What was your first motivation for skydiving?

[dbattman 0]

One word- freedom.
I did my first static line several years ago out of college just for kicks. I took this up again just last spring because I travel heavily and don't have a lot of spare time for hobbies and I needed to relax.
That's the biggest reason that I give for why I do this. When I show up at the DZ it doesn't matter what else is going on in my life. Travel, jobs, bills, girlfriend (or lack of), everything else disappears. When I'm in the door at 10 grand there is nothing but me, the sky, and 10 pounds of nylon and for the next few minutes I'm totally free.

[Skystorm 0]

Another one for Zennie: broke-up with my boyfriend and wanted to see if I could overcome my fear of heights.
That worked pretty well. Now it's the freedom that's keeping me in the sky!!
Hang onto Heaven, when hell is on your back

[skySue 0]

I had always thought it would be amazing to do the "freefall formation stuff" but time went by (and I knew it would be totally irresponsible and selfish as a mother to take up such an expensive sport/hobby) and I never thought I would really do it. When a friend turned 40 she said she was going to jump so I did a tandem too. I felt horribly nauseous for the entire canopy ride but I went back for the freefall and now have my A license.
Now I love it for the momentary solitude. When I leave that plane I am responsible for myself totally, no one else can touch me, I am totally alone and free. Freedom and no-one to answer to - I love it.
After I had done a few jumps and decided to take it seriously I found I had the courage to leave a shitty marriage - coincidence?
Go for it ALL

[Scratch 0]

This is going to sound odd but I have no idea why I started.
I know exactly why I skydive now but as to why I started........nope.
Mmmm.... must be the beer.........there has been a hell of a lot of beer between then and now.

[mccordia 74]

I don't realy post much, but here's the reason I started
Ever since I was a kid I was facinated by skydivers.
Twice a year there'd be demo's and my dad always took me there. He used to pack parachutes when he was in his 20's and his twin brother (my uncle) jumped a lot.
My dad also signed up for a jump-cource, but a few weeks before he was to go, his brother had a serious skydiving accident which nearly left him paralized (it all worked out, but he never fully recovered)
My dad abandoned the whole thing (not to upset my mom and his mother) but always remained facinated by skydiving.
I gues it just rubbed off on me.
To a 10 to 12 year old those guys with the big jumpsuits looked SOO cool, next to the fact that airplanes and jumping from them seemed incredible to me...
How stupid it may sound, it never really occured to me that I could actualy do it myself.
Untill my GF was finished with school and left for Australia for 1/2 a year to go backpacking with here brother...
I needed something to keep my mind of missing her, and on her goodbye party I jokingly sayd to a girlfriend of here "If she goes to Australia, We'll go skydiving"
But to my surprise she sayd "yea sure...sign us up"
So 2 months later we where both sitting in the door of a C206 during a freezing dutch winter :)
My friend had a lot of fun but a few nasty landings the first 3 jumps and got a bit scared, so she sadly gave up.
It's been slighly over a year now, and she still would love to jump again, but the fear of landings got the better of her..
The first jump passed in a blur for me, I landed in a dense forrest (chute in a small tree) and had 4 landings after that involving trees/forrest or wood of some sort (a 'real' tree-landing on jump #5, earning me the nickname "The TreeDoktor"), and never saw the DZ up close :)
But the bug realy bit me, and luckely I got better (haven't had an off-DZ landing since jump#6) and found something in this sport which I love, and which realy inspires me (and f*cks up the days I can't jump bacause of thinking about jumping:)
Due to numerous reasons I haven't made a lot of jumps the last few months (pneumonia, the whole food and mouth thing with the cows, lack of money) and have 36 jumps at the moment. But I'm seriously hooked, and have set my goals towards making my 100th jump before the year is over :)
Anyways...I love the sport, the people, the atmosphere...and I hate the Dutch weather :)
JC

[Muenkel 0]

Prozac.
"I am a victim of my environment."
Chris

[skreamer 1]

Chicks dig it!
"Don't die until you're dead"

[SpeedRacer 1]

Skydiving had never really occurred to me before.

Then a friend sent me an email saying she was looking for a group to do AFF1 & did I want to try it? So right then I decided it sounded cool so, I tried it & was totally blown away!
Never would have thought to try skydiving, if it wasn't for that email.
Speed Racer
"Fill your hand, you son-of-a-bitch!"

[adamsr 0]

Just always thought it looked really cool, my dad is a private pilot as well, so i was used to the flying bit. So after a lot of 'suttle' hints i got a tandem jump for my 18th, did that and was instantly hooked.
10 months later i went back to tilstock with a group of 8 mates and we all did the static line RAPS course, out of the 8 of my friends i was the only one to get past 5 second freefall and qualified at the end of last summer after 28 jumps.
And now coz of the wonderful british weather haven't been able to do any jumps for a couple of months and i'm getting serious withdrawal symptoms!!

[airborne31582 0]

I was on a Field Training Exercise (I am a Army cadet) last September and rappelling scared the crap out of me, I thought if I was scared rappelling how was I ever going to go to Jump School. I really started to question myself, then finally I went to the local dropzone with a friend with the intent of just doing it once, but I had so much fun on static line I figured freefall was even better...been hooked ever since
Chris Ramirez

[riggerrob 643]

I am fascinated by all aspects of flying, so when I was in the Army Reserve, and they said that jumping out of airplanes was really macho, I asked them to send me on the Army jump course. The paper -pushers fumbled that request 3 years in a row, so I started jumping with the local civilian club.

[Slowfaller 0]

There was a teacher I had in the 2nd grade who skydived and even though he was a dick, I always thought he was cool for skydiving plus I always had a facination with falling or freefall. When I was a kid I'd always get in trouble for doing stupid shit like setting pillows up and jumping off of the top bunk or jumping out of my bedroom window (2nd story) onto my trampoline etc...Also when I was a kid I had these action figures called M.A.S.K it was a cartoon too and I could move their arms and legs to a perfect box man position so I would pretend they were BASE jumping to get away from the enemy I would scan the TV guide for anything that might have skydiving or freefall (bungee, BASE) and I once begged my mom to buy me this one video called "Killer Sports" which had a skydiving clip on it. It was at the Wal-Mart for $3.99, quality stuff.
What made me jump was I was watching Road Rules (because they were skydiving) and on their helmet's was 1 800 SKYDIVE stickers so I called it and got hooked up w/ SDC and called all of my friends, organized a group and have been obsessed ever since. It's been a life long obsession now that I think about it, I was born to fly/fall.
I'll go to college; learn some big words; I'll talk real loud god damn right I'll be heard.

[skymama 37]

mid-life crisis for me...my one little tandem was going to be the extent of me skydiving, at least that was the plan!
Andrea
The brave may not live forever, but the timid may not live at all.

[jtval 0]

skydiving? i thought this was an adult sight.oopsactually my first memory/introduction to/of skydiving was when i was like 5 or 6 we were at a friends b-day party and a skydiver landed in a field by the house and came to the party to wish her a happy birthday. i have no idea how they(her parents) got this guy to do it. (we were 50 miles from a dz in a highly residentail area.) but all i could think is "this guy is fukn cool" so that started my facination. now, it's b/c of the my weak will. i have a hard time with addiction! but i make do
Have fun, LIVE FREE, Skydive
JT

[freebird 0]

Vikadin is MUCH better!
The longer you wait ........the more sense you get.

[airdrew20012001 0]

Same thing with me, sort of a dare combined with "I signed you up, they'll charge me regardless." From there I couldn't be stopped.

[jumpervali 2]

I used to enjoy jumping from the local dam. After 15 years of my bandit trips over the safety rail to enjoy a 60 ft. freefall a friend of mine said I might enjoy skydiving. Wow what a cool idea, and it's legal-even cooler! So after training for a tandem on our walk to the airplane I did a 14000 ft jump, landed and got sick. It was so cool! Now 1700 jumps later I own 1/2 of the DZ, and have retired form my factory job of 17 years to do what I love.
Oh and chicks dig skydivers- I'm told
jumpervali georgia skydiver

[freeflir29 0]

"landed and got sick. It was so cool!"
Heheeheheheeheheehee.....funny to have all those words so close together....
"Houston? That place is full of Crack heads and debutantes."- Hank Hill
Clay

[hisgoofyness 0]

the motivation on my first jump was a master sergeant, who was much bigger than me, pushing me out the back of a c-130
no actually i used to jump off anything and everything as a kid with a big piece of cardboard for my main...
hisgoofyness
its a bird, its a plane, no wait, its one goofy s.o.b.

[loopysteph 0]

I joined the Airforce thinking I could be a para-trooper, after going through basic, they told me (back then anyway) that girls could not do that. I had to prove them wrong!
"Emancipate yourself from mental slavery" -Bob Marley

[chopchop 0]

first motivation was sassy rodriguez daring me to take up her sport (skydiving) and telling me I had to teach her to hang-glide so I did Aff level 1. 3 months later I hurt myself hang-gliding, watched a bunch of sassy's videos and decided maybe skydiving was safer than hang-gliding so I went on to finish AFF. Been hooked ever since. Oh, yeah, got rid of the freakin' kite.
chopchop
PD makes canopies all day long, you only have one life, when in doubt, cut away...

[Milo 0]

I was 10 years old and my family went camping in Michigan.
There was a 'bluff' (kind of like a cliff, but only smaller) over a river. At that time I didn't know the difference between 'sand dune' (soft) and 'sand stone' (not so soft). The instant I saw all that sand I yelled 'Hey Mom, Watch This!!!' and ran as fast as I could into the sky.
I landed 30 feet down on my butt, and bruised that tailbone thingy (which I won't try to spell) which hurt like hell for 4 or 5 years.
15 years later when somebody asked me if I wanted to jump out of a plane I said 'Hell Yeah!!!'
I don't understand the motivation. It supersedes reason. But I had it from an early age and I love it.
Milo

[bill2 0]

I've always wanted to do it, but kept making excuses (not enough time or money), then came hang gliding for a bit, then motorcycling. Finally, my wife got me a tandem jump for my birthday in 1999, and I was hooked after that. I started in May of 2000. still scared, but loving each jump. as well as the sense of mastery as each time I get a little bit better at it.

[lazerq3 0]

My motivation was just driving down I-15 ,looking over and seeing a bunch of chutes in the air and thinking "I didnt know they did that out here". And with a birthday coming up , going home and telling the wife this is what I want to do for my birthday (tandem jump)......!!!!!!!!! So really there was no motivation except for the fact of just wanting to try it!!(gald I did!!!!)
jason