BASE Holloween Horror Story
It was 2 nights before Halloween 1983 when 3 guys named Phil, Rick and Kevin decide to finally hit a 700' tower crane in downtown Houston. That night, there were no goblins about, but little did Smitty and the bunch realize that in two more nights, it was going to be Hallows Eve. On the fabled night, Oct. 31, surely the goblins were about and were mischevious. Smitty and Rick asked Kevin if he wanted to rape the old crane one more time just like beating the banshee at her own game. We all know how much BASE jumpers love to dare the reaper, even if it's politically incorrect to admit it. This is especially true on the night of the dead, Halloween when the spirits, the ghosts , and even the trolls in Norway become restless. Kevin, smarter perhaps than Rick and Phil, declined our invitation as he had already beat the beast twice, and in those days, we didn't do BASE jumps every week like today. So, Rick and Phil go ahead with the infamous ground crew, Joyhgc1( in case you never knew, it stands for Joy harrison ground crew 1), parked a half block away, we go up the B, climb out on the crane. It was Rick's 33rd BASE jump and likely over 100 for Smitty. Well, I volunteered to go first. It was the first BASE jump in which I felt truly comfortable with fairly little conscious fear. On exit, I said to myself, "your're about to have the most fun in 3 seconds you can have". Then I exited, (40 inch open vein pilot chute in hand) and started counting. Ground was to hit at a about 8. In those days, we wore skydiving rigs, mine an old wonderhog 2 with a 7 cell crusair. Round 23' tricon for reserve. I counted 3, let the PC go, and kept counting to 6 while smoking. I knew the old gremlin was on my backpack and the pilot chute was stuck. I reached in with left hand, pulled the reserve and at the same time, broke the burble on my back so the pilot chute took off and the reserve snaked around the main as it was opeining. Had 2 and one half left endcells open. Spent the next 4 seconds getting about one more cell open by pulling the reserve lines down from the main. Put my legs together, kept my knees bent, had all kinds of thoughts and then hit about 50 mph. I was on my back, no pain. I got on my elbows and saw my right tibia sticking through my jeans and both feet pointed in different directions. Took the walkie talkie, (old times). off my belt and called Joy and said, "I think you better hurray cause I think I broke both my legs". She delayed until Smitty jumped since she saw me go behind a B with a streamer and didn't want to get there first. From the ground, I saw Smitty go. He landed by me and I gave him my gear to hide while Joy brought the car to us. We went to the hosp and 6 months later I was out of the wheelchair.
FOLKS, let that be a lesson to you. It's OK to defy the reaper, but remember, on Hallows EVe, the Reaper has a lot of allies out there so BE CAREFIUL.
Rick and Joy
BASE Numbers for SALE, But Nick, you already sold yours so we took your name out of the book. Let us know the new recipient of 194. LOL.