woady

To add, buying people a beer or their meal REALLY works wonders. People really think that's awesome. I always bring beer and/or water when I go to the DZ. I buy lunch at work every so often and the guys really appreciate it. You know what's similar between Cops and Firefighters? They both wanna be firefighters.

You don't have any problem meeting new people, but here's the most over looked advice I could think of and this should help. People LOVE talking about themselves. Whether its an old friend or complete stranger they always have themselves to talk about. We have twice as many ears as we do mouths so we should listen twice as much as we talk. Its how we relate one thing to another. The key to starting any conversation with anyone is talking about them. Ask them a question, introduce yourself give a 5 second summation of yourself and keep talking about them. For instance, "Hey, what kind of canopy do you fly?" *Person's response (blah blah blah) "Sweet, man, (continue talking about whatever) or btw, I'm Patrick, I'm here working on my level A cert." Their response should open you up to a dozen other questions you could ask them. This really works with women. Men, at least me and the guys I work with, don't feel like we always gotta talk all the time so if a guy doesn't keep a conversation a half hour or more don't take it personally. Trick is to not give a flying f*ck. Be happy by yourself, doing your own thing, and the rest falls into place. You know what's similar between Cops and Firefighters? They both wanna be firefighters.

Man, I feel your pain. Same thing happened to me. I ended up going to a community college for a couple years, raised my GPA, ended up graduating from Georgia State with a Bachelor's in Business. Trust me, if I can do it you can. Just don't put your expenses on your credit card. Get a student loan. Paying that back was a biotch. Hang in there. You know what's similar between Cops and Firefighters? They both wanna be firefighters.

I took the adaptive test for my EMT and it cut me off after 80 questions. I'm not filling your head with false hope when I say I know you did fine. The adaptive test isn't busting your balls to see if your an A or a B student, they simply test to see if you meet the "minimum standard". Like you said 205 questions. If you were even border-line to minimum standard you definitely would have been asked 120+ questions. So Congratulations. You know what's similar between Cops and Firefighters? They both wanna be firefighters.

I agree with that statement. The "average" person doesn't skydive, but maybe goes skydiving once. The average person does drive a crap load and there for are much more at risk of being involved in an accident and potentially dying, which makes driving more dangerous for them then skydiving. I think that would be a reasonable theory that no one can disagree with, right? And if you say no SO HELP ME GOD... lol. You know what's similar between Cops and Firefighters? They both wanna be firefighters.

That would be an interesting statistic to find out. What are fatality rate of people with under 100 jumps to those over 100. I don't think that is equatable because you don't know how many are under and over 100 jumps. However, I will say that I'd be willing to bet that an influencing factor would definitely be that people with over 100 or even 500 jumps are much more prone to injury or death because they've done the simple basics and try the free flying and swooping, which I definitely hope to get into. On another note you it could be safer if you have over 100 as experience is the worst teacher of all, it gives the test before the lesson is learned. How about everyone just be safe doing both? Jager is like watching a gay porn, you don't know what your getting into until its too late...except I only like jager, I ain't going to lie to ya. You know what's similar between Cops and Firefighters? They both wanna be firefighters.

Thank you.

This is statistics. I compared # of deaths. Its inequatable to compare minutes to minutes for each. The same could be said about # of minutes being struck by lightning; although being struck by lightning is very improbable the number of minutes is incomprehensible. It'd be apples to oranges. For this we will stick to deaths :) You know what's similar between Cops and Firefighters? They both wanna be firefighters.

Okay, I'll play the devil's advocate here. I work for two FDs, and I see things differently. hehehe, More than 6.1 million police-reported motor vehicle crashes occurred in the United States in 2005. Almost one-third of these crashes resulted in an injury, with less than 1 percent of total crashes (39,189) resulting in a death. (This doesn't count motorcycle, pedestrians, or other forms of transportation accidents). http://www-fars.nhtsa.dot.gov/Main/index.aspx The National Census, www.census.gov, stated the US population is 304,185,867. Now, at the benefit of the Nay-sayers, we'll assume everyone drives a car. This would put your risk of dying at a 1 in 7,762. In 2007, USPA estimated the US had 2.5 million jumps to only 20 deaths, which is 1 in 125,000 jumps. Seeing this, that would mean you are 16x more likely to die in a car accident then you would be die from skydiving. This would lead one to believe that something isn't right. The 2005 numbers for skydiving did change (and these are at the benefit of the Nay-sayers) that there were a low 2 million jumps in 2005 with 30 deaths in the US, which would put the death rate at 1 in 66,667 jumps, still margins above the national automobile fatality rate. Things to consider is... ...When we skydive, and probably the most important influencing factor, we are paying the utmost attention to what we are doing. Our lives are in danger if we don't so you bet your ass we will do everything to prevent that. Its the sport of Skydiving's MAIN objective above everything else to prevent people from dying. Driving on the other hand, how many times have we caught ourselves talking on a cell phone, eating, changing the radio, totally distracted or even dazed out driving home or to work? Before we know it we're at work wondering how we got there as if we were on auto pilot. We take driving for granted, we don't with Skydiving. ...You very very rarely will find a drunk skydiver jumping. If you do tell me so I can avoid that DZ. But how often are drunk drivers on the road? More often than we realize. You are taking a large portion of the influence out of the fatalities of driving when you are skydiving. When we jump we usually only fall a couple of miles. When we drive we drive many more. We are around others when we jump is probably more dangerous while skydiving then driving because we are traveling at 120+mph. But even with this one could say, by the numbers, skydiving is, in fact, safer than driving a vehicle. On the main subject of the thread though, you can't force people to do what you want. You can suggest, but if they don't want to they really won't do it. Take it from me, I've tried. When I got into Scubadiving and Cavern diving, people simply didn't want to do it. All the better I say. You know what's similar between Cops and Firefighters? They both wanna be firefighters.

Should we not be flushing condoms down the toilet? Because that's what I've been doing. You know what's similar between Cops and Firefighters? They both wanna be firefighters.

Word, at Skydive the Farm :D j/k, but no, really, lol. I was born in ATL and I love it here. It would be hard to find a city that could beat ATL. You're in one of the largest growing cities, 4 hours from the beach and two from the mountains and the Appalachian Trail. Two hours from the Nania Halia, Ocoee, and of course Chattahoochee River (I totally butchered those Rivers names). 9 million people plus... Southern Hospitality, can't beat it, nowhere! You know what's similar between Cops and Firefighters? They both wanna be firefighters.

Damn man, glad to hear your somewhat in one piece. Like someone said go to a news paper or news channel and tell them your story. Maybe you'll get some leads. However, if you don't maybe you should just keep your eyes out so eventually you can return the favor to someone else, ya know? You know what's similar between Cops and Firefighters? They both wanna be firefighters.

Do you need to take the National Registry for your EMT I? You know what's similar between Cops and Firefighters? They both wanna be firefighters.

Ouch, I did that too. I swear it wasn't a freudian slip. You know what's similar between Cops and Firefighters? They both wanna be firefighters.

Wait, that's the past, the future is now....no, NOW! no NOW! You know what's similar between Cops and Firefighters? They both wanna be firefighters.

Thanks for the feedback. I agree its awesome that people are allowed to spend the night on DZ, whether on airport DZs or private DZs. I just don't want to see anyone do stupid shit that causes DZs to get in trouble and not allow this, or worse, get someone or themselves injured or killed. If your going to be stupid, you gotta be tough. You know what's similar between Cops and Firefighters? They both wanna be firefighters.

All women are crazy (there's good crazy and bad crazy) but all women are crazy. They have different levels of crazy, but...all women are crazy :) Now, the secret to women...is finding a woman with the perfect amount of crazy you can live with. I learned this from a Tibetian monk on my second trip to Cathmandu...and from dating lots of really really crazy women and some that were not so much crazy. You know what's similar between Cops and Firefighters? They both wanna be firefighters.

I was just curious and I know there is a wealth of knowledge out there on this forum so please contribute. I'm pretty new to Skydiving, I've been to a few different drop zones and often times people will spend the night on the drop zone. I'm sure this is very beneficial traveling jumpers and local jumpers from using up too much gas, but what are the responsibilities of the squatting jumpers, or squatting non-jumpers, and the drop zones they stay on? I don't know what goes and what doesn't and I think it would be beneficial to ask so everyone else has a general understanding if they do spend the night. I think, and its just my opinion, but skydiving is some people's lives and livelihood, and they live on their drop zones. I also see others spending the night so they don't have to drive home or get a hotel room. It seems like, at times, some people take advantage of this and its really unfair for those who really live on the DZ especially if it puts the workers, managers, and owners of the DZ in a liability situation should anything bad happen. I know a majority of people staying on the DZ are good people and I don't want this to get misconstrued, but what are DZs general rules about staying over night and unwarranted behavior? Thanks in advance to those who contribute. If you'd like to say something in private just PM me please! Ya'll rock btw. You know what's similar between Cops and Firefighters? They both wanna be firefighters.

okay, I'll start a new thread. Thanks Spence. You know what's similar between Cops and Firefighters? They both wanna be firefighters.

I don't know if this is appropriate, and if its not please let me know and I'll move this to a new thread and be vague about my reference, but since so many people are into this situation, legally, I wanted to ask a question. In general, what is the liability of Dropzones if they allow people to spend the night on the DZ? I'm not interested in people getting into what this thread was originally posted about because it seems like a really sensitive subject, but for personal knowledge ( and public knowledge) what are DZs responsible and not responsible for? I don't want people to think I'm feeding this link, but I think it would be good for people to understand how their actions effect the good things in our lives, Dropzones. Thanks for all that contribute seriously. Woady You know what's similar between Cops and Firefighters? They both wanna be firefighters.

Assuming that no one is holding a gun to your head, you just get up your gumption and say "no". It takes a little bit of practice, but you'll get used to it. You can say something like, "I'd really love to help you, but I can't today" and leave it at that. They don't have to know your reason and quite frankly, it's none of their business. Yeah, regardless, you gotta make time for yourself. I work a crap load like you, but occasionally you gotta have some "Me Time". A weekend off every so often does wonders. You know what's similar between Cops and Firefighters? They both wanna be firefighters.

No, you didn't just go there! A Spork are you CRAZY! You know what's similar between Cops and Firefighters? They both wanna be firefighters.

God bless tax refunds :) Welcome to DZ.com!