G’day to all you Unfrownie Downies out there all the way from the shark infested waters of Equatorial Guinea, West Africa.
I heard the news out here that the village finally got rid of its idiot and America finally has a decent president. They just need to sort out their religious bullshit and legalize base jumping in national parks and they will finally have a cool country!
It’s been the year of learning new shit for me this year and my brain hurts.
I finished all my courses and got a job on the oil rigs in the north sea so that I can ensure that I do my part in fucking up our beautiful planet. There has been plenty of work so far and for the first time in my adult life I don’t have any credit card debt. I even have enough money to buy a case of beer and a young Thai boy for the weekend.
It hasn’t been all work though. I managed to check out Edinburgh withy Jackie, and then it was off to Barcelona, Spain for a few days of checking out hot chicks, drinking beers and sneaking a jump in off a building on the beach. After that it was some fun times in Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland for some base jumping and my first paragliding accident. I dipped into the jar of luck to walk away from that one. I didn’t walk away from dislocating my big toe running for a bus though. What a loser!
Then it was off to Kjerag, Norway to shoot the air to air camera for the new Berghaus cinema commercial which will be shown before the new James Bond movie here in the UK. www.berghaus.com. It was great to hang out with superstars Leo Houlding and Anniken Binz again. The weather window was awesome and we got the whole shoot done.
I got a bit too messy on the last night with a bottle of scotch and had my first full agro attack and tried to kill one of the locals who pissed me off. I didn’t think I had it in me. Leo and I finished the night by stealing a ride on lawn mower. I somehow fell off after 30 meters and received 10 stitches in my head for my trouble. Thanks to the great crew on the job and sorry to Olav and Najette for spewing up and passing out in their café.
After a few more days of offshore work it was off to Romsdale, Norway for a couple of weeks of jumping the big walls. I was pretty happy to get in the country again as my Troll Wall fine hasn’t quite been paid yet. We had a great crew and some great weather and punched out some amazing wing suit jumps and some 46 second plus tracking jumps. We had a beautiful little cabin below the jump Gridsetskolten where with an amazing view and also managed to get 3 jumps from the Troll Spire. The most memorable one was an 8 way train where we released the last of Coombesy’s ashes. RIP my friend.
After Norway it was back to the valley to meet up with an amazing crew of jumpers for 10 days of all time fun. Including a beautiful jump off the Eiger mushroom. Jackie and I finally got to get some paragliding in and it was an amazing view to watch jumping exiting from our glider. Unfortunately we had a fatality on one of the jumps. A nice young guy from Denmark called Simon exited unstable in his wingsuit of a technical jump and never recovered. My Sincere condolences to his family and friends. Fly hard, fly free brother.
cont'd top right.. |
In the middle of all the chaos of fun I managed to get a few trips to the UK in.
Have you ever asked the question “Who’s the Daddy” well the answer is now me. Thanks to Klaus Reinz not being able to show up to all three events I was able to take out the UK Pro Base series, with a 3 rd, 1 st and 1 st places from 2 cranes and a windmill. All three events were great fun and Max and Dave did a great job organizing the events.
I was out of cash and needed a job and that job was a month in Africa on a big arsed rust bucket of a boat. But three weeks before I was due to leave I won the loser of the week award and broke my collarbone ground handling my paraglider. I have decided paragliding is like Christianity. It looks all good from a distance but really its just fucking evil. I will have to get back on the horse sooner or later though. It’s been a good lesson in pain tolerance as I needed the cash and went to Africa with a fully busted collarbone. It hasn’t been pretty but sometimes this is what needs to be done to ‘live the dream’. I don’t recommend it.
And that’s about it. My book project is still on track although it’s a hell of a lot of work. And I’m hoping to get some speed flying in over the winter once I learn how to ski. It cant be that hard just point the things down the hill and miss trees.
I’m off to watch the sunset and check out the local African lads fish for sharks.
I will leave you with two quotes that cracked me up recently.
Hugs,
Love
and Good vibes to you all.
Douggs
Bite off more than you can chew and
Chew Hard .
JJJ
The reporter chick refered to base jumping as a sport, I said "base jumping is not a sport it is a passion", she said "why do you say that". I replied. "If you play tennis and you miss the ball, you don't die". An uncomfortabel silence filled the room.
Alan McCandlish |
