Newsletter for Base Dreams June 2006
In memory of
Tony “COOMBESY” Coombes.
Champion dude, best friend and inspiration to all around him.
I hate to start this off on a sad note but my best friend Coombesy died
2 weeks ago in a jumping accident at the troll wall in northern Norway.
It’s a devastating blow to base jumping and to all that new him.
He was a champion dude that was living the dream and going hard. R.i.p
buddy wherever you are.
He would have wanted us not to dwell on this shit and to power through
it and keep having a fat time so that’s exactly what we did.
click to download this image as a poster
(2.81 MB JPG file)
Now onto all the cool shit.
After Germany the Base Dreams team hooked up in Lauterbrunnen Switzerland to start off their global base assault of 2006. Adam, Dan, Prue, Wildman and myself went hard for a week in the valley enjoying the train rides and taxies to the top with easy hiking and some all time jumping with great weather. Adam and Dan were ripping up on the ariels and Wildman was inventing new ariels that are way ahead of their time. Ha Ha. It was a European long weekend there as well, so a shit load of other cool jumpers were there ripping it up as well. At one stage we managed to get 14 people in the taxi. Once the sun went down it was time to party every night at the legendary Horner pub where all the jumpers gather. My dad showed up again too and became an instant hit with everyone and also became a base groupie for a week. All the guys managed to get him really wasted one night as well, doing vodka shots at the bar and drinking heaps of big beers.
We didn’t want to leave this magical valley but we were offered
a road trip to jump some dams in the south. We weren’t disappointed.
We punched off 45 jumps between us at the dams with Adam doing ripping
aerials and the rest of us doing back braking delays in order to get maximum
ground rush. The only down side was that it was bloody freezing there
and even snowing.
Being dumb Aussies we assumed (assumption is the mother of all fuck ups) it would be summer over there and bough fuck all warm clothing so at night we all froze our titties off. We even got to jump in the snow while it was snowing and also got a bit of a surprise when we jumped another dam that was a lot lower than we had thought. We didn’t realize this until we were in freefall though. Wildman was lucky there was snow at the bottom, as he didn’t have much time under canopy.
Everywhere we went we didn’t want to leave as it was so amazing
but it was time to head off on the long journey to Charmonix, France.
Over the next couple of weeks we were about to embark on some epic drives
through the night and this one started it off,
A 3 hours journey took 7 hours because of closed tunnels and wrong turns.
We arrived at 4 in the morning and pitched tents in the icy cold.
The next few days were great. We all got to jump the famous tree and from
Magland, a 1000ft cliff with only a 10 minute flat walk as well as a couple
of other places. During the day the weather was great so we got to hang
out in Charmonix and enjoy the views of the French alps and took advantage
of the cheap climbing gear over there.
On the last morning the weather was almost perfect so we headed up on
the gondola to jump “Aguille du Midi” which is next to Mt
Blanc. It was the dodgiest jump I have ever done and potentially one of
the most dangerous, but what a ride. We did a pilot chute assist jump
from almost 4000m with gnarly pieces of rock sticking out ready to claim
its next victim. It was to full on for some of the guys so only Adam,
Juan, (the Spanish red bull guy from Spain) and myself jumped. Its most
beautiful canopy ride I have ever had with 15 minutes of flying over the
French Alps over the snow and the glaciers of Mt Blanc and landing at
the base of the Alps. What we didn’t do however was take into consideration
of how bloody cold it was going to be under canopy. It was -6 at the top
and the pair of socks that Adam had on his hands just didn’t cut
it. We all thought our fingers were going to fall off, I have never felt
pain like it.
It was time to head to Verdon, France now but we were told we should spend
a day in a secret French valley. And I super glad we did because this
place was amazing with huge walls and awesome scenery. I was able to do
some wing suit jumps there as well. I won’t talk about it any more
because it was a secret. Ha Ha.
We only stayed a day and headed off to Verdon which would normally only
take 3 hours to get there but instead we somehow managed to let the Spaniard
Juan take us there and we got completely lost for 10 hours and still didn’t
make it.
Dan and me were in one car and knew it would be epic so we decided drinking
and driving would take the pressure off, and it did. 20 beers between
us and constant laughter made the drive easier to deal with. The classic
text I got off Wildman when we were lost read like this. “I know
why red bull gives him wings, because he cant fucking drive” Ha
Ha . I love it.
We never made it to Verdon that night but had to camp in another caravan park in which the guy we stayed next to wasn’t happy we were there and the next morning he proceeded to kick our tents and yell French bullshit at us. I was over it and proceeded to give him a big fat Aussie brown eye, which instantly shut him up.
We finally got to the Verdon George and it was unbelievable. Some awesome
jumps and awesome crew. The 3 international women of action were going
off chops and looking sexy as at the same time, nice work to Gwen, Livia
and Prue. I love base jumping chicks. You guys rock. One of the jumps
you could get straight out of the car onto the hand rail and off you go,
now that’s base jumping alright. There was also another jump where
you had to run down on a 70 degree angle and next minute you were in freefall.
It was sick. Its always nice knowing that Wildman is always the most scared
on the exit point as well, it makes everyone else feel more comfortable.
Ha Ha.
Adam Gibson’s B’day was during the Verdon leg of the trip
so we spent a night getting him, and ourselves very messy. It was a laugh.
The next day and very hung over he did a dodgy barrel roll and nearly
met his maker. After his landing and some reflection he came up with the
quote of the day. “You have to want to live” Ha Ha. Nice one
brother.
It was sad to leave Verdon but it was off for another epic travel day
to Arco, Italy. We couldn’t believe it but a 7 hour drive again
turned into over 11 hours, with some dodgy turns and road closures. We
finally got there at 4 in the morning and were woken up at 6 to go jumping.
The next 3 days were great. 6 jumps from Mt Brento and a jump from Campione.
The highlights were Dans handstand double front, Adams double twisting fronts and the almighty 4 way Horny Gorilla in dodgy conditions. There were some all time canopy rides over the climbers as well with one jump giving us over 4 minutes of canopy ride after opening at 300ft. There was also a massive intake of gelato and pizza as well because after all, we were in Italy, and when it got hot and windy in the middle of the day we were forced to hang out on the beach and perve on hot chicks and go swimming. Life was hard.
It was sad to leave yet again but we had one more epic drive to do through the Swiss Alps to get back to Lauterbrunnen. The next couple of days were spent doing casual jumps and mundane chores and drinking hard to celebrate the end of the awesome European tour. We finished our jumps with the guys all jumping off facing the wall at yellow ocean and me doing a canon ball jump pretending there was a swimming pool 2000 ft below.
We had one miracle left to perform now and that was to get 5 people and over 170 kgs of luggage into Norway without excess baggage charges. I was feeling bad vibes and we needed a miracle and as per usual that miracle did come. Adam put on my neck brace to start off proceedings and we cautiously went to the check in counter ready to fill them full of bullshit to get on the plane. But it never happened, they needed volunteers to change flights as they were over booked, we kindly accepted and they basically let us through although I did jam my foot under the scale for each piece of luggage as one of the bags weighed 39 kgs. They even paid us 150 euro for doing this. So we ended up with a profit. Nice one SAS airlines.
A lot more cool shit happened especially with some border crossings but this letter is too long already and you probably wont read it all.
Well I’m sitting here in the rain now in Lysebotn, Norway having already done 2 jumps from the 3000 ft cliffs. I’m sure it’s going to be a fun season even though it will be without my brother Coombesy.
Anyway for all you guys out there in the normal working world, remember this…”You can’t land a canopy without a head”. So be safe out there cause we only get one chance at it.
Shine on everyone
Big hugs
Love Douggs
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