The Guru With His Dreams

[TomAiello 26]

This is the first quarter (or so) of what I’ve written about Dwain. I’m not sure that I’ll share the more personal (and to me more important) parts.

BASE has lost it’s greatest artist. The BASE community has lost one of it’s greatest leaders. We have lost a friend.

Dwain was our guru. With a mad gleam in his eye, and dreams beyond the reach of other mortals, he inspired all of us--and pushed himself beyond what we thought was possible.

Dwain was unquestionably the greatest BASE jumper on earth. He had mastered every sub discipline of our sport. He had made the lowest freefalls, had pushed the longest tracks, had flown a wingsuit in the tightest spaces, had performed the most complex aerials.

Dwain was more than an athlete, though. He was also a master technician. He knew the gear, inside and out, backward and forward. He knew how to use it, and he understood both it’s limitations and it’s potential.

Over the years many people have asked me for advice about BASE. What they often did not know was that I just as frequently turned to Dwain. I was repaid for answering basic questions with answers to my own questions. For every “how big a pilot chute do I need at 300 feet?” or “which lines do I put in a tailgate?” that I answered, Dwain would give me pages of explanation for “why does wind effect openings in opposite directions on static line and freefall deployments?” or “why do pilot chutes hesitate when fully extended, and what can be done about it?”

I cannot count the times that I presented Dwain with a (to me) seemingly impossible problem, and had him respond with such an obvious, simple solution that I felt like slapping myself.

But none of this is the Dwain I will miss most. Someone else can train to do those jumps. Someone else can learn that knowledge. Someone else can answer questions. No one else will ever be Dwain.

-- Tom Aiello

Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com
SnakeRiverBASE.com