jumps and numerous certificates started a skydiving school and I am considering jumping in trade for redesigning his pitiful site.

He has several barbecues each year where they jump into his backyard (about two acres) no one has missed yet.
posted by DBAPaul at 10:04 AM on August 4, 2001

Huh. I have rather the opposite reaction to a lot of the people here. I'm a bit of a backpacker and occasionally find myself on top of mountains, edges of cliffs, etc - places with huge vistas and ocean-masses of unbroken air pouring up at you. And in such situations all I want to do is tear off my pack and LEAP over the edge and fall, fall, fall. It sounds like bliss. It terrifies me, too, which is why it sounds like it'd be so much fun.

Fortunately for me, I never seem to have a parachute in my pack at those moments, which is good since it's much easier to kill yourself jumping off a cliff than out of an airplane, and that's the sort of fun I'd like to experience more than once!

There's a simulator at Space Camp where you get in this little pod inside a vertical tube. They turn on compressed air and you zip up to the top. Then they cut the air and you drop straight down - free fall until just above the bottom when they slam the valves shut and you land on air pressure again. I did that when I was 14 and I've wanted to experience free fall again ever since then.

-Mars
posted by Mars Saxman at 12:17 PM on August 4, 2001

I've been thinking about doing a jump as well. Problem is, I'm having trouble justifying the $300 cost for the AFF jump (one I'm most interested in) At this point in my life, I would rather have the cash to spend on something else.
posted by Witold at 4:27 PM on August 4, 2001