Newsletter for Base Dreams May 2006

After a summer in Wollongong, Australia, working my butt off doing tandems, trying to become an adult, (which hasn't worked at all) and paying off last years debts, it was time again to ask the bank for some more cash so I could do it all again, with a few hefty lies they gave me another loan and I was off.

The weeks before my departure from Australia's oncoming winter were perfect. Big swells with great surf and a cool 30th b'day cruising with the dolphins, Jackie (girlfriend) and Carly (sister). Thanks for an awesome day guys.

I also got to do something very similar but very different at the same time. I got naked in public, and for the first time I was completely sober when I did it and I did not try and do naughty things to camels like on New Year's. What I did get to do was my first nude modelling shoot which will hopefully be in Black and White magazine sometime soon. I also got a portfolio together thanks to Jason cole. It was so much fun and hopefully I will get to do it again. I even invented my new modelling pose which is better than blue steel, its called angry undies, ha ha (see pictures from my portfolio).

Then it was time for the coolest boogie on earth, the Funny Farm. The place where the only rule is "don't fuck up". With some big names and some all time skydiving going on, it was an all time boogie yet again, some awesome aponaughty jumps, (thanks Crikey) big ways mystery jumps and raft jump, bike jump, (nice one Ces) and a cool box jump (George and Chops, you rock)

I also started swooping although not very well but it was cool fun getting wet. The parties were big especially party night when things got messy, Benny the Ice Man was in fine form, walking on the fire and ending up in hospital, lucky he wasn't messy!!!! Clint Clawson was a true professional as always (those who know him will know what I mean).

It was sad to leave the farm as always but summer had ended in Oz and it was time to begin my 14th summer in a row, ha ha. It didn't start too good because of my 42 hour journey to get to Berlin, I managed to spend $3500- in 2 hours in my 12 hour stopover in Malaysia but I'm now the owner of a return ticket to the U.S.A. and a new HC3 high definition camera. The next leg of the journey wasn't so fun... I'm not sure if it was the food or the ten whiskey and cokes but I got very sick on the plane and shat and spewed when I got to Doha in the Middle East in my 7 hour stopover in which I couldn't leave the boarding area.
There were shieks and arab looking dudes every where while I lay curled up in my sleeping bag with a fever hoping to die. 3 time changes and 42 hours later I had made it to Germany where the fun would soon begin.

After seeing some sites it was time for something very cool, especially for an Aussie. The first German BASE cup was on and it was held inside a 330ft building. Yep! Inside, how cool is that. The place is called the Tropical Islands Resort and it's the worlds biggest spanning building with a tropical rainforest, waterslides, waterfalls live shows, huge pools and now 30 base jumpers leaping from inside the roof and landing on the sandy beaches.
It was very scary for some reason even though we really couldn't hit anything. It was so much fun not running from the cops and waking up in the morning and going on the water slides, hanging in the spa bath looking up at what your about to jump off. And this is before breakfast.
The competition was a great success for all involved with no injuries and great organization form Jojo, Mahle and Ulli, thanks guys. My accuracy was crap in the comp, I blamed it on being uncurrent but I think it was because I was crap. Claus and Mahle came equal 1st with toby in 2nd and jojo in 3rd, I ended up 7th behind Livia and Robert from phoenix fly, and they haven't let me live it down.

After the event the fun hasn't stopped, we jumped some 100m legal windmills with an elevator which was well scary with the blades spinning around. We had a great time on a legal 600ft chimney, as well as a luxurious 300ft antenna/building with an elevator and a huge overhang, and also a 1300ft antenna also with an elevator and very strong winds at the exit point, I didn't want to go through fear but everyone else lived so how hard could it be I thought, it was cool visuals but bloody scary.
In the wee hours of the morning Jojo and myself got to open up what we thought was an 80m building with an elevator. After the jump we found it to be only 65m which was lower than something I would normally freefall but it all seemed to work ok so I might even give my local bridge a go when I get home. We named this building Berlin Sunrise as the sunrise looked so cool and the building was red and yellow (some useless information for all of you).

I got to spend some time with my dad over here which was cool and check out the history of Berlin which I tell you was very scary in this day and age, I worked out that humans are horrible creatures that's for sure. I also got to see 2 cool bands while I'm here thanks to Ecki (he is a dude not a pill by the way). They were Me First and the Gimme Gimmes which was great and the lead singer of one of my favorite bands, Avail, doing a solo show which was awesome. I got to hang out with Tim Barry after the gig for a while but I had a puff on a funny smoke that I think was laced with something and it all went down hill from there.

I ended up not being able to walk very far and passed out on the lawn in front of the club for I think a couple of hours. It was a little scary but eventually I was able to make it back to Jojo's house alive and with all my belongings. As I finish this letter off I am watching Jojo pack as we have just jumped off another illegal windmill. We named it the Big Key as that is what we used to brake into it. Ha ha. We are now off to open up a new chimney before heading to the drop zone of Fehbellin to do tandems for the week and to pay for my Germany trip.
Then it is off to the German bridge day for some fun and more jumps before starting the RealXStream.com base tour through Switzerland, Italy and France with special guest Wildman about to rip it up again in 2006.
Thanks heaps to Jojo and everyone else for making Germany so much fun.

The next update will be when I hit Norway on June 17th. So send this link to all your friends to check out the website and the photos from the trip and tell them to subscibe. And if there is a major corporate sponser who wants to give me a huge amount of money with little return, that would be great...Ha ha.

I will finish this in a cheesy way with a quote I just read from a book called Big World that I am reading at the moment (yes I can read when provoked)

"The world is the perfect size for the travellers imagination - small enough so that you think you can see it all, and big enough that you never will"

shine on everybody
luv Douggs

Surfboard front

Surfboard back

BASE is a phone company!

the Berlin Wall

Big Surf in Oz

Ces exiting the skyvan

More Ces

Dolphins on my Birthday

Eating a mouse (candy)

Tropical Islands jump

Funny Farm

More Funny Farm

Funny Farm

Funny Farm

FunnY Farm box jump

Funny Farm

Gay Modelling boy

Germany

Hitting the target

Windmill jump

Legal Chimney

Raft Jump - funny farm

Indoor Tropical Island jumps

Indoor Tropical Island jump

Dad and me at a war monument

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