Anything you wish you'd known starting out?

[GLIDEANGLE 1]

I wish that I had known that skydiving is sort of like intravenous methamphetamine:

--It produces a brief but intense rush.
--It is highly addicting.
--It can easily consume all your cash and time.
--One can easily find every waking moment focused on getting more of the rush.
--It is very dangerous... but the rush makes it seem worth it.
--Almost all of your friends and family will NOT understand the attraction.
--It can wreck havoc with personal relationships. (I dodged the bullet on that. I have an incredibly tolerant wife.)

The other thing I wish that I had known was that the part of skydiving I thought would be easy has been really hard, and the part that I thought I would not like too much can be a whole lot of fun.

This sport can appear deceptively easy when done by the experts. The reality is that getting to that level takes a lot of time, effort, and $$$$.

I also wished that I had fully understood that just because other folks are getting on the plane on a windy day, does not mean that conditions are OK for me too!!! (I did not get hurt, but scared myself half to death.)

Welcome Aboard!!!

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

[joeyk 0]

Get life insurance BEFORE you start. It can be as cheap as $20 or $30 a month. If you wait until after you start to get a policy, it will go way up. I've had quotes as high as $700 a month.

[airathanas 0]

Um, are you married? Because you may not be for long. Beware of A.I.D.S., that is Altitude Induced Divorce Syndrome.

http://3ringnecklace.com/

[SPAWNmaster 0]

I wish I had known that people I would meet will get broken and/or die.

Not trying to be pessimistic, just wish i had taken the sport a little more seriously up front. This does apply a lot towards BASE but there is some crossover...you will meet some people and eventually find out they went in or got broken.

[Joellercoaster 6]

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just because other folks are getting on the plane on a windy day, does not mean that conditions are OK for me too!!!

Or, for that matter, for them. The sport is full of the bulletproof, until they aren't :(

Things I wish I'd known when starting out: hey, I am starting out! Awesome. Tell me more stuff I should know...

--
"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?

[baronn 111]

No doubt about it, there ar a LOT of things you'll find out the hard way. A few prime examples:
How fast you pass AFF will be in direct proportion to your bra size for most instructors.
A LOT of instructors(mostly full time) do not care about your time,energy,money or feelings. You represent a dollar to them and that's all.
Developing a new generation of skydiver's is the last reason for what most instructors do. Anyone new and ambitious will represent a direct threat to their small and pathetic existence and they will try to prevent that from ever occuring because they have absolutely nothing else happening with the rest of their lives.
Once the money train you represent to them ends, it is highly umlikely you will ever get anything from them without paying dearly for it.
Going in with the understanding all of the above is true, find an instructor that does this NOT do this as a living and is therefore motivated for other reasons. It is worth it. I've met a few in this league, but I will emphasize few. Good Luck. You won't regret the decision

[shropshire 0]

I wish that this (or similar) site had existed (actually, I wish the internet had existed!!). and that I could have stayed in contact with all the people that I've jumped with over the years.

(.)Y(.)
Chivalry is not dead; it only sleeps for want of work to do. - Jerome K Jerome

[poe62 0]

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I wish I had known that people I would meet will get broken and/or die.

I did take that fact seriously up front, but it still hits hard no matter how you try to prepare yourself.

~Nikki
http://www.facebook.com/poe62

Irgity Dirgity