The Quincy 2001 protest jump

[billvon 3,118]

It was shaping up to be a pretty normal day in Tent 4. There were about a dozen people sitting on the couches, watching videos, and packing. Winsor had a group ready to go, and I was just starting to look for my next group. For the first time in four days, I wasn't sweating like a pig - a cold front had come through and dropped the temperature a good 20 degrees.
In front of the tent, I saw DJan talk to a tall woman and point me out to her. She wants to get on a load, I thought, and I looked around for two other people to build a four-way (our 'minimum' load size for experienced jumpers.)
"Hey, DJan said you organized naked jumps?" she said as she walked over. She seemed really angry. More like agitated, actually - something was definitely up.
"Uh, yeah. Last year we did one every day at 1 pm, but this year I haven't been doing them."
"Well, I really want to do one to protest what those cops did to my friend. Did you hear? They knocked him down and sprayed him with . . ."
"Yeah, I heard about that." About a dozen times, so far.
"So will you do it?"
"Sure. I'll make you a deal - you round up the people, and I'll organize it and deal with the aircraft."
"But that's the hard part, getting everyone together!"
"I know, but you know the whole police abuse story better than I do." Besides, I knew from experience that a woman has a much, much better chance of getting a group of people together for a nude dive than a man does. It just seems to work out that way.
"Ok, I'll be back at 2, and we'll do it then." Carrie (her name, although I have no idea if it's spelled right) walked off in search of fellow protesters. I made one more jump with a few people in the tent and then set off to deal with aircraft.
The issue with aircraft is twofold. One, you want to warn the aircraft people what's coming, especially if it turns into a formation load (unlikely here.) Two, you try to get an aircraft to yourself. If you end up with a 20-way, and they squeeze four more people on, those people often a) get offended or b) end up trying to video someone's crotch, which often bugs the person being videoed. I ended up talking to Larry Hill.
"Sure, if you get 20, you can have your own otter," he said.
"What about 18?" I asked.
"Well, now, 18's a little light . . ." That was OK with me. At least I had a target. Up to 12, we'd take the King air. 20-24 we'd take the Otter. 12-20 and we'd have to deal with some more people on the plane.
Carrie came back at 2 with about half a dozen people in tow. "These people also want to protest!" she said. "There are cops all over today, though. We might get arrested, but at least we'll all be in jail together, and people will hear about the protest." I doubted that we'd get arrested (or even noticed all that much) but who knows? The police had stated that anything we did in the planes or in the air was our business, so presumably the only thing they could get us for was the few seconds after we landed and before we put clothing back on.
People began to get restless. I gathered everyone around me and gave my standard nude jump safety talk, which is primarily how to fly, what to expect to feel, extra gear precautions, and tricks to take shorts and shirts with you on the jump. When I finished, we had grown to 11. Perfect! We'd take the King Air. Apparently, though, we were still missing someone.
"Yeah, Cory really wants to do this! She made the first nude jump out of the B17 yesterday," Carrie told me. Aha! Her again.
Cory finally showed up around 2:45, with a "Sorry - I pack slow" explanation. By now we had grown to 17, including some people with around 150 jumps. A nude low experience 17 way would be a disaster, so I asked Winsor and Anita to take the lowest-experienced 5 jumpers and do a 7 way. That left a 10-way, which I designed as a 4 way base with two 3-way hoops. We'd launch the "Quincy 4-way", an exit I normally use which is nearly bulletproof as long as I front float. Note that that's exactly where you _don't_ want to be on a nude jump, especially after the temperature has dropped 20 degrees. Oh well - I guess that's why we're organizers.
"OK, I need three fast fallers for the base," I said. To my suprise, Cory and Carrie stepped up. They fell like anvils, they insisted. If this was true, it was a good thing they were in the base, since women tend to fall faster (and men slower) when they're nude. We planned the dive and set up the exit.
Then it was time to change. The guys just changed in tent 4 - no one cared. When the women started to change, the cameras (of course) came out. The guys formed a circle around Cory so she could change, and even then, someone tried to sneak a camera in underneath our legs. Geez, haven't these guys ever seen a naked woman before?
We walked over to the plane, with Carrie doing a lot of yelling and cheering, telling everyone about the jump. This, of course, would ensure people would be out in the landing area to watch us land, but if she wanted that, well, OK with me. We got to the tent with 18 people (17 + video.)
"This is the nude load, huh?" the loader asked me.
"Yep. If you do have to put anyone else on the otter with us, please make sure they won't be offended by a bunch of nude skydivers." I figured most skydivers wouldn't, but an AFF student from Quincy might, and with my luck it would be the police chief's daughter or something.
"OK, no problem," she said.
We waited for a few minutes and then loaded the otter. Just before they took the ladder away, two tandems with video got in. Great. I leaned over and asked the TM "We're doing a nude load. Students OK with that?" "Sure!" he said. Well, I tried.
After takeoff we started the contortions. Getting shorts off was easy. Some of the women had worn shirts, and taking them off required removing the chest strap and doing a few contortions. I reminded people that everyone had to have a pin check before exiting, no exceptions.
Cory was sitting right across from me. She had gotten her shorts off, and was trying to rubberband them to her chest strap. She was having a little trouble. She struggled for a while, then took her chest strap off again. Hmm - we were at 10,000 feet, and would be on jump run in about 2 minutes.
"Hey, you need help with that?" I asked. I didn't care too much if she lost the shorts, but I definitely did not want the TM's to open the door before she got her chest strap back on.
"No, no, I'm fine," she said. She struggled some more, then started rethreading her chest strap. I couldn't see if she had gotten it right, since her shorts were now covering the strap.
The yellow light came on, and one of the tandem video guys opened the door. "Excuse me, I gotta check this" I said. I grabbed her chest strap and pulled it so I could see the fitting. It was threaded correctly. She glared at me (it was impossible to avoid touching some other things when I did that) but the idea of having a misrouted chest strap on a nude dive was very eerie, and I felt sort of responsible.
The tandems exited, and I climbed out in the front-float position. Our four-way took grips and I launched it. After a messy launch we got it stable (the Quincy exit works again!) and opened up to wrist grips. Carrie and Cory were screaming, and the guy across from me had a big smile on his face.
Then the first diver hit me. BOOM, and our side of the formation dropped. I fought my way back up just in time to see someone hit the other side. Fortunately, they didn't take it out either. The next two divers ended up in the wrong slots. Which was fine with me - if everyone stayed in the same patch of sky, didn't knock anyone out, and tracked off and opened safely, I'd be perfectly happy. Actually building the thing was a bonus.
I looked around, and saw eight people in. There was something going on behind me that I couldn't see - someone had a grip on my harness and was flopping all over the place. We broke at 6000, tracked for a good 15 seconds, then opened. About 20 canopies, no one super low - looks good.
Next I had to decide where to land. By the tetrahedron or the main area? The main area was now swarming with people (bad) but I couldn't resist the idea of watching a tall naked woman get into an argument with a cop. I landed in the main area and watched most of the other jumpers land there as well. Cory seemed to have forgotten her shorts (still on her chest strap, amazingly) as she walked around and talked to Carrie and the other jumpers. The cops were making themselves scarce, and no one got arrested.
End result was that we had built the 10-way (the two behind me claimed they were on) and Anita's group had built to about 5. No one got hurt and everyone landed safely, which is 90% of our job. I figured it had gone pretty well.
I saw Carrie a few hours later. "That was great! Thanks so much. That was awesome! We showed those cops they can't mess with us!" I didn't really think we had done that, exactly. But seeing how happy Carrie was with her protest, I figured it had at least done someone a lot of good.
-bill von

[freaksister 0]

Hey Bill Von, great post!! ROFLMAO!! You're a good writer! I laughed when I read your B-17 post as well!
I have a great picture of you and oh, I can't remember her name! A blonde girl, I believe she is the one who got her double falcon. Laurie!?! Yes I believe that's it...good pic. I
will try to post it here later!
I also got the landings of that nude jump on video! But no worry, I didn't zoom in on ya or anything. Now after reading your post, I know who the girl was that was jumping up and down and hollering in the landing area. That MUST have been Carrie! I did get a close up of Winsor, though!! hehe
See you guys next year, wherever that may be! I will probably hang out in the low-timer tent again because I like low-pressure skydives! Maybe next year I can actually make some more jumps with you guys! I would love to stay the whole ten days!
Hugs and blue skies,
Sis
I lust for the ultimate rush...

[billvon 3,118]

>I have a great picture of you and oh, I can't remember her name! A blonde girl, I believe she is the one who got her double falcon.
>Laurie!?! Yes I believe that's it...good pic. I will try to post it here later!
Valerie, if she's the woman I'm thinking of. I'll see when you post the picture.
> See you guys next year, wherever that may be! I will probably hang out in the low-timer tent again because I like low-pressure skydives! >Maybe next year I can actually make some more jumps with you guys!
Cool! Low pressure dives (with or without clothing) are our specialty. (That and getting people their falcons and eagles.)
-bill von

[freaksister 0]

Here it is...it is actually a little dark, because the tents were (mercifully) nice and shady!! Yep, her name was Valerie. I was close! hehe
Sis
I lust for the ultimate rush...