Re: [TomAiello] Bridge strike?!?!
I'm back . . .
Ron Boyles was one of the original, if not the very first, glory hound. (And he's not to be confused with Don Boyles, who was a true BASE pioneer of the early 1970s). Ron's jump from the GG Bridge occurred in the 80s and at the time he was a wanna-be stuntman and shopping his "reel" around Hollywood with little success.
During those years every television series in production would sooner or later have a parachuting segment. So most Hollywood stuntman wanted parachuting on their resume. Ron, who was a skydiver of little experience, figured BASE jumping would be a good way to separate himself from the pack.
It should be noted that a few professional stuntman did it the right way by becoming part of the BASE community like one named David Nunn. He did a very cool technical jump from a low bridge in San Diego where he fabbed up a pneumatic plate that launched him out of a moving truck. David also stunned the wuffos (and more than a few jumpers) at an early Bridge Day when he hopped up on the rail and went over wearing only a white suit that was really a hidden BASE rig that Moe Viletto built for him. Jean Boenish had a cow over that one . . .
There's not much to say about Ron's jump as the video pretty much tells the tale being into the wind, and so on. But from his standpoint the jump was successful because it had the desired effect.
A few years later he did a similar jump from San Diego's Coronado Bridge. At that time we were quietly jumping every downtown building there, and the local authorities had no clue BASE jumping even existed and he really hurt us. He got hold of a big white limo and was clinging to the trunk lid as the car sped across the sub-300 foot span. Pilot chute in hand he went over the rail very unstable and almost killed himself again and the footage, which I'm sure he arranged, played over and over and over on the local news. To say we were ready to kill him was an understatement.
Not to sound like that famous preacher, but, I had a pipedream. I thought BASE would exist for generations in secrecy passed only from jumper to jumper. Think how truly cool that would have been if we had managed it.
I often get accused of bagging on glory hounds too much but that's only because, nowadays, they are harder to spot. But they are still out there. Sometimes they cloak their houndness in the guise of "charity" or whatever, but it still amounts to the same thing. And my view of those who place their jumps into the public eye is shaped by decades not just months or years. So while it may become acceptable by community standards don't write and tell me I'm behind the times.
We sometimes confuse "times" with a span reaching only from your father to you. In reality a hundred years is a better span of reference. We humans, both brilliant and stupid, usually take a bit longer than 30 years to figure something out . . .
NickD
BASE 194
