What is Skydiving to you?

[ccowden 0]

Just curious what role skydiving plays in other lives.

I understand that there may not be a perfect answer for you. Choose the one that BEST fits.

[lisamariewillbe 1]

I put "Life changing. Shaped my life. It is who I am. Found something deep in skydiving through the sport and the people in it." and anyone who has read about my first jump can see just how it affected me.

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

[MikeForsythe 0]

Couldn't find "Employment" in the poll.

Time and pressure will always show you who a person really is!

[Peej 0]

I don't know if i'll ever be able to put into words what skydiving is to me. It's so much more than just a sport or a hobby though...

To me being in the sky sets my soul free, it makes me feel alive, as cheesy as that sounds. It's given some of the most amazing experiences and allowed me to meet the most incredible people from across the globe. It also helped me meet an amazing lady who sets my soul on fire.

I don't know how to say the rest of this without sounding vain but i'll say it anyway: as a sport, i get the feeling that it's the first sport i'm really good at. I mean i've played sports my whole life, cricket, rugby, soccer, swimming and i was always c team material but now i get the most awesome compliments from people about footage they see of mine and about the way i fly and it makes me feel good about myself. I guess you could say it's done wonders for my self confidence.

Skydiving has caused me physical pain, monetary woes, it's made relationships and broken them, it's made me incredible friends and taken those same friends away but at the end of it all, i wouldn't change a thing.

edited to add, so for me i guess it would be somewhere in the realm of:

"A HUGE part of my life because of the sport and the friends I make through it. A big part of who I am."

AND:

"Life changing. Shaped my life. It is who I am. Found something deep in skydiving through the sport and the people in it."

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[ccowden 0]

So, it's just about the money for you? None of these choices fit at all? That is fine if it's the case, I certainly can respect that, but that is why I said choose the one that BEST fits.

[lisamariewillbe 1]

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I don't know how to say the rest of this without sounding vain but i'll say it anyway: as a sport, i get the feeling that it's the first sport i'm really good at.

I was telling a friend the same thing this morning but opposite For me its the first thing I am not good at. Other crap has come to easy to me and I got bored fast. I still swear by the fact that I am and will always be the worst skydiver. Then again I am a perfectionst (except with grammar and spelling )

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

[JUDYJ 0]

ditto!!!

IF you are going to be Stupid - you better be tough!

[ccowden 0]

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I don't know if i'll ever be able to put into words what skydiving is to me.

I think you did a pretty good job.

I feel the same way as much of what you wrote.

[pincheck 0]

It was something i always wanted to do or try from childhood. Life just didn't allow me the time to actually get into the sport.That was until about one and half years ago it was a treat/reward for stopping smoking. thought i would do just one staticline then that would be it.

now i just love jumping traveling meeting new people going to new places. I also enjoy the social side of things as well,sometimes too much.


Always looking at ways to improve

see ya all in Dublin

Billy-Sonic Haggis Flickr-Fun

[jumper03 0]

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I don't know if i'll ever be able to put into words what skydiving is to me.

I think you did a pretty good job.

I feel the same way as much of what you wrote.

I guess I'm a bit different - I vote for the skydiving itself and nothing more. Sure, I've met some amazing people (I've also met some rank assholes too) but for me, it's all about opening the door and crossing that threshold. I don't know who to attribute the quote to but its along the lines of - you don't know how precious something is until you are willing to let it go. And I do that every time I go up - each jump I could die even if I do everything right. It puts the rest of my life, the mundane day to day bullshit into perspective. Skydiving has allowed me to focus my life on the things that are most important to me that I think I would have lost sight of otherwise.

The rest of you assholes are just to make the plane fly....

Scars remind us that the past is real

[seejanefall 0]

I put life changing. Three years ago I had a different outlook on life, not a particularly bad one, but I would not have imagined then that I would plan my weekends, vacations, etc around the sky as I do now. I have met the extended family that was lacking in my life. I remember talking to an up jumper when I first stared & her quote of "those who don't fit in, skydive" seems more true than I realized at that time. There hit a point in my student progression that I could no longer explain jumping to those who don't jump, it had gone beyond "hey, I kept my arch when the static line pulled".

_____________
PMS #394

[PLFXpert 0]

The "worst thing" is when you're clearly very passionate about something and someone else goes "Ehh. No worries."

But, I'll be that person

I voted it's a hobby. I wouldn't call it life-changing, though my life did change afterward b/c I met my hunny, etc. While I believe your experiences in life help shape you as a person, I don't believe I'd have evolved much differently with or w/out skydiving (again, with the exception of meeting my amazing boyfriend).

I enjoy a LOT of things in life. I want to continue to explore and enjoy more. I love jumping, but I certainly don't feel as many here do, that I'd be willing to go into "financial woes" over it, or anything else. It's fun, it relaxes me, and I enjoy doing it.

I am passionate about many things in life and have been labeled a very passionate person. For me, skydiving is just a part of that--not all of that.

And there you have it

Paint me in a corner, but my color comes back.

[PsychoBob 0]

Skydiving and BASE are one of the few things in this world that make sense to me. My job is stressful, not because of the planes but because of some of the idiots I work with and I've never really fit the mold of "normal society". When I am jumping I am free of all of that and I get to share the moment (the freefall) with people that I like and respect. The friendships I have made in this sport are very deep and at times brotherly/sisterly. There's something about sharing a death defying moment with someone that builds an incredibly strong bond. So yes skydiving has been life changing for me.

"I'm not a gynecologist but I will take a look at it"
RB #1295, Smokey Sister #1, HellFish #658, Dirty Sanchez #194, Muff Brothers #3834, POPS #9614, Orfun Foster-Parent?"

[skybytch 273]

Changed my life.

When I did my first jump I was overweight, unhappy, stuck in a stupid job in the same stupid small town I'd grown up in and scared of change. The things I've done since then - being published in a magazine and on the internet, moving 300 miles away from my family to take a job in gear sales, moving across the country to take a chance on my own business, recovering from the failure of that business and the loss of most of my possessions to a hurricane, being part of a world record skydive, going back to school at age 40... none of that would have happened had I not made that first jump.

It's not just the skydiving. It's the people too. Through skydiving I've met some of the smartest, most accomplished, most daring, most loving and most giving people. Each of them have contributed to who I am today, and I expect that those I meet and get to know in the future will do the same.

I think my mom summed it up best. After she came to the dz for the first time (about 2 years after I'd started jumping) she told me that it was the first place she'd seen where I really fit in.

Skydiving isn't part of my life. It is my life.

[weegegirl 2]

Skydiving rocks. Nuff said.

No really.. skydiving to me is... a job, a hobby, a passion, a lifestyle, an endless challenge, and a social circle. It is not everything, but it is a major part of my life. If skydiving ceased to exist tomorrow, I would have a lot of free time on my hands.

[meloo09 0]

I have to go with life changing for sure.

I was in a very dark place and trying to get over a really tough battery incident. I couldn't seem to pull myself through the mire. The day that my friend asked me to do a tandem with her is the day that my life did a total 180.

Skydiving gave me back on confidence, self-esteem and self worth. The release it gives me from everyday stresses is unbelievable and I have met and connected with so many good and true people. Every time I walk on that DZ I am home and comfortable. Also meeting your soulmate who has just as much passion about the sport as you do is incredible

What you do speaks so loud, I cannot hear what you say.

[thegreekone 0]

God, I wish I knew how to quit you...............NOT!!!!!!!!!!

[ccowden 0]

Then maybe you could do something productive!

I agree, it is alot of things rolled up into one!

[Peej 0]

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I don't know if i'll ever be able to put into words what skydiving is to me.

I think you did a pretty good job.

Thanks

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