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anyone know where i might find some video footage of him?

I know Tom A has some.

Any chance of it being sent my way, or better yet, posted here? Seems like it would have somewhat of a historical significance here and many would be interested in seeing it.

By the way, if it's only in VHS format, I could digitize and post it if I have access to a copy of the tapes.

oh shit... watchout... here come the flames...

seriously though
I think mrs boenisch is protective of the film...might be nice if you contacted her to talk to her. Just an idea

Oh... I'm sorry. I was not aware of this. I was just curious...

I hate to be pedantic but I see this a lot:

Boenish Boenisch

Normally I wouldn't care but this name is almost Biblical.

g.

Edit to add:

Now I'm not sure if my statement above is correct.

I first read about Carl in 1977 where his name in print was Boenishce.
He is credited in The Gypsy Moths and many other places as Boenisch.
Yet the signature on my BASE card reads Boenish.

...so I'm not sure what to think.

g.

Pipe down Gaz!

>>Normally I wouldn't care but this name is almost Biblical.<<

No worries, I get Gawd an God mixed up too.

It's spelled Boenish.

It's pronounced Ba-nish.

We called him Carl but his family (his mom and sister) called him Ronnie.

He made his first parachute jump (a S/L) at Lake Elsinore in 1960 when he was 21.

He went to work at Hughes Aircraft as a young electrical engineer but gave it up, to the disbelief of his family, to pursue skydiving photography and cinema.

He filmed and produced most of the in-house skydiving classics that defined the sport in the 1960s-70s-80s. Masters of the Sky and SKYDIVE are only two of many.

Carl developed a reputation as willing to photograph anything out of the ordinary (and the goofier the better) as long as it had to do with hang gliding or skydiving. Attaching a cat to a cheapo? Call Carl Boenish.

This predisposing trait led him to Yosemite in 1975. His friend Rich Piccerilli was doing a hang glider - skydiving stunt and while Carl waited in the meadow with his cameras he looked up at the sheer granite walls that surrounded him. Especially El Cap.

Carl knew that Pelkey and Shubert had already jumped El Cap in 1966. But now we had square parachutes and freefall flight was a bit more defined and the more he looked the more he thought and things began to click.

It took Carl three more years, until 1978 to be ready, after several recons trips to the top and a crew was in place. Getting the jumpers together was initially tough. In 1978 even Carl Boenish asking you if you wanted to jump off a cliff with a parachute would give you pause. While there already was a long history of fixed object parachute jumping history it was virtually unknown in the skydiving community of the 1970s. And most of those past jumps, like the Dentist who jumped in the Italian Dolomites in the late 1950-60s, where unknown or celebrated.

The significant moment came on the last recon trip in early spring of 1978. Carl lowered himself over the rounded brow of El Capitan on a rope until he could see straight down. His crew waited out of sight up top until they heard a yell. And Carl Boenish exclaiming, "Eureka, we can jump here!"

The music on Carl's first El Cap footage (and some of his other stuff) is direct from the dead composer society. Bach, Beethoven – the guys you ain't got to pay. He did however team up with a young Hollywood composer named Mike Curb. Mike went on to do a lot of legitimate work in Hollywood, but when you find your Dad's old VHS porno collection, all that corny music, that's Mike Curb. After the El Cap footage was in the can Carl swore the four jumpers involved to keep it quiet while he edited the film.

I was jumping at Lake Elsinore in 1978 and just came down from a dive with Larry Fatino, Tom Start, and Leo Orloskie. Something was different about Tom. I'd known him for about a year but something was up with him.

And I said so, "What's up with you?"

"Stick around tonight." He told me. "Carl's going to show a new film."

So I did and the rest (for all of us) is history.

Carl didn’t invent fixed object jumping but he showed us the way.

In 1979 Carl met Jean, who would soon become his wife. I interviewed her in 1991 for The Fixed Object Journal.

TFOJ – How did you meet Carl Boenish?

JEAN – I met him in April of 1979 during my first year of school. A friend invited me to a party and Carl was there showing a film. It turned out to be SKYDIVE and it was really neat and he was showing it for the very first time. He was very enthusiastic and running around and I looked at him and he looked at me and . . .

In 1981 Carl started the BASE award system and Phil Smith got BASE number one while Carl received BASE number four.

Carl Boenish was killed cliff jumping in Norway in 1984.

He was a really cool dude . . .

NickD
BASE 194

Thank you.

I'm glad you're here.

I bet he was. Thanks Nick.

Thanks Nick, Carl was a Cool Dude. And just think, a guy who didn't drink alcohol but loved 108 degree buttermilk. How could he stay so cool jumping and filming with all the crazies at Elsinore and CA in the late 60's, 70's, into 80's. Amazing spiritual guy.
Rick