Basejumper.com - archive

Tom --

I sit here at my computer typing with enthusiasm, joy , and excitement because a freind of mine has just made his 1000th BASE jump -- an accompishment that few have ever achieved and few ever will.

I'll never forget the things I have shared with you:

- As I was packing my skydiving rig in Lodi, some wild-eyed guy said to me, hey, I think there's this jumpable dam in ____. No, I said. There's only one jumpable dam around here. Within a year or so, he re-opened this dam and has since made several jumps off of there...showing me that we should always have an open mind because you just never know...

- The excitement that surrounded your very being as you prepared to take off on your very first BASE road-trip...PD-235 in hand.

- That same excitement after you returned...17 BASE jumps later (give or take a few). A man who experienced much. His BASE #, a 4-way from the B____, a near cliff strike in Z_____, an antenna shared with Team Bodybag, first jumps from Tombie and W___ Street, and much, much more.

- The many local journeys we shared together. Gr___, B____ D___, NorthG___, and how about that time I called you up and said, hey, I'm going to jump Bi___ Cr___ tomorrow morning and you said hey wait, I want to join you. Well, you jumped No___ G___ at 2 in the morning and then drove almost 4 hours to huck that 260ft span with me.

- Oh yea...and the encounter with the CHP that followed. :-)

- Then there is the H___ D___ experience when your climbing buddy took a 150ft peel off of the slab. You dutifully got him down safely while the rest of us proceeded on and hucked the wall. Talk about not being selfish...

- And who could forget the SBASE Boyz? :-)

- And Vegas

- And Arizona

- And the rescue at the bottom of Mineral Canyon for a field-packed jumper...

- How about 26 days together in Southern Europe?

- Desperately looking for a place to stay only to stumble upon the grooviest little hotel in the middle of the French country-side.

- The "up-close with the yellow-line in the road" that followed later that night...

- The many people we met along the way. The Grandpa Dutchmen, the cool Italian friend in Milano, and the crazy Italian BASE jumpers that we rode with looking for food on a drunken night, and the randon person who said "Hey, is that a stash bag?" as we were trying to stealthily ride up a tram to 13,000ft.

Tom, I could go on for hours on end -- mainly because I have shared many an adventure with you. Adventures that I'll cherish for a lifetime and beyond.

With that said:

Here's to Tom! And to a Thousand more smiles my friend...

C-ya,

Bryan

Hey Tom, congrats on 1K jumps! May your future jumps be exhilarating & injury free! I look forward to the day we stand on the edge together. You gonnna be at BD or the Turkey Boogie?

bps: Drop me a note and let me know when you're gonna be in Houston again!

Congratulations Tom, i hope your still around for your 10'000th.


..of course, statistically you should be dead 10 times over now.

...My congratulation Tom for your 1000th jump !!! very nice target!!!

Italian Maury #726

Congratulations for Reaching 1000 BASE jumps.... so far.

Damn dude.

Thanks for all the input over this past year. You've changed some of my points of View on BASE and probably don't even know it.

Thanks for showing me the Body armor that allowed me to walk away from a botched extremely hard landing. ( I converted my toggles to Big Grab type before the next time out )

Tom dropped me off at the top of a Dam and sped off (ok.. drove away casually) just so I could experience a very spectacular jump. His rig was wet and I had one more packed dry one. We went out of our way for this and it was his suggestion.


Thanks for coming along and spending all those hours on top of the B waiting for the right time to jump.

The silly little S up north of me was quite an eyeopener. Tom walked down from this object because I wasn't up to the challenge. He was concerned that if I saw him do it, I'd change my mind after already saying no. We did the jump a couple months later when I was better prepared. I like it so much I had to go back.

We've only had a handful of jumps together but I took a lot with me.

Good on you Tom

Cheers

Tim

Congratulations Tom ! I hope I get to jump with you when I get into the sport. From where I stand right now, that's a remarkable number and achievement.

Tom,

Myself am not a BASE jumper, but you more than deserve these congratulations!!!

1000 skydives from an airplane is a milestone... but 1000 BASE jumps is a MILESTONE!!!

Blue Skies!

Nah...don't get me wrong, a 1000 BASE jumps is really freaking cool, but a MILESTONE is roughly a 5200' cliff.
AFAIK, Tom hasn't done that yet!


Congrats, Tom.
Sorry you didn't make it up my way last year like you were hoping to, but the door to the Emerald city is always open.
-Josh

Actually... a 5278.87139108' cliff

Blue Skies!

Tom,

Let's see... when did you start? Voracious comes to mind - and quite impressive.

I remember Earl once commenting that he didn't believe there would be more than 300 base numbers issued in this sport. Of course many others have proved him wrong. There was a time when 50 jump jumpers were masters. What a long way this sport has come.

Congratulations on breaking a grand! Going for two?Hope all is well with you; come see us.

Gardner

Nice one

You guys have all the fun in US and Europe!! I wish I was there!

1000 BASE jumps, wow. I'm still looking forward to my first BASE jump!!