We are always learning

As a part of developing this site, I felt that it was my job to find the information that would make everyone a safe skydiver. I have asked for feedback from several people as well as for articles and came across a wealth of information that hit me when I wasn't expecting it.

I have to say that I am not shy when it comes to calling, emailing and harassing someone in order to get the information I want. In this particular case, I chose Scott Miller. I developed this site in order to provide a location for skydivers to go in order to find the 'safe' and 'right' information that would keep them out of trouble. In asking for this service, I was taught a pretty good lesson about not getting too far ahead of myself. I got caught up in wanting to prove to schools that skydiving is a very safe sport if it's gone about in the right way … but that is getting caught up in fighting for a cause of having a club or receiving funding, and not focusing on the inherent dangers of the sport of skydiving.

Scott was kind enough to take an extensive look at our site and to provide some feedback information that an over anxious college skydiver like myself can easily overlook. Scott sent this to me in an email after I had requested some constructive criticism.

You use the word "safe" quite a few times, particularly on the "Advice From Those Who Know" page. For example, you wrote that "Skydiving can be a fun and safe sport when safe practices and equipment maintenance is followed." You also make a comment about learning a new skydiving discipline "the safe way." The terms "safe" and "safety" get used a lot in this sport, sometimes too much. There is nothing safe about falling out of an airplane and relying on a parachute to save your life. We can take steps to minimize the risks involved, but the very real possibility of being injured or killed is always an inherent and inescapable part of the sport.

We have to fully accept and understand the risks we face if we want to be truly prepared to participate in a high-risk sport. Unfortunately that isn't always easy to do. It can be tempting to adopt a "that won't happen to me" attitude, and sometimes even helpful measures can have the unwanted effect of reinforcing that attitude. For example, a person might be tempted to believe, at least on some level, that he or she will always be safe as long as he or she reads the right articles or follows good advice from the "pros." I don't think that you're intentionally trying to cultivate or reinforce that type of belief, but I think you need to be very careful about how, and how much, you use the word "safe."

We do ourselves and our fellow jumpers a greater service by cultivating a sense of individual responsibility. We are each responsible for fully understanding the risks we may face on any jump and deciding whether or not the potential rewards outweigh those potential risks. This applies to every aspect of skydiving, from the equipment we choose to the people we choose to jump with and the conditions we choose to jump in. It makes a tremendous amount of sense to listen to advice from people who are more experienced than us, but I frequently see people who take that concept too far and stop exercising their own critical thinking and judgment abilities.

This type of information is invaluable to say the least. We are each the best judge and critic of ourselves. No one out there can better say whether you are able to handle a particular situation or not better than you can. It's easy to get caught up in the culture, the parties, and the exhilarating thrill of skydiving, and then to forget about the consequences that are sometimes out of our control. This site is meant to be a resource for informational articles as well as a reality check to just how dangerous the sport can be.

I can't thank Scott enough for emailing me back and I hope that you have had a moment where you thought twice about the hobby you love.

Posted by Ben Lee Nov 20, 2008