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[DragoonKain]

And if so, was the experience and feeling you got from it worth any potential risk of death? I don’t know the statistical numbers of accidents in either activity admittedly.

I’ve been having this recurring dream where I’m flying and it’s one of the most exhilarating feelings I’ve ever experienced. Just gliding across the sky feeling the wind in my face. I’m not sure if it’s just the euphoric sense you get from a dream, but since I’ve been getting them, I’ve really started to contemplate hang gliding and sky diving for getting that feeling of being in the air. It’s like this newfound itch I want to scratch that I never really had until these last few years of my life.

For those who’ve done it, what can you tell me about your experiences?

 

[JareBear: Remastered]

I really want to go skydiving. It’s on my bucket list

 

[triplestation]

no thank

 

[DESTROYA]

Only in BOTW.

 

[Dennisonr]

I skydived and parasailed. Not tried paraglide, yet.

 

[Mossybrew]

Only went skydiving once, shit that was almost 30 years ago now. It was a frigging fantastic experience though.

 

[Ballthyrm]

If you want the sensation of flying, sky diving is not the way to go.
There is usually no reference point around and you can't really appreciate how fast you are going.

Paragliding is probably the best "flying" sensation IMHO, especially if you are lucky and you get a big "tour" with multiple updraft and things like that.

I've done hang gliding, sky diving, ballooning, Paragliding and regular Gliding.
If i had to rank them:

In intensity level :
ballooning < Gliding < Paragliding < hang gliding < sky diving

In Flying sensation :
sky diving < ballooning < Gliding < hang gliding < Paragliding

PS: that if don't use a wingsuit but they don't let newbies use them (too dangerous)
PPS: Ballooning is amazing , super quiet and super safe , well worth the price.

 

[Ixion]

I went skydiving 9 years ago. It was definitely awesome. A year later at the same place (SkyDive The Ranch in upstate NY) two people died (the customer and the employee he was attached to) because the employee's head snapped or something right after jumping and the customer was an old dude who didn't know how to land.

I'd do it again.

 

[RPS37]

Went skydiving like 8 years ago. Even made a thread about how it’d change your life (wasn’t quite myself back then). Still was an amazing experience. Would love to do it again.

 

[The Scrivener]

I did one about 20 years ago. Never forget it. But I wouldn't want to go through that feeling of death again. Once was enough.

They tell you not to look down as you sit on the edge. But you can't help to not look down. I screamed to the guy to not jump, and that's when they jump.

 

[DragoonKain]

How safe is paragliding compared to the others?

 

[Scopa]

I haven’t, no, because I’m not stupid.

I’ve also gone down the Youtube rabbit hole of Skydive/Hanglide/Base jump accidents.

I’ve also had a 30 minute conversation with a dude whose parachute failed and played head ping pong with some trees. Split his skull and face open. Lucky to survive. He’s deformed now.

So, no.

 

[EverydayBeast]

Skydiving could be fun

 

[Mossybrew]

I haven’t, no, because I’m not stupid.

So, no.

I assume you don't get in cars either, because your chance of getting killed in one is vastly greater. I mean, that would just be stupid, right. You should probably stick to a liquid diet too, because your chance of dying from choking is also vastly greater than getting killed skydiving. Because you're not stupid.

 

[Gargus]

I assume you don't get in cars either, because your chance of getting killed in one is vastly greater. I mean, that would just be stupid, right. You should probably stick to a liquid diet too, because your chance of dying from choking is also vastly greater than getting killed skydiving. Because you're not stupid.

It's not vastly greater if you do them in equal amounts. How many people skydive 15 to 20 times a week at a minimum, and spend 10 to 60 minutes sky diving each time for years to decades straight? Not a lot I'd wager. Even when I was in the army sky diving instructors didnt do that much.

That's an easy statement to make when very few people even do it once, yet millions of people such as myself drive multiple times a day and spend a lot of time in a car yet I haven't had an accident in 20 years or more.

If everyone who drives sky dived as much as they drive you'd see a dramatic rise in accidents while sky diving.

 

[Scopa]

I assume you don't get in cars either, because your chance of getting killed in one is vastly greater. I mean, that would just be stupid, right. You should probably stick to a liquid diet too, because your chance of dying from choking is also vastly greater than getting killed skydiving. Because you're not stupid.

I can steer a car. I can’t fly.

Your comment is also stupid.

 

[Tesseract]

i won't dive unless i can wrap the chute myself

 

[Mista]

I skydived and it was the best experience in my life. Never experienced such adrenaline rush

Free falling felt like I was alone in this world with no bollocks and fuckery

 

[GymWolf]

I did hand wanking, is it comparable?!

 

[mephel]

Not sure about the rules regarding necro of threads, sorry if this is not allowed. I wanted to ask the same question, but I found this thread first and want to clarify some of the information here.

Single solo skydive is about 7-8 micromorts (about the same chance of death as 3000 km in a car), but this number is an average, you can very much influence it with the choices you make.

Most of the deaths are not related to the equipment, rather stuff like intentional high speed landings (swooping), medical issues, freefall collisions with other skydivers and incorrect emergency procedures. You can never remove the inherent risks, but you can minimize them
(if you look at tandems, they are on average about twice as safe as solo skydives - because the instructors follow a strict protocol and are very well trained)

Saying stuff like "car ride to the dropzone is more dangerous that the jump itself" is just not true.
At the same time, I believe there are enough positives to justify skydiving as a hobby (if you have the money)
Over the past year I've seen quite a few people go through training and a lot of them told me that Skydiving improved their physical and mental wellbeing by incredible amount. I jump almost every weekend and the progression in the sport is extremely rewarding, there is always something new to work on (and you actually see the results fairly quickly)

As a sidenote, I really liked this video on risk asessment by Wendover productions, people are not very good at it

 

[Susurrus]

Skydived twice, both tandem. Loved it both times. I felt more tense the second time since I knew more of what to expect, ironically.

Also, word of advice, eat before hand. I know it sounds counterproductive like you might lose your lunch, but eat (don't over stuff but get a decent meal in). First time I had no issue since we ate while waiting for our turn and everything went great. Second time, I didn't eat and got super dizzy once the parachute was out.

 

[SpartanN92]

Funny, this appeared on my time hop today. I went with some friends 5 years ago today.

 

[GoldenEye Samurai]

I've always wanted to go skydiving, but it scares the living shit out of me. Probably better off keeping my feet planted on good ole' soil.