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Photo by Dennis Sattler<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Like so many others who are regularly promoting safety it makes me (and I\u2019m sure everyone around me) crazy when I\u2019m constantly repeating myself with the same old safety advice. But there\u2019s really not much new to add. It\u2019s all about trying to drive the basic safety ideas we already know into our thick skulls. And as a group, we skydivers have some pretty thick skulls. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
A safe skydiver VS a safe skydive<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
There is one idea which I haven\u2019t actually shared before that has helped me to stay safe in the air for the last 25 years of my skydiving career. I\u2019ve always considered myself a \u2018safe skydiver\u2019. But I\u2019ve seen so many safe skydivers get hurt or worse far too many times. It occurred to me that there is no such thing as a safe skydiver, there is only a safe skydive. It doesn\u2019t matter how experienced and safety conscious we think we are. It only matters how safety conscious we\u2019re going to be on the jump we\u2019re making right now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is no such thing as a safe skydiver, there is only a safe skydive” After my kids were born, my outlook on safety changed completely. Simply being a safe skydiver wasn\u2019t enough anymore. I was making about 1,500 jumps a year at that time. Every morning when I\u2019d leave for the drop zone I\u2019d promise my kids that their Dad would be coming home that night. I guaranteed them I would land safely from each skydive I made and I was determined to live up to that promise. It wasn\u2019t about me. It was about taking care of their Dad and I meant it. If I didn\u2019t think I could guarantee my safety I would have stopped skydiving. I re-examined every part of my safety preparation and discovered it was far from ideal. Though my safety plan, and a huge dose of good luck, had gotten me by for my first 10,000 jumps it was clear that there was so much more I should be doing if I was going to guarantee my family I\u2019d land safe from every jump. I immediately started paying much more attention to each detail of my safety procedures, processes and attitude. Before and during every jump I thought about what I had to do next to guarantee I\u2019d land safely. This included my choice of equipment, canopy, which jumps to get on, what weather to jump in, doing gear checks and handle checks, better altitude awareness, dramatically increased freefall and canopy awareness, not just knowing my EPs but being really good at them, making the decision to cut away immediately if I wasn\u2019t 100% sure I had a good canopy, expecting everything that could go wrong to go wrong every jump, deciding where to land and the pattern to fly while still at a high altitude, sliding in or doing a PLF if I didn\u2019t think I could easily stand up the landing, making sure the group exiting after me knows how long to wait before exiting\u2026 everything. Since then I\u2019ve not only been a safe skydiver. I\u2019m a skydiver who consciously, step by step, makes sure I land safely on every jump I make. I have to be, I made a promise. I\u2019m a skydiver who consciously, step by step, makes sure I land safely on every jump I make. I have to be, I made a promise”<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n
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Safety and Family <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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