Landing out in downtown Copenhagen

I wanna tell you a story about the coolest alternate landing area I ever had to use, which as a consequense ended up embarrasing the Royal Danish Guard - yes the guards who look after the Queen...

Helicopter tandem exit over Copenhagen. Photo by: Juan Mayer

During the 2017 Swoop Freestyle FAI World Championships I was operating this cool little urban DZ in the middle of the Capital of Denmark - Copenhagen. We took tandems up in an AS350 helicopter from a nearby naval base and landed them in the middle of the city, in a park.

We had done quite a few tandems there already, and were up on the last load for the week, and were headed to the competition afterwards.

Tandem masters who read this will know that once in a while you get a client who is just as broad across the shoulders as they are tall, and of course weigh a bit more than usual. Well Well this was my man! Nothing I haven't done before. So up we go.

The first tandem went out and I opted for a go around in the helicopter since conditions were tricky.
Pilot gave me a thumbs up and I moved us to the door. The client´s feet went out over the skid of the chopper, and I tried to check the spot. This was the moment I realise that if I leaned out to check the spot, we were going. He was heavy, and shoulders and head was blocking my view. The helicopter-door was fragile so I couldn't hold us back by grabbing the door. So I looked at the pilot to verify the spot. Through the noise he gave me a "spot is just where you want it cheif" kinda look and I thought to myself: "Well he has been right on the mark the whole week", so there we went.

Swoop Freestyle FAI World Championships in Copenhagen.

I tell you, tandems out of a helicopter are fun! Air speed is low, so not much relative wind to fly the exit on. And because of the feet on the skid, there is a bit of extra energy and momentum. So we did a couple of rolls before being belly to earth. As we rolled out and I was waiting that extra second to make sure we were stable before throwing the drouge, the client´s shoulders now sat a bit lower and I could look down. At the same time as my hand reached for the drouge, I thought to my self "What is Amalienborg (The Queens palace) doing out here by Assistens Kirkegård (Cemetery)?!"
My head was doing calculations to try and make sense of the picture. My full-face helmet blocked out all noise as that sinking feeling hit my stomach, you know the one you get when you know something is really wrong.

In freefall with a tandem over Copenhagen.
Intended LZ is the park in the bottom left corner Photo by: Juan Mayer

Now I have never lived in Copenhagen, and never spent too much time there, but one of my greatest interests besides skydiving, is history, and therefore I know quite a bit about how Copenhagen came to be, including the different castles, palaces, churches and old defence structures. And looking down in freefall, something just didn´t add up. After about 10 seconds of freefall I opted to pull the drouge release, because I just realised that instead of flying a jumprun of 270 degrees, he had flown 180, and I was now way out of the wind sector.

Now of course when setting up a DZ in the middle of the Capital of Denmark, I planned a few outs that were also approved by the CAA, but one thing is to plan, another thing is to be in the situation.
Decision time was getting close, and I was looking at a few options for alternate landing areas.

Rosenborg castle where the Danish crown juvels are kept.
Basically a fancy jewelry box.

I quickly ruled out the big square in the middle of the Queen´s palace for obvious reasons. One being that I wasn´t really dressed for the occasion, and I thought it would be rude to intrude like that without an invitation. Secondly, it´s all concrete. Also the armed guards and lots of other people could make the whole scene messy.
The Botanical garden was better, but a lawn going uphill with trees leaning over it made it less desirable. Doable but complicated. Right next to The Botanical garden is Rosenborg Castle and military base - the castle is where the crown juvels are kept, and the base is where the Queen´s Royal gaurds live when on duty. In front of the base's main building is a big lawn. It is all behind fences and armed guards, but ideal for landing a 330 sqft. tandem with a heavy wing-load.

So I told the 2 meter tall-and-the-same-across-the-shoulders client in front that there had been a slight change of plans concerning our destination. I would have loved to tell about how when the castle was build, it was out in the country side, and the city since has swallowed it up. And that the crowns kept at the castle are closed on top and has a globe or cross above it to symbolize that only God stood above the crown, and that since 1849, no monarch has been crowned in Denmark - but I was a tad too busy planning the landing around building, masts, trees and guards to act tour guide.

The arrow marks the spot.

The tandem canopy I was flying had a rather flat glide, so a deep sink surge over the line of tall trees was in order to park us on the lawn and coming to a stop before the 4 story tall building. Also on the lawn was large steel plates covering a temporary ditch running across, cars, busses and trucks parked on the sides along with approximately 100 soldiers attending a first-aid course. I was thinking to myself that the CPR they were practising as we came in to land was probably not going to be needed, but just in case - nice to know they were prepared.

However as we swooped across the lawn and came to a stop around 5 meters before the steel plates, I realized that they were in no way prepared for attack from above and behind. Out of all the soldiers attending the first-aid course, the men guarding the entrance of the base, and officers and other men walking around that day, not a single one saw us, and for around 2 minutes nothing happened. I would have thought that 10 seconds after touchdown I would have to answer to at least two rifles/men and our untimely arrival could have been the plot of an action movie where two bad guys come to steal the codes for the nuclear bombs.

After I had gotten my clients´ first reaction from his pretty unsual first skydive, I shut off the cameras and picked up the canopy. Then, finally I saw the inevitable - an angry and fast walking officer coming our way. He asked - not so kindly - what I thought I was doing, and if I knew where the h*** I was. I proceeded to apologise and tell him that we didn't mean to intrude, but that I ran out of options. Either we landed on his nicely placed lawn, or in through the front of one of the many busses on the boulevard just outside the fence. Since we did not look like the typical stereotype terrorist, he was inclined to believe us and started calming down, the bloodvessels in his temple slowly looking less like they were going to burst. After 5 minutes the guards finally came over. I guess they wanted their share of excitement too. First think they ask for is ID...
As always a small casual talk about skydiving can turn around most bad vibes, and after explaining to them what we were doing, what went wrong and about the AFF programme, they left me, the client and our new friend the officer. He insisted that I delete all pictures and video (bugger) and proceeded to help me call my brother and my girlfriend who were both doing ground-control at the intended landing area. They were worried sick! Turns out seeing a family member disappearing behind towers, embasseys and a million other tall and big buildings in the middle of a busy capital is not something that calms you down!
Happily reunited and about to present my ID which of course I do not usually jump with, we could leave. As we walked through the gates, I couldn't help but think that a piece of advise was in order. So I told him that they might need to train a bit more on the situation where the enemy attacks from behind.

I'm not saying this is how he looked, only that I felt our visiting
hours at the military base was coming to an end with the last remark.

Skydiving and world exploration - The ultimate jumps

In my years as a skydiver I have gone to a LOT of boogies, and hosted some too. I have also travelled around the world to some places that most people haven't been to. This article is not exactly about boogies or travelling, but has some connections to it. Because there is jumping, and there is travelling. It's the extreme way of combining these two, and get to skydive in some amazing places around the world.

Let me start of by saying that the price for these jumps might not be realistic for most skydivers. But with the right sponsorship or as part of a project of some sort, it could be.

This list is not ranked in order of awesomeness.

Everest Skydive

Imagine being at the top of the world. Literally. Everwhere you look lies the highest mountains in the world. It´s like standing in the halls of great gods, and feeling very little and insignificant, and very big and significant at the same time. This is Khumbu region of Nepal.

Photo by Paul-Heny de Beàre

This skydiving expedition usually takes place once a year in November, and starts at the arrival in Kathmandu - the capital of Nepal. The whole team travels together by plane to Lukla and then does a 4 day trek to Syangboche where the jumps are to take place. DZ altitude is 12.500 ft! It´s so high that an acclimatazation day is needed to adjust the body to this high altitude.

In the skydiving package you buy, two jumps are included. These jumps will be from a helicopter, and exit altitude will be around 23.000 ft. From this altitude fully specialized oxygen gear and a special rig with a larger canopy is provided (trust me! You want a super large canopy when landing at 12.500 ft)

Now what´s so special about skydiving here? The views and being part of something truly unique! You get to jump out of a helicopter and look not only at Mount Everest (8848m), but also Cho Oyu (8188m), Lhotse (8516m), Nuptse (7861m), Makalu (8485m), and my favorite Ama Dablam (6812m) and many other peaks and glaciers.
You get to jump in a truly rural and highly technical enviroment, and at the same time experience a country so full of exciting culture, and the most heartfelt and humble people, that you can not return from this expedition without being forever changed just a little bit.

Prices:
Solo:
Two jumps at Syangboche: 22.000 USD
Three jumps at Synagboche: 25.000 USD
Tandem:
Two jumps at Syangboche: 25.000 USD
One jump at Syangboche and one jump at Ama Dablam DZ (extended expedition) 30.000 USD

www.everest-skydive.com

 Skydiving on the North Pole

The stats for this one pretty much sums it all up:
Jump plane: Russian jet powered strategic airlifter Ilyushin Il-76 (Russian C-17 counterpart)
Jump destination: Geographical North Pole -  Top of the world - Home of Santa and so on.
Accomodation: Barneo Ice Base located on the ice cap.

Exit from probably the biggest jump plane you will ever get close to

This one is spicey! Tom Noonan who jumped here says "it´s the closest you can get to outer space, and its actually easy to get to".
Imagine the second the ramp of a humongous airlifter opens up and you look out, and all you can see is flat ice. Like a different world. Now jump out of this big bird at 140 knots into the cold. Deploy the parachute. You look down and the actual top of the world is marked with a smoke granade. That´s where you land. Not many people get to go here at all, and much much fewer get to arrive by parachute.
Now is the time for celebration. Dance around the world in a single minute, or if you dare, you can dive in to a hole in the ice and freshen up after the jump.

After this, the team will be transferred by helicopter to nearby Ice Base Barneo, a Russian build camp, where you stay over night (in 24h daylight) in cozy heated tents, and can enjoy food, drinks and good company. Every year the base is rebuild from the ground up due to the drifting ice.

Next day a russian transport plane will pick you and the team up and fly you back to Norway where it all started.

Canopy flight above the artic ice cap. Smoke marks the North Pole

For this one, time might be short. The ice cap is getting thinner and smaller every year, so if you want to do this skydive, now is the time. 5 to 10 years from now, it might turn in to a water jump.

Prices:
Solo: 37.000 USD
Tandem: 77.000 USD
Tandem: Add video jumper: 40.000 USD

https://skydivehigh.com/north-pole-jump/

Skydive Antarctica

Exit from Twin Otter above Union Glacier, Antarctica

You want to be part of a very exclutive club of people? Look no further! A fair amount of people have skydived on the North Pole by now, and, although much fewer, still a good amount of people have joined the Everest Skydive team on an expedition.
Few people have ever gone to Antarctica, much much fewer have skydived there. We are probably talking less than 20.
The way to go is by Chile. From here you will get on a plane from Punta Arenas to Union Glacier on the least explored and most remote continent on the eart: Antarctica. Here it isn´t a flat ice cap as on the North Pole, but a landscape of big mountains, glacier and ice.

Antarctica is the highest, driest, windiest, and most supposedly most beautiful continent on earth.
On your 7 day round trip you will get to do two skydives out of a Twin Otter as well as hike, ski, and bike around as you explore Union Glacier. Average mid-season temperatures at base camp range from 10°F to 25°F (-12°C to -4°C )

Prices:
Solo: 28.775 USD
Tandem: From 60.000 USD

Get in touch with me for more info on wanakakim@gmail.com

Sponsor feature

The Wiley X Omega with Kryptek camouflage pattern

Wiley X  EMEA is headquartered in Denmark, and produces eyewear.
Unlike most eyewear brands skydivers tend to go for, Wiley X has the advantage that all their products are bullet proof. Literally! Since its establishment in 1987 Wiley X has been a global leader in the protective eyewear market supplying military forces and law enforcement personnel with top of the line ballistic eyewear.
Realizing the need to protect your eyes also during leisure and sports, Wiley X is the only premium eyewear brand who tests its entire sunglass collection to both ANSI Z87.1-2010 & EN.166 safety and optical standards. And with skydiving´s high speeds, both in freefall with other peoples bodies swooshing close by, and during landing, the last thing you need in an accident is glass in your eyes. Also, I dont know about the rest of you, but my ass tends to seek towards my sunglasses, meaning that I often sit on them by accident. And they will hold up to that too!
But not only do all their products live up to these safety standards, they look real good too!


I exclusively wear Wiley X products for all activities. And I am happy to know that whether I'm at work doing tandems or video, HALO jumps in cold climate, trekking in the mountains, or kayaking, my eyes and my glasses are always protected.

 

Go to https://www.wileyx.eu/ for the European site, or www.wileyx.com for US and rest of the world.

Don't be a skydiving sheep (baaaaaah)

The skydiving sport is growing fast - not just in numbers but in options. Never before have we had this many different disciplines, this many destinations and this wide a spectrum of gear to use. This sport has endless options to choose from.

So. Many. Options!

Yet young skydivers will still most likely end up with the same brand of container, canopy and same main discipline as the majority of the jumpers at their DZ, or in their group of friends or their main coaches/instructors for no other reason than it's what everybody else uses. And that is a shame. In fact, I have been looked at funny when one day I decided to "step out of line" on the usual canopy progression and buy a new main canopy from a company not known in the country I'm from. It almost seemed like someone had decided for me that my canopy progression should be to follow the line of canopies from a certain company that EVERYONE was jumping. I was just jumping what felt right for me, and I happily did around 2000 jumps on these canopies before I became a devoted NZ Aerosports fan.

In the country where I am from, CReW/CFS (canopy Formation) Has been a dead discipline for over a decade. Nobody (zero) were doing it, partly due to the fact that everybody was busy freeflying and swooping like the next guy. But isn't it a bit of a shame to not explore the virtues of flying not just in close proximity under canopy, but actually making formations, grabbing your mate's canopy with hands and feet? I think it sounds really cool, and so did a small group of skydivers from a club in Denmark. So they went to a DZ in the Netherlands to get some training. It is my hope that this small group will bring a little bit of life back to the CReW discipline in Denmark the coming years. There are lots of other cool disciplines to explore than just freeflying and swooping. Acro-wingsuiting and accuracy to mention a couple.

If there is anything interesting to you that is different to what everybody else is doing or gear they are jumping, don't be afraid. Have a talk to someone about it, and feel your way forward. Want to learn how to do CReW? Reach out and get coaching. Want to Skysurf? Get coached and get on with it. Wanna jump a new rig nobody has heard of? Check with the local rules of your country and if at all possible and if it is safe for your experience-level - have a go at it. Always check the rules and common sense first ;)

Doesn't this just look awesome?

Diversity on the gear market is awesome because it's good for competition and development. If the biggest canopy manufacturer didn't have any serious competitors, they would never have to develop anything new.

Diversity in disciplines is awesome because we as skydivers develop new techniques and knowledge that contribute to higher safety and more fun for everyone. If everyone only did hop 'n' pops and swooped, the tandem videos would surely suck, because nobody would be able to fly their body in freefall.

Diversity in lives are awesome because if everyone were the same, we would never go forward, and nobody but you can tell you what the right way to live is. We as skydivers know more about this specific subject than many others.

So hey! Don't be a sheep (Baaaaaaah)

  

Sponsor feature

Larsen & Brusgard Altimeters is a Danish company that dates back to the 1970s when two skydiving buddies Niels Brusgaard and Mads Larsen found out that it was so much fun to hook up in freefall and turn points, that forgetting to look at the altimeter was actually becoming a thing!
Luckily they were mechanical and electronic engineers, and soon found out how to make a small elctronic device that could sound an alarm at a pre-set altitude.

To speed things up in building the instrument, it was easiest to "borrow" grandmother’s wall barometer, put a switch, a battery and a loud speaker module on it. By means of adjusting the distance from the aneroid to the switch, the altitude when the warning should sound could be controlled.
The first (bulky) prototypes worked as planned and a small production series of 10 units was immediately sold to the local skydivers.

Later the same year, Niels and Mads, being members on the Danish National 8-way team went to participate in an International Championship in France and brought several more prototypes with them. They also got sold immediately!

Now it was time to think big! The prototype had to be made into a nice looking sports instrument. Soon the company LARSEN & BRUSGAARD was founded and the first real production series of the "DYTTER" was started. This model sold very well for many years. New models (Pro-Dytter and Pro-Track) were developed. These instruments could sound more than just one warning signal and among the features in the Pro-Track was the possibility to store data during the freefall for PC download and analyzing after the jump.

The range of products today feature both visual and audiable altimeters suchs as the Stella, Altitrack, Viso II and Ares II (All visuals) and the Protrack II, Optima II+, Quattro and Solo II (all audiables) plus a big range of military products.

I personally jump the Stella and Ares II for my work jumps (Tandem and video). For HALO jumps and other speciality jumps requiring more ruggedness I use a Altitrack and the Ares II. In my helmet is a Protrack II audiable.
 
The Stella is the perfect option for someone who needs something simple that will just tell the altitude on a scale like an old analog altimeter. For tandem masters, AFF instructors and students/novice jumpers it's perfect. You get an altitude reading immediately, and do not have to process a two-decimal number in your head.

The Ares II is the newest generation of digital visual altimeters. It incorporates durability and superior engineering from military technology to the civilian market. It has scratchproof 2 mm. thick hardened glass, and is waterproof (3ft/2hrs) It keeps a record of your last 200 jumps, and is just an overall bomb-proof altimeter for freefall and canopy piloting.

I choose to jump with L&B products because of the superior customer service they are known for, and the testing and development that goes into every product they put out. It is a company I feel I can trust, and I would never hesitate to recommend it to anyone, a brand new jumper with 5 jumps, or a colleague with 25.000 jumps.

I'm a raving L&B fan. But in line with this blog, I encourage you to look at every option on the market of alties. In my opinion L&B is the best out there.

 

Skydiving - stop comparing yourself to others

Hi guys and girls - It's me again.

Let me tell you a story real quick.
I was sitting eating my lunch one day between loads. I had had some great AFF, tandem and video jumps - just doing my thing. But one thing had bothered me since load one. I had to let a student repeat a level, altough the student really needed a bit of confidence, and the last thing she needed was to be told that what she had just done wasn't good enough.
We had a bit of a talk, because she was being real hard on herself. She would look around on all the others at the DZ that day, and feel like a complete failure. She was the only AFF student there that day. She was so concerned that all the others would think she was not good enough.

FYI: This is not the guy I am writing about in this post

So I think: "Is that really fair"?

Let me tell you this: Although I have around 6000 jumps, I am no big freefly talent. In fact I was not even a very talented skydiving student. I had spent my whole childhood looking at skydivers, but only made it through to my license by being persistant.
But what I do have is a lot of skydives because I bought a camera and started doing video for 4-way teams, then got my tandem rating, then moved abroad and started skydiving for a living.

It would be unfair for an AFF student to compare his or her skills to mine, because I have a 14 year 6000 jump head-start.

But she was sitting there. Pretty sad and feeling like a failure. So we had a little talk.
I won't go in to too much detail with this.

YOU are the best at being YOU!

But the jist of it is: If you compare yourself to others all the time, that being an AFF student comparing yourself to your instructor, being an AFF instructor comparing yourself to a freefly world champion, or a hobby photographer comparing yourself to a Hollywood film-maker, in my opinion you are doing yourself a disfavour. 
You need to take a long hard look at yourself. Everything you do, you should do because it makes you feel good, and because you want to. Not to make others look upon you with favour, and you should not track your progress and skills by comparing yourself to others, because you are not them, and they are not you. In fact no one is better at being you than you. And if you start to try and keep up with someone who are not at all like you in what ever way that might be, you will loose yourself in the progress. LIFE is not a competition. competitions are - and that's a whole different thing.

Skydiving should be about having fun, pushing the limits of what YOU think YOU can do - not your friends, family or Instagram-followers. That doesn't mean that you shouldn't brag about it - because just the fact that you hurled yourself out of a plane is cool!

I know an AFF student once who kept comparing himself to me, and let's be honest - he wasn't great. Like looking at myself in the beginning. But no matter how poor skills in freefall, he was awesome in so many other ways that totally deserved respect, and so are YOU!

What I bring to the table

I've written it earlier, and I will write it again: I am no freefly talent. BUT: I get by being an AFF instructor, tandem instructor and videographer + I do make one hell of a tomato-sauce. We all bring something to the table :)

 Sponsor feature:

NZ Aerosports - makers of the Icarus Canopies and Daedalus Project are based in New Zealand. The offer a full range of canopies, from student, intermediate, expert to the fastest of the fast!

NZ Aerosports know that experiencing flight is NOT boring. Flying your canopy should be fun. It should be wild and pure, a breath of fresh air, for the love of the outdoors, a daring adventure, allowing flight and freedom to take over. They believe there is a space with no limits, where being the best matters, simply a place to develop the most cutting edge wings on the market. This place is driven and action focused. This place is about fun. This is their factory.

Icarus Canopies are for today’s skydivers, no matter what their experience. Icarus Canopies are for nomads and explorers, jumpers who follow the sun at home and abroad. Icarus Canopies are for those tech-savvy, fun-loving people who love to push limits. Icarus Canopies are forever giving the experience of pure wild flight. 

I personally jump Icarus Canopies because the company touch something within me. Its about the soul of the people who work to build my parachutes. The Kiwi way of thinking and doing things. Also - they are just awesome! 
If you have any questions about any of their products, just ask me - I'll be happy to help :) You can also get in touch with them through their website.

What music and skydiving have in common

Thor Heyerdahl (1914 - 2002) was a Norwegian adventurer and ethnographer (systematic study of people and cultures) known for sailing the raft Kon Tiki 8000 km (5000 miles) from South America across the Pacific Ocean to the Toamotu Islands.

Before this, and before he was actually interested in ethnography, he and his newly wed Liv went off to the island Fatu Hiva in the middle of the pacific. They went there to escape civilisation, and live from the earth without any contact to the world outside. They stayed on the island for one and a half years. Thor Heyerdahl and Liv eventually found out that the paradise on Earth they were looking for, didn't exist.

In one of the books he wrote about this particular expedition, he says that humans only invented music because of the need for something to give the senses the change of moods and impressions. Something that humans used to get from living in the forest and being one with nature. When we left nature to build up civilisation, the natural powers that kept us sane were lost for good.
We tried to replace it with music.

For me, skydiving does the same as music. Like walking in a forest or listening to music, skydiving sharpens my senses. Have you ever walked in a deep forest for hours or days, and then suddenly you start noticing things? Things that have always been there, but hidden to your senses only to reveal itself when your senses open up to it.
As I'm writing this blog, I'm listening to my favourite music for relaxation on repeat. After listening to it for an hour, I start noticing new instruments, passages and levels in exactly the same way.

When skydiving, you notice things about yourself and your surroundings you didn't know existed. But only if you allow yourself the peace and repetitiveness.

To open up the senses and see, hear, taste and feel what is REALLY there, you need to let go of emails, tasks at work, shopping lists and drama, and just BE. Just like you need to let go of the same things to really hear ALL of the levels of music, and all the birds in the forest.

To many skydivers, jumping becomes rutine, and we start to focus on other things. When working in the industry, in freefall your focus is sometimes to smile to the camera while taking a tandem client, sometimes about how to get time for lunch, or the DZ drama. Your senses can't hear the music, and this is a problem.
Firstly, your head is not on guard to eventual dangers, but in this post I will focus on the other problem: For most of us, skydiving is mainly about opening up senses, and if we loose that, we will slowly forget why we started to skydive.

One of the things that makes up my passion for skydiving is the passion for seeing, hearing, tasting and feeling all that is there, and just like the different layers of music will be there whether we hear it or not, our passion for skydiving is never lost, sometimes we just can't hear it.

I fell victim to this a couple of times, and it turned out the fix was right in front of me:
Go out and re-open the senses. Do some jumps where the focus is on hearing, tasting, seeing and feeling. Do a fun-jump where you forget about forcing a smile, forget about lunch and all the DZ drama, and forget about turning points. Just get out of the door with no other purpose than having fun.

Hear the music, and see the whole forest

Greek myths and skydiving wisdom

 Greek myths and skydiving wisdom

My name is Kim Bo Larsen. I'm 30 years old. I have about 6000 jumps to date, and am a Tandem instructor, AFF instructor, videographer, Safety & Training Advisor amongst many other things.
I'm a bit of a history-freak, and a bit of skydive-freak also. I have written blogs for a DZ before. Mostly safety tips. This is my first try at a blog just for myself. I'm not trying to sell anything at the moment. I just have time on my hands. I love thinking, writing, and first and foremost I love skydiving. At the moment I have no real direction to go with this blog. I just write whatever comes to mind. The first idea for a post came from the name of my blog - Icarus and Deadalus.

The story goes that Daedalus and Icarus were trapped in a labyrinth, that Daedalus himself had built in Crete. He had been asked to build the labyrinth as a result of an ugly mess he found himself in after first killing his nephew Perdix, claimed inventor of the compass and the saw, by throwing him out from the Acropolis in Athens.
He then fled to Crete, where Minos and his wife Parsiphae ruled. The ruler of the seas, Posidon, had given Minos and Parsiphae a white bull for the purpose of sacrifice. Minos decided to keep the bull instead. Posidon punished him by making sure that Parsiphae was attracted to the bull.
Daedalus, being the craftman he was, was asked to build a wooden cow in which Parsiphae could mate with the bull. As a result, the Minotaur - half man, half bull, was born.

Minos wasn't too happy about this, and asked Daedalus to build a labyrinth from which the minotaur couldn't escape.

When Prince Theseus of Athens came to Crete as a human sacrifice to the minotaur, Ariadne, daughter of Minos and Parsiphae fell instantly in love with him. Trying to save her love from being sacrificed to the minotaur, Ariadne too went to Daedalus for help. She asked him how Theseus could master the labyrinth and escape. By securing a thred of flaxen to the entrance, he went in, killed the minotaur and escaped. Theseus and Ariadne left Crete and went to Athens.

Minos - more than annoyed by the situation trapped Daedalus and his son Icarus in the labyrinth.
Daedalus went straight to work. Day after day he gathered wax from beehives and feathers from birds. When finally he had gathered enough wax and feathers, he set on to build two sets of enormous wings. He carefully instructed his son to not fly too high or too low. Flying too high would cause the wax to heat up and melt. Flying too low and he would risk being swept up by the sea.

Daedalus and Icarus left the island. The wings working well. But Icarus didn't pay attention to his farther. He flew too close to the sun. The wax melted and he fell to sea and drowned.

Now that was quite the story. And as with all Greek myths, there is something to take away and learn from.

What can we learn?

First of all, when when you are given something that you have asked for, you owe it to yourself and others to use it as intended. Minos asked for a bull to sacrifice.  The bull was so beautiful that he decided to keep it. Posidon then punished Minos by making Parsiphe fall in love with the bull.

When you decided to make your first skydive, there was a fire in you. A fire in your heart and a urge to try something exciting and life-confirming. You have asked for an oppotunity to learn how to skydive. The reasons can be many.
Maybe you wanted to fly wingsuits - maybe you wanted only to be part of this great community that we have, or maybe you wanted to pursue the podium in one of the many desciplines.
No matter what the reason was, many people burn out because the fire has not been cared for, and they stopped being true to their heart.
Sometimes I've been close to burning out, and thats when I pursue something new and exciting. One time I got a new rating, one time I moved to a new country. Another time I co-funded and opened a DZ - and at the same time brought new ways of thinking, operating and marketing the sport to the country in which I was. Because my reason to start skydiving was to seek new adventures, and go in different directions than everyone else.

What ever you do, try to remember what brought you to ask for the oppotunity to skydive. Find that fire and nurish it. If it has gone out, blow on it, relight it and nurish it. Don't hide it, and don't forget the reason you lit it in the first place.

Secondly - The most well know perspectivation is, that as humans we should not fly too high and risk melting the wax on our wings. He had been warned by Daedalus that this was dangerous, but had to push it too hard, thus ending up dead. - I think we can all think of a situation where this fits in skydiving.

As skydivers we should always try and do better on each jump. And so did Daedalus. When trapped in the labyrinth he invented the wax-and-feather wings, pushing the limits but with precaution. The young Icarus was eager to follow his dad. He was warned. Fly too high and you wont suceed - but also: Don't push hard enough, and you won't get far. Icarus pushed too hard.
This is the classical example of the young skydiver who is in too big of a hurry, downsizes too fast and ends up hurting himself. He had been warned by the people knowing what they were doing and proceding with caution. But we seem to forget the message that is also there: If you dont push hard enough, you won't get off the ground. Seek new challenges, push your limits, but find the balance. Too much is bad, but too little is no good either.

So to sum it up: Be true to your original desire to skydive! Pursue new things, push the limits, but be careful. Listen to the older generation... And have fun!