16 minutes watching people

[sharp_stick]

thinking about and sometimes jumping off a 10 meter dive platform is strangely fantastic.

I went up and down the stairs to a 10 meter platform four times before finally making the jump. It doesn't look that high from the floor but damn, when you're looking down at that water it seems like a mile. It doesn't seem like much but the rush when you finally do it is incredible. I found it even harder than bungee jumping.

https://www.nytimes.com/video/opinion/100000004882589/ten-meter-tower.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

[braddy]

1. In jump school, the 35 foot tower is considered the height of fear.

[sharp_stick]

2. I can see why

it's just the right height for some reason to make your knees go weak as one of the jumpers in the video says.

[braddy]

4. Since I'm afraid of heights, all the stuff that we did with planes, jets, and helicopters, and

the rappelling from helicopters and off buildings was especially stimulating for me, and doing a lot of jumps in one day was very exhausting, I assume because of having to deal with the controlling of that fear of heights.

[Iggo]

3. High school. 1975. I climbed up the first time, turned and started walking back to the ladder...

Last edited Thu Feb 2, 2017, 01:35 PM - Edit history (1)

...big burly football player who was next in line said, "No. You're going."

He was right. I went. No hesitation. Just turned and ran off the end of the board, scared shitless.

[sharp_stick]

5. I could have used him

I was pretty tired after going up and down those stairs four times.

[dugog55]

6. it is perception

Any time you are looking up, say at a roof eave 10' high, your eyes are somewhere 5-6 feet closer than the ground. When standing on the edge of the eave, your eyes are 5-6 feet higher that the edge of the roof. the 10' high roof eave looks 4'-5' away from the ground, but from the roof the ground looks 15' away. Big difference.

[Iggo]

7. That's a goddam excellent observation!

[sharp_stick]

8. I had never noticed that before

but it explains quite a bit.

You can see a difference of 6 feet over the 30 or so at the top of the dive tower but standing on a bridge for bungee jumping or in a plane for skydiving makes the difference too great to be subconsciously noted?

[Nitram]

12. thanks. I never thought of it that way befoer. Explains a lot.

[Orrex]

9. I could do it no problem

Of course, they'd have to drain the water and clean the pool afterward, but no problem.

[panader0]

10. When I was 17 I jumped off Waimea Falls on Oahu.

I was told it was 81 feet. My buddy and I took our dates for a swim. We had
seen guys jumping from the falls in surf movies, so up we climbed as the girls
watched. When we got to the spot the pond at the bottom looked quite small.
My buddy just went to the edge and jumped immediately. Then, I HAD to jump.
Scary, but it was OK.

[Nitram]

11. I love the adrenaline rush of jumping off a 30-foot cliff into a lake.

It looks like nothing from the bottom but impossibly high from the top. I bungee-jumped 141 feet in New Zealand from a bridge over the Kawarau River. Twice. Fantastic rush!

[world wide wally]

13. Alternative fact #321:

Heights off the ground increase by 15% every year after the age of 40

[mackerel]

14. The interesting part is our perception of their fear.

[keithbvadu2]

15. Bungee jump. Looking down 130 ft was a hell of a lot more than looking up 130 ft.

Bungee jump. Looking down 130 ft was a hell of a lot more than looking up 130 ft.

When you are 16, you'll jump 20 ft off the roof into a quarter inch of snow. (slight exaggeration)

When you're 50, you wouldn't jump off the roof into a 20 ft snowbank.

[svpadgham]

16. The last diver.

I was worried about the last diver not making the full rotation.