Archive for the ‘Dropzone Diaries’ Category

Locate, Peel, Pull, Arch

in Dropzone Diaries

I will let you in on a little secret. Speaking from experience, your life does not flash before your eyes when in a life or death situation.

As a skydiver you always wonder when it will happen to you. Will you be ready for it? Will you perform your emergency procedures (EPs) that you have practiced thousands of times on the ground? Will you panic or lock up? Will you be able to save your own life when you have to perform a cutaway and deploy your reserve from your malfunctioning main canopy?

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Whuffo you jump out of that plane?

in Dropzone Diaries

Whuffo is shorthand that stands for ‘what for’. When you apply that word to an individual in the context of skydiving the definition of a whuffo becomes…

A person who is not a skydiver.

My definition of a whuffo is…

People who condemn, and don’t understand anyone who wants to enjoy a range of diverse experiences.

The term whuffo has been applied to non-jumpers because they are always asking, “What for would you want to jump out of that plane?” I am often told I am crazy because of my hobbies. I like to scuba dive (with sharks), and jump out of planes. Some people cannot fathom doing such activities especially leaping from a perfectly good airplane. However, I beg to differ on the perfectly good terminology to describe the planes skydivers leap from.

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