lewmonst

Nebula, No need to donate money.... right now it looks like we are not covered. There were over a dozen staff members who lost everything and only a couple have insurance. Figure $10k to $20k+ per staff. Donate money if you want, but don't feel obligated. We cleaned up the debris today and with the help of Chief, one of the local jumpers, he donated the use of his Bobcat which cut our clean up by several hours. Several jumpers, including Rosa, Kris, and Kyle were on hand to assist with the clean up. Heck, just showing up at the dz is more than enough support. Thank you, Shark I agree with Shark. Just showing support on email or PM or the forums is appreciated and meaningful. Shark is on target with the estimates of how many staff lost how much. I wish insurance covered it, believe me... It took me a day to finish the spreadsheet and remember ever bit of camera equipment we had in there, and Ed and I combined lost over $37,000 worth. The generous discounts offered by manufacturers and the contributions everyone has made will help significantly, but there's no way it can cover everything. We will just start over and rebuild slowly... I would really love to see an amazing turnout this weekend at Elsinore to skydive. Students and Experienced Jumpers... Come jump at Elsinore this weekend to show your support. The visible damage should be almost all gone by Saturday. Today they removed the burnt frame of the building, and tomorrow they plan on bringing in a replacement. We have enough loaner equipment to run the school and we would love to see a busy weekend, helping the instructors get back in the air, earning their pay as they did before, doing what they love and teaching others why we all love skydiving and the family we have because of it. See you this weekend! peace, thanks to everyone! lew http://www.exitshot.com

Grafico!, Thank you my friend! I will return it to you as soon as I can buy a main (never ok?) Ok... now I'll work on replacing my cameras by August 6th... And Wow, Velocity Sports replacing rigs!!!! That rocks! Thank you! Ed and I didn't lose an Infinity. But several instructors did. And I felt the such pain every time I heard someone else lost their personal rig in the fire. It doesn't look like we'll be able to replace Ed's two beautiful Mirages. I could only find this (old) photo. I wish I had a photo of the rigs from the back and side showing all the embroidery... Anyway, now we'll probably go to Velocity Sports to get Ed a new container. If anyone else has a photo of Ed's old rigs, please email it to me. peace lew http://www.exitshot.com

yeah, so if you photo gurus out there want to see something sad, and haven't seen this yet, check out http://www.skydiveelsinore.com/fire/index.html and that's my 10D at the top, and my LowelPro bag i scraped it out of. It's so sad. I only jumped it for 6 days in Rantoul before i broke my femur... I was just about to start jumping it again... oh yeah, not to mention the fact that we all lost hundreds of beautiful convention photos because of a harddrive crash in Rantoul. I had some beautiful photos on there... so all i have to show for my 10D ($2400 with lense and warranty) in the sky is two days worth of jumps, two rainy days... oh yeah, that $400 2-year warranty covers everything but theft and fire. peace lew http://www.exitshot.com

just thought i would help

agreed, as Ed and I are looking at replacing our burned 3 video cameras, 2 digital still cameras including my fairly new 10D and Swain Cam, the value of just the camera equipment is $11,692.05. I've only made about 25% of that back through selling photos and tandem videos. And now I'm looking at spending more to get back in the rotation. While I love giving my friends photos of themselves, schoolteaching and tandem videos don't put that 10D on my head. visa does peace lew http://www.exitshot.com

Oh I wish I could be there! Anyone want to teach math tomorrow in LA for me? I feel the need to shovel burnt stuff. ALSO, I told this to Ed, but to anyone who's rigs and gear was burned: Ed is going to try to get his 3-rings and closing pins off his rig and I am going to make him a necklace with the nostalgic hardware that remains. So if anyone wants me to make them necklace with their leftover pin or rings or cypres cutter or anything like that, save the parts in a bag or envelope with your name on it, and give it to me or Ed. And for Karl's sake, don't throw away any hardware that can't be used as decoration in the future :) especially all those tandem 3-rings... Heck I could even take the student and tandem rig pins and make limited edition Elsinore remnant necklaces, auction them and the profits go back to the poor instructors. peace lew (oh, and since my luck is so consistant these days, i have to get $1200 worth of repairs on my jeep todaytake thatone more timeyeah... lew's goin crazy...) http://www.exitshot.com

Wow! That's incredible. Thank you sooooo much! I'm getting tears in my eyes... Makes me wish I had Precision gear. Can I get a demo canopy for a while? peace lew http://www.exitshot.com

Zenny, that's great! That might be perfect for Cajones... PM him gotta teach kids now and put on a happy face peace lew http://www.exitshot.com

Is there any way to get Paypal to wave the fee they normally deduct from transactions? peace lew http://www.exitshot.com

JASON!!! Dude, i'm so sorry i didn't list you before. I didn't even realize you kept your rig in their... i was just thinking of jumpmasters and videographers. you can kick me next time you see me. I am actually looking forward to the ash dive. Jason, can you make sure that when Karl gets the go ahead to clean up that you grab a box and fill it up with ashes... When is the plan for that? I won't be back there till Saturday, but I'd like to be in on it, since i lost a lot too. At least it's an ash dive not due to losing one of us. Fiala can photograph during the jump, he still has his cameras, maybe Michelle can write up a story about it all... And Rich, it was truly fun kicking down doors with you in our effort to be heros and save the gear in the team rooms. I think you should jump that blue jumpsuit you tried on today, it was hot! Let's hope that the instructors can never go to Valley Pizza together for lunch again. peace lew http://www.exitshot.com

High: Ed and I and all the staff at Elsinore are alive and can jump... Low: Finishing the excel spreadsheet of what we lost in the fire, and using the "SUM" function... peace lew http://www.exitshot.com

Ditto. The overwhelming response has been tremendous. And needed as we sort through insurances... This morning we were cleared to dig through the wreckage. I pryed our 10D out of the destroyed camera bag. It still resembles a 10D but is destroyed. The video tape of my accident in Rantoul was melted in that bag. (it's been a rough 6 months!) I did get a leatherman pocket knife out that was ok, a little black but worked. We we able to identify pieces of gear. Some of Ed's is attached. Early discussions about insurance are grim. very grim. Without giong into details yet, even those with homeowners insurance looking at the details of their policies are not finding good news. So we appreciate the paypal donations sincerely! Hammo's email this morning summed it all up pretty well. Thanks to everyone for your support. peace lew http://www.exitshot.com

Thanks Michelle, for all your time and thoughtfulness. Right now we've had several people trying to match up gear needed with loaners. For the sake of consistency, let's allow Betsy to head up that. So whatever you know, send it her way. She is getting the complete list from all the instructors on what was lost, was is immediately needed and what gear is being loaned. She is here as it's her full-time job and she is on the phone with everyone. Right now she's still sorting out who needs what. Loaner sport rigs have been abundant. What we could still use loaners of is Tandem Rigs, Student Rigs, and Cameras (video TRV&PC style, still cameras-film for tandems...)... Please, if you have anything, e-mail Betsy: betsy@skydiveelsinore.com Like I said, she is still sorting out who needs what so we don't want everyone to fed-ex us everything right away... We'll sort out what we need and contact those who have offered. More good news... we've re-set up a temporary video room & packing/student room behind the bar, with a couple VCR's and one spare DVD recorder Lob had in his office. We used to have 7 video stations, 3 with DVD-r's to give you and idea of what we're working with. But there were 2 students up today, coach jumps. We had a student rig getting a repack in the rigging loft, so we were able to use it. Lob & Betsy are optimistic for being able to run the school like (almost) normal this weekend. We are all anxious to get going again! thankyou lew http://www.exitshot.com

That was the before... Here are some afters... "packingroom" being close to the same perspective as the one in the link above... "fishpond" is where a lot of photos used to be taken as there was a nice big Skydive Elsinore logo above it "staffgearrack" is a view from the road/back of the video room into what used to be the staff gear room. You can see the gear rack, which was full, and if you look closely you can see a reserve handle still on the rack from a rig that completely melted off of it. "studentcanopy" is a student rig, you can make out the purple from the canopy. "theschool" is the view from the bar, as you can see, the school is just gone. peace lew http://www.exitshot.com

In case you didn't know, Hammo is one of the owners of Skydive Elsinore... thank you everyone peace lew http://www.exitshot.com

If you have any home owners insurance yourself, check up on that. You never know, your property might be covered through that. Thank you all for your offers to help, ideas and support. Everyone here now is making contacts and trying to sort out how we're going to recover. We're making a list of exactly what was lost. And we linin up all volunteer for help with lending gear and discounts on ordering new gear. We will recover. It will just be a matter o time and take a lot of work. At our psuedo staff meeting this morning Hammo we're already discussing options and support offers coming in. Like I said before, I think the DZ insurance will cover the DZ gear, tandem rigs and student rigs. We're not sure yet if that insurance will cover instructors gear. Some instructors have home-owners insurance and will try that route if needed, but as I said, there are a bunch of us who do not have insurance of any kind that will cover this. cajones and I do not have a home and therefore no home-owners insurance. We do not have renter's insurance. Our only hope is that the DZ inurance will extend to cover Instructor's gear. Otherwise we're fucked. So many people lost so much. There were a dozen of us standing around this morning listing off all the gear and equipment we had in there. And many of the part-timers who weren't even here had gear in there. One poor guy who left his rig in the packing area yesterday lost it because we put it in there not wanting to leave it out overnight. I had just jumped and packed Ed's rigs all day... And walking up to the buildings, I thought for a moment, I could just put this in the camper, but nah, Ed's used to keeping it locked up in the staff gear room... if only... I am very sad for everyone who has lost something. I am extremely sad for Ed (cajones) because his gear was very unique and custom made. The split color Mirages with that embroidery were kind of a test, and said that they would never make it again becuase they were so difficult to make. His mains were hand-built Samurai's by Brian Germain. His jumpsuits were custombuilt by Chuck with Dakine. All of his gear took so long to accumulate, pay for and get just right. Like he said, this is his livelyhood. And helmets & cameras... 3 boneheads & a frap hat, 3 video cameras, a SportsCam and 2 digital still cameras (one being our 10D)... you get the idea... Multiply that by all the instructors that had their gear in there. Just off the top of my head, Ellen, YoYo, Bryan, Sean, Pat, Stan, Chris, Leif, Lob, Jonathan, Sharky, Rich, George, Ed and several other lost almost everything. The school had at least 10 tandem rigs and around 10 student rigs. Doug is about the only AFF instructor that didn't lose gear because it was in his team room. So we jokingly say it will be the Doug School of Skydiving... It was the building in the background of this photo that is completely gone. When I find a camera I will post the "after" photos... To end on a good note... the Otter is flying load 3 right now, with only experienced jumpers. Elsinore is open for business and again, most importantly, no one is physically hurt. If you have any equipment or gear you can lend for some time, a month, a couple months, anything, please email Betsy at betsy@skydiveelsinore.com She is sorting all of that out. Let her know what the gear is, what size and how long you can lend it. I've already received a few PM's and am matching up rigs with instructors of that size and ability with loaners. We sincerely appreciate everyone's help. Tandem and student gear will be more difficult to find loaners of, so if you are from a dz up north and aren't operating right now, consider sparing a tandem rig for a little while. Also, we lost a lot of video equipment. So if you can lend a video or stills camera, camera helmet for a month, let us know. We also lost all the editting equipment, so if you're nearby and have a tv/vcr recorder (or even a DVD recorder) to loan, let us know. As for replacing our personal gear... somehow that will work out. I just don't know how yet. Thanks again to everyone... Carl, Hamo, Kenny, Eddie and others have been working hard since sunrise to clean up the mess and return to business. The sooner we can get close to being back to normal, the better. Thank you for listening. Have a fabulous day of skydiving or whatever... I think i might get some sleep now. peace lew http://www.exitshot.com

the dropzone has insurance. we don't. we're not sure if the dz insurance will cover instructor's gear. That is our only hope right now. Ed's personal loss is 2 rigs, if you know him, those Mirage's with the embroidary on them. 2 pc120's,a Canon 10D, 3 jumpsuits, 3 helmets, and numerous little stuff, altimeters, cam-eye's, swain cams, another still camera and lots of camera accessories.... Most of the instructors keep their gear in that storage area, all of their gear. The school lost all the Tandem Rigs and Student rigs, all the video equipment, 7 stations of tv's vcrs, dvd recorders, etc. The sum of te loss of all the school's equipment and the instructor's personal equipment is enourmous. Ed is serious. He is really going to need a job and new gear. I don't know what we're going to do. I'm sitting here, sick to my stomache, smelling like fire. with water and that foam on my clothes. They shut off all the power and water everywhere, so we can't shower, and i'm running on battery now. I found one of our helmets, melted and burnt, i'd take a picture but i can't. when ed said the building is almost gone, well, no,it's gone. all that's left of that buildingis a few embers and the steel doors. You can see clear through the smoke to the other side. it's a disaster. this is twice for Ed. He had a house fire in South Carolina like 5 years ago or something. i just keep telling myself no one is hurt. didn't CSS have a fire years ago? how did they recover? peace lew http://www.exitshot.com

No one is physically injured. It started in the Tandem Packing area. The Tandem Packing area and the entire video editting room & gear storage to the student suit up room is gone. All the tandem rigs, and all of the instructor's gear and camera equipment is gone. it took the fire dept 15 minutes to get here. i don't know what else to say. got any rigs we can borrow? peace lew http://www.exitshot.com

just a thought... peace lew http://www.exitshot.com

Cool Lori! cajones and I just donated last wednesday at the Red Cross in Pasadena, I remember they entered us to win something but I don't remember what it was. We did take a survey about what kind of things donors would like to receive to promote more frequent donations... I was once called in Cincinnati to donate that day because a girl at Children's Hospital needed A-. That was pretty cool, as soon as I was done they put it in a cooler and left. so if you're healthy, consider donating! peace lew http://www.exitshot.com

just to point you in the right direction, Deuce's photos are here peace lew http://www.exitshot.com

peace out. lew

agreed. I love my Odyssey. peace lew http://www.exitshot.com

haaaaa!!! Yeah, you tell em seis segundos... tell em what the ground looked like when your cypres fired. all jokes aside, Pablito is right, train your eyes and your mind! peace lew http://www.exitshot.com

thanks. i shot that with my 10D, 9 frame burst, 3fps. then i just did a little photoshop work to create the composite image. peace lew http://www.exitshot.com