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Eight or nine years ago, I lept off a tower from about 800 ft. After opening the parachute and scanning for my landing area I turned towards it to the left, wh

Eight or nine years ago, I lept off a tower from about 800 ft. After opening the parachute and scanning for my landing area I turned towards it to the left, which was slow and felt off. "Maybe I'll turn to the right and come around from the back", at which point the parachute collapses and spins violently from behind. I reach up and grab the left riser, the strap that connects you to the harness, and stopped the spin. When I let go the spin started again violently I again grabbed the riser and got the parachute over my head. I was descending fast below tree top level and I saw my shadow in my peripheral vision. Knees together and crash. I immediately pat myself down to check for compound fractures. Safe. On the ride home it was all really brought into perspective: if I didn't want to deal with such life threatening situations I'd of stayed at home. I made another couple of jumps that weekend.

__s 9y ago
Just a nit, because I spent years not realizing this due to my accent, but it's "I'd have" not "I'd of". It sounds like "I'd of" because "I'd've" gz on surviving the fall so that you could have random people correct your grammar in the future. Glad to hear you kept with it-- people are surprisingly risk adverse yet will ignore passive danger
- lukas099 9y ago
  Possibly the use of "I'd of" had authorial intent, e.g. to sound more colloquial. In my opinion this is valid usage in English.
  - lorenzhs 9y ago
    There's nothing valid about it, it's a misspelling and a grammatical mistake.
    - lillesvin 9y ago
      It's language evolving. When the misspellings/misinterpretations of "a napron" and "an eekname" became common enough we got "an apron" and "a nickname". If anyone — especially native speakers and others with a high degree of mastery of English — claims to have difficulty understanding "I'd of stayed home" then they're most likely being deliberately obtuse or needlessly contrarian.
      - zdkl 9y ago
        Or you know, we like to read sentences without getting cerebral SEGFAULTs
      - axus 9y ago
        I'd hate to loose a common language standard, though.
        thaumaturgy 9y ago
        > loose Intentionally funny, or irony?
      - SerLava 9y ago
        I think the word you're looking for is "at" As in "I would at stayed home." or "I at good grammar."
      - barrkel 9y ago
        The reason English speakers understand it is because "I would have" when contracted to the maximum "I'd've" sounds like "I'd of". The fact that the two are effective homonyms doesn't make both spellings right. Rather, the "of" variant just looks a little bit ignorant. Not much, just a little.
        lillesvin 9y ago
        Yes, the fact that they sound very much alike is exactly what's seeping into the written language, and as any linguist (like myself) will tell you, the written language is not what drives linguistic evolution, it's the spoken language. Writing commonly lags way behind, ergo the spoken language drives evolution of the written one, not vice versa.
        barrkel 9y ago
        There's only a difference in the written word. In the spoken word, it's still "I'd've".
  - emodendroket 9y ago
    It's a mistaken spelling of an expression, "I'd've," pronounced exactly the same way.
darksim905 9y ago
you mentioned seeing your shadow in your vision, what does this mean? That the way the sun was oriented compared to where you were in your fall, that you were close to the ground?
- pvg 9y ago
  If you've jumped off something and see your shadow, you're close to the ground no matter where the sun is.
psyc 9y ago
I've been a paraglider for a long time and have observed this pattern so many times. When we have a brush with death or lose a friend, we go flying ASAP and confront the fear immediately. You invest far too much effort and risk into fear management, to lose ground over a setback. If we really prioritized survival for its own sake, we just wouldn't fly.
- emodendroket 9y ago
  I'm not and have never been a thrill seeker but it was important to me to get back on the road and confront my anxiety after getting into a fairly bad car accident so I guess I can understand the impulse.
- maxxxxx 9y ago
  I gave up paragliding after 3 years. Had some close calls but never got injured myself. But I saw way too many ambulances up close loading people I knew.

__s 9y ago

Just a nit, because I spent years not realizing this due to my accent, but it's "I'd have" not "I'd of". It sounds like "I'd of" because "I'd've" gz on surviving the fall so that you could have random people correct your grammar in the future. Glad to hear you kept with it-- people are surprisingly risk adverse yet will ignore passive danger

lukas099 9y ago
Possibly the use of "I'd of" had authorial intent, e.g. to sound more colloquial. In my opinion this is valid usage in English.
- lorenzhs 9y ago
  There's nothing valid about it, it's a misspelling and a grammatical mistake.
  - lillesvin 9y ago
    It's language evolving. When the misspellings/misinterpretations of "a napron" and "an eekname" became common enough we got "an apron" and "a nickname". If anyone — especially native speakers and others with a high degree of mastery of English — claims to have difficulty understanding "I'd of stayed home" then they're most likely being deliberately obtuse or needlessly contrarian.
    - zdkl 9y ago
      Or you know, we like to read sentences without getting cerebral SEGFAULTs
    - axus 9y ago
      I'd hate to loose a common language standard, though.
      - thaumaturgy 9y ago
        > loose Intentionally funny, or irony?
    - SerLava 9y ago
      I think the word you're looking for is "at" As in "I would at stayed home." or "I at good grammar."
    - barrkel 9y ago
      The reason English speakers understand it is because "I would have" when contracted to the maximum "I'd've" sounds like "I'd of". The fact that the two are effective homonyms doesn't make both spellings right. Rather, the "of" variant just looks a little bit ignorant. Not much, just a little.
      - lillesvin 9y ago
        Yes, the fact that they sound very much alike is exactly what's seeping into the written language, and as any linguist (like myself) will tell you, the written language is not what drives linguistic evolution, it's the spoken language. Writing commonly lags way behind, ergo the spoken language drives evolution of the written one, not vice versa.
        barrkel 9y ago
        There's only a difference in the written word. In the spoken word, it's still "I'd've".
- emodendroket 9y ago
  It's a mistaken spelling of an expression, "I'd've," pronounced exactly the same way.

darksim905 9y ago

you mentioned seeing your shadow in your vision, what does this mean? That the way the sun was oriented compared to where you were in your fall, that you were close to the ground?

pvg 9y ago
If you've jumped off something and see your shadow, you're close to the ground no matter where the sun is.

psyc 9y ago

I've been a paraglider for a long time and have observed this pattern so many times. When we have a brush with death or lose a friend, we go flying ASAP and confront the fear immediately. You invest far too much effort and risk into fear management, to lose ground over a setback. If we really prioritized survival for its own sake, we just wouldn't fly.

emodendroket 9y ago
I'm not and have never been a thrill seeker but it was important to me to get back on the road and confront my anxiety after getting into a fairly bad car accident so I guess I can understand the impulse.
maxxxxx 9y ago
I gave up paragliding after 3 years. Had some close calls but never got injured myself. But I saw way too many ambulances up close loading people I knew.