5 ms·

I know the published stats show it to be relatively safe, but it’s poorly regulated and not clear if all accidents are reported: “28 people died from skydiving

I know the published stats show it to be relatively safe, but it’s poorly regulated and not clear if all accidents are reported: “28 people died from skydiving near Lodi. How does the Parachute Center stay in business?” https://www.sacbee.com/news/investigations/article282562433.html https://www.sacbee.com/news/investigations/article282562433....

bmitc 2y ago
For me personally, I just have so little want to do anything like that. If it goes wrong, you go splat, and there's very little you can do about it. Is that the way you want to go, just jumping out of something? I mean, even getting injured and living is still ridiculous sounding. "How did you break your back?" "Oh, I jumped from 10,000 feet." The best case is that you get a "thrill" out of being reminded that gravity exists. I wonder if a lot of these people have some issues that cause them to seek the adrenaline and other hormone rushes from these activities. And it's very likely many get addicted to it once they start such extreme activities.
- mlyle 2y ago
  > I wonder if a lot of these people have some issues that cause them to seek the adrenaline and other hormone rushes from these activities. Everyone has a different calculus of what risks are worth it. I don't think it's fair to characterize them as "issues." Skydiving is dangerous, but not ridiculously so-- about a 1 in 100,000 chance of dying per jump, though this does wobble a little bit on your preparation and where you choose to jump (places like Lodi are disproportionately dangerous). One way to understand this order of magnitude is that you're spending a few hours of life expectancy per jump. I was into airplanes; the fatal general aviation accident rate per hour is about the same as the skydiving risk per jump. But I loved the feeling of being in the air, the things I saw, and the way it felt to control an airplane. This meant on a day with 5 hours of flying, I "spent" much more life expectancy than someone who skydived once. I went into it open-eyed, and I'm glad that I have the experiences of having flown.
  - bmitc 2y ago
    Issues as in deficiencies or excess of hormones or neurotransmitters. I guess I am wondering what the mechanisms of risk seeking are.
    - mlyle 2y ago
      Yah, some people do explicitly risk seek. But you don't need that to be drawn to a risky thing. Indeed, the times in an airplane where I acutely felt the risk were not fun and were not what I was looking for at all.
- technothrasher 2y ago
  Personally, just wanting the experience is what made me jump out of an airplane at 10,500 feet. I knew I was taking a risk, but what the heck, I can't live in a closet my whole life and avoid experiencing things I want to just because there are risks. I did it, I enjoyed doing it, but I've never felt any motivation to do it again. I certainly wouldn't encourage anybody who isn't interested in doing it, it wasn't honestly all that amazing.
- somenameforme 2y ago
  Vice versa, people overestimating risk is likely what leads to them people being excessively scared of things that are relatively harmless. The Wiki page on micromorts [1] is pretty informative. A micromort is something that has a 1 in a million chance of fatality. One skydive exposes you to about 8 micromorts of risk. That's about the same risk as 80 miles of bicycling, 1900 miles of driving, or a bit less than your chance of being murdered in England within a year. [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micromort https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micromort
dehrmann 2y ago
Lodi is exceptionally bad. Like, it's kinda infamously bad.
dahart 2y ago
When I was skydiving, everyone who is licensed and current in the U.S. received the USPA’s Skydiving Magazine, and in every issue was a report of every death and serious accident, and a “post-mortem” analysis of what went wrong and ways to avoid the same situation. The 28 people thing strikes me as a bit of tabloid writing. That’s 28 people in like 30 or 40 years, and it’s a big and busy drop zone. I can’t read the paywalled article but you need to compare the number 28 to the total number of jumps over that period, and to the national accident rate. 28 deaths without context is pretty meaningless. Yes, skydiving is a bit risky, and yes accidents occasionally happen. We’ve been losing 30,000 to 40,000 people to car accidents every single year for those 40 years. We’ve lost more than 700,000 people just since the year 2000. How does this country not shut down? (It’s easy to fling incredulity… just sayin’) Anyway, my local drop zone owner said that every time there was any kind of accident in the news, business tended to go up. The risk is part of the attraction.

bmitc 2y ago

For me personally, I just have so little want to do anything like that. If it goes wrong, you go splat, and there's very little you can do about it. Is that the way you want to go, just jumping out of something? I mean, even getting injured and living is still ridiculous sounding. "How did you break your back?" "Oh, I jumped from 10,000 feet." The best case is that you get a "thrill" out of being reminded that gravity exists. I wonder if a lot of these people have some issues that cause them to seek the adrenaline and other hormone rushes from these activities. And it's very likely many get addicted to it once they start such extreme activities.

mlyle 2y ago
> I wonder if a lot of these people have some issues that cause them to seek the adrenaline and other hormone rushes from these activities. Everyone has a different calculus of what risks are worth it. I don't think it's fair to characterize them as "issues." Skydiving is dangerous, but not ridiculously so-- about a 1 in 100,000 chance of dying per jump, though this does wobble a little bit on your preparation and where you choose to jump (places like Lodi are disproportionately dangerous). One way to understand this order of magnitude is that you're spending a few hours of life expectancy per jump. I was into airplanes; the fatal general aviation accident rate per hour is about the same as the skydiving risk per jump. But I loved the feeling of being in the air, the things I saw, and the way it felt to control an airplane. This meant on a day with 5 hours of flying, I "spent" much more life expectancy than someone who skydived once. I went into it open-eyed, and I'm glad that I have the experiences of having flown.
- bmitc 2y ago
  Issues as in deficiencies or excess of hormones or neurotransmitters. I guess I am wondering what the mechanisms of risk seeking are.
  - mlyle 2y ago
    Yah, some people do explicitly risk seek. But you don't need that to be drawn to a risky thing. Indeed, the times in an airplane where I acutely felt the risk were not fun and were not what I was looking for at all.
technothrasher 2y ago
Personally, just wanting the experience is what made me jump out of an airplane at 10,500 feet. I knew I was taking a risk, but what the heck, I can't live in a closet my whole life and avoid experiencing things I want to just because there are risks. I did it, I enjoyed doing it, but I've never felt any motivation to do it again. I certainly wouldn't encourage anybody who isn't interested in doing it, it wasn't honestly all that amazing.
somenameforme 2y ago
Vice versa, people overestimating risk is likely what leads to them people being excessively scared of things that are relatively harmless. The Wiki page on micromorts [1] is pretty informative. A micromort is something that has a 1 in a million chance of fatality. One skydive exposes you to about 8 micromorts of risk. That's about the same risk as 80 miles of bicycling, 1900 miles of driving, or a bit less than your chance of being murdered in England within a year. [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micromort https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micromort

dehrmann 2y ago

Lodi is exceptionally bad. Like, it's kinda infamously bad.

dahart 2y ago

When I was skydiving, everyone who is licensed and current in the U.S. received the USPA’s Skydiving Magazine, and in every issue was a report of every death and serious accident, and a “post-mortem” analysis of what went wrong and ways to avoid the same situation. The 28 people thing strikes me as a bit of tabloid writing. That’s 28 people in like 30 or 40 years, and it’s a big and busy drop zone. I can’t read the paywalled article but you need to compare the number 28 to the total number of jumps over that period, and to the national accident rate. 28 deaths without context is pretty meaningless. Yes, skydiving is a bit risky, and yes accidents occasionally happen. We’ve been losing 30,000 to 40,000 people to car accidents every single year for those 40 years. We’ve lost more than 700,000 people just since the year 2000. How does this country not shut down? (It’s easy to fling incredulity… just sayin’) Anyway, my local drop zone owner said that every time there was any kind of accident in the news, business tended to go up. The risk is part of the attraction.