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I don't understand people taking unnecessary, potentially terminal risks just for the adrenaline. Like parachuting or bungee jumping. Maybe they have some endoc

I don't understand people taking unnecessary, potentially terminal risks just for the adrenaline. Like parachuting or bungee jumping. Maybe they have some endocrine deficit and try to overcompensate? Can't they get it in another, more earthly way (no pun intended)? Like I have an acquaintance (ex-workmate) who lived in a house next to the aerodrome, not since very long. There's frequent parachuting and so far already several guys have free-fallen near to his location. Eventually he sold the house and moved. The title says "Monthly accidents. Last month two skydiving learners fell during a jump with the parachute. This Sunday another 23 years old parachutist ended in the hospital": https://ziardecluj.ro/dezmir-luna-si-accidentul-un-parasutist-de-23-de-ani-a-cazut-in-timpul-unui-zbor-in-dezmir/ https://ziardecluj.ro/dezmir-luna-si-accidentul-un-parasutis... I recommend motorcycling, not necessarily riding it, just being nearby a location frequently transited by extremely loud exhaust bikes should be enough to raise your blood pressure. And if being on the receiving end of the assholes doesn't do the trick, become one: buy a Japanese "race" motorcycle with brutally loud exhaust and circle the neighbourhood all day enjoying making people's lives miserable. If confronted, play the victim switcheroo: lament how bikers are at risk of being hit by negligent car drivers and the demented cry "wee wee" is just a necessary protection measure to make sure they notice you. (BTW the part about motorcycles is satire, if you don't get it. My dislike for them is real, though. So the adrenaline spike when they pass nearby).

bmitc 2y ago
Honestly, motorcycling at track days is pretty adrenaline inducing (I've never personally done it) but decently safe if the track staff take it seriously and you do too.
rpmisms 2y ago
Seriously, do get a motorcycle. Do your research first, watch crashes, learn to be safe, but get a motorcycle. You control your amount of risk, and good god is it excellent stress relief. Also cheaper than a skydiving habit.
- dahart 2y ago
  Hmmm I’m pretty sure my total expenditure for several years of jumping, with a parachute purchase, a USPA C license, and a few boogie trips, was less than the cost of my dirt bike. I agree on the stress relief part, but I’d say don’t understate the risks or think it’s super controllable in traffic. Motorcycling is the most dangerous form of road transport. Cars and their drivers take bikers out all time. I looked and can’t find it right now but I remember seeing an NTSB report a couple years back indicating a serious uptick recently in motorcycle accidents by middle aged men.
  - kube-system 2y ago
    There's been an increase in motorcycling in the US over the past 20 years, and I think a decent amount of the newcomers have a disproportionate amount of respect compared to the capabilities of the machine they're buying.
    - dahart 2y ago
      Okay I can buy that and the IIHS report seems to back it up with “27% of the fatally injured motorcyclists in 2022 were younger than 30, compared with 80% in 1975.” https://www.iihs.org/topics/fatality-statistics/detail/motorcycles-and-atvs#age-and-sex https://www.iihs.org/topics/fatality-statistics/detail/motor... I think the stats I was thinking of might be the NHTSA crash stats, and they have a section on age correlations. If younger riders are getting safer, that would lead to higher percent of older riders having trouble. https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/ViewPublication/813466.pdf https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/ViewPublication/...
      - Ekaros 2y ago
        Alternative that pops in my mind is that there is more older riders. That might be due to variance in disposable income. Or change in habits. I wonder how does this correlate with ownership. So is there more over 30 owners and by how much.
      - kube-system 2y ago
simple10 2y ago
For some, it's about adrenaline. Those people often go on to pursue base jumping to keep pushing the limits. For others, it's about overcoming fear as a measure of personal growth. For me, when I used to skydive, it was less about adrenaline and much more about a brief moment of when all other thoughts disappear and you're fully present. It's a way of getting out of one's head without narcotics and experiencing a unique state of being. I suppose it's a similar in spirit to why astronauts go to space. There's no proxy for the perspective gained in leaving the confines of terra firma. Definitely not for everyone.
kube-system 2y ago
There's risk associated with many activities that are enjoyable yet not 100% necessary to sustain life. Why do any of them? Because they enable someone to enjoy said life. 63% of American adults voluntarily drink carcinogenic poison, for fun.
- MichaelRo 2y ago
  Well skydiving is a lot closer to playing the Russian roulette "for enjoyment" and face an immediate and gruesome death than drinking a couple glasses of wine and possibly get cirrhosis in 50 years.
  - defrost 2y ago
    The chance of a drunk driver killing a third party is considerably higher than that of a skydiver landing on someone. That aside: With modern equipment and training methods, fatalities occur in less than 1 per 100,000 cases and serious injuries requiring hospitalization in less than 2 per 10,000 cases. This puts the assessment of skydiving as a high-risk sport into perspective, especially considering the definition of high-risk sport as a sporting activity in which athletes must accept the possibility of serious injury or death as an immediate part of the sporting activity, especially when comparing these results with other so-called high-risk sports. For example, amateur boxers suffer an injury on average every 2.5 h in competition and every 772 h in training, or one in three recreational surfers suffers a traumatic injury within 12 months Recreational Skydiving—Really That Dangerous? A Systematic Review https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9859333/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9859333/
  - dahart 2y ago
    That’s totally true, though people routinely make bad decisions that get them killed while on a couple glasses of wine. In 2023, in the U.S., where I live, more than 100,000 people died of alcohol related causes, while a mere 10 people died from skydiving, out of almost 3.5 million skydives. Romania (where you live?) seems to have pretty high per-capita binge drinking. Maybe drinking actually is closer to Russian Roulette and skydiving is further than it seems at first… Parent comment is also totally true: there are lots and lots of enjoyable and risky activities. Driving your car is very dangerous and results in immediate and gruesome death for hundreds of thousands of people every year. People do rock climbing, river rafting, heroine, fentanyl, motorcycle racing, boxing, scuba diving, football… Maybe you also take unnecessary and potentially terminal risks, and don’t even get the adrenaline benefit.

bmitc 2y ago

Honestly, motorcycling at track days is pretty adrenaline inducing (I've never personally done it) but decently safe if the track staff take it seriously and you do too.

rpmisms 2y ago

Seriously, do get a motorcycle. Do your research first, watch crashes, learn to be safe, but get a motorcycle. You control your amount of risk, and good god is it excellent stress relief. Also cheaper than a skydiving habit.

dahart 2y ago
Hmmm I’m pretty sure my total expenditure for several years of jumping, with a parachute purchase, a USPA C license, and a few boogie trips, was less than the cost of my dirt bike. I agree on the stress relief part, but I’d say don’t understate the risks or think it’s super controllable in traffic. Motorcycling is the most dangerous form of road transport. Cars and their drivers take bikers out all time. I looked and can’t find it right now but I remember seeing an NTSB report a couple years back indicating a serious uptick recently in motorcycle accidents by middle aged men.
- kube-system 2y ago
  There's been an increase in motorcycling in the US over the past 20 years, and I think a decent amount of the newcomers have a disproportionate amount of respect compared to the capabilities of the machine they're buying.
  - dahart 2y ago
    Okay I can buy that and the IIHS report seems to back it up with “27% of the fatally injured motorcyclists in 2022 were younger than 30, compared with 80% in 1975.” https://www.iihs.org/topics/fatality-statistics/detail/motorcycles-and-atvs#age-and-sex https://www.iihs.org/topics/fatality-statistics/detail/motor... I think the stats I was thinking of might be the NHTSA crash stats, and they have a section on age correlations. If younger riders are getting safer, that would lead to higher percent of older riders having trouble. https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/ViewPublication/813466.pdf https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/ViewPublication/...
    - Ekaros 2y ago
      Alternative that pops in my mind is that there is more older riders. That might be due to variance in disposable income. Or change in habits. I wonder how does this correlate with ownership. So is there more over 30 owners and by how much.
    - kube-system 2y ago

simple10 2y ago

For some, it's about adrenaline. Those people often go on to pursue base jumping to keep pushing the limits. For others, it's about overcoming fear as a measure of personal growth. For me, when I used to skydive, it was less about adrenaline and much more about a brief moment of when all other thoughts disappear and you're fully present. It's a way of getting out of one's head without narcotics and experiencing a unique state of being. I suppose it's a similar in spirit to why astronauts go to space. There's no proxy for the perspective gained in leaving the confines of terra firma. Definitely not for everyone.

kube-system 2y ago

There's risk associated with many activities that are enjoyable yet not 100% necessary to sustain life. Why do any of them? Because they enable someone to enjoy said life. 63% of American adults voluntarily drink carcinogenic poison, for fun.

MichaelRo 2y ago
Well skydiving is a lot closer to playing the Russian roulette "for enjoyment" and face an immediate and gruesome death than drinking a couple glasses of wine and possibly get cirrhosis in 50 years.
- defrost 2y ago
  The chance of a drunk driver killing a third party is considerably higher than that of a skydiver landing on someone. That aside: With modern equipment and training methods, fatalities occur in less than 1 per 100,000 cases and serious injuries requiring hospitalization in less than 2 per 10,000 cases. This puts the assessment of skydiving as a high-risk sport into perspective, especially considering the definition of high-risk sport as a sporting activity in which athletes must accept the possibility of serious injury or death as an immediate part of the sporting activity, especially when comparing these results with other so-called high-risk sports. For example, amateur boxers suffer an injury on average every 2.5 h in competition and every 772 h in training, or one in three recreational surfers suffers a traumatic injury within 12 months Recreational Skydiving—Really That Dangerous? A Systematic Review https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9859333/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9859333/
- dahart 2y ago
  That’s totally true, though people routinely make bad decisions that get them killed while on a couple glasses of wine. In 2023, in the U.S., where I live, more than 100,000 people died of alcohol related causes, while a mere 10 people died from skydiving, out of almost 3.5 million skydives. Romania (where you live?) seems to have pretty high per-capita binge drinking. Maybe drinking actually is closer to Russian Roulette and skydiving is further than it seems at first… Parent comment is also totally true: there are lots and lots of enjoyable and risky activities. Driving your car is very dangerous and results in immediate and gruesome death for hundreds of thousands of people every year. People do rock climbing, river rafting, heroine, fentanyl, motorcycle racing, boxing, scuba diving, football… Maybe you also take unnecessary and potentially terminal risks, and don’t even get the adrenaline benefit.