Not a lot of people would know this, but it's always been my childhood dream to fly, but along the way, I personally made a choice to take up motorcycling instead of skydiving in the onset of my riding years.
Before my interest in motorcycling, I had already known that I was going to try skydiving, with the sole intent of eventually owning a wingsuit. Circa early to mid-2000's was when wingsuit really started to pick up some steam as an off-shoot of skydiving, and I had seen this is the closest thing I could do to actual human flight; it was never going to be enough for me to be flying something (i.e. a plane), I had to be the one flying.
I remember (then) having learned that to be allowed to own and operate a wingsuit, one must be a certified skydiver first, then have amassed over 500 jumps. I knew this and was intent on making that a goal. I had had a taste of what it was like to jump off a plane about two miles from the Earth, and reach terminal speeds as I plummeted, though strapped to a certified skydiver. Since that first jump, I had made a promise never to jump off a plane again strapped to anyone or anything.
Of course, right around the same time was when my interest in motorcycling begun and almost simultaneously erupted. It was a different kind of flying, but I was flying. While one can argue that piloting a motorcycle is a lot closer to piloting a plane than driving a car would, the reason that I feel a sense of flying on a motorcycle is because I am not strapped onto a bucket seat, inside a protective cage, just as you would be in a plane. Furthermore, unlike a plane and a car, every physical movement of every part of my body on a motorcycle dictates the way the motorcycle would move, just as a bird does, or how it would be in a wingsuit.
But I couldn't take up two inherently dangerous activities; it's already more than enough to worry my loved ones with either one, much less both. So I took up motorcycling, because the way I saw it, while flying a lot closer to ground, I wasn't plummeting towards it like I would in a wingsuit.
All's well that end's well, and at the very least I've kept my singular promise I made to myself about skydiving. I've never jumped off a plane again, because I wouldn't be able to do it by myself.
Rest assured though, it's not for a lack of desire.
