Studying skydiving / Skydiving culture

[saisid 0]

Hello everyone,

i recently had my first skydive and loved it. i am an anthropology student planing to do some research on skydiving.

i am very new to this sport so i am still trying to figure it out.

i want you experienced people to help me out with my research.

i want to study skydiving communities and culture in dropzones and among professionals. Socio cultural aspect within the sport . The community, its politics, or what have you.

what issues would you want a researcher to focus on within the sport? Because there is not much research out there on this topic.

i cant just go to a dropzone and start observing and interview. please give me a direction and what should i look for.

i am still trying to formulate a research focus.

[angrypeppers 1]

Go to the DZ. Learn to jump. Jump. Hang out with the other skydivers and make friends. Bring beer and stay late enough to drink a few with your new friends. Immerse yourself in the culture and you'll find your subject. If you don't want to go to a DZ, read through the threads here. Something will stick out that is interesting to you and to your audience. Good luck and congrats on your first jump!

Burn the land and boil the sea,
You can't take the sky from me.

[saisid 0]

Thank you.

Due to my research process, i have to submit an issue or topic before i immense myself in the "field" so to speak.

[pchapman 279]

Every once in a while someone in university wants to give skydivers some new survey about the sport. Looking at skydiving and risk taking is a pretty common thing, and skydivers roll their eyes at it. Hell, back in university I steered at least one project into being skydiving related too.

As for more serious study though, check out papers by Jason Laurendeau, who started his research in university maybe in the mid 1990s. He went native in his anthropology: He did at least 800 jumps before retiring from the sport. Skydiving sociology comes up under the topic of edgework too.

Just beware of simplistic, overly quick looks at skydivers and risk taking.

And to throw in some confusing skydiving culture:
EFS!
BSBD!

[Tatetatetate 0]

TBH have a look through the dropzone reviews section and look at the negative reviews, yes the negative ones. As these are often the most insightful as to the social and cultural sides of dropzones happen to be. The problem is that it is not universal! it also depends on your expectation and if you 'belong' or not

The old story I can't recall fully but it goes like this:

A traveller stopped to rest at a tavern and asked the bar man, what are the people of the next town like? The barman responded by:

First tell me what the people in your own town are like.

The traveller responded: they are kind warm and generous in my home town.

The barman responded: Well the people of my town nearby are also kind warm and generous.

Thank you.

The travleler stayed for another pint and saw another traveller come in.,

What are the people like in your town the second traveller asked the barman.

First tell me what the people in your own town are like.

He responded: They are cold and untrustworthy cheats.

The barman responded: Well the people of my town are cold and untrust worthy cheats.

The second traveller said thank you and left.

The first traveller asks the barman why did you tell him different? The barman said its all about expectations.


In the UK for example I've jumped at 6 DZs of which I've spent considerable time at three of them. The other three I just visited there briefly to stay current.

I'm not going to name names but:

One of them is absolutely horrendous, I've been bullied belittled, backstabbed and hazed. And this is by the staff and the DZO. I'm an outsider at this DZ, its primarily filled with tandems but there are only about 8-14 regular jumpers there. It looks busy because of all the tandem instructors and camera men. But it is very cliquey and I've never been invited to jump with anybody else there.

While the other one I've never been belittled or backstabbed or hazed and it is a easy going DZ which makes me smile. Third jump in got invited into a three way to make it a four way.

I jump at the easy going one these days. Thus the culture of DZs can vary massively depending on the DZ and its purpose. The second DZ does tandems a few of them but it is a DZ for skydivers and not tandems. While the first DZ is a tandem operation first and a skydivers second place.

[saisid 0]

Awesome!! That was really helpful. Thanks :)

[saisid 0]

Thats good advice. From the looks of it my drop zone seems very chilled out and easy going.
Could not find any negative reviews as well :P

[DrizZ 0]

different dz's have VERY different cultures... go to your average cessna dropzone that does mostly tandems, then go to somewhere like skydive orange (especially when the west point crew is around). it's like two different worlds.

[JohnRich 4]

Quote

i recently had my first skydive and loved it. i am an anthropology student planing to do some research on skydiving. i am very new to this sport so i am still trying to figure it out. i want you experienced people to help me out with my research...

The first thing I suggest to help you with your research is to learn to capitalize your "I's".

[saisid 0]

UPDATE: Decided to narrow it down to exploring Edge work and culture of risk taking among skydivers.

Thank you all for helping. I would love to hear your opinions about this.

I will ask more specific question as soon as I gather more knowledge about these issues.

[GLIDEANGLE 1]

Chew on this... What do various kinds of jumpers consider excessively dangerous? For example, I love canopy relative work (CReW, CRW, CF). On the other hand, I consider swooping excessively dangerous. I know swoopers who consider CReW excessively dangerous.

The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

[jackwallace 3]

Wow how original. A study of risk taking among skydivers.
What you going to do next, hand out the 500 question suicide survey?

U only make 2 jumps: the first one for some weird reason and the last one that you lived through. The rest are just filler.
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[saisid 0]

I am open to suggestions. What are your recommendations ?

[saisid 0]

This is great. Def gona make note of that.

[JackC1 0]

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I am open to suggestions. What are your recommendations ?

As you may have guessed, skydivers do seem to come in for an awful lot of surveying, usually by students studying the psychology of risk for some research project. So if you do go down this route, expect quite a few replies that show a certain amount of angst towards the questioner.

Which suggests the question what it is about students that makes them keep picking the same group of people (risk takers) over and over and over again whenever there's a research project to be done?

Maybe there's a research project in polling the pollsters. It's got to be a damn sight more original than yet another survey of risk takers.

Another angle would be just how many surveys does it take before the lab rats start deliberately munging the answers and can you tell by looking at previous surveys? It definitely happens when one specific group of people gets researched to distraction.

[saisid 0]

I see where you are coming from. I am not looking at this from a psychological or a sociological perspective. I am not looking to study individual risk takers but the culture of it.

Maybe I could look at the addiction aspect of skydiving? what makes u come back for more and more. coz I certainly wana go back for more :)

especially those of you who have 100's of jumps under your belt.

let me know what you think.

[virgin-burner 1]

Quote

I see where you are coming from. I am not looking at this from a psychological or a sociological perspective. I am not looking to study individual risk takers but the culture of it.

Maybe I could look at the addiction aspect of skydiving? what makes u come back for more and more. coz I certainly wana go back for more :)

especially those of you who have 100's of jumps under your belt.

let me know what you think.

oh yea, the addiction part of skydiving is right next to risk taking..

“Some may never live, but the crazy never die.”
-Hunter S. Thompson
"No. Try not. Do... or do not. There is no try."
-Yoda

[saisid 0]

lol then i am truly lost.

[virgin-burner 1]

get yourself immersed, find out for yourself!
i'd suggest you take a look at young, hot chicks that end up fucking guys with many jumps just to do "cool stuff", and the guys that enjoy being the center of attention of said hotties! should be REALLY interesting!

“Some may never live, but the crazy never die.”
-Hunter S. Thompson
"No. Try not. Do... or do not. There is no try."
-Yoda

[saisid 0]

hmmm .. gender and power relations in skydiving ?

[virgin-burner 1]

sounds like a plan - dont think THIS has been done yet!

“Some may never live, but the crazy never die.”
-Hunter S. Thompson
"No. Try not. Do... or do not. There is no try."
-Yoda

[Muffie 0]

Yeah, I wouldn't recommend pursuing the risk-taking aspect of it either. Especially depending on what type of anthropology you're studying.

What about the age/experience dynamic? This is one of those sports where you end up being friends with people over a 30 year age range and often based upon experience in the sport.

You could also look at gender issues since that has some unique aspects in this sport as well. (Not necessarily VB's issue which is just women seeking an Alpha male and men who can and want to taking advantage, IMO).

Personally, my first response was just leave us alone to do our thing, but if you insist on studying the culture, find something a little more original to study. Not sure if they've made you read it yet, but there was some paper on Tejano dancing culture in Texas (I think) that I had to read in school. Can't remember all the details now, but I think if you pursued something along those lines you'd be better off.

[virgin-burner 1]

i think my "issue" here has more to do with girls trying to take short-cuts than with them seeking an alpha-male.. which we all are anyway!

“Some may never live, but the crazy never die.”
-Hunter S. Thompson
"No. Try not. Do... or do not. There is no try."
-Yoda

[saisid 0]

I do see how you think risk taking is over played but as much as you may think there is hardly any research about it in the field of anthropology. that maybe because psychology has focused on it tremendously.

the gender aspect does seem interesting as well and not much research is out there when it comes to gender in sky diving. I suppose researchers or general public do not see or focus beyond the "risk" of it.

[jackwallace 3]

How about comparing the politics and group interaction of a drop zone to a group of Bonobo apes?

U only make 2 jumps: the first one for some weird reason and the last one that you lived through. The rest are just filler.
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