Re: [JimGuyer] Tom Manship
Although I've been reading this thread every day, my heart has been too heavy to post until now.
The first time I met Tom was several years ago in Moab. He only had a handful of jumps, perhaps around fifty or so. Myself, Tom, and two Swedish girls, Anne-Marie and Lena, hiked up together and jumped from Tombie. I took a liking to Tom right away. He was kind and very non-assuming of others. And I also found out that he was a sucker for pretty girls!
Four months later, I ran into Tom during a visit to Idaho. He had moved there for the summer just to jump, and I was surprised to find out that he had made 350 jumps since I had last seen him. We hung out together for several days and developed a friendship that would grow in the years to come.
Random memories over the last 3 or 4 years:
1) I remember the first time I climbed up and out from the Perrine. Tom stayed right behind me, calm and quiet, but was always there to lend me a hand if I needed it. Fearing that I was holding him up, I encouraged him to go ahead, but he insisted that he always went slow and the pace was perfect for him. Like others have posted here, I knew he was lying through his teeth...and was just making sure that I was ok.
2) On another random trip, I rolled into town and called to see if he wanted to grab dinner. Tom was irritated because he had a downwind landing and "jammed his ankle pretty good". I went over to the Holiday to check out his ankle and sure enough, it was definitely broken. Finally accepting the fact that he needed to medical care, Tom decided to head home to Ft. Worth to get it checked out. I tried to talk him into going to the hospital in Twin, but he insisted on going home first. So I helped him load up his car and the next morning, he drove 24 hours straight through to Ft. Worth (with a broken tib/fib!). He hobbled into the emergency room and calmly said, "Excuse me, I've broken my leg. Can you put it back together please?" I called him the next day to see how he was doing and when I asked him about his leg he said, "Aggh, I'm not thinking about my leg -- I'm thinking about the pretty doctor that fixed it!
3) Earlier in this post, someone posted a story of Tom's cameo in their video, where he said, "Oh, you want a count before I go? Ok. One" and then he jumped. Well, here's another one: There's a video floating around out there that is classic Manship. On the video, there are about 10 or 12 jumpers standing around on the bridge, all geared up and ready to go (Tom is one of them). Most of the jumpers are young jumpers, with just a few jumps under the belt. Marta is there, and the jumpers are asking her all sorts of questions and gleaning information from her. So the video shows Marta talking for several minutes, with all of the jumpers giving her their undivided attention when all of a sudden, Tom loudly declares, "I can't take it anymore, I gotta go!" And he proceeds to charge to the rail like a rabid animal, and rolls over it completely out of control. The look on everyone's face, and their gasps, were absolutely priceless (they thought Tom was some random old man with only a few jumps under his belt). Tom did an out-of-control barrel roll after catapulting over the rail, but quickly righted himself to a rock-solid position, followed by a dead-on opening...
4) Tom's declaration of his new invention for the BASE community, "GAP Packing" (Gravity Assisted Packing).
It's interesting to note that he made over 500 jumps with that pack job, with no noticeable degradation in heading performance...
5) One day we were hanging out when some up and coming BASE jumper asked him if he ever got tired of jumping the Perrine. Tom said, "Are you kidding me? I love this place. That's why I wake up and do it every day". Tom Manship loved BASE...simply for what it was. It was obvious that BASE made him happy.
6) Some months later, someone asked him the same question and he responded with, "BASE jumping is like vitamins. I take 4 a day."
7) No matter how hard I tried, I never made Tom's first load of the day. I'd get out there at very first light, only to find his hands gripping the rock wall, pulling himself up from his first jump of the day.
8) With that said, take a moment and imagine jumping and then hiking, 3 or 4 times a day, every single day, for 5 months in a row. Now really imagine it...
Tom Manship was born from the experience. One of the things that BASE has taught me, is to live and love today, not tomorrow. Live your life unconditionally...and always let people know what they mean to you...now, not later.
Seven weeks ago, I was visiting the Carolinas and paid a visit to Tom. We shared stories for a few hours and then a 300ft exit point at 1am. When I left that evening, we exchanged smiles, and I told him that I was lucky to have a friend like him.
I'm glad I did.
Bryan
