wandrer 0 #1 April 8, 2004 i am just wandering if anyone has any info or is actively doing anything to expose or wonderful sport to the masses? i am so tired of turning on the extreme sports channels and only seeing 3 sec. clip during the intro of programs. due to the amount of reruns i see on these channels the producers are in need of material! why don't the very talented people who make the DVDs we all watch submit them to these people? look what has happened to freestyle motoX in the past few years now they have reg. TV coverage, sponsors, good paying contest . i wish i was a camera flyer i would submit my pics to anyone and everyone who would accept them to advance our sport. maybe if we all worked together we could really get some attention for our sport and more people would understand it and respect it and us more. what do you think??????????????? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tink1717 2 #2 April 8, 2004 Until we can convince the programming directors that there is a market for skydiving, there will be no exposure. Sponsor are only interested in sports that have a potential market. Skydiving is still very much a cottage industry. The sport needs to grow a lot more before we have the numbers needed to attract that kind of attention.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 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
speedy 0 #3 April 8, 2004 We try and try and try, but the TV people are just not interested. At my club we did a jump for charity, Red Nose Day. This was something being actively promoted by a TV station here. We gave them freefall video footage and guess what they showed about 3 secs of the freefall. 3 girls washing a car got more coverage. The real problem is that skydiving is not mainstream. Most people just don't get it. People who don't skydive are not really interested in watching a bunch of idiots leap from a plane. As for Moto X , well there are a lot more bikers out there than there are skydivers. Also, almost everyone has ridden a bicycle. Dave Fallschirmsport Marl Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
slotperfect 7 #4 April 8, 2004 I am a bit frustrated with the fact that most of the skydiving we see on TV today is incidents, like on "Real TV." Even more frustrating is the way the incidents are portrayed, and hyped, and the facts twisted around to make each one a life or death struggle of amazing proportions. Incidents happen, and they are going to make the news. Facts and responsible explanations are much more valuable for the public than embellishment and manufacture of details.Arrive Safely John Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Pendragon 1 #5 April 8, 2004 The problem is skydiving isn't really an arena spectator sport (for obvious reasons!) By way of example, even in FMX, you can stuff a few big jumps in a stadium, get the general public to pay for expensive tickets - and sell loads of hot dogs, beer, general merchandise as well. Supercross also has that advantage, possibly why it's "richer" than it's MX stablemate. No arena = no money = little sponsorship = little event coverage As for showing films, we've still got a problem in that it's a fairly inaccessible sport - let's face it, you've really got to want to do it. There are lots more people out there with skateboards, simply because that's all you need... So Tony Hawk is always going to be more famous than say Patrick Passe. -- BASE #1182 Muff #3573 PFI #52; UK WSI #13 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
cocheese 0 #6 April 8, 2004 A sad part of our sport is that whuffos don't even enjoy watching what we do on video.We make high profile athletes look like kids and we get no respect. Not that we want it, but i'm glad the masses aren't out to wreck our sport like they have so many others. Glad it's not a trendy sport. They all know it exists. They can come out to the dz anytime, but prefer to go do other "exciting to them" things. Shhh don't tell everyone our secrets to happiness....just the ones that would make a good "dz" friend. I know a few people i would not want at the dz.. just not the right kind of person we need. Blue skies Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ZegeunerLeben 0 #7 April 8, 2004 Quote i am just wandering if anyone has any info or is actively doing anything to expose or wonderful sport to the masses? >>A while back a friend of mine organized a charity event called skydive for the kids where he made 50 hop 'n pops in one day (not alot compared to the new record, but not easy either). He was able to raise $14,000 for Children's Hospital of Oakland and had the event plastered all over the local papers. The response was great, and people started coming out to local DZ's to do tandems. There are things one can do to bring positive attention to skydiving, but it's alot tougher to try and sell skydiving for sure. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
billvon 3,111 #8 April 8, 2004 >i am just wandering if anyone has any info or is actively doing >anything to expose or wonderful sport to the masses? Too many people are doing this, IMO. The last thing we need are thousands more people who decide to skydive because they think it would be a cool TV thing to do. I see more and more of the people like this at drop zones, people who want a fun skydiving ride, then go through AFF and want to be like the guy in the video or on the cover. They want a Xaos 98 at 30 jumps because it will improve their fun skydive ride, and they buy a cypres so they can safely jump that Xaos. Then they die and their families sue the manufacturers, drop zones and instructors because their fun skydive ride became a terrifying plummet to their death when their parachute failed to open. And no one warned them! Skydiving is a dangerous sport. You can die doing this, even if you do everything right. If you are to push this sport on the public, that's a message they have to hear loud and clear. It's even more important than having cool videos on ESPN. >i wish i was a camera flyer i would submit my pics to anyone and > everyone who would accept them to advance our sport. maybe if we > all worked together we could really get some attention for our sport > and more people would understand it and respect it and us more. Do you honestly think that the response to this would be "Hey, what a great sport, let's regulate them less and leave them alone?" History has shown that the more popular something becomes, the more the government notices and regulates it, and the less freedom there is for the participants. Skydiving is a great sport, not because everyone in the US loves it, but because of what it is and the people in it. If more people were exposed to it, it wouldn't make it any better; indeed, it would harm it in some ways. If people don't know much about it, it doesn't make it any worse. We currently have a tremendous amount of exposure in the media. Skydivers are on credit card commercials, in the superbowl, in movies, and on TV specials. Dozens of skydiving videos and books are available; you can buy them through Amazon.com (or Square1; they will even sell to whuffos.) If you are eager to expend your energy making skydiving a better/safer sport, there are much better ways to spend your time than trying to get one more picture on a cover. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bch7773 0 #9 April 8, 2004 I think that part of it might be that a normal whuffo has no idea how hard skydiving is. they look at headdown for instance and go "how hard is that? you just jump out upside down right?" where as with moto or bike stuff, since everyone has ridden a bike they know it would be pretty difficult to do a flip, and so its interesting and exciting to watch others do it. basically, my point is that whuffos just don't understand or comprehend skydiving, so it holds no interest to them. MB 3528, RB 1182 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Remster 30 #10 April 8, 2004 Quotefreestyle motoX in the past few years now they have reg. TV coverage, sponsors, good paying contest . Yeah.... funny what happens when you can get major corporations sponsoring your event when the marketing audiance is cash rich teens... Its a small sport, with a small number of participants, with the potential to get real nasty real fast... sponsors dont run after this to be associated with it. And to be honest, I dont want all that publicity on the sport either. Its not a sport for everyone.Remster Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
iowa 0 #11 April 8, 2004 The Pro Swooping Tour has some irons in the fire. Keith ''Always do sober what you said you would do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut.'' - Ernest Hemingway Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
