Apparently, I'm a wuss :)
Elk
So, my sister-in-law and her husband are planning a sky-diving adventure. My wife and I were invited to go as well.
I declined, as the day they want to do it is 6 days before I leave for Nevada elk, and I will NOT risk a turned ankle, sprain, twisted knee, torn tendon, etc. :)
My sister-in-law's comment. . . "You're a wuss."
Am I alone here? :)
I leave in 49 days. I'm careful stepping off curbs now. :) Instead of ramping up training, I'm toning down.
Who else gets super injury conscious before a hunt?
To me that's the best way to get hurt....thinking about it makes it more likely to happen!
I'm over fifty, me and my wife are that way year round!
I don't ramp down my training until 2 weeks prior.
I would not be doing any extreme sports 6 weeks prior to a planned hunt.
Tell her to come along and hump the Mtns. day after day. You would probably find out who the wuss was, real quick.
If it were paid by someone else I'd do it. If I were paying I'd reschedule for after the elk hunt. I get nervous playing basketball or stepping of the curb before a big hunt.
My logic is a long ways from being good, but....how many times will you skydive in your life, how many times will you elk hunt? I'd be more concerned about being able to get rid of all body waste smells by the time you go hunting, if you know what I mean.
yep, jump when you get back... ask them to wait.
I was in a similar situation on my first CO otc trip. I did not know I would end up living in NM and felt the CO trip was essentially my one and only chance. I have SI dysfunction so sometimes its ok, sometimes its annoying, other times it takes me out. I was lined up on a jump but bailed on it due to the possibility of the impact at landing jamming up my hip. No way would I have been able to put in 6-8mi 2x a day.
I say you're looking out for numero uno. Who wants to eat tag soup without putting a foot on the mountain.
Wait they were going to be using parachutes right? Wuss. Haha
Skydiving is much better in late winter and early spring when you can catch thermals and have a better ride.
It's fairly easy to twist an ankle or jam a knee in a landing. I believe that you're using sound reasoning.
As far as being a wuss, I would defer to your wife's opinion.
; > D
I've been called worse. That doesn't bother me :) Hell, my sister-in-law's called me worse :)
In this case, I prefer to think my priorities are in order . . .
But others may disagree. My wife rolls her eyes when I refuse to even get onto a ladder 6 weeks before an elk hunt, or the whitetail rut :)
As I get closer and closer to a hunt I become a hermit. I won't even go around other people for fear of contracting some illness....I agree with your plan 100%
I have a half marathon the weekend before I leave for my elk hunt, a 20 mile run scheduled for the night before I leave, and a marathon the week after I get back.
My elk hunt is my taper weeks! lol
Don't worry about it, Bake....go have fun with your family and let life happen!
It crosses my mind but I'm kind of a balls to the wall 100% of the time type guy. At some point it will catch up to me, but I play ice hockey all year round, sometimes football in the summer, but my team disbanded a year or two ago.
At some point something will probably get me, but I try and live to the fullest all the time. In your situation, ya maybe I would try and defer the jump to after, if not I'd do it. That's me, you are you. Enjoy however you plan to live your life! Main thing I find is to always be positive about life going forward instead of looking at things you could have done. My plan is to hit the grave running! :)
I'm more afraid of illness than injury. you have not lived until you catch a bad cough from someone's sick kid a week before elk season.
little kids are disease carriers...
Yep. Before any big trip I am always washing my hands more often and avoiding close contact with sick people. I also decline riding our horses with my wife. I guess I am a wuss as well!
Heck I have never ridden a horse and I'm 63! Lightning scares me and I would never sky dive, bungy jump or anything risky that's not hunting related. Many of the folks that would do that stuff are afraid to be alone in the woods for 10 days. Freedom takes all kinds!
As a recovering skydiving addict, I recommend that you never make a jump. One jump might be all it takes to make a junkie out of you. I started with that "first" jump and didn't stop until over a thousand jumps later.
I'd be more worried about taking on another expensive sport than getting hurt making your first jump. You'll likely do a tandem jump and the instructor will have you tuck your legs before landing. His feet will touch down before yours.
Good luck whatever your decision.
OTOH, my hunting partner was being super careful while helping his brother in law with some calves a month before our elk season. I was too, staying away from anything that might injure or maim us that close to the hunt.
A crazy heifer got loose and ran him over when he was trapped in a corner of the pen. He missed the entire hunting season with a torn hamstring, and when I ran over to pick him up out of the dirt I was afraid he was dead.
Oh I didn't have to make a decision. My wife knows me. . .
She just told me about it. Said we'd been invited, but it was just days before I left, so she told them no, as she knew I wouldn't want to risk getting hurt that little bit of time before the hunt :)
I cut a solo hunt short once because my back went out while on the mountain . . . never again if I can help it.
I'd much rather have the memories of a Nevada elk hunt, successful or not, than the memories of a sky dive :)
You ain't no wuss bro, just smart. You can sky dive year 'round...elk hunting's kinda "seasonal".
You are not alone... However, it depends on priorities. For me that means no unnecessary risks before sept.. getting and staying in top condition so i can chase elk is a necessary risk.
Life is not a spectator sport...
Not a wuss, just smart. Smart people don't jump out of perfectly functional airplanes for fun!
one of my staff invited me to go skydiving once and i declined to go because i did not want to hurt myself two months before hunting season.
her and her friends plane took off the next morning and promptly nose dived into the ground and killed everyone.
i aint never goin skydivin.
Nevada elk tags are way to hard to come by to risk jacking up a leg the week before your hunt!!! I've never had any desire to jump out of an airplane either. I'm just like you, do all I can to be healthy for my hunts.
Oh, yeah, forgot this was a Nevada tag. I might live in a bubble until that hunt!
"Life isn't a spectator sport" I agree but... skydiving sure in the hell is! :~) I'd much rather my thrills last anywhere from 7 to 12 days in the woods chasing elk than a few minutes falling to my possible permanent demise. I'm a boots on the GROUND type of guy!
Me to I would never jump out of an Airplane unless its about to crash I'm a number 1 wuss when it comes to that' I had a buddy that drew a unit 9 az archery tag and he fell off his horse and broke his arm 5 weeks before the hunt started
"I'm more afraid of illness than injury. you have not lived until you catch a bad cough from someone's sick kid a week before elk season.
little kids are disease carriers... "
Straight Arrow is dead on with that!
When my buddy and I got dosed with kid goo courtesy of his wife two years ago, it was brutal. I love my kids, but if any of them sniffle in the couple of weeks before the season, I'm spraying everything and everybody with bleach and then putting on a hazmat suit.
If it's someone else's kid that sniffles, I might scream like a teenage girl in a horror movie and run away.
There are worse things than skydiving.
Did plenty of jumping out of these low to ground. I was a Navy Corpsman (medic) with the Marines & had to treat way to many injuries & theseguys are the MOST FIT of any human alive.. GO ELK hunting & "forget" the jump. Your no wuss.
A badly sprained ankle cost me a really cool looking black bear (light tan, with four brown "socks"). Long story short, basically I had to track the bear up the shear face of a mountain (DIY hunt) - very similar to goat hunting, but with a little more vegetation. It would have been border-line too dangerous with two good ankles. I had to give it up, after trying for two days (sought medical care after day one), as the ankle got worse and worse. Still makes me angry/disappointed to this day (for several reasons).
Ditto on those little germ factories (kids)!
I coached hockey for 34 years and the most toxic waste site around is a locker room full of mites and squirts...the little spuds could be tried on "war crime" charges in regard to biological warfare.
Bantams and high school aren't so bad. But those little eco-terrorists would damn near kill me at least once a season.
I got my revenge on the little beasts though...I possessed the ultimate payback weapon...the dreaded whistle. In the words of the late, great Herb Brooks; "AGAIN!!!"
It's good to be the king :^)
I don't blame you. :).
I did 25yrs in the Air Force never had to jump!
Have fun on your hunt!
the bigger question is who gives a rip what their sister in law thinks of them. I'd say that would make you a wuss more than not jumping.
You are not a wuss Bake....you are an elk hunter!
My wife's cousin is a wounded warrior...USAF combat controller. Three purple hearts and an Air Force cross.
His right leg is "dead" from the knee down from damage incurred after his 3rd purple heart...shattered hip from gunshot wounds, and nerve damage. He was medically retired as a result after 12 years of service.
Anyway, on the morning of his retirement ceremony he decided to do one more HALO jump. I wondered how he was gonna land on that bum leg? He landed in the Atlantic Ocean with a huge smile on his face.
Amazing young man!!! A warrior for life. Total respect!!!
Underpants full of excrement is the worst type of mental injury. You might never recover.
As Greg said - this is a nevada elk tag. No question it should be your entire focus right now.
You are wuss! :) It really depend how you are going to jump. If you are going to sit through a long training course and training session and jump by yourself then I would say don't do it as you could get hurt. If you are going to do a tandem jump with an experienced skydiver then I say do it. I have jumped quite a few times and now when I jump I go solo, but the first 5 or 6 times I jumped tandem and it was a blast, you also get to go up a lot higher and actually experience a free fall that way. I jumped from 12,800 ft the first time and it was incredible. Shawn
You are a SMART Wuss! I hope all is well in Eastern MO Bake! I'm live outside Boulder, CO now. Hope you make it out here sometime. Jordan
Jumping out of an airplane.....fork that! I get all the free fall I need when my truck goes over the top of a hill. :)
Elk hunt 1
Sky diving 0
Enough said.
I have jumped out of a perfectly good airplane. Not a prob.
Just today I was up in elk country checking trail cams and tree stands with Aaron Johnson and I stepped over a blow down and got my ankle and shin all twisted up in branches - down I went. Came close to really doing a number on my lower leg.
If it's gonna happen it's gonna happen. I'm gonna live for today. Not tomorrow.
If elk hunting were to make me have the urge to want to jump out of a plane- I would stop elk hunting !
Yep... a smart wuss. Come summer I watch every step and I guarantee you none of those steps are out the door of a perfectly good airplane..
I don't need to jump out of a plane for a thrill. Climbing into a ladder stand is enough of a thrill for me, and a lock on... whew. Not to mention climbing on the roof.
Missing elk seasons SUCK, I'd be depressed missing a Nevada elk hunt, hell no.
Not chicken, smart.
It's funny to watch people's reaction around sick people. Unless you wipe down everything from the shopping cart at Cabelas or Basspro to the handle on the pump at the gas station, you're exposed more than you know.
I baby myself before hunts. I do not want to risk anything that would ruin a hunt.
I don't think you're a wuss for not jumping out of a plane. I do think you might be starting your taper a wee bit early though.
My daddy told me not to ever get any higher than picking corn and no lower than digging taters. I'm trying to do what he said.
You're not a wuss. You're an elk hunter.
Yes but your a Live Wuss.
I was going to Idaho to hunt with a friend who lives there , already sent my gear out to his place, was going fly out. One week before i was to leave i was working on some tree stands when i decided to climb up into one of my stands to trim some branches , as i started to saw one off something buzzed by my head, i looked up and saw a paper wasp nest with a whole lot of pissed off wasps flying straight at my face, i threw the saw down to fight off the wasps stinging my face, the next thing that happen was i was waking up on the ground. Fell 20 feet. I snapped a bone in my foot and fractured my ankle , very lucky that was the extent of my injuries, didn't go on my hunt but learn to look for those wasp nests after that, and be more careful leading up to a hunt.
I'm thinking win-win here.
Go ahead and do the jump on the first day of your hunt. Have your friends and wife jump with you INTO YOUR HUNTING AREA. Have bow in your hand, arrow on the string.....schedule it as a tandem jump. At the very least, as you get close to the ground, you'll have seen all of the area where you'll be hunting. At the very best, you can shoot your bull as the experienced skydiver that you are tethered to, flies you right over the elks head, setting you up for the equivalent of a tree stand shot at a wapati!!!
Before jumping, make sure that the batteries in your GPS are good. Once you have landed, offer to guide everyone back to civilization AFTER they have helped you pack out your elk.
I think you made a smart decision. That close to your hunt you have more important things to do. In 2011 just before a bear hunt, my wife and her friend made an appointment to do their first jump. Later before their jump I decided to do it as well. But that was a bear hunt over bait, you walk several hundred yards and sit down for a number of hours. Elk hunting would be different, you best not twist anything or you'll be camp cook and chief dishwasher. However I would make sure I did the jump afterwards, because its one of those things in life that's neat to have done at least once.
Dan
I have jumped, and there is NOTHING like it in the world!! You should do it after your hunt though. I am also kinda weird when it gets close to hunting season, I stay away from people, I don't push myself quite as hard.
Go Hunting, then Go Skydiving! And don't forget the hand sanitizer!!! LOL!!!
Scar.
As others have said, you can jump anytime but NV elk tags are a rare occurrence. Set your own priorities and screw anyone who disagrees.
Your smart for not jumping out of perfectly good air plane . Who cares what sister in law thinks .
The difference between "in laws" and "out laws" is that outlaws are wanted. Enjoy that elk hunt.
After seeing my buddy break his toe right before the Season twice in a row, and gobble Advil just to get through it, yeah, I think about it right before the Season.
My Wife went skydiving with a couple girlfriends last Year, I told her "have fun, Babe"!
I get my thrills on the ground, with a 700 pound beast screaming in my face!
Best of Luck, Jeff
I'm not jumping out of a perfectly good airplane for any reason. EVER!
When I started racing, I quit skiing for exactly the same reason Bake noted. I didn't want a skiing injury to mess up my racing.
After posting yesterday I went out in the dark parking lot to activate my InReach SE and start learning how to run it. On the way I stubbed my left toes on a raised paver next to the stairs down to the parking lot and tore the top off my 2nd from the left toe right from the toenail down to the pad. Karma much? FORK! that hurt. Hope it heals quick as I have a scouting trip planned next weekend.........stuff happens but no reason to invite it.
Lol. I was totally thinking the same the other day. I, too, am watching everything I do and being extremely careful. I couldn't imagine injuring myself and losing my chance at an elk hunt after waiting so many years.
She's going through a midlife crisis,ignore her.
She's 25, I hope it's not a mid lifeguard crisis :)
People who call others wusses for not doing what they do are generally doing what they do in order to prove to themselves and others that they're not a wuss themselves.
For instance, there's two types of rock climbers: The kind that spend a lot of time rock climbing and the kind that spend 1000 times more time boasting about the climbs they've done and "plan" to do. These types are found in every walk of life.
Maybe she's just talking chit and that's ok, most people do that and it's all in good fun. But trying to shame someone for not doing something that isn't their passion over something that is, is laughable. I would guess that someone who would do that probably doesn't have a passion in their life that's as important as what bowhunting is to avid bowhunters. I feel bad for them.
awesome autocorrect Bake!!!!
NO thanks on the sky diving.
Do any scouting yet? My archery deer tag starts in 3is weeks also.
You ARE a wuss, just accept it and move on...
--Jim
I was raised around planes, flew em and at one time had my pilot license.
Never even crossed my mind why anyone would jump out of one that wasn't on fire and still had both wings.....
The ONLY way I'd ever jump out of an aeroplane is if it were on fire and heading towards earth.
Otherwise you'd better have a socket wrench or a blowtorch to disconnect/cut that part of the plane off that I'd have a death grip on in order to get me out of the door.
There was a thread started that went over some of these similar issues. I believe it was something along the lines of "your fears" or "what do you fear". So... I wouldn't jump
Yes, Jim thinks you're a wuss.
I'm with JTree you are a wuss.
Sorry Bake, couldn't resist it. Hope things are going well.
I thought JT fell off the face of the earth. Hey Jim!
Jim is loaning me a spotting scope, so he can call me whatever he wants :).
The rest of you can kiss it!!!!!!
:) :)
Just good sound thinking and common sense in my opinion...
There's a reason life insurance companies charge higher premiums for people who engage in dangerous sports....... such as skydiving.
I'll take your elk hunt, even if it means I have to be called a wuss or much, much worse.
I'm with Woods Walker! : )
SDHTR x 2. My Dad was a paratrooper with the 11th Airborne in WWII and one of my brothers was one with the 82nd. I asked both of them why they never did any sky-diving after they got out of the service and they both answered, "Why would I jump out of a perfectly good airplane?".
Yep jumping is way over rated after 207 jumps (static line)Id much rather stay on the ground and hunt and thank god my knees still work. I did get paid $150 a month though. You are no wuss just smart for not taking any chances before your hunt. Good luck!
You live once. The problem is, you die once as well.
This weekend I wouldn't go in the water at the beach in Galveston. I could think of too many reasons it was too risky. This time of year I wash my hands every time I pass a sink just so I don't get a bug between now and then. Hand sanitizer in my pocket the whole month of August. I won't donate blood in August either because it takes me about 5 days to get my stamina on the treadmill back. I won't walk through the house in the dark for fear of stumping a toe. Everything I do is run through the 'can this screw me up' calculation.
We might be crazy but we are not alone!
An hour south of here two twenty year olds died over the weekend. Shoot malfunction. First jump for one of them.
I'm playing ice hockey tonight! Beer league baby, there's a lot of crazies out there, but I find the more paranoia you have - the more likely something is to happen!
Live life like it's any other day and it'll most likely stay that way. Live it in fear and you'll prob have a reason to be scared.
Seems to me like the people that are most worried about getting sick get sick first and so on and so on. Watch me come on this thread tomorrow with some guy that rode me into the boards head first...
Recently I've done a few things that I thought would give me an adrenaline rush equal to or greater than drawing my bow on an animal and shooting.
Neither whitewater rafting or an F16 flight did it.
I think sky diving would be close, may have to try it.
Good luck on your elk hunt.
Your not missing much, I jumped 2 times once in the 80's and once in the 90's. 6 jumped that day 1 guy tore his knee all to hell when he landed. I have absolutely zero wish to do it again. It takes a special kind of crazy to jump out of a perfectly good airplane. I think people refer to it as young and dumb. I am now old and dumb, just not that dumb!
I think you are spot on with your decision. It only takes 1 jump to go wrong and you could end up with needing two knees at the same time. Ask JayG about that!
If I drew a once in a lifetime elk hunt, I would looking over maps rather than jumping from a plane. That's my way of living life to the fullest.
Guy hit me in the back of the calf on a slapshot in warm-up yesterday lol, It's a throbber - guess I deserved it! lol No idea what he was doing though :/
I have jumped out of a plane. If you are the kind of person that can do anything you tell yourself to do then it will come up short of the excitement of a bugling bull coming into your set up. If you are forced to jump out of a plane it may be a close call.
From: Bou'bound Date: 15-Jul-16
the bigger question is who gives a rip what their sister in law thinks of them. I'd say that would make you a wuss more than not jumping.
AMEN! :)
You are a wuss if you care what your Sister-in-Law thinks. Man Up Boy
Wait a minute, Did she double dog dare you to jump? She may have a claim if she did.
Weeeeeellll, playoff game last night. Bruised my hip pretty bad, but worst is I've either fractured or simply strained my ribs says the chiropractor. Really doesn't matter which as there isn't anything you can do, but I sure hope it's just a strain. Elk season started today, and I guess I deserved it for my comments above. Definitely won't be holding the weight of the pack on my hips this year!
My first day is supposed to be 6 days away, and I will be going. I may be very uncomfortable.
Ya'll are a hoot!
They jumped yesterday. My sister-in-law said it was awesomely terrifying, and she liked it, but she won't do it again :) :)
I wouldn't mind doing it someday, but definitely not less than 6 weeks before a hunt :)
Fortunately, I'm so freaking busy trying to catch up at work before I leave, that I hopefully won't have time to get myself hurt doing anything
Good luck this year everyone!
Good luck yourself, brother. Post pictures.
Lol! I don't blame you! I was letting my son ride the horse the other day, he asked, "Aren't you gonna ride dad?" My answer, "Nope, I leave for Colorado in a week!"
Too busy at work isn't good either. I got so stressed last year before I left working like 18hr days in the office to get ready before a caribou hunt I nearly snapped my back and had to call the chiropractor for an after hours visit the night before I left...it ended well but don't do that either!!!
