Have your relatives come to see you skydive?

[kris12 0]

A bunch of my relatives have come to see me and my sister skydive.

Mom comes out with our grandfather who likes seeing the planes take off and land in addition to the skydivers. Neither of them will ever jump.

Dad (who also brings the grandfather along) has made a tandem and AFF 1. He also has a biplane ride waiting on him and a helicopter ride, which my sister and I will be jumping out of.

Younger brother has made one tandem and will be returning (with friends) to make another skydive when our youngest brother makes his first tandem (he's turning 18 on Saturday). In addition, some other relatives (cousins) and close family friends will be that same day to make their first tandems. Or, so they say (but my brothers will definitely be there).

kristen
swooo #3 MB #3587 P.M.S. #66
"so let go, jump in...what're you waiting for? it's all right 'cause there's beauty in the breakdown"

[champu 1]

I went to a concert back in August and the dropzone was on the way, so I stopped there and dropped my rig off to get a reserve repack. My friends that were with me at the time hung around to watch some people land.

That's pretty much it, my family is glad I found something I enjoy, but they don't take much interest in anything I do.

[Decibel 0]

One aunt is thinking about it. My dad actually wants to jump, and I'm pretty sure my brother, sister, and maybe sister-in-law would probably jump as well.

Actually, probably only one aunt wouldn't watch.

[vonSanta 0]

My mother's shown up once or twice.

Last time ( few weeks ago), I was landing when I heard some tiny voices. Turns out my brother, who was visiting from Sweden, had brought himself, three of hids kids and my mother out.

Sister bought them all a ride on the C-206 and she's now the little people's favourite person .

Brother's girlfriend dinnae like the planeride thingy as far as I heard, but that's understandable since she wasn't consulted (spur of the moment thing)

Santa Von GrossenArsch
I only come in one flavour
ohwaitthatcanbemisunderst

[thermosnight 0]

Hi David,

I treated one of my nephews' to a static line last year and he did a 2nd one straight afterwards. When he did his first jump, Wes did an excellent 'sit-fly' and on the 2nd jump did 'head-down' when he left the Islander at 3'500 feet. I don't think anyone told him about freeflying, so I guess he's a natural, ha! He hasn't followed it up as cash/distance is a major factor. Elsewhere, an old flame did a static line and I even persuaded a brother-in-law to do two SLs a few years back. I have now pledged to get my sisters involved in a tandem project, despite being warned off by one of them!

No-one from my immediate family has been to any DZ with me, but they have seen recent video footage I shot in Deland and still think I am totally mad! Therefore, I strongly recommend spreading the skydiving disease to anyone who shows the slightest interest, families especially. This works out good for birthdays and Christmas, since they "should" understand if you are too broke to splash out. Also, if you're cheeky enough to expect a skydiving present, at least they will understand things like 'wind tunnel training' or '50-jump boogie ticket'.

Have fun with your relatives!

Dave.

My favourite saying is under construction...

[pajarito 0]

My Dad, uncle, cousin (SkymonkeyOne), and most of our closest friends of the family all skydive. My sister has also made a tandem. Oh yeah, and SkymonkeyOne's two sisters (my other cousins) have also skydived. It was almost expected growing up.

[BillyVance 34]

Back in 1997 or so, I had a good sized group of relatives and family friends, including my parents, come out to the Florabama Bar to watch my beach jump before we all went out to eat dinner somewhere. I took advantage of the situation and got them to just stop by and watch.

I also forced my parents and family friends to watch me do a "pseudo-demo" jump onto the beach right in front of the cabin my parents rent every summer, and that's about 30 miles away from the Emerald Coast DZ. I paid for a full C182 load just so I could go do it myself. Next time I will probably try getting a few friends to come along.
Blue Skies
Billy

"Mediocre people don't like high achievers, and high achievers don't like mediocre people." - SIX TIME National Champion coach Nick Saban

[selbbub78 0]

It took me 2 years to convince my mom to maybe come see me jump, and she was all ready to come this year...

...That is until I injured myself skydiving in february. Now she wants nothing to do with it. She doesn't even want me to get back in the air when I will eventually be allowed to get in the sky. She hopes I'm going to make a change in my mind. Not going to happen, but there's no way she (or any other relative) will ever come to watch me jump.

blue skies,

"Women fake orgasms - men fake whole relationships" – Sharon Stone
"The world is my dropzone" (wise crewdog quote)
"The light dims, until full darkness pierces into the world."-KDM

[cocheese 0]

Nope. They never have. Them them.... F@Qk Them !
I give up on trying to get people to the dz. Seems like someone would realize that since it's all i talk about and do .. every weekend for the last several years, that it just might be something interesting to see. Golf whuffos Golf.

[FreeflyVan 0]

For me it was the other way around. My wife got hooked on skydiving when she went first went jumping (tandem) to celebrate her 30th birthday. It was some chick thing with a bunch of her friends.

She wouldn't stop bugging me to come watch her take her skydiving lessons. I only went to a couple of her lessons, and finally one day I agreed to a tandem when her instructor offered to take me up for free. Now I am well on my way to 100 jumps.

We've had several family members come and watch either us skydive or sports events like demonstrative jumping or skydiving competitions, and a couple of them have even taken up the sport. My dad even took a tandem, but he's said he'd never do it again because now he can say he jumped out of a perfectly good plane and lived.

I believe some family members are afraid to come and watch their loved one(s) skydive due to the possibility of a mal and the person going splat. My sister refuses to come and watch for that reason, but I don't bother her about it. My wife's mother also refuses to come and watch. My cousin thinks we're all crazy, and he's the one with a sportsbike going 200mph.

I don't know what the family's going to say when (or if) the wife and I continue to skydive after our twins arrive. Probably something morbid like "Think of the children, what if one or both of you go splat?"
We're going to be first time parents, and I sometimes think about that and how to respond.

Come to think of it, I'd really like to hear from the good folks on this forum when they first became parents and continued to skydive how they handled those kind of remarks from family and friends.

[slotperfect 7]

My poll answer was not there, but here's my history with my folks. They came to see me jump many years ago at Raeford - watched a couple of jumps. A couple of years later I was narrating an air show at Pope AFB, and my folks were in the stands. I exited alone, SOP for the Golden Knights, and did my thing. After the show, my Dad said that they had watched me jump before - no big deal. This time, seeing my body hurtling at the ground at 120 mph with no other skydivers in the air as reference, he was a little spooked.

My Mom will get a first-hand experience this year . . . she's coming over to make a tandem jump with me.

Arrive Safely

John

[Adrenaline16 0]

I'm lucky my parents are ok with my jumping, or else i wouldnt be able to jump right now . My dad even wants to make his first jump this year ! And at first he was completly opposed to the idea of me doing it.So in other words, my parents kick ass! I feel really lucky that they let me live my passion, not many parents let their 17 year old girl become a skydiver.

[Kramer 0]

Man, on this subject. My Grandma and Grandpa came out to ZHills a couple days ago while I was down there. I almost had to cut away around like 4k due to a funky-acting main (I think I had a brake unstowed upon opening or something).

Anyway, I actually thought for a split second "My Grandma's gonna have a damn heart attack if she sees me chop down there".

The FAKE KRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMER!!!!!!!!!

[Vertifly 0]

Whoooooooah. This is a factor that you do not want to be contemplating during an issue. That is kinda funny though.

[Casch 0]

My dad was against it, but he couldn't stop me. My mom was totally for it, and actually did her first jump the same day as I did! I was 17 when I started my student progression. My dad still thinks I'm crazy, he always will, but he's cool with it now.

[skydiverbc 0]

yeah my father has come to every one of my dives since i started 5 years ago.... until recently when i started at tecumseh which is much farther than my home dz.

[kellysalt77 0]

my mom had some friends in from out of town one weekend and she brought them up to watch. i don't know if she just needed ways to entertain and pass the time or if she was genuinely interested. but she has been supportive and watches all the videos of my jumps. my grandmother will be coming to the dz soon. and my dad says only fools and bird shit fall from the sky-- he has no interest in watching.

[loudawg 0]

My family has generally been pretty supportive of me jumping. I bought my little brother a tandem jump for his 18th birthday this past March, and so the whole family came out to watch. My Mom admitted that after seeing how graceful the canopy ride down is, she feels a lot better about me jumping. She still doesn't really like it when I say I'm going to jump (like last night when I told her I'm going this Saturday), but she doesn't sit there begging me to stay home.

I can understand her fear though, because my older brother died in an accident less than 2 months after he turned 21, and since I just turned 21 barely over a week ago, I think she just wants to see me make it past this age, since none of her kids have yet. It's really kind of tough on me sometimes too, because I almost feel that I'm setting myself up for a similar situation. I mean I just recently started jumping quite a bit, and am so motivated to jump like crazy all summer, so I'm definitely increasing my risks. But at the same time, I am comfortable with what I do, and being in the sport for over a year now, I know quite a bit about it, and how everything works, and to me it makes things seem not as "scary." And to top things off, I'm not afraid of dying in this sport, or dying in general. The only thing I'm afraid of is putting my family through all that pain once again....I just can't bear to think back to that night when we had to break the news to my mom about my brother.

The bottom line is, I won't stop jumping and shelter myself just to make it to age 22. That is living in fear, and I won't let fear rule my life. I hope I can make it to an old age, but, while not pushing things to the limit, I will live my life to the fullest, and whatever happens, happens.

Ok, this may have gotten a little off subject. I'll stop now

• Quote

[Dougiefresh 0]

Quote

I believe some family members are afraid to come and watch their loved one(s) skydive due to the possibility of a mal and the person going splat.

My little brother won't even watch my vids. He's convinced he's gonna see me die, even tho I'm standing right in front of him.

Poor bastard, can't even acknowlege (sp?) his fears, much less face them.

The rest are happy I'm happy, but say I'm crazy. Yet they'll pass big rigs on a 2 lane highway with traffic coming fast.

Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so. --Douglas Adams