Skydiving is scary

[Tuna-Salad 0]

Hello. I'm new with only 21 jumps and so far and since I've started I have been scared at some point or another. At first it was the time leading up to the jump, sweatty palms, dry mouth, all the usual stuff. Until about jump 13 or 14 I used to say to myself.. "what the hell are you doing" "you dont have to jump" "oh good clouds maybe we don't have to go" I was told that was the 'door monster'. Now I don't give it a second thought, it's my turn, spot check for traffic count to 7 or 8 and go. Now the fear starts when under canopy and I'm getting blown around by turbulence or something waiting on my canopy to collapse. My last jump I did not make any turns or movements if I did not need to but sometimes I will fly somewhat agressive. Is it odd that the fear comes and goes or that I am exp it at different times? Almost like different stages. Should't I be past this by now?

Millions of my potential children died on your daughters' face last night.

[skymama 37]

I was just cussing under canopy last weekend because I was getting tossed around in turbulance. It definitely scared me. Having a little fear is good. Remember, complanceny kills.

She is Da Man, and you better not mess with Da Man,
because she will lay some keepdown on you faster than, well, really fast. ~Billvon

[Gapagos 0]

So even after so many jumps you're still afraid? damnnnn..... And I have yet to make my 1st tandem jump... hehe... I guess jumping on your own is even scarrier than in tandem....

[SPAWNmaster 0]

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So even after so many jumps you're still afraid? damnnnn..... And I have yet to make my 1st tandem jump... hehe... I guess jumping on your own is even scarrier than in tandem....

its different. as you become more experienced and get into new disciplines you become fearful of new variables. when i did my first tandem i was afraid for all the wrong reasons.

and to the op:
expect the gear fear to subside after 10 or so more jumps. we're all different but generally 20-30 jumps from what i know is usually what it takes.

hopefully you will always feel some anxiety on a jump. like they say "complacency kills"

[VincentVL. 0]

So this fear of yours has evolved from pre-jump fear, to in-the-door fear and finally under-the-canopy fear?

I hope you're not a beer drinker because it's only a matter of time before you get post-jump fear

[shropshire 0]

The standard is, there is no standard.

The number of jumps for fear to grow/subside is not a constant for the same person, let alone for a "typical" skydiver (what ever that is).

I hope that you enjoy the sport and that your confidence continues to grow as your experience does.

My only advise would be to learn at your own pace and not try to fit to a constraint set by other peoples notion of what is expected.... They have loads to learn too.

Blues Skies

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

[Tuna-Salad 0]

Nice thanks everyone. Kinda odd I was never scared IN the door, only the times leading up to it. Once I stood up to make my way toward the door I knew I was going. I will look back on this in a while and laugh I'm sure. The people who say they aren't scared should have the most to worry about I'm sure.

Millions of my potential children died on your daughters' face last night.

[Tuna-Salad 0]

I'm not "Afraid" like I was in the beginning. At first I was seriously questioning my sanity. But now I guess I have alot of apprehension. My first AFF I don't remember being scared, mainly because I was concentrating on all the stuff I had to do. I think my mind is telling my body "what you are about to do is not right". I think that even though I was scared and still did it has made me a bit stronger.

Millions of my potential children died on your daughters' face last night.

[MagicGuy 0]

You're fine, man. A little bit of fear.. especially when you are still pretty new to the sport is a GOOD thing. It keeps you on your toes and doesn't allow you to become complacent.

You are well on your way, but 21 jumps isn't a whole lot, ya know. The fear will subside a little bit each jump. For me.. I wasn't fully 'fearless' until probably close to 100 jumps. For me it was the door fear. Once I was out of the plane, the fear usually subsided.

Have fun, man. That's the bottom line. You'll be fine!

[Stuntbabex 0]

I have 75 jumps and still have a little bit if the door demon there. Mine comes mostly from performance anxiety. I do mostly group skydives and Im scared that I will screw up the jump for everyone else (particularly the exit).

[skybytch 273]

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Should't I be past this by now?

I could have happily rode the plane down on each of my first 50 jumps. I still get scared when it's bumpy under canopy, or when I haven't jumped for awhile, or when I'm doing something new.

At 21 jumps. if you aren't at least a little bit scared at least some of the time we'd be worried about you.

[aresye 0]

I only have 15 jumps, and I still suffer from gear fear, especially since I've bought my first rig. I haven't jumped it yet, but even though it fits me well, the hole is a little bigger than what I've been jumping so far, and I just had to be reading stories of people falling out of their harnesses. Stupid me.

I've noticed a lot of different kinds of fear, since I went through tandem, IAF, and now jump solo.

1. First time fear. The quickest to get over. The one tandem passengers often feel. There really isn't much more to them than, "I hope my chute opens."

2. Gear fear. This is the longest lasting in my personal opinion, but it's good. Hell, I still have a lot of gear fear. Gear fear makes you very picky when inspecting your rig, sometimes getting more than 1 other person to inspect it for you. I check my three 3's at least 3-4 times while in the plane. Gear fear keeps you alive, and it's when this fear goes completely away when people start relaxing their standards, and that's when malfunctions occur.

3. Exit fear. This one is wierd and seems to come and go with me. There's a lot of different factors that can play into it though, such as temperature, thick clouds, wind, plane turbulence, etc. I always got pretty freaked out when my hands got really cold at the doorway. Plus, not feeling confident on your exit can lead to this.

4. Performance fear. I suffered from it a lot through my AFF. It caused me to tense up, and therefore I barely could keep a stable arch, often having a little forward movement. When I did my first solo, that fear was gone. There were no ways to fail my own dive, and I just felt this freedom I've never had before.

The best way to handle gear fear, is to carefully inspect the rig yourself, and take your time getting it on, and getting it comfortable. Rushing to put my gear on always led to gear fear for me.

Best way to overcome performance fear, is to practice. Always practicing, especially arching and exits. My best dives came when I've practiced the most.

Overally, skydiving always has the general little bit of fear to it. If it didn't, it wouldn't be so much fun. Now I'm still trying to figure out why I remain to be scared of heights, regardless of my 12-something minutes of freefall.

Skydiving: You either learn from other's mistakes, or they'll learn from yours.

[happythoughts 0]

Once you get comfortable in the air, then you'll start to get worried about the plane ride up.

You'll have the thought, "I can't wait to get out of this plane where I am safe because I am in control there."

It's an odd thought.

Remember to do your gear checks every F-in time.
Chest strap routing, cutaway handles, rings...

Once you get some jumps, visually check others around you (do not touch without permission).

[auburnguy 0]

I wasn't that scared after about my 7th jump (6 AFF's including tandem). I had overconfidence in my "abilities" and equipment. After that I was loving it not scared at all to go solo, but I refused to do group skydives. I was terrified that I was going to kill someone by hitting them during deployment because I hadn't gotten far enough away. Then I got jumped on a 3 way be a couple of guys, the jumped out behind me without telling me before hand because they knew I was scared of group skydives. Since then I have gotten much more comfortable in groups. I am still a little nervous in the landing pattern but most of that has faded.
The scariest part for me has always been being 20 feet off the ground under canopy and realizing that the earth is coming up quickly and if I screw something up its going to hurt.... a lot.

"If you don't like your job, you don't strike! You just go in every day, and do it really half assed. That's the American way."
- Homer Simpson

[BIGUN 1,311]

Remember, complanceny kills.

Now, if that's not a T-shirt; nothing is!!

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

[Gato 0]

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Once you get comfortable in the air, then you'll start to get worried about the plane ride up.

You'll have the thought, "I can't wait to get out of this plane where I am safe because I am in control there."

It's an odd thought.

That's exactly how I feel - I am nervous as hell until the plane climbs to 1k, then I'm ok. I'm sure it's because I'm more confident in my ability to save myself than I am in the plane's ability to stay aloft.

As you said, it's an odd friggin' thought.

T.I.N.S.

[packerboy 3]

For me... I actually miss that fear. It was one of the reasons I got hooked on skydiving. Having that fear based adrenaline pumping and then overcoming it to huck yourself out the door of an aircraft is a pretty exhilirating experience.

Now that the fear has somewhat dissipated it's just fun and expensive. A good malfunction brings back that feeling though. Trying new things also becomes pretty exciting.. I got that same (or somewhat close) feeling back the first few times I got close to someone going head down or above a 20-way with my camera. And obviously the first time I had a malfunction on borrowed (crappy) gear on a sunset (night jump) hop and pop.

--------------------------------------------------
In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock. ~ Thomas Jefferson

[Gato 0]

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For me... I actually miss that fear.

You're welcome to mine.

T.I.N.S.

[kkeenan 14]

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For me... I actually miss that fear.

Do some CRW. It will get you back to "scared shitless" in a hurry.

Kevin K.

_____________________________________
Dude, you are so awesome...
Can I be on your ash jump ?

[c1sc0 0]

On my first re-currency jump this year something similar happened to me ... I just didn't want to make any turns below 500ft and decided to skip the landing pattern & land straight downwind (plenty of space where I jump, so no problem, I even stood it up) ... Next jump I was fine again.

[Vallerina 2]

I was terrified for my first 80-ish jumps before that level was knocked down to just scared. I would look around in the plane at everyone, and seeing how calm they were made me even MORE scared. I thought there was something wrong with me! It took me awhile before I stopped worrying the entire plane ride about everything that could go wrong. What helped me was finding good mentors (or jumping regularly with anyone who puts you at ease), getting into my own routine of gear/handle checks, and learning as much as I could when not in the air. Also, if I set small goals for myself, I focused on achieving that goal, taking away some of the focus from worrying.

There's a thin line between Saturday night and Sunday morning

[loumeinhart 0]

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I only have 15 jumps, and I still suffer from gear fear, especially since I've bought my first rig. I haven't jumped it yet, but even though it fits me well, the hole is a little bigger than what I've been jumping so far, and I just had to be reading stories of people falling out of their harnesses. Stupid me.

Have you learned to pack your rig yet? This should give you much more confidence in your gear and you will have a better understanding of how everything works.

You can spend hours online reading through incident reports and worry on every jump, or you can take great care of your equipment, practice your EP's, and be prepared on every jump.

[jacketsdb23 49]

My dad once said to me:

"when I'm done getting butterflies in my stomach looking out the door of the plane, I'm done skydiving".

That has always stuck with me for some reason.

Losers make excuses, Winners make it happen
God is Good
Beer is Great
Swoopers are crazy.

[catfishhunter 2]

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Once you get comfortable in the air, then you'll start to get worried about the plane ride up.

You'll have the thought, "I can't wait to get out of this plane where I am safe because I am in control there."

That's how I have felt since day one and still do today. I hate planes. Hate Helicopters too But damn their fun to jump out of. the only elevator I wasn't freaked out by has been the ballon jumps. Not sure why but had zero fear weird huh?

MAKE EVERY DAY COUNT
Life is Short and we never know how long we are going to have. We must live life to the fullest EVERY DAY. Everything we do should have a greater purpose.

[squarecanopy 0]

Do some CRW. It will get you back to "scared shitless" in a hurry.

Kevin K.

You CReW dogs are braver than I am that's for sure.

Just burning a hole in the sky.....