Hi all! Another newbie from Italy (so sorry for my bad english).
I was at a DZ two months ago, until that day I just knew NOTHING about skydiving: never saw a video, never been interested in it, never knew the existence of tandem jumps. I was there (for other reasons), I saw jumpers landing with a big beautiful smile in their face, so I think: let's try! I jumped tandem and it was the best thing I ever did in my entire life (35 y/o). Since then I am literally obsessed: I go to sleep thinking of skydiving and I wake up thinking of skydiving. Of course I want to do AFF, but I am like "split" in two parts: a part of me thinking "go on, don't let this become a regret" and the other part of me thinking "are you really sure that you can accept the risks?"
I am watching all the watchable and reading all the readable and I know that's a mistake. The only thing I should do is to go to the DZ and talk with instructors and maybe I'll do, but I'd like to hear opinions/experiences about this 3 questions:
1) Injuries. It seems that almost everybody have a broken bone or worst. But it seems that almost all broken bones depends by swooping too hard, downsizing when it's not the time and other competitive-related things. My question is: injuries CAN happen like it can happen everyday just staying at home, or sooner or later it WILL happen despite of how "conservative" and careful you are?
2) "You can do all the right things and still die" - ok; but how much times that happened? And: are you really sure that it's a correct way to think? I don't want to think that "I can do all the things right and still die", I want to think that "I am smart, I am well trained, I can do EPs and I will do anything it's possible to bring myself to the ground". Am I wrong?
3) How do you manage in your mind the fact that you are doing something risky just for your fun? How is it different for you from, for example, using drugs, or driving fast?
Thank you in advance. I know that there aren't right answers to this questions, I just want to hear from you.
Thanks thanks thanks!