Studying skydiving / Skydiving culture

[virgin-burner 1]

that's an easy one - it's the same!

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

[Remster 30]

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that's an easy one - it's the same!

Dont exagerate.

I have never seen skydivers throw feces at each other.....












Before the beer light comes on.

Remster

[Bertt 0]

Maybe you can figure out why people are so keen to study skydivers.

You don't have to outrun the bear.

[Remster 30]

"Mating practices of under-represented genders in sociocultural risk-inclined tribes: a case study"

Remster

[saisid 0]

lol did you make that up..pretty good

[Baksteen 84]

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I have never seen skydivers throw feces at each other.....

They sure talk a lot of shit though...


To the OP, what makes skydivers "different"?
Talk to the experienced people at your DZ, hang out around the bonfire, and you;ll soon be a part of the skydiving community. That will give you a real starting point as to what questions to ask in your survey.

Most surveys I have seen take it for granted that we skydive FOR the risk-taking rather than in spite of it. Questions generally are very leading in that way; trying to depict us as adrenalin junkies. In truth, the skydiving community consists of every kind of person you can imagine.

So perhaps a more generic survey would suffice. You could simply focus on differences (if any) between skydivers versus non-skydivers. Same questions for each population and see whether there are differences in ways of thinking, decision making, budgetting, lifestyle, child rearing, sense of humour, home decorating - anything you can think of.

Our DZ once trained some students who were learning to become teachers. They told us they were amazed at the different teaching methods between us and them.

Student performs EP's:
Our debrief: Well done! Here's a fresh rig, go jump.
Their debrief: Well done! How did it make you feel?

"That formation-stuff in freefall is just fun and games but with an open parachute it's starting to sound like, you know, an extreme sport."
~mom

[NWFlyer 2]

So reading all these responses has been interesting; I suspect that, on the whole, you'll realize that skydiving culture is probably not all that different from any other group of people who share a common interest, particularly groups where there is a limited set of locations to perform the activity, and which require some level of social interaction to be involved in the activity

Since I just recently did a whitewater rafting trip - that's probably a decent analogy; you can only raft by going to a river and there are a limited number of available rivers; similarly you can only skydive by going to a dropzone, and there are limited number of those. So you're going to be seeing the same faces regularly.

Both sports can be done solo but are typically done in groups, etc. Both have relatively small, tight communities, at least of those who participate in the sport regularly and/or professionally (like skydiving instructors or river guides), and also have a large group of people who participate infrequently or a single time and only with the guidance of an experienced person (tandem students or whitewater raft trip clients). Both have a high risk factor that can be mitigated by careful risk management, and different participants take different approaches to risk management.

All this prelude is to say ... I don't know if you're going to find anything particularly special about the skydiving culture that you couldn't also find in other similar group cultures. I'm not sure that the characteristics of the group would be due to the sport itself, or the type of culture that is formed/fostered by the way that you participate in the sport.

"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

[saisid 0]

There is a common misconception that if I am conducting research I am going to be taking surveys . That is not my intent at all. If I do interview, they would be very semi structured.

[johnmatrix 21]

I reckon a good topic of research would be the downsizing culture.

[saisid 0]

what do you mean by that?

[pirana 0]

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i cant just go to a dropzone and start observing and interview.

Quite the contrary; that is exactly what you must do. Go in with no preconceived notions, or at least as few as possible. You certainly do not want the bias or emotional leanings of one, a few, or any small sample of skydivers.

You should go and just watch and listen; interacting no more or less than if you were not conducting a study/survey. In fact, at first I would not even let on that you are doing so. Probably be interesting just to note the change in behaviors from how people talk to you as just another student to how they relate to you as someone observing and documenting their behavior with scientific intent. (You are doing science, right?).

You'll be famous - like those people that went and lived with chimpanzees and gorillas.

" . . . the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

[PiLFy 3]

"You'll be famous - like those people that went and lived with chimpanzees and gorillas."

[howardwhite 6]

Second the recommendation for Jason Laurendau. His papers are available on line -- at a price-- but you may be able to get them through your school library.
I recommend "The Cock Choir...", a study of skydiving songs at the Lost Prairie boogie.

HW

[quade 4]

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

Peer Pressure

Specifically, there are times when it's less than wise to make a jump. That might be due to weather or some other condition but weather is a typical example and especially in a high-pressure situation such as a large formation skydive where perhaps as many as 300 participants have come from around the world to make a jump.

As conditions deteriorate, people become wary, but as long as the group organizers are willing, so too are they.

Eventually it gets to a point where somebody becomes the voice of reason. (Others may say he's the first person to chicken out.)

What is that dynamic and why do people allow themselves to be placed in increasingly dangerous positions as long as everyone else is going along for the ride, but as soon as one person finally calls it quits, suddenly it's "okay" to also call it quits?

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[johnmatrix 21]

There is a trend amongst skydivers to use smaller, faster canopies as they gain experience. The vast majority of injuries and deaths in the sport occur on landing, and in many cases might have been prevented by using a larger, slower canopy. Yet people continue to downsize (sometimes in the face of all advice to the contrary) despite the obvious risks of doing so. Its probably the biggest issue in the sport today.

[oldwomanc6 52]

I hate to say it, but that subject has probably been done even more than risk-taking. It's certainly not unique to skydivers.

lisa
WSCR 594
FB 1023
CBDB 9

[saisid 0]

just checked it out and def made me LOL.
thanks

[saisid 0]

thanks! Made a note of it.

[saisid 0]

Very insightful. Definitely using that!!!

[deltron80 0]

go figure out why there aren't more girls in skydiving and then propose a solution

[johnmatrix 21]

No worries, but this is all stuff that you'll pick up easily after being in the sport for just a short time.
Personally I reckon you should start writing down some thoughts now because jumping can change your life, and it'll definitely change the way you think about skydivers. You might find yourself thinking a lot differently about it in a few months to how you think now.
There's a lot of good stuff to read on this site too although it may not be obvious at first.

[JohnMitchell 16]

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

Hell yeah, the bonobos even have girl-on-girl action 'n stuff.

[skybill 22]

Hi s-a,
Read "all" 48 pages of Steve1's "Scary stories from the old days" over in the hist. and trivia forum for starters, ya' might learn something 'bout culture!!

SCR-2034, SCS-680

III%,
Deli-out

[Joellercoaster 6]

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i think my "issue" here has more to do with girls trying to take short-cuts than with them seeking an alpha-male

Interesting that you see it that way, as something negative the girls are doing...

From where I sit, the girls aren't deliberately taking short-cuts. The experienced guys are dangling cool jumps in front of them in order to get into their pants, and low-time girls (like anyone would be) are flattered by the attention and excited to do the fun stuff quickly.

To the OP: if you're looking at the sociology of skydiving, you could do worse than a quick trawl through the Women Only forum. While mostly from a female perspective, you see a lot of explicit discussion of social forces and (for want of a better word) phenomena in there.

--
"I'll tell you how all skydivers are judged, . They are judged by the laws of physics." - kkeenan

"You jump out, pull the string and either live or die. What's there to be good at?

[virgin-burner 1]

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i think my "issue" here has more to do with girls trying to take short-cuts than with them seeking an alpha-male

Interesting that you see it that way, as something negative the girls are doing...

From where I sit, the girls aren't deliberately taking short-cuts. The experienced guys are dangling cool jumps in front of them in order to get into their pants, and low-time girls (like anyone would be) are flattered by the attention and excited to do the fun stuff quickly.

To the OP: if you're looking at the sociology of skydiving, you could do worse than a quick trawl through the Women Only forum. While mostly from a female perspective, you see a lot of explicit discussion of social forces and (for want of a better word) phenomena in there.

of course, i've seen your point too; but i see more "danger" from my POV. but usually they weed themselves out quite quickly, either they already had half the dz using them as a matress or "cum-dump", or they're gone due to inury and sometimes death..

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