Mobidity/mortality

[Broke 0]

This is going to be morbid, but it is on everyones minds. When did you first realize that you can seriously get fucked up, and maybe even dead in this sport.

For me it was on 03/17/2006 When I was finishing my AFF in Z-Hills. It was a non fatal incident, but it was still fucked up and hard for me to get back on the plane. Crew Dog ate it into the ground. I watched the whole thing because I was watching what the wind was doing prior to getting up in the plane to do my level 5 AFF jump. I don't want to post everything, but there it was. Allthough after that I successfully completed my level 5, and the rode the good feelings into my level 6 jump and graduated the next day

Divot your source for all things Hillbilly.
Anvil Brother 84
SCR 14192

[billvon 3,114]

>When did you first realize that you can seriously get fucked up, and
>maybe even dead in this sport.

In 1992 when I watched our C182 crash, kill the pilot and paralyze the JM from the neck down.

[Jethers203 0]

Probably not the best post to start right now.

Look around.

[GravityGirl 0]

Before I finished ground school in Perris 1994. On our lunch break, I found out that one of the girls in our room in the bunk house had just went in.

I made my choice right there and then. I sometimes wonder why I went back into class.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Peace and Blue Skies!
Bonnie ==>Gravity Gear!

[jjiimmyyt 0]

2003, easter. Jump 3. I flared at 100 ft, let it go and broke my ankle. if I hadn't been on a 280 student canopy I'd be dead now. It made me realise this is not a sport to fuck around with. I almost kind of think that eveyone should get a minor injury during their very early career just to reinforce the very real dangers.

"This isn't an iron lung, people. You can actually disconnect and not die." -Dave

[lisamariewillbe 1]

When they said it was me , this isnt me, Im here. Although I now know that I will never forget this lesson.... sometimes we dont die and its those around us that pop off and prove to us god is sitting at the top of a ant hill and his magnifying glass's beam is in my general direction for whatever reasons, but my selfish nature wants her back. Want to understand more and why ... Im a why person...

Sudsy Fist: i don't think i'd ever say this
Sudsy Fist: but you're looking damn sudsydoable in this

[jumper03 0]

Quote

Before I finished ground school in Perris 1994. On our lunch break, I found out that one of the girls in our room in the bunk house had just went in.

I made my choice right there and then. I sometimes wonder why I went back into class.

Similar story. March 97 at skydive texas. We had finished ground school and jumping was suspended so life flight could come in and take out a jumper that hooked it in hard.

I made the choice and came back the next day to do my lvl 1.

Scars remind us that the past is real

[Shotgun 1]

Quote

When did you first realize that you can seriously get fucked up, and maybe even dead in this sport.

Long before I made my first jump... (The risk involved is pretty obvious.)

And I would hope that anyone getting into this sport would understand that they can get seriously injured or killed without having to witness (or be involved in) an incident to prove that point.

[hobbes4star 0]

Had my chute packed for to long between jumps and the trap door effect happened. I was on my way to the handles to cut away when the chute opened, but it scared the living shit out of me. that was about 2 years ago. It was a good wake up call.

if fun were easy it wouldn't be worth having, right?

[Tink1717 2]

I was there. I saw the same incident happen. I knew I could get broken or even dead from the very first day. I've been a Firefighter/EMT/Paramedic for 26 years, so that kind of thing is not new to me.

Skydivers don't knock on Death's door. They ring the bell and runaway... It really pisses him off.
-The World Famous Tink. (I never heard of you either!!)
AA #2069 ASA#33 POPS#8808 Swooo 1717

[Amazon 7]

When we are young most of us are Immortal. Each and every one of us faces our mortality at some point. Many of us have done some fairly dangerous things knowing that the things you hear about could never happen to me.

Well eventually you look the Grim Reaper in the face and manage to escape this time.. or you see a friend who does not escape..... you then know that yes it can happen to you..... you are no longer immortal.

In this sport.. I saw my first fatality in 1976.... an old guy named George... who was a survivor of some pretty nasty stuff in WW II. He was dangling under a high speed streamered ParaCommander and moving very fast towards Terra-Way-Too-Firma. Everyone was shouting cutaway.... and he finally hit the Capewells and chopped it at about 300 ft... needlessly to say... not enough time to have the round reserve deploy.


I have WATCHED a lot of other people with SERIOUS injuries.. and 4 other fatalities since then. Since I came back to the sport... we have this wonderful thing called the internet. I have met a lot of people here on DZ.Com and have gone to visit them at various boogies..... and now that mortality stretches to far more people than back in the old days.

Every time I see a new thread in the Incidents Forum I cringe......but there is the morbid curiosity to open the forum... and see who it was and what happened....I wish I never saw another one of those but it is unrealistic in this sport. This weekend has seen far too many new threads in there.. and this time... I knew 2 of them this weekend..... I have known about a dozen of the fatalities in the incidents forum so far since I came back to the sport in 2003.

Skydiving is what it is.EVERY TIME you jump from the plane you are about to DIE...UNLESS you do something... and do it right....sometimes doing EVERYTHING RIGHT is not going to save your life...... hopefully we learn from these incidents so fewer of us suffer the consequences... but if you have NEVER faced your mortality yet... eventually you will....and hopefully you will survive.

Edited to add... because YOU may die... but its a hell of a lot harder on those around you.. your family... your friends......and anyone else who knew and loved you.....sometimes for them.....surviving is REALLLLLY a bitch.

[Tink1717 2]

On the contrary, this is EXACTLY the time to talk about this.

Skydivers don't knock on Death's door. They ring the bell and runaway... It really pisses him off.
-The World Famous Tink. (I never heard of you either!!)
AA #2069 ASA#33 POPS#8808 Swooo 1717

[Winznut 0]

On the 3th or 4th jump after finishing my AFF, I missrouted my chest-strap.
Fortunatly you need to get a gear check before every jump when you jump rental gear in Empuriabrava...

[mfrese 0]

I didn't even start Skydiving until I was 39 years old, so I might have a different perspective than younger people starting in the sport. By then, I'd had enough close calls to realize that you can go any day, any time.

As of Sunday, I have 2146 skydives, which means I've now cheated death at least 2500 times, whether from skydiving, climbing, surfing, windsurfing, car accidents, falling off rooftops, whatever. I'm careful, I'm as safe as I can be when I jump, and I realize that every single one of them could be my last. If I do leave the planet skydiving, it'll really piss me off, but it really won't surprise me.
Right now, I'm wearing a Reaperware T-shirt that says "Attack life...It's going to kill you anyway"! I guess that pretty much sums up my feelings on the matter...but it doesn't do much to take away the pain of losing someone else who was on the losing end of that game.

Doctor I ain't gonna die,
Just write me an alibi! ---- Lemmy/Slash

[scrublink 0]

I always knew that if you hurled your body at a firm object at high speed it could turn out fatal. I have unfortunately seen so many serious injuries and fatalities that I can't even remember them all. It is part of what we do. It sucks, but we don't stop living our lives because of it. If someone doesn't think that they can die or get seriously fucked up jumping, I would have to question their grip on reality.



Ed

[lawrocket 3]

Quote

When did you first realize that you can seriously get fucked up, and maybe even dead in this sport.

Perhaps when I first learned of skydiving and thought to myself, "Those guys are CRAZY." Or maybe when I saw the hop and pops get out on my first jump, a tandem. Or maybe when I looked out of the aircraft that first time as a tandem when I was ready to go and was described by my then g/f as "All eyes.") Or maybe when I signed the waiver that said it so many times.

Anyone who thinks he or she CAN'T get seriously fucked up or dead merely has to answer the question, "What is the likely result of a fall from 2 miles up?"

My wife is hotter than your wife.

[Andy9o8 2]

Intellectually, the basic risk was always pretty obvious since before my first jump. But for me at age 18 (when I made my FJ) the risk was mostly something that happened elsewhere, to unknown people. I guess what made the risk real for me it was the first time someone I knew from my own DZ went in. I was still a student at the time, and the reality of just how serious a business this is was very sobering.

[shermanator 4]

for me, from the beginning, i "knew" the risks but it didnt really sink in. On my FJ, while in the door, the second i let go of the plane, i thought to myself "oh fuck! you just jumped.." so that was one point, but still the real risks didnt quite click. When i got home, and did more research on the sport, learned more, saw videos. i was much more nervouse the second time around, because those risks were starting to sink in.

From then, i learn more, see more, read more, and it sinks in with each new thing. I know the risks, but whose to say if it has 'emotionaly' donged on me. the only thing i know is that i no longer have regular dreams when i sleep, all my dreams are of skydiving, and a lot of dreams of me having malfunctions *some of which i did not recover from in the dream*

CLICK HERE! new blog posted 9/21/08
CSA #720

[Lindercles 0]

October 2003.

The first plane I ever jumped from crashed and burned. It was after jumpers were out, and the pilot got out safely, no one was hurt. But it was definitely a wake up call.

[shropshire 0]

During a Paragliding trip to the Alps... We were sat on a hill and over the house thermal source was a group of people enjoying the air.....
Then out of nowhere, a high glider fell through a lower one, ripping it in half.... He (mr Top) threw his reserve... but the girl on the lower canopy was a student and did not have a reserve and span into the Talus of the rocks that formed the thermal source... I will never forget the sound of her screams.
She was 'coptered off and did recover.
We felt so helpless being so far away and yet so close.

Stay Safe.

(.)Y(.)
Chivalry is not dead; it only sleeps for want of work to do. - Jerome K Jerome

[airtwardo 7]

This is going to be morbid, but it is on everyone's minds.

***

You're right...it's morbid.

But it NEEDS to be discussed, everything needs to be discussed when a tragic event like this hits so many people at once.







When it hit me is personal, and not as important as HOW.



I've been a professional air show performer as a skydiver for 25 years, I've been touched by this kind of sudden loss from both sides of those interests.

It did finally hit me some years back and was a real eye opener. There ARE no guaranteed tomorrows.
That's a cute cliche for most on the planet, for us it IS reality, and until you get an honest grasp on that you're being blind.

The reason I love this sport is because it allows me to push myself to seek perfection...in a way NOTHING else can.

Perfection 'within' myself...on any given skydive, I'll never be as good as so & so...but if I can be the best ME that I can, I'll in all likelihood be okay.

I've seen up close the broken bodies of too many friends to kid myself this isn't some serious shit.

I love my life, I love my family...it's the knowledge that I could LOSE ALL that in a simple single second, that pushes be to be as good a jumper as I possibly can...at that moment

That FOCUS is 'how' realizing you can get seriously dead doing this has effected me.

It made me BETTER and SAFER

~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

[christelsabine 1]

Yes. My 2nd jump after being licensed in Germany. Same weekend, I drove down to Switzerland. The ink on my license wasn't even dry, in fact, my license wasn't even printed.. Jumped from a Super Puma Heli at 4k+ m. The female jumper exiting just before me (800+ jumps, she still is on my video which a Brit jumper made - Steve -) was laying covered in the green grass after a low hook turn. That day, it was my first and only reserve ride and I didn't understand anything, I just walked across the green towards her. They stopped me.

I drove back immediately after that, about 600 km back home.
Only today, I do understand why that happened and why me, the fool I was, knowing nothing, only few jumps under the belt, jumped happily into the Swiss skies from a super helicopter. That experienced female jumper died. Yep, that made me think. But, not enough to stop, obviously. Let's see.

dudeist skydiver # 3105

[Tonto 1]

I knew it from the begining.

Front mount reserves, no alti's, 5 SL's and then your 1st freefall from 2800 with no AAD. It didn't take me long to realise that 2 seconds is all it takes.

I know it even more certainly today.

t

It's the year of the Pig.

[wmw999 2,587]

I'm beginning to think that there is a difference now that AADs are so common. Because before, nothing would save you. It was up to you. Now, there's always the audible to warn you, and the AAD to fire for you.

The very best of us can die doing this. We could be reading a thread about anyone on here, me included. Far better and far smarters skydivers than I have died skydiving.

And I hope that if I go in, Ron and everyone else are there dissecting what I did to make sure that all lessons are learned, not just the obvious ones. The best respect you can give someone is to use the knowledge they give you.

I'm so glad that NWflyer posted her story in S&T; that very easily could have been a WTF fatality, but now we know the thought process.

Wendy W.

There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

[mnealtx 0]

It's always a shock to the system the first time you see someone die, regardless of the circumstance. It changes your life, forever. Finding out that it's someone you know only makes it worse.

I only want to say this:

None of us, NONE OF US, are guaranteed a tomorrow.

We will all die. It's a simple fact. Do what you can to minimize the risks, but don't let the risk of danger prevent you from living your life.

Mike
I love you, Shannon and Jim.
POPS 9708 , SCR 14706