the forefathers

[johnnyboydan 0]

How many of you have had a father who was one of the forefathers of our sport. I know there is the thackers at Raeford, Chuck Blue's dad is one and I know Frank Norberry Jr's the late Frank Sr was one. Tell your stories about the early years and what it was like to grow up with legends that we owe everything to in our sport too.
John Dandeneau

johnnyboy

[airtwardo 7]

Kirk Verner is one...I worked for his dad Dave
who owned Archway Sport Parachute Center.
I use to stay at Dave's house on the weekends
and first met Kirk when he was about 9-10

Neal Beverly is another..
Neal has been a top ranked Style & Accuracy
guy for years, as well as being a rigger for
the Golden Knights.
His dad, "Bert" Beverly D-288 was also a top
S&A competitor placing in the top 10 at the
nationals back when fish were just learning
to walk.

Bert was a top notch jumper, pilot and all around
neat guy...a driving force of the Trackers Inc.
Paracuhte Team & Skydiving Club.

Bert gave Neal his FJC the same day I had mine
with another instructor...They went first, and Bert
have a spinning malfunction, which he chopped
right in front of his kid....

Neal had been around skydiving his whole life,
and knew the drill...

He went after the "ole man's" main...
FIRST JUMP....on a T-10!
Landed about 50 feet from it, ya just KNEW
he was gonna be GOOD!

~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

[wmw999 2,588]

Gary Pond's (from New England) dad is Nate Pond (D69, and I'm told he picked the number), and his mother is Nona Pond, an early competitor. Jack Berke's dad was John Berke, who was not quite as early as some, but legendary in Texas
Wendy W.

There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

[steve1 5]

Hod Sanders boy B.J. has a few hundred jumps now. He was named after B.J. Worth.

I'm not sure, but I think Greg Nardi may have a son that jumps. I saw a picture of a young Nardi in Parachutist a while back jumping in Florida. Can anyone fill me in on this? These are all old Montana jumpers from the olden days....Steve1

[airtwardo 7]

WHO COULD FORGET...


Lyle Camron....Jr. & Sr.?!?!

~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

[mjosparky 4]

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WHO COULD FORGET...


Lyle Camron....Jr. & Sr.?!?!

Boy I would sure like to forget Lyle Jr.

Only kidding. I jump with him at Air Trash "Meeting".

How about Roger Nelson and Missy & Rook? sp.??
Sparky

My idea of a fair fight is clubbing baby seals

[usedtajump 1]

Don't forget those little Schrimscher kids, Stan, Jay and Tasia.

The older I get the less I care who I piss off.

[skybill 22]

Hi Johnny,
There's also Norm and Deana Kent's son Ramsey Kent who took to the air at an early age.

SCR-2034, SCS-680

III%,
Deli-out

[airtwardo 7]

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Boy I would sure like to forget Lyle Jr.

***

I like Lyle Jr.!

We use to jump together a lot 'back in the day'..

Once in the Elsinore parking lot...
well you know Lyle...
he got a bit agressive with me and started
smacking be around...I gave him two warnings,
then kicked his ass.

He got up..shook my hand and said,
"Thanks..I needed that!"

We then became even BETTER friends!!

~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

[BillyVance 35]

Jimmy Cazer is one... while he doesn't have a D # lower than Buddy Blue, he's been around forever too. Although he retired from skydiving a few years ago, he's still very much involved in his rigging business, Cazer Paraloft. His son Dave Cazer has a few thousand jumps since the mid 70's.

"Mediocre people don't like high achievers, and high achievers don't like mediocre people." - SIX TIME National Champion coach Nick Saban

[wartload 0]

I believe that Pete C. (PC) Luter is D 763. According to an earlier posting, he's still active in NC. His son is also a skydiver and pilot.

[mjosparky 4]

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Quote

Boy I would sure like to forget Lyle Jr.

***

I like Lyle Jr.!

We use to jump together a lot 'back in the day'..

Once in the Elsinore parking lot...
well you know Lyle...
he got a bit agressive with me and started
smacking be around...I gave him two warnings,
then kicked his ass.

He got up..shook my hand and said,
"Thanks..I needed that!"

We then became even BETTER friends!!

Lyle Jr. has mellowed out quite a bit. Made some jumps up at Taft with him about a month ago. He is Still wearing the green double zipper suit.

Sparky

My idea of a fair fight is clubbing baby seals

[SkymonkeyONE 4]

You asked for it, you got it.

Growing up "Blue"

My dad, Buddy Blue, D-597, had 1000 jumps when I was born so it would be absolutely correct to say that I was born into the sport. He competed regularly at the conference (Cottonbelt Parachute Council) and national level in Style and Accuracy. That was all there was back then. My dad was known for getting in a lot of fist fights back then. He was also known as someone who threw an M-18 smoke grenade in the Cave Tanji night club in Louisiana during a conference meet just for shits and grins. As a child I would always get in trouble for dismantling his trophies and putting them back together in odd ways; that made him nuts. He has pictures of me pulling tension on the "round du jour" at jump meets when I was three years old. I never did full packjobs for him, but always pulled tension back in the "round" days. My mom ran a daycare in Pepperell mill village and I would sometimes get taken out to the dropzone as an infant with my dad. One story that gets told over and over is that my dad refused to change diapers and would just as soon put me back in the plane (we always had at least one plane, normally two) and fly me back to the Opelika airport and have my mother meet us there so she could change my dirty diaper. We only lived two miles from the airport so it's really not THAT big of a deal. I was at the controls of both C-172 and C-182's when I was six years old. My mother made me a cover for some phone books to raise me up (I was small for my age) and my dad made wooden blocks for the pedals. My folks divorced when I was seven years old and I went home every Summer and Christmas to stay with him. I have very vivid memories of him in the back of the plane with a girl named "Sunshine" (not a joke) doing the huck-a-buck while I was at the controls at age eight, flying instruments because I was too short to see over the cowl! First jumpers away with me at the controls? 12 years old. Hey, throw me in jail; I never really gave a shit about flying the plane anyways and, unbelievably, never took the practical for my SEL (though I got a 98 on the written and over 100 hours in my "legal" logbook). Unlike some people though, my dad was not about to let me jump till I was 16. Same for the Thackers who we have been best friends with all my life. He was very strict in following PCA/USPA guidelines in that regard. Ultimately, I got dispatched from a C-172 with the door off at Tuskeegee in early 1981. The gear? He made me jump complete gutter gear: a 28' 7-TU in a B-12 container with a 24' flat in a belly wart (no PC). No Stevens lanyard, no Sentinal. SL progression of course. Anyone who knows my dad knows he is a very hard man. He was very hard on me, but I would not trade him for the world. He will be 69 next week and he just past 10,000 jumps. Anyone in the Auburn/Opelika, Alabama area would be well advised to make his birthday party. It is a three-day brain bender that you would never regret. Lots of jumping, drinking, and automatic gunfire.

Thats my story and I am sticking to it.

Chuck Blue, D-12501
AFF/SL/TM-I, BMCI, PRO
Raeford Parachute Center

[airtwardo 7]

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Lyle Jr. has mellowed out quite a bit

We ALL have!


I remember the green double zipper suit...
he use to always jump with his dad's old
altimeter too...even though he had a
'better' one!

~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

[airtwardo 7]

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Lots of jumping, drinking, and automatic gunfire.

***

UNFAIR!

You had too much fun growing up...turn some of
it back it!


You have a beter frame of reference than most of
us Chuck...
What in your opnion has changed the MOST about
the sport since your days in 3 corner pants?

~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

[SkymonkeyONE 4]

What I believe has changed the most is what people consider to be dangerous. Back in the day we all flew around in poorly maintained piston aircraft with the doors taken off. None of us wore seatbelts, not even the SL student sitting back to the firewall, next to the pilot! If a student had an AAD at all it was a Sentinal or an FXC and both were prone to fire high. NOBODY with a license jumped an AAD and we were all perfectly fine with it. Square canopies either slammed open (StratoStar, ParaFoil) or barely opened (Unit). People routinely intentionally collapsed their canopies under 1000 feet and we did CRW at the bottom of every RW jump with whatever canopy was over our head. New jumpers would show up at a dropzone, spend an hour or two in a class and get dispatched out of a beat up Cessna or a Howard or something by some crusty Korean/Vietnam war vet with duct tape on his main and booze on his breath. The people that were interested in skydivng back then were totally cool with ALL of that. The people that show up these days, outside the military clubs anyway, strike me as quite different. In this litigeous society everyone is looking for that fail-safe, kid glove treatment and would just as soon sue your ass as finish their training. Just my opinion. For what it's worth, the military is the same way today. Long gone are the days when you can kick the shit out of a private for being a dumbass. In my 21 years of service I saw it all. As the son of a hard-headed retired CSM you can bet your ass I got my ass handed to me by my team sargeant out behind the team room for fucking up.

Boogies and jump meets strike me as being nearly exactly the same. There were and still are people that "party", there were and still is drunken buffoonery, and there are still freaky boozehags that have pet names for themselves.

[wartload 0]

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Boogies and jump meets strike me as being nearly exactly the same. There were and still are people that "party", there were and still is drunken buffoonery, and there are still freaky boozehags that have pet names for themselves.

And that's a good thing!

The only thing that was different in my own experience is that the folks that I was around were pretty good about not hitting the booze until they were through jumping for the day. If they had it on their breath, it was probably from the late night before. Other "recreational activities" were likewise generally postponed until someone was through jumping for the day.

[bozo 0]

and we did CRW at the bottom of every RW jump with whatever canopy was over our head.
-------------------------------------------------------
We're still out here Sarge.....might even dump low once in a while.

Outstanding post by the way....wish I could have said it as well.

bozo

bozo
Pain is fleeting. Glory lasts forever. Chicks dig scars.

[mjosparky 4]

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and we did CRW at the bottom of every RW jump with whatever canopy was over our head.
-------------------------------------------------------
We're still out here Sarge.....might even dump low once in a while.

Outstanding post by the way....wish I could have said it as well.

bozo

Ah, shut up, what do you know you old koot.
Jim, let me know when you are ready, lets go make a skydive.

Sparky

My idea of a fair fight is clubbing baby seals

[skybill 22]

Hi S.M.#1!!!!!!<
LMFAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks Dude for the "Dressing-UP!!" that your dad deserves!! I was at the launch of the smoke at the "Cave Tangi!!" Hell, my family was from Hammond and the Cave was "The Place" to go in those daze!! All that is left anymore is the marqui out front and the parking lot . God I miss those daze!!!

SCR-2034, SCS-680

III%,
Deli-out

[bozo 0]

]

Ah, shut up, what do you know you old koot.
Jim, let me know when you are ready, lets go make a skydive.

Sparky

[mjosparky 4]

My idea of a fair fight is clubbing baby seals

[airtwardo 7]

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~With duct tape on his main and booze on his breath...


Tell me THAT'S not a book title about the "Old Days!"



Chuck I kinda hung out at a place like you're decribing my first 5-6 years in the sport.



A lot of Ex-Mil. guys...a whole lot of attitude!



I agree with you about the way things were back then, the people in the sport just 'seemed' to
be a different breed than now..a closer kind of
brotherhood I guess.


Yeah maybe we all pushed the limits a little more
back then, but if you did something REALLY stupid...
you could get your ass kicked...show you learned
an move on.
There didn't seem to be as many cliques as now.

At some point it turned into a business...
Not saying that it's a bad thing,
there are a lot of great changes in gear, aircraft, training etc.

But I tend to agree with you that the "people"
are different.

The CYA attitude that's taken over everything
else....just took a bit longer to 'infect' this sport.

~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

• Quote

[rehmwa 2]

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What I believe has changed the most ... we all flew around in poorly maintained piston aircraft ...the SL student sitting back to the firewall, next to the pilot! If a student had an AAD at all it was a .. NOBODY with a license jumped an AAD and we were all perfectly fine with it. ..collapsed their canopies under 1000 feet and we did CRW at the bottom of every RW jump with whatever canopy was over our head...... In this litigeous society everyone is looking for that fail-safe, ..... ...

This one really says it right.

...
Driving is a one dimensional activity - a monkey can do it - being proud of your driving abilities is like being proud of being able to put on pants

[mjosparky 4]

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At some point it turned into a business...

Jim,

Somewhere between 1975 and 1985 it quit being a sport and became a recreation.

Sparky

My idea of a fair fight is clubbing baby seals