The Sky is the limit: Ready! Set! Go!
Why would one jump from a functional airplane?
I guess to me it meant so many things once I could convince myself that I can land SAFELY. It meant stretching my limits, testing my will, becoming one of the few who dare to try the sky, face my fear square in the eyes, overlaod my sensual modalities, put my physiology into the test, enjoy a canopy ride with unmatched view, ...
At least if one is compiling a todo list before they retire, I will give 5 stars for skydiving.
I also highly recommend purchasing the video of your jump, it is not far from your favorite action movie, most importantly I learned what I was doing right and what I should have worked on like I should arch more in the photo on top for a balanced and safe fall.
How I did overcome my fear:
The hardest part for me was dealing with my fear, although I preconditioned myself prior to skydiving. I identified 3 stages of panic: when the door opens, free fall, and when the canopy is pulled.
As the saying goes "throw your heart and your body will follow", was a strong and useful motto.
While taking off, it took about 15 minutes to reach an altitude of 13,000 ft , I was doing breathing exercise most of the time, it helped keep me balanced physiologically.
The fact that the door was open for few times while the airplane was ascending (someone had farted, and everyone in the plane went laughing), reduced the association between the jump and door opening.
During free fall, I preconditioned myself to scream thinking that it will reduce anxiety and help me breath. However, half way during free fall, I realized that this was not the best thing to do. I was falling at 120 miles an hour, but air was pushing hard on my body and face giving a sense of weight and direction while lessening the sensation of free fall. Breathing was not a problem at all.
After pulling the canopy open, there was another adrenaline rush, but it lasted for a short period, and mentally denoted the closing of the most anxious falling experience, giving some sort of relief.
Skydiving and your heart:
A typical heart beat variability across first 90 seconds of skydiving for an experienced person (novice have an average of 170 bpm) is illustrated in the plot below. The four main sharp increases are right after the door opens, jump, canopy open, and sharp turns while steering.
I guess to me it meant so many things once I could convince myself that I can land SAFELY. It meant stretching my limits, testing my will, becoming one of the few who dare to try the sky, face my fear square in the eyes, overlaod my sensual modalities, put my physiology into the test, enjoy a canopy ride with unmatched view, ...
At least if one is compiling a todo list before they retire, I will give 5 stars for skydiving.
I also highly recommend purchasing the video of your jump, it is not far from your favorite action movie, most importantly I learned what I was doing right and what I should have worked on like I should arch more in the photo on top for a balanced and safe fall.
How I did overcome my fear:
The hardest part for me was dealing with my fear, although I preconditioned myself prior to skydiving. I identified 3 stages of panic: when the door opens, free fall, and when the canopy is pulled.
As the saying goes "throw your heart and your body will follow", was a strong and useful motto.
While taking off, it took about 15 minutes to reach an altitude of 13,000 ft , I was doing breathing exercise most of the time, it helped keep me balanced physiologically.
The fact that the door was open for few times while the airplane was ascending (someone had farted, and everyone in the plane went laughing), reduced the association between the jump and door opening.
During free fall, I preconditioned myself to scream thinking that it will reduce anxiety and help me breath. However, half way during free fall, I realized that this was not the best thing to do. I was falling at 120 miles an hour, but air was pushing hard on my body and face giving a sense of weight and direction while lessening the sensation of free fall. Breathing was not a problem at all.
After pulling the canopy open, there was another adrenaline rush, but it lasted for a short period, and mentally denoted the closing of the most anxious falling experience, giving some sort of relief.
Skydiving and your heart:
A typical heart beat variability across first 90 seconds of skydiving for an experienced person (novice have an average of 170 bpm) is illustrated in the plot below. The four main sharp increases are right after the door opens, jump, canopy open, and sharp turns while steering.
Skydiving and EEG:
There are not too many EEG studies recording skydiver brain activities. Some possible reasons are due to the short duration of free fall (less than a minute per jump, not enough data to analyze) and high artifact level (if eye blink is a serious noise source, consider falling at 120 miles per hour and what it does to your body). Some studies, on the other hand, have shown that memory recall is not at best in free fall mode, while others compared brain activities for participants while sleeping before and after they jumped and concluded that both Novice and experienced jumper undergo some anxiety the night before they commit to skydiving.
There are not too many EEG studies recording skydiver brain activities. Some possible reasons are due to the short duration of free fall (less than a minute per jump, not enough data to analyze) and high artifact level (if eye blink is a serious noise source, consider falling at 120 miles per hour and what it does to your body). Some studies, on the other hand, have shown that memory recall is not at best in free fall mode, while others compared brain activities for participants while sleeping before and after they jumped and concluded that both Novice and experienced jumper undergo some anxiety the night before they commit to skydiving.