Surely we must have a few recreational jumpers here too. Who are ya?
In another thread I was asked about how many jumps I had. I decided to make a new thread about it in my cousin's honor. He was an awesome skydiver, among many other extreme sports and activities he enjoyed.
Today would have been Bob's birthday. This one's for him!
USP40 I've only got one so far but it was AWESOME!! Jumped out of a Kingair at 13,000 with my brother, my Cousin Bob (on his very last jump), and two of Bob's brothers.
It was a very special occasion.
We were doing it together to spread Bob's ashes over one of his favorite jump zones here in NC. He was a well known skydiver with over 5,000 jumps, an AFF instructor, and made his living filming others enjoying the sport. He got into skydiving after all his other hobbies got to be too slow for him....some of these were, motocross, martial arts, windsurfing, high diving and trampoline (both of which he held world titles for)...then he made the mistake of getting hooked on Base Jumping.
He made his last jump alone from a 1200 ft radio tower in Ft Meyers Fla, where he had logged over 500 jumps (day and night) and had his own key to the elevator. It was his favorite spot and he lived nearby. When they found his logbook, in his pocket and under his open chute covering his body, in it were a lot of recent jumps where he had pulled below 200 ft. He was always the daredevil. He had started combining his old way of life as a champion high diver, with his new favorite sport. I've got a video his buddy made of him doing a breathtaking jump off the New River Gorge Bridge in '97. His was the last jump of the day, to get maximum attention (he thrived on that), and did a triple forward somersault with a one and a half twist, going into a fourth somersault where he finally threw out his chute about a hundred feet or so off the water. This was on "Bridge Day" in WV, the only day of the year when it's legal to jump off the bridge with a parachute. You could hear everyone in the gorge GASP....then burst into raging applause and yells. That's how he lived! On top of the world! He got to die doing what he loved and I'm sure he had zero regrets. The whole Pro skydiving world mourned his death and he was written up in Skydiver magazine.
Anyway...back to my jump story...
We had waited in the hanger for over an hour watching the weather channel and hoping for a break in the really bad thunderstorms. There was lightning hitting all around and it was raining like hell! The drop zone and school had been closed for the day and reserved for us, to let us have a service there for Bob. The hangar was full and my entire family had come from all over to be there and watch us jump. Louisiana, Texas, NC, VA, SC, Fla, Cali, & Tenn.
We had a service inside with pictures of all Bob's wild adventures and good times. We all toasted him with his favorite beer, Coronas with lime (of course those of us about to jump waited until we were back on the ground
), and celebrated his life, like he would have wanted. My brother, myself, and two of Bob's brothers would be making their first jumps that day...we hoped...in fact, it would be my first time going up in a plane! I had sworn long ago that I wasn't about to fly without a chute on my back, and that I wasn't about to jump out of a plane unless it was with Bob by my side....Well this was my last chance.A break came in the clouds, ahead of the additional approaching storms, and the voice came over the intercom to SUIT UP and hit the tarmac...now! We had about a 30 minute window. I was told later that we would have NEVER been allowed up in those conditions, had it not been for this very special occasion.
So up we went!
There we were 13,000 feet up and the jump master said time to get out now before the storm clouds completely close up. I was like...dude this is cool, can't we sit up here and look around a little longer!..lol.
Bob's brother Brent, climbed outside the door to get ready to jump alongside us all and film it. He had Bob's camera, and was wearing Bob's favorite chute on his back. He also had a container with him carrying Bob's ashes. Then we all piled out one after another. DAMN that first step's a DOOZY! Of course all us noobs were doing tandem jumps so we each had another guy strapped to us with an extra big chute. We still got to steer it and land it though.... Once we all got stabilized, and were able to get as close together as safely possible, and Brent let the ashes go! WOW! There I was finally up there in my cousin's world doing what he loved...with him on his last trip to earth. After the ashes dispersed we all separated and went through some maneuvers... learned how to turn around left, then turn around right, got used to how to steer ourselves in the wind. WAY COOL! It was just like flying! I freefell for 65 seconds but it seemed like a lot longer than that. I think I pulled the rip chord somewhere around 5,000 feet. Then it was amazing. I remember of course, the big sudden POP, then looking up and seeing that wonderful sight above us. We were safe!....well not quite yet...but we were under a nice big canopy and had slowed WAYYYYY down...lol. I think terminal velocity is about 110-120 mph, and doing that straight down for over a minute, with your cheeks flapping is a RUSH!! I'll never forget it! It was amazingly quiet all the sudden....we could all hear each other whooping and hollering in the clouds that surrounded us (partially from excitement but also to keep track of where everyone was in the clouds.
Well like I said, there were clouds all around us and we had fog on our goggles from the moisture. It was closing up and it was time to find a safe place to land. From the time we jumped out it looked like we were jumping into a huge bed of cotton, you couldn't see the ground anywhere.
My tandem master said "hey see that little hole way down there?" (pointing to a small hole in the clouds that looked like a shot glass way below us...lol) He said "we need to hit that and find a field!"..."let me know if this bothers you...", before I could say "what both..." he grabbed one of the steering cables and pulled it down sharply, putting us into a serious corkscrew and we started dropping FAST.
I remember him saying "you ok?"...and I was like "HELL YEAH can we go faster!?...lol." The adrenaline was really flowing still! Well we dropped about a thousand feet in no time and pulled out of the corkscrew, just in time to hit out mark, the hole and came through the cloud deck about 800 feet off the ground. We had JUST enough time to steer it into a field where there were no trees and the power lines were a few hundred yds away. That was cool because I got to do that part, as well as the actual landing. He just said to wait until he gave me the signal, and I pulled the brakes. Well he must have anticipated me hesitating or something, cause I pulled it right when he said, swooped, and found myself perched about 15 feet off the ground...lol.We took a pretty good dive then and lucky for us both I knew how to tumble and roll! It was nice to have him and his emergency chute on my back to use for a pad...lol. Got untangled, unhitched from each other, and stood up and yelled "HELL YEAH!!! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! That was for you Bob!!!"
I'll never forget one second of that day for as long as I live! It's still just like yesterday and that was back in May of '98.
It took us a while to all find each other. We had all split up and landed miles from the drop zone and nowhere near each other. We all just gathered up our chutes and walked to the nearest road, then waited to be found by the truck they sent out to get us. The jump masters had radios so it didn't take too long. We got some pretty wild looks from people who's pastures we had landed in and had to walk out past their houses...
I'll never forget the ear to ear grins that we all had when we each climbed in the back of that pickup for the ride back to the airport...it lasted for a few more days I think! The family was a little worried at first when the plane landed and they asked where we were...and they didn't know! hahahahahaThey were pretty happy to see us! Especially Bob's Mom! I'll have to try and find some more pics from that day. I've got a few here that aren't very clear because of the conditions, and the fact that the dumbass who I hired to take photos and video of my whole experience, loaded his damned camera wrong and took a bunch of pictures of nothing
(The old school 35mm forget to wind your film quite enough blues...) so I had to have them drop me some stills off my video. At least that came out good. I used "For Those About To Rock" from AC DC, for my soundtrack. It's probably too long to upload to photobucket....I wonder??It's awesome!
I highly recommend for everyone who likes a *RUSH* to try skydiving at least once...you will either love it or hate it!
Here's a few pics til I can find some better ones....HAPPY BIRTHDAY BOB!!!
Me fixin' to take my first plane ride....
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Longest step I'll ever take....whew!
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Now the fun begins!
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My brother Scott havin a blast!
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And this is Brent pointing at Bob as his ashes are released...wow.........so long buddy....
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usually on a hot sunny day) and a few times in a more civilian setting (Paragon parachute club ran by a few members of the 10th SFG at Ft. Devens). That grew old real fast when you were responsible for packing your own chute after making sure all of the cockleburrs were picked off it first (plus the freaking wind deciding to pick up right at the time you had all the all the panels stacked together correctly). 
