I kind of concur. I occasionally have to go up on a “cherry picker” boom lift even though I’m scared shitless. The boom controls in the newer ones are smoother and less jerky than the older ones but even then the slight bobbing and shaking of the basket on the end of a spindly boom make me feel very uneasy as I raise/extend the boom and drive/steer the unit into position; the fear being proportional to my height. Once in position where I need to be, and I begin performing the task I went up there for, the height doesn’t bother me at all, even if looking down.
It’s kind of what going to the dentist for me is like. I’m tense and uneasy, but when it’s over I get that “that wasn’t bad at all” feeling, and yet the next time I have to go, even though I know it’ll work out, I’m still uneasy.
Yeah, I had friends who went ice diving once. And I do mean ‘once.’
They took inexperienced spotters who had no idea what a normal amount of time under the ice should be. But that didn’t matter, because they also didn’t use a guide line. They saw open water a few hundred feet away and figured they would just surface in that spot.
What they didn’t realize was that there was a levy hidden under the snow/ice between their diving hole and the open water.