Wingsuit Dude recovery

[Blaidd Drwg]

"What’s the point of pulling? You’re already dead. There is absolutely no way you can survive this. If you pull, all that’s going to happen is you're just going to prolong the end. Don’t pull the parachute. Just fly into the side of the mountain. You’re going to bleed out as you’re waiting for a rescue and you’re just going to suffer for hours of just pain and misery, and you’re still going to die. Why pull? If you don’t pull, you just die instantly, and there is no pain."

http://www.outsideonline.com/blog/insid ... rliss.html

for reference:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHi_UO-s4gA[/youtube]

[Fat Cat]

At heart I am not a risk-taker and I can't really empathize with the guy.

[johno]

The after-impact video was interesting from an emergency medical standpoint - watching his breathing pattern, there was no indication that he was seriously fucked up. At that point.

[johno]

At heart I am not a risk-taker and I can't really empathize with the guy.

I’d say probably in about three weeks I’ll be able to start jumping again

I think he lost most of us there.^

[Blaidd Drwg]

At heart I am not a risk-taker and I can't really empathize with the guy.

I’d say probably in about three weeks I’ll be able to start jumping again

I think he lost most of us there.^

There is something about engaging in an inherently risky activity...once you pull back the curtain and see that overall risk may be way elevated compared to daily life, those risks are very manageable (climbing, motocross, DH racing, blue water sailboat racing..) when you make an error, you have this obligation/duty to get back out there and assert yourself. It's not about overcoming fear, it's about correcting mistakes...I dunno. Hard to explain...but fear and judgement just get radically detached from one another once you start down the path. On a certain level, fear has nothing to do with it.

I bet fliers like Nafod and PL or guys like Climber could splain this better than me. I'm not a brave man by any stretch but I completely get why he says that.

[TerryB]

At least he died doing...

wait

what?

[powerlifter54]

The Art is taking an inherently risky activity and managing it by planning, training, and controlling the events. If you get scared in the middle you have entered the land of the passenger.

Maybe you should have been scared before or after, maybe if you were smarter or more experienced or better at what you do you, you would be scared. There are times to risk your life, your gear/plane, your crew. Only did it once where i thought we probably would die. i was wrong. A little shook up later but during the event was in time compression.

[Fat Cat]

Risking oneself out of necessity is totally understandable. Doing it for fun is stupid. I also don't gamble.

[Blaidd Drwg]

Doing it for fun is stupid.

Doing it for Fun is Transcendent.

[Thatcher II]

Taking a risk like rugby, skiing fast, cycling fast, running fast downhill with trees.... Life affirming.
Fun. I get it.

But jumping off a mountain in a batman costume and trying to skim a granite block. That's fucking stupid.

[Fat Cat]

Doing it for fun is stupid.

Doing it for Fun is Transcendent.

Nah.

[Blaidd Drwg]

Taking a risk like rugby, skiing fast, cycling fast, running fast downhill with trees.... Life affirming.
Fun. I get it.

But jumping off a mountain in a batman costume and trying to skim a granite block. That's fucking stupid.

I can see the allure, quite a bit beyond my comfort zones but I grok.

[Dunn]

The only things that I have done that have pushed my personal envelope has been cliff diving and unassisted free diving. Both are dangerous but are nowhere near what these people do. I hope he has a speedy recovery. The problem with always pushing the envelope is that eventually you will go past your limits and come up on the losing side.

[dingleberry]

The best part of being a fireman is fighting fire. Everyone tells me it's dangerous but I think it's mostly exciting.

[nafod]

Doing it for fun is stupid.

Doing it for Fun is Transcendent.

Doing something at speed and risky so that it forces you to stand down the conscious brain and let the reptilian brain handle things is definitely transcendent.

[Fat Cat]

It's your funeral. Can I have your stuff when you're dead?

[Gene]

In the 1990s some asshole on a two lane road swerved into my lane, coming at me at a relative speed of eighty miles an hour. I saw their headlights aimed straight at me.

I remember thinking/feeling "evade the blow", "redirect". I jinked the wheel, jerking the car into a slide. The 5,000 pound sedan slid sideways, turning the head on collision into a side swipe. Minimal body damage.

He takes this idea of risk further. Stacks his advantages, lays it on the line. Good on him!!

[Fat Cat]

[terra]

Risking oneself out of necessity is totally understandable. Doing it for fun is stupid. I also don't gamble.

This is interesting and made me consider for a few reasons. (Hence long, rambling post)...
Taking that thinking further you rarely, if ever, have to risk oneself nowdays...

But instead of the tiger attack or wrestling the wild animal as our ancestors did we now have smoking, diet coke, sitting at computers all day and living unfulfilled, purposeless lives..

Every one of these is a 'risky activity' in that it can shorten your life or reduce its quality.
The only difference is the immediacy of the result and the perception of the activity.

Perhaps the former evolutionary risks are part of our make up, an ingredient required for the full expression of our genome.
Possibly healthy in that respect?
Where the later risks add nothing.

Maybe there needs to be clarification between perceived risk and real risk. Or immediate risk and long term risk and between 'risky' and 'spectacular'/'exciting'/'scary'. Things can be risky and mundane, other activities can be spectacular/exciting/scary but really not that risky.

Dunno. Sure there are essays written on it.

I climb and I raced motorbikes (no racing now due to $$$). Both of these are considered 'risky'.
Actually started climbing because I was scared of heights.
Then I enjoyed the activity for its combination of challenges and experiences.

I make it as safe as possible - occasionally this is less controllable (subjective danger / objective danger), and I am shit scared.
The danger isn't the attraction so much as the need to focus in the moment - the immediacy.
At my highest climbing level the activity became like mental-physical chess with the addition of gravity to ensure your mind didn't wander between moves. With fixed gear gravity just becomes a very strict judge.
My life is better for the activity.

FC, another reason why I considered your post. I have been injured more in MA training, than in all the climbing and motorbiking. Every time I was paired up with a rolling partner it was a gamble. Bigger gamble than pairing up against a relatively inert cliff face. The climbing was real, and the MA was only meant to be rolling/training.

BTW I think the most dangerous (risky) game/sport (injury per participant) is women's netball.

[nafod]

It's your funeral. Can I have your stuff when you're dead?

Truth in advertising. I'm mostly talking about someone I used to be. At a certain age and with a certain number of kids, I really decided I'd had my fill of X-game moments and I also realized that I now landed with a thud instead of a bounce. Bad injuries take forever to recover from now, and you never completely recover it seems. The wisdom (?) of experience weighs in too.

I remember when I first started flying off of the carrier. Landings were exercises in fear, but catapult shots were an E-ticket ride. Oddly, as I got smarter and better that flipped to some extent. I now had the skills to own the carrier landing process (daylight...night was always a frightfest) but I also had the knowledge to understand the million mechanical things that could go wrong on a catshot that I had no control of, that would send me puttering off the bow into the drink. The ignorance of youth had been bliss.

[Fat Cat]

Risking oneself out of necessity is totally understandable. Doing it for fun is stupid. I also don't gamble.

This is interesting and made me consider for a few reasons. (Hence long, rambling post)...
Taking that thinking further you rarely, if ever, have to risk oneself nowdays...

But instead of the tiger attack or wrestling the wild animal as our ancestors did we now have smoking, diet coke, sitting at computers all day and living unfulfilled, purposeless lives..

Every one of these is a 'risky activity' in that it can shorten your life or reduce its quality.
The only difference is the immediacy of the result and the perception of the activity.

Perhaps the former evolutionary risks are part of our make up, an ingredient required for the full expression of our genome.
Possibly healthy in that respect?
Where the later risks add nothing.

Maybe there needs to be clarification between perceived risk and real risk. Or immediate risk and long term risk and between 'risky' and 'spectacular'/'exciting'/'scary'. Things can be risky and mundane, other activities can be spectacular/exciting/scary but really not that risky.

Dunno. Sure there are essays written on it.

I climb and I raced motorbikes (no racing now due to $$$). Both of these are considered 'risky'.
Actually started climbing because I was scared of heights.
Then I enjoyed the activity for its combination of challenges and experiences.

I make it as safe as possible - occasionally this is less controllable (subjective danger / objective danger), and I am shit scared.
The danger isn't the attraction so much as the need to focus in the moment - the immediacy.
At my highest climbing level the activity became like mental-physical chess with the addition of gravity to ensure your mind didn't wander between moves. With fixed gear gravity just becomes a very strict judge.
My life is better for the activity.

FC, another reason why I considered your post. I have been injured more in MA training, than in all the climbing and motorbiking. Every time I was paired up with a rolling partner it was a gamble. Bigger gamble than pairing up against a relatively inert cliff face. The climbing was real, and the MA was only meant to be rolling/training.

BTW I think the most dangerous (risky) game/sport (injury per participant) is women's netball.

Finding meaning in life from danger is childish and self-absorbed. See "Fight Club".

[Blaidd Drwg]

Ack..That's a little unfair, FC.

The danger isn't the attraction so much as the need to focus in the moment - the immediacy.

The point of life is to enjoy your life. All of it. Embrace the suck, the fear, the funny, ridiculous, the sublime, just be Present. if you find that childish and self absorbed take it up with the Buddha...et al.

this is what Nafod and I are both describing. Being totally Present, beyond conscious thought. I think this sort of play is a universally good thing, whether it's at high speed or trying to perfect the art of choking a man with his pajamas. as long as it's of one's own volition and doesn't directly harm others, I'm all for it. If it's childish, fine. let's strike a blow for neoteny.

[Holland Oates]

Ack..That's a little unfair, FC. The point of life is to enjoy your life. All of it. Embrace the suck, the fear, the funny, ridiculous, the sublime to be Present. . . .

This!

I need a little "suck" in my life to keep me happy. I don't need fear or adrenalin but I need suffering.

[Fat Cat]

Ack..That's a little unfair, FC.

The danger isn't the attraction so much as the need to focus in the moment - the immediacy.

The point of life is to enjoy your life. All of it. Embrace the suck, the fear, the funny, ridiculous, the sublime, just be Present. if you find that childish and self absorbed take it up with the Buddha...et al.

this is what Nafod and I are both describing. Being totally Present, beyond conscious thought. I think this sort of play is a universally good thing, whether it's at high speed or trying to perfect the art of choking a man with his pajamas. as long as it's of one's own volition and doesn't directly harm others, I'm all for it. If it's childish, fine. let's strike a blow for neoteny.

Slow your roll there fren. There's nothing wrong about accepting the experiential stream, but that has no relationship to seeking out physical danger for a chemical reward. The Buddha sat under a tree, not bungee jumping.

[Blaidd Drwg]

I think you misconstrue the nature of the experience, both physically/mentally and chemically.

Racing motorcycles, flying airplanes, giant slalom, paragliding, big wave surfing et al is not some circus ride for a cheap adrenaline dump. When I say transcendent it means just that...It FEELS the same as you would executing a perfect throw or choke, or the way a deep meditative state feels...in the brain I would bet dollars to donuts its the same chemistry.

It has really nothing to do with fear and everything to do with control, execution and thoughtless mastery. Fear of consequences may sharpen the focus but really, if you are afraid, you never get on the wave or roll your bike onto the course in the first place.

Reading the wingdudes internal dialogue is very telling in thsi regard. It's dispassionate, clear not fearful. Comparison to bungee jumping or other caricatures of "adrenaline junkies" is not accurate to say the least.