I’m sitting with an ice pack on my newly fucked knee unable to work or play again for a while, but i'm chuckling to myself as I don’t regret it for a second. The last 6 weeks have been the ultimate in crazyness and fun and although the mind is still willing, the body has told me I need to rest for a while, at least long enough to write this piece.
The winter has been shitty and miserable here in oz but it has enabled me to surf constant cranking waves whilst giving the banks the finger as they wont be getting their money back yet. There was also time for some great rock climbing in Nowra as well as an epic 9 pitch climb in the blue mountains with Sal, Jess and Mel, but the fun was just beginning.
I was asked to do a tv show in NZ so it was off to the land of the long white cloud for some new adventures. After being stuck in Christchurch over night with bad weather, Queenstown turned on the goods as we prepared to do some cool shit organized by legendary local Chuck Berry. Day One included jumping off some paragliders after launching from Coronet Peak. You could tell I had never done this before by the terrified look on my face before each exit. All went well except for my co star almost going in after a tragic exit and deployment.
The next day was the shit. Chopper rides through the mountains surrounding Queenstown to the lord of the rings site where we were choppered up to a 900ft cliff with a 2500ft canopy ride following the mountain. These jumps were truly incredible and the canopy rides were something else. Whilst telling the chopper to fly as close as he wanted, I found that there is still a burble there as my canopy was bumped around from the turbulance.
We then went to 12000ft, well above the amazing southern alps so I could have an unintentional 4 second pilot chute in tow on my fx 96 before blade running and shitting myself at the same time down the mountain range.
The final day was spent jumping off a 300 ft bungy tower with our base gear into a dodgy landing area. I don’t know what was scarier, the jump or the full on jet boat ride out of there each time.
The show was a great success but I worked out that god botherers and satan worshippers have very different personalities and don’t work well as co stars.
Guess which one I was.. ha ha.
I got home long enough to unpack and pack and then it was off to Malaysia/Borneo for the KL tower international jump, Malaysia for unity and harmaony. 20 jumpers from all around the globe jumping 6 different buildings over a 3 week period. I will say this very openly “ AUSTRALIA, you can go and get fucked” everywhere we went over there we were treated like rock stars and well respected sportmen unlike in our own so called “lucky country”.
The first building “Menara Pelita” was about 270ft with a pretty good landing area. The weather became a bit windy in the middle of the day but I still managed 10 jumps.
The second building “Menara Tun Mustapha” was beautiful. With a seanic ocean view on the doorstep it provided one of the most awesome building jumps I have ever done although I do say that all the time. On show day we all arrived on the back of motor bikes to a tonne of dancers and drummers and a huge crowd. Over the next 2.5 days we jumped hard with the only thing slowing us down was the hundreds of people rushing to get photos with us. As I said it was rock star stuff.
We had day two off before the next building event so it was off to the rainforests of Borneo to check out the orangatangs. This was amazing to see and definitely a big tick off my list of things to do. The next day we set off on the back of a flat bed train through the rainforests drinking beer as we went to a day of white water rafting. Put 20 base jumpers together and well… you know how the rest goes, CHAOS! We finished of the day ventureing deep into the mangrove forests to check out the water buffalo and the rare proboscis monkeys which was awesome. As usual we dined like royalty in the evenings with as much food and drink as we could handle.
Next stop was the building “Menara Alor Star” . this was our first technical landing area and it showed with a few tree landings , a building landing and a hard landing which resulted in minor injuries. But all in all it was great with a tonne of jumps done and an awesome night display by 3 of us for the “MERDEKA” celebrations, with a huge amount of fireworks following it up.
From there it was off to the island of Penang to jump the very technical “Menara Komtar” building which was 650 ft high that gave a beautiful view of the island. The winds can get tricky there and the landing area was tight but we managed to get plenty of jumps in none the less.
The final leg of the tour was the almighty KL tower where 100 jumpers were starting to gather for lots of aerobatics and crazyness.
I was lucky enough to have my Dad, Gary and my godfather, Dave come over for the event. They are 2 major supporters of base jumping and were glad to be included in the fun. A few of us did an illegal jump off the towering times square building in which Dad and Dave did traffic control on the ground crew. We also got them into the windtunnel in which Dad showed some hidden talents. On the first day of jumping Dad and Dave payed me back for all the crap I had given them as a kid by picking me up and throwing me off kl tower. I was scared as I saw their cheeky smiles as they threw me off. The first day was full of “baseboogie fever” even though Gary Cunningham did an awesome job delivering his safety briefing. There were 3 tower strikes, a broken jaw, arm and leg. I thought it was only going to get worse but everyone learned from the first day and toned it down a bit and the rest of the event went smoothly with all sorts of cool jumps getting done from the very basic to complexed aerobatics and of course some very silly jumps you can only get away with on kl tower.
On the final day the people who did the full tour got the opportunity to jump the Menara Telecom tower aka “The Shark Fin Building” we jumped from the 800 ft high helipad and put on a perfect base jumping display for the organizers and the vip’s. you wont see this in Australia but as part of the opening ceremony for this jump we had 10 fighter jets come over in 4 different formations, it was amazing, you would only get a police helicopter in Australia... ha ha.
The event finished with a great dinner at the tower with certificates given to all the jumpers and some traditional dancers and singers and of course lots of beers. The rest of the night got to messy to talk about as it does every year but I know everyone had a great time. here are the stats and a very big thanks to Gary Cunningham and all the other people involved in making this event happen.
2780 BASE jumps were completed off 6 different buildings in 5 different states of Malaysia.?97 BASE jumpers from 17 different countries participated.?
To finish off this amazing month of fun it was off to the battle fields of thredbo with 12 of the crew for a couple of days of snowboarding/skiing and plenty of partying. And that’s exactly what we did. There was plenty of messyness both on and off the mountain and I think we all got best on ground. Unfortunately my confidance got in the way of my skill level and I tore the medial ligaments in my knee whilst trying to do something stupid as usual.
So that’s it for now, the dream over for the year and back to reality until at least next april. Until I can steal money from the banks again.
The dvd’s have sold well so if you havent got one get in fast as once they are gone that’s it. Same goes for the t-shirts so pull out your cash and make a cripple happy ha ha.
I will leave you with a new quote I made up which has been backed up by Homer Simpson. I think all you American god botherers can learn something from this man as listening to George Bush has done fuck all!!!
See you all in hell
Big hugs
Luv douggs
“GOD. An imaginary friend for adults”
Douggs
“GOD. My favorite fictional character”
Homer Simpson
