Once a skydiver always a skydiver?

[Guru312 0]

Good question. I ask myself that question almost daily.

I was in the 82nd Airborne Division. I made my first skydive with the XVIII Airborne Corp club in 1960. I've owned three DZs in two states. I got my Instructors rating at the first ICC on the East Coast at Pelicanland. I have a senior rigger's license. I have a commercial ticket and 2000 hours flying jumpers. I taught thousands of folks to enjoy the greatest sport in the world.

I hold the world record for parachuting night pukes. No one has gotten sick while jumping out of an airplane at night as often as I have. http://aicommand.com/PukeDuke.htm

I visit DropZone.com a couple times a week. I've been to every Herd boogie since it began.

I think like a skydiver. All my close friends are skydivers. I can't relate to 'normal' people; I don't want to relate to normal people.

I believe that skydiving is a state of mind; it's an attitude; it's a world-view; it's a perspective on living life to the fullest.

But am I a skydiver? No. I used to be a skydiver.

Now I'm just an old guy with a bunch of neat stories, pictures and wonderful memories.

I'm an ex-skydiver who thinks this year will be the year I get back into jumping.

I'm an ex-skydiver with tears in his eyes.

You all are so lucky.

Guru312

I am not DB Cooper

[mrhoop 0]

Say you are pipefitter, doctor, etc. If someone asks you what you do for work, and you are not employed at that time, you are still a pipefitter, doctor, or whatever. If you got you "A" and quit, your still a skydiver.

[beowulf 1]

Guru312 in my eyes you are a skydiver and will always be one.

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[Squeak 17]

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I'm an ex-skydiver who thinks this year will be the year I get back into jumping.

.

What's stopping you getting back into it?

You are not now, nor will you ever be, good enough to not die in this sport (Sparky)
My Life ROCKS!
How's yours doing?

[cloudseeker2001 0]

Quote

Good question. I ask myself that question almost daily.

I was in the 82nd Airborne Division. I made my first skydive with the XVIII Airborne Corp club in 1960. I've owned three DZs in two states. I got my Instructors rating at the first ICC on the East Coast at Pelicanland. I have a senior rigger's license. I have a commercial ticket and 2000 hours flying jumpers. I taught thousands of folks to enjoy the greatest sport in the world.

I hold the world record for parachuting night pukes. No one has gotten sick while jumping out of an airplane at night as often as I have. http://aicommand.com/PukeDuke.htm

I visit DropZone.com a couple times a week. I've been to every Herd boogie since it began.

I think like a skydiver. All my close friends are skydivers. I can't relate to 'normal' people; I don't want to relate to normal people.

I believe that skydiving is a state of mind; it's an attitude; it's a world-view; it's a perspective on living life to the fullest.

But am I a skydiver? No. I used to be a skydiver.

Now I'm just an old guy with a bunch of neat stories, pictures and wonderful memories.

I'm an ex-skydiver who thinks this year will be the year I get back into jumping.

I'm an ex-skydiver with tears in his eyes.

You all are so lucky.

"Some call it heavenly in it's brilliance,
others mean and rueful of the western dream"

[newsstand 0]

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...If you got you "A" and quit, your still a skydiver.

Only if you intend to do it again.

I did four jumps (Sport SL) in '78-'79 and didn't go again until 2003. I never claimed to be a skydiver, only that I had jumped. Now I am a skydiver because I go on a regular basis and plan on going again.

By intend to do it again I mean you have not said to your self "I ain't doin' that again." Which is what the subject of this thread seems to have said.

"Truth is tough. It will not break, like a bubble, at a touch; nay, you may kick it about all day like a football, and it will be round and full at evening."
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes

[wmw999 2,584]

I made 2 jumps in 13 years. I'd made about 1100 before that, and I've made a couple hundred in the last 2 or so years. I thought of myself as a skydiver the whole time, but, ya know, if you don't volunteer it, no one asks you if you are a skydiver. So it comes from the inside.

Even if he's a skydiver, he's an idiot. And the more brain cells you spend worrying about him, the fewer you have to spend on yourself. Is he really worth it? And are you really interested in a girl who's interested in a loser like that?

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)

[newsstand 0]

With the history you describe you deserve to call your self a skydiver even if you never jump again. Frankly even if you make a specific decision to never jump again because that decision will be for good reasons. Not to mention that I suspect you would not call your self a skydiver but you would say "I have been a skydiver."

Of course none of this is "important" in our day to day lives but I really feel it does something for us internally. This is a small club. I just recently got SCUBA certified and people think that is so cool. There are something like 100 thousand SCUBA INSTRUCTORS in the US. We have about a third of that as MEMBERS of USPA.

"Truth is tough. It will not break, like a bubble, at a touch; nay, you may kick it about all day like a football, and it will be round and full at evening."
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes