"Jumper" or "Skydiver" ?

[sebinoslo 0]

I second that Mike...Everytime I use the verb "jump" whuffos ask "What?!?".

There is no equivalent to skydive(r) in French or in Norwegian: it translate solely by parachut-ism/-ist but the verb is "jump" (a parachut).

My guess regarding the distinction is because English-speaking people don't like long words with latin roots.
The latter term is for the insiders - the former for the whuffos...(we are all somebody's whuffos )

[mjosparky 4]

Quote

itself still debates changing its association and magazine name to "Skydiving" rather than Parachute or Parachutist, despite the fact that it hosts a "skydiving" championships that includes CReW and swooping.

That particular sports association would be better identified if they changed their name to “Drop Zone Owners Promotional Association and Benefit Fund”.

Sparky

My idea of a fair fight is clubbing baby seals

[Andy9o8 2]

Quote

English-speaking people don't like long words with latin roots.

We also have Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, so shut up.

[gixxer1k 0]

Quote

Recently talking with a friend from 'the ole daze' whose son started jumping a year or so back.

My buddy's son asked an interesting question during our conversation...seems we were referring to people we were acquainted with years ago as either jumpers or skydivers.

He asked what the difference was...


I said it's kinda like pornography, can't describe it but know it when I see it.

IS there a difference?

Can anyone explain what it is, if there is one?

in the progression of the modern equipment of human flight i would have to say that a jumper is someone who is BASE jumping where a skydiver is someone jumping out of a plane... i would have to agree that in a sliding time line however, a jumper would be a round shoot/military jumper.

[kuai43 7]

Jumper... skydiver... parachutist...

This 'debate' smacks of Big-Endians vs. Little-Endians. Howzabout recognizing that they're fairly much used synonymously?

After all, you're generally "jumping" out of the plane when you "skydive", and you're pretty much going to use a "parachute" somewhere along the line.

Note that I never hear anyone calling themselves "parachutist" in regular conversation - that is, unless I could easily picture them wearing a bow tie or Erkel pants while saying it. Anecdotally, I've not yet had anyone walk up to me at the DZ and ask me if I wanted to "parachute" with them.

Every fight is a food fight if you're a cannibal

Goodness is something to be chosen. When a man cannot choose, he ceases to be a man. - Anthony Burgess

[fasted3 0]

Quote

Quote

English-speaking people don't like long words with latin roots.

We also have Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, so shut up.

That is so funny.

But what do I know?

[robinheid 0]

Quote

Quote

itself still debates changing its association and magazine name to "Skydiving" rather than Parachute or Parachutist, despite the fact that it hosts a "skydiving" championships that includes CReW and swooping.

That particular sports association would be better identified if they changed their name to “Drop Zone Owners Promotional Association and Benefit Fund”.

Sparky

+1



44

SCR-6933 / SCS-3463 / D-5533 / BASE 44 / CCS-37 / 82d Airborne (Ret.)

"The beginning of wisdom is to first call things by their right names."

[fendor1369 0]

Quote

"Jumpers Hit It!"

Fort Benning static line school. What a boondoggle.

Was a good time

John

John - D.S 1313

"I'll jump it, Np. It's all good"

[AFFI 0]

Quote

only talks to wuffos about wuffo stuff

Mykel AFF-I10
Skydiving Priorities: 1) Open Canopy. 2) Land Safely. 3) Don’t hurt anyone. 4) Repeat…

[KermieCorleone 0]

Quote

Quote

English-speaking people don't like long words with latin roots.

We also have Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, so shut up.

I lol'ed on that one

- Neil

Never make assumptions! That harmless rectangle could be two triangles having sex ...

[crustySCSA69 0]

mid-seventies ... I come from a small Canadian dropzone where all of us 'jumpers' jumped.... almost every Canadian I met came, like me, from a small drop-zone founded or heavily influenced by Canadian airborne members and almost universally referred to each other as 'jumpers' who 'jumped'....

down to Z-hills .... many people from small drop-zones (founded or influenced by US airborne) that came there were 'jumpers' who 'jumped' ... the Brits in particular were ALL 'jumpers' who 'jumped'.

some Z-hills locals at the time (mid 70's) were 2cnd and 3rd generation and were always referring to 'skydivers' who 'skydive' (usually shortened to 'dove', for past tense)

this seemed very strange to the rest of us.. but by early 80's, we were all bi-lingual and 'Skydivers' who 'skydive' was more common than 'jumpers' who 'jump'

I would absolutely guarantee that NOT ONE SINGLE 'jumper' or 'skydiver' of that era, EVER referred to selves or others as 'Parachutists' that was solely used to designate the magazine (the term may have been used by some few to hornswoggle DEMO work out of unsuspecting business types, but I guarantee that those hornswogglers, alone with other 'jumpers/skydivers' NEVER said 'I am a Parachutist' .... they would have been branded effete twits and sprayed with beer).

let's face it, we couldn't have spelled effete ... it would have been 'fuckin' twits' and then a spray of beer, probably Old Milwaukee since no one was allowed to buy it anyway, or you risked being called a 'cheap fucking twit' ... or even worse, a Parachutist

[ridestrong 1]

DZ.com only lets me enter my "Jumps" number in my profile, but I actually have 58 skydives..

*I am not afraid of dying... I am afraid of missing life.*
----Disclaimer: I don't know shit about skydiving.----

[kallend 2,102]

Lyrics from the old days hold a clue:

freak-brother.com/pics/HeyFreakBrother.mp3

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[muff528 3]

Quote

mid-seventies ... I come from a small Canadian dropzone where all of us 'jumpers' jumped.... almost every Canadian I met came, like me, from a small drop-zone founded or heavily influenced by Canadian airborne members and almost universally referred to each other as 'jumpers' who 'jumped'....

down to Z-hills .... many people from small drop-zones (founded or influenced by US airborne) that came there were 'jumpers' who 'jumped' ... the Brits in particular were ALL 'jumpers' who 'jumped'.

some Z-hills locals at the time (mid 70's) were 2cnd and 3rd generation and were always referring to 'skydivers' who 'skydive' (usually shortened to 'dove', for past tense)

this seemed very strange to the rest of us.. but by early 80's, we were all bi-lingual and 'Skydivers' who 'skydive' was more common than 'jumpers' who 'jump'

I would absolutely guarantee that NOT ONE SINGLE 'jumper' or 'skydiver' of that era, EVER referred to selves or others as 'Parachutists' that was solely used to designate the magazine (the term may have been used by some few to hornswoggle DEMO work out of unsuspecting business types, but I guarantee that those hornswogglers, alone with other 'jumpers/skydivers' NEVER said 'I am a Parachutist' .... they would have been branded effete twits and sprayed with beer).

let's face it, we couldn't have spelled effete ... it would have been 'fuckin' twits' and then a spray of beer, probably Old Milwaukee since no one was allowed to buy it anyway, or you risked being called a 'cheap fucking twit' ... or even worse, a Parachutist

Kinda like scuba divers, whose magazine is "Skin Diver", never refer to themselves as skin divers and will ridicule the scuba diving equivalent of "whuffo" for using that term.

Now that I think about it, I usually refer to participants in this sport as "jumpers" who make "jumps" when speaking to fellow jumpers and "skydivers" when speaking to whuffos.

also --- I like a nice cold Old Milwaukee occasionally and will not usually turn one down.