skydivers voluntarily quitting the sport?

[aguila 0]

Skydiving is addictive. Do you know any skydiver (not a student) who has quit skydiving because s/he just wanted to do so with no pressures from family, work, money, health, etc?

Gonzalo

It cannot be done really means I do not know how to do it ... yet

[NWFlyer 2]

Yes.

"There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

[PhreeZone 20]

Lots. People burn out of the sport, of the politics, of attending funerals of their friends. The average life of a jumper was about 3 years, 150 jumps accourding to the USPA a few years back. There is a second group that lasted about 6 years if I remember right. There are not many people that last more then 10 years in the sport and are still jumping.

There is a saying " Until you've been jumping 10 years you are a tourist in the sport". Most people never make it to half that time. I hope to become more then a tourist one day.

Yesterday is history
And tomorrow is a mystery

Parachutemanuals.com

[bozo 0]

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There are not many people that last more then 10 years in the sport and are still jumping.

.

No shit ? Does that count the jumps I did yesterday?

bozo
Pain is fleeting. Glory lasts forever. Chicks dig scars.

[jakee 1,489]

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Do you know any skydiver (not a student) who has quit skydiving because s/he just wanted to do so with no pressures from family, work, money, health, etc?

Yeah. Almost everyone I know that's quit has done it like that. They just drift away.

Do you want to have an ideagasm?

[Andy9o8 2]

There are also people who drift in, and out, and back in, etc. of the sport, some from loss of interest (or getting interested in other pursuits), and many other due to "stage of life" factors, such as marriage, raising children, pursuing a career, related financial priorities, etc. I have only anectdotal evidence of this, but it seems to me that you see a lot of jumpers in their 20's, and a lot who are in their mid-40's and over, but comparatively fewer in their 30's. I've known some jumpers who were/are currently married and had/have children under around age 15, but not many.

[bisqit999 0]

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The average life of a jumper was about 3 years, 150 jumps accourding to the USPA a few years back.

That makes sense. I'm in that range and can't decide where to go from here. I just can't decide if I should sell my gear yet.

[skytash 0]

that's a bit spooky. I'm coming up for my 10 years and am sick of politics and that affecting the fun I used to have. I quite seriously considered hanging up the rig after the events I'd registered for in 2007.

Then someone started me on CRW and the fun is back as I'm too 'young' in the discipline to worry about politics, I'm just learning.

So if someone hadn't got me into a new discipline, I may well have left without any outside pressure. Who knows, I may get sick of feet tangling in lines and may give up at year 10 in any case!

tash

Don't ever save anything for a special occasion. Being alive is a special occasion. Avril Sloe

[lippy 918]

I'm kind of on a break right now, as my work has me living in Venezuela. It's frustrating to spend a shitload of money to go over to Skydive Venezuela when I can sneak away once every 3 months, only to realize that I forgot a whole lot of shit.

I'm hoping to get a transfer to somewhere where I can fly again real soon. Reading DZ.com is both keeping me sane and making me stir-crazy.

I got nuthin

[ryan_d_sucks 0]

When you guys talk about politics, what exactly are you referring to? DZ managment, attitudes of other jumpers, or what? I'm curious because I'm just starting my tour.

[kai2k1 0]

Last Year i had exactly 3 years and 140 jumps, I decided to quit skydiving. I decided to bulid my dream car, and did it within 4 months of leaving the sport.

Exactly 3 months to the day that I left the sport, 5 Friends of mine died in a Plane crash in Sullivan MO. I have since returned to the sport that I love shortly thereafter to see if i could even get in a plane. I havent made too many jumps since the crash, but i'm looking forward to a great season of rekindling and making new frendships in this sport.



It happens all the time..

There's no truer sense of flying than sky diving," Scott Cowan

[crazydiver 0]

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When you guys talk about politics, what exactly are you referring to? DZ managment, attitudes of other jumpers, or what? I'm curious because I'm just starting my tour.

It wouldn't be fair to tell you now. Chances are, you would start seeing these things. We'll let you figure it out on your own and if you never experience some of these things, then fantastic! If you begin to experience them, don't let them get you down. Just realize that you love the sport and won't let those things bother you!

Hope that helps.

Cheers,
Travis

[sunshine 2]

I've seen a lot of people quit the sport.

___________________________________________
meow

I get a Mike hug! I get a Mike hug!

[2shay 0]

I know a lot of people who have quit because of yupee people getting in the way who are there more to say that they jump and that they are cool, rather than being in the sport because they love to jump. I did NOT start jumping to make friends and inflate my ego. I did it because i love to jump. I think and hope that more dz's adopt more of a hardcore, "shut up and jump" attitude. Screw getting down and bullshitting about the jump and then packing slowly and dilly dallying around. Jump and then go do it again and again and again all day, your chances of learning more will increase dramatically. If you don't like to do this thats fine too, just get the hell out of the way of people who really have passion for the sport.

don't try your bullshit with me!!!

[PhreeZone 20]

How many jumps do you have? My guess... 250, maybe 300. Come back with that same attitude in another 1000 jumps and see your attitude then.

Yesterday is history
And tomorrow is a mystery

Parachutemanuals.com

[2shay 0]

Maybe. Betting on no though, I am very stubborn on stuff like that. Have quite a bit more jumps than your guess. What I posted may have seen like a negative spin on things and that was NOT my intention there, but damn those people get under my skin and I have seen quite a few of these same people being routine safety hazards. i just believe the more you jump the more you will learn and you will become that much more safe, potentially. Whole different thread though.

don't try your bullshit with me!!!

[Travman 6]

Of course.
I had an injury that put me off or a few months and then wasn't able to get up the DZ for a bit and then had the ski season. Afterwards I was reconsidering if it was worth it all, but once I got back in to comptetion 4-way and 8-way I renewed my passion.

[JohnMitchell 16]

Fatalities have made me want to quit once or twice, but I think I'm in por la vida.

People quit for all kinds of reasons, some internal, some external. You can't believe now that you'd ever want to quit jumping, and that's cool, because I was like that at 150 jumps, too. I guess I'm still like that, but I can finally wrap my head around the idea of not jumping.

Does any of that make sense?

[Pulse 0]

In the end skydiving, as awesome as it is, is just another activity like anything else. People tend to fade in and out of activities. I've noticed that every five years is another 'generation' of skydivers. There are still some of us that are around, but you tend to forget when telling stories around the bonfire. You'll be talking about something that happened about 7 years ago (which isn't all that long) and realize no on knows who you're talking about.

This will be my 16th year in the sport, I've slowed a little because I am pursuing some other things. Skydiving remains a big part of my life and thoughts. But, variety is good too.

"Any language where the unassuming word fly signifies an annoying insect, a means of travel, and a critical part of a gentleman's apparel is clearly asking to be mangled."

[L.O. 0]

Sad but true, people fade from the sport. There is always an excuse though. Very rarely do they say, "I just don't want to do this anymore".


It makes me sad, for those people who can't find what I have found in the sport. Even though it has been 16 years in May, I still find utter bliss in skydiving.

I pity those who don't have such passion in their life, be it skydiving or not.

HPDBs, I hate those guys.
AFB, charter member.

[mikempb 0]

2SHAY had a good point. Today its soooooo easy to get into the sport and get rated FAST. I had to look in the yellow pages to find a drop zone and do a bunch of static line jumps to expierience free fall. Im sure there would be a lot less people in the sport if they had to do a 5 hr course rolling on the ground doing PLF's just to jump at 3 grand.
I give a lot of credit to those who try our sport out and decide to hang it up. Theres no reason to jump out of a plane... unless it puts not just a smile on your face but a huge one like the guys to
my right

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[rehmwa 2]

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There is always an excuse though.

there might just be better excuses nowadays - before we'd just kill ourselves, now we're killing each other under canopy

(see you Friday - tunnels are fun)

...
Driving is a one dimensional activity - a monkey can do it - being proud of your driving abilities is like being proud of being able to put on pants

[billvon 2,990]

> Skydiving is addictive.

Eh, so are a lot of things. I used to climb a lot before I started skydiving; I rarely climb any more. Will I discover something else that is more fun than skydiving? Perhaps. It won't really be "quitting skydiving" it will be that I have something more interesting to do.

[DSE 5]

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I had to look in the yellow pages to find a drop zone and do a bunch of static line jumps to expierience free fall. Im sure there would be a lot less people in the sport if they had to do a 5 hr course rolling on the ground doing PLF's just to jump at 3 grand.

I completely understand your point, and don't disagree with you. That said, 15 years ago, I was typing letters on a typewriter, putting the paper in an envelope, and putting a stamp on it. I also had a phone that weighed as much as the brick it was named for.
Technology has allowed for significant evolution in this sport making it mainstream. Some will hate that, I remember when Burton was first making commercial snowboards available and people bitched about that, too. Now no one cares, because it's all about one thing....having a good time.

All activities cycle. It's a part of life. There will always be "lifers" in some activities, and there will be those that find the passion is a relatively short-lived experience. There will be "tourists" that stick with it for even fewer years, and then there are the "I jumped once, it was incredible, I decided to do AFF, got my A, and then found it wasn't what I thought it was.
Don't you think a lot of it depends on the social structure at the DZ as well? There are DZ's that are mostly social centers for weekend jumpers that do a lot of tandems, and there are DZ's like Eloy, Perris, Deland that heavily cater to the "upper ranks" of the sport. As much as I've loved jumping at all three of those DZ's, I'll take my home DZ any day of the week, because I can at least get a smile and a "what's up?" out of folks. Not meant as a slight against big DZ's, just the difference between going to the SuperWalmart store and the local corner grocery store where the owner is the guy at the cash register.
I wonder if the wear/tear on the body of the *average* skydiver pushes some out of the sport. Hurt ankles, skinned knees, etc are all fine for the younger crowd, but some folks just don't want to deal with that when they have to go back to the boardroom on Monday morning.
Either way, the cycling all seems quite natural to me.

[BIGUN 1,307]

Yes. It's a very easy sport to walk away from, but a very difficult sport to get over.

Nobody has time to listen; because they're desperately chasing the need of being heard.