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It's kind of interesting the double standard people use to judge participants of high risk activities.

If a football player is injured and then rehabilitated he may be able to play again. This return to the arena will be viewed by most as a heroic action. How brave to face your fears and continue on... No one will say, "See how dangerous that is?"

The same goes with a lot of sports. I personally feel that contact sports are very risky in terms of personal injury.

A hiker stumbles and breaks his leg. No one will tell him to stop hiking. He'll never hear someone say, "Wow, I bet you never do that again."

What is said to the skydiver who breaks a leg landing? "Look what happens when you risk your life on a regular basis?"

The skydiver's injury is identical to the football player and the hiker. The difference lies in the way the injury was sustained. Because we knew of the risk beforehand, do we deserve the outcome and should not be surprised when we're injured?

Maybe because we're acutely aware of the danger involved, we're at least able to look out for it and prepare for the eventuality that we'll someday be injured or worse. At least we KNOW danger is near. I see too many people who are risking a lot and don't even know it... not until the unthinkable happens.

Do you too see the double standard?

first hand experience from here,i have just spend 7,5 month on that road.

first i dont see when a football player is hurt,half the times its fake so he can get the ball.I do belive they know the risk of playing the game but while its a publick sport which evrybody look at its an ok risk compared to that.Look at boxers,they must have the most riskies sport ever made,try to figure how many braincells they loos each time they play..

I dont know what there will be said to skydivers but i sure know what i were told after my BASE accident."you asked for it",you knew it were a matter of time",if your stupied enough to jump a tower,then you deserve it"and so on..

Heres my answeres to thouse
"you asked for it"
no, ididnt no one likes to break bones,but i knew the risk and i had accsepted them

"you knew it were a matter of time"
migth,but many BASE jumpers have far more jumps than 30 before they get such a injury,it wouldnt matter.

"if your stupied enough to jump off towers then you deserve it"
When your stupied enough to say it that way,then your too stupied to be one of thouse i talk to

"so are you done by doing that shit"
Yup,i promised myself not to break my leg the same way and place again..By the way do you stop driving your car becours you has an accident and break your leg?

Actualy i got the best one last weekend it came from my(cool dad)
"so when are you back up again?you aint you before that"
Dad.. i have made 4 jumps the past 2weeks
"cool,do you have video?when do you get the tandem licence so i can try i skydive?"...

I think that people that dont WANT to uinderstand never will.I dicovered who were my true freinds and who were thouse who aint,lets just say i got cleaned pretty good up in "who deserves attention box",and i got my "deleted personsBox"done emty..

And YES there are ALOT of dubbelstandard out there

I think Faber pretty much said it. Its an understanding thing. People are afraid and like to push away what they don't understand. So, some dude is jumping off a tower? That's CRAZY! He has got to have a death wish! Too bad if they talked to that guy they might find a logical, thinking, rational human being that decided beforehand what the risks and danger involved was and has accepted it. But I guess as Faber said, if they arn't willing to understand, then they are not "one of those I talk to".

I should say that my best freind dont understand,and he dont even understand why i skydive,but he acept it and didnt ask thouse silly Q´s when i were down.He suported me and took it from were i were at that point..See thats a real freind

Thanks you so much guys, for articulating it so well. I started skydiving all on my own, and very few people understand. My best friend says I'm not allowed to give it up because she's never seen me so happy. She doesn't understand but she supports me. Other than that, everyone is always negative and discriminating. Just like in Faber's examples. I sometimes have a very hard time explaining myself and my feelings, and I thank you Dexter for giving me some arguments! If I can change even one person's ridiculous double standard, then I will be happy! palmbeachextreme.com

Carl Boenish, BASE 4, said he lost a lot of friends when he started BASE jumping (just like skydiving to whuffos) but he always added with a laugh, "I made new ones."

In a few years all your friends will be jumpers . . .

And you and we, will be better for it.

Nick
BASE 194
http://juliabell.home.att.net/

This summer will be the 25th anniversary of my 1st parachute jump (on my 18th birthday, 1978 - Elsinore).

I didn't really start skydiving until 1986, and had a 5-year layoff in the 90s. So, I've had something like 12 active years in the sport.

In that time I've made somewhere around 1,500 jumps, tried most every discipline including BASE (41 jumps), made wonderful friends, had the most beautiful, intense, challenging, spiritual, just outrageously fun experiences imaginable in an incredible variety of places. . .

In all that time, throughout all the crazy risk-taking phases that I went in and out of, I only got hurt once. A couple weeks ago, after all these years of joy in the sport, I got hurt for the second time (bad rotors/wind-shear - bad judgement jumping too close to a thunderstorm).

So, someone at my work sums up my injury with the comment, regarding skydiving in general: "Well, you play with fire, you're gonna get burned. . . "

I could have puked. "Guess so" was my only reply - didn't want to waste one bit of energy on it. . .

double standards! heheh! yep loads!

i think BASE is about risk acceptance. We know and accept our risks.

My auntie stood with my 2 little cousins aged 4 and 6 (or something like that - i never could tell) and asked how i would feel knowing they would attend my funneral at such a young age............. I asked if she wondered how i would feel attending their funneral after a road traffic accident when you drive at 90mph down the motorway with no control over the external factors of other drivers............. we argued some more........

the fact is i know the risks i take and i accept the risks......risk acceptance..... i truely beleive that the risks envolved in activities like driving at high speeds as most people do - they would never accept the risks if they truely knew what they were.........

ignorance may be bliss............. but it does make you say stupid shit!.............. as i we are all probably guilty of until the day we die - "honest i think it will work!!"...........


in this sport you do find out what and who really do matter in your life.......................

be safe...........................

Totally. My brother and I studied various martial arts for twelve straight years. Four of those years were spent practicing full contact fighting. This is a sport where someone is guaranteed to get hurt every time they do it. Damage is kind of the GOAL. But when we'd take turns putting each other out of the sport for a bit, tons of support came from our family friends.

I bruised my ankle this last weekend. Hit the step on the 182. No big deal at all, but because it was the first and only time I've ever felt pain on a skydive (outside of the occasional slammer), and it's a HUGE deal. I even brought up some of the horrible swelling and marks left on me after some of those fights, but for some reason, this is the bigger danger.

Keep in mind, everyone sucks.

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."
- Teddy Roosevelt

thank you for posting this gary! man teddy really summed up how I've always felt about this type of thing! All of my life the world has employed hundreds of "timid souls" to challenge me against fulfilling my heart's greatest desires.

Often it seems where ever you are there's someone telling you that you'll never make it or your stupid for trying this or that. Even getting my degrees was like this, crimony!

I think base jumpers are such rich and diverse people because they've never been the sort to obey what society is telling them, or what their fears tell them inside their head. They analyze the risks of a dream and find a way to get there despite the challenge.

A base jumper isn't doing this just to prove the "timid" wrong, or rub it in their faces, it is to live their dream, eh? Unfortunately, society will always want to rub their point off on us when they see someone fall short - maybe this helps them feel better about always opting out of every challenge in their lives.

cp

Dead fucking on. People feel like that if they can keep others from doing something, then others will be no better, or even worse, than them selves.

Combining that with the "fear of the unknown" is all it takes convince people to abhor, and sometimes pass laws prohibiting, shit they don't understand, see, or do.

Fuckers.

ah i see you met the people i work with!!!

Often it seems where ever you are there's someone telling you that you'll never make it or your stupid for trying this or that. Even getting my degrees was like this, crimony!

I - maybe this helps them feel better about always opting out of every challenge in their lives.

cp
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Right on!

Don't live dying, die living. Don't live for material items, live for feeling alive.