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ROGER NELSON ON THE JIM ROME SHOW

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JIM ROME IS A GUTLESS FUCKING BASTARD.

I just listened to Jim Rome's show and all he did was lie about Roger. It makes me sick to hear his name being dragged through the mud like this. The man was a pioneer. He deserves better.

Rome said that the SKYDIVING SCHOOL at SDC has had 14 deaths. For starters, we all know that the great majority of accidents didn't involve the SCHOOL (ie Tandems). All he kept saying was that Roger "had it coming" and that his family should have been surprised every evening when you came home. It makes me sick.

Roger was all about safety. I never jumped with anybody who stressed it more. In fact the fatality rate in this sport would be multiples of what it is today if it wasn't for Roger's innovations in safety and training.

Whether it is CNN.com or the New York Post, they all have printed the same crap about one of the greatest skydivers ever. And as you can witness from all the posting here, he was a kind and inspirational person as well.

When is all this negativity and slander going to be dispelled by people who know better. Us. Skydivers. In New York this hasn't been "Page 1", but all over the country people are reading these stories and thinking Roger was just another crazy maverick who endangered himself and others.

The USPA and fellow skydivers should do more to educate people (whuffos) about who Roger really was and how far skydiving as a sport has come. How safe it is.

The future of this sport relies on reaching the hearts and minds of all those people who believe people like Jim Rome.

Now I don't have all of the facts (I admit), but "8 times the national average"? It would seem that a dropzone that makes 8 times as many jumps over 10 tens may be unfortunate to have more accidents.

Well I'm done ranting . . .but I felt something should be said. Thanks for humoring me.
Jay

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Now I don't have all of the facts (I admit), but "8 times the national average"? It would seem that a dropzone that makes 8 times as many jumps over 10 tens may be unfortunate to have more accidents.



Having done an admittedly simple probability analysis of the unusually high fatality rate at SDC, it became pretty clear that there is something going on there other than random chance. Now what that something is, I wouldn't begin to speculate, and I certainly wouldn't say that it was Roger Nelson's fault.

Blues,
Dave
"I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!"
(drink Mountain Dew)

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Or . . . it could simply be a statistical glitch in such a very small sample rate as skydiving fatalities. In other words, just bad "luck".

Fortunately, the sample size is very small and for that we can all be thankfull.
quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

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give us some links/ contact numbers so we can annoy the hell out of these assholes until they get it right.



Go to http://www.jimrome.com/home.html and look at the audio clips from Hour 3, i.e. "Roger Nelson is out of business". You have to have a subscription to actually listen to it. I don't have one and am certainly not going to buy one (i.e. give him money) just for this.

His email address is [email protected]. Those familiar with the program and his methods are more likely to get him to read their messages.

Blues,
Dave
"I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!"
(drink Mountain Dew)

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I posted a response!
please if you do this keep it without any ignorance!
I just stated the basics. Roger is an ICON, help organize the records therefore can not be unsafe.

I didnt wannt light the guy up b/c then he would stop reading and just fire back his ignorance! if you want to change his opinion please be as constructive as possible.
I know that many of you are hurtting deeply now but do not let your emotions fuel the ignorance!
the only way we can speak out is with an understanding that whuffo do NOT understand and the will speak foolishness.
email him some accomplishments of roger and our sport.
I also stated a few stats from the skydivers handbook regarding other sports!
I didnt hear the radio show but I can imagine how enraged it must have made those who heard it.
I can only speak form a 3rd party view! please teach this whuffo a little about our sport it is filled with love and knowledge. make him understand THAT aspect of it!
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I haven't heard the program, but this is my take on the situation. Jim Rome sounds like one of those talk show hosts with way more attitude than they earned. He simply represents the average attitude of the "normal" world towards our favourite passtime. They don't want to know how safe it is and how wonderful it is. They want to know that it's a horribly dangerous stunt that only an idiot would attempt. They want to hear that if they did go out and try it they would probably be killed. They want an excuse not to push their envelopes.

Occasionally I take the effort to correct misperceptions in particular people. However, this represents the average outlook of the faceless masses, and is a hopeless situation.

Oh, the irony. This Rome person sounds like he's all concerned with "the clones", when all he represents is the weighed average of their attitudes. Let that be consolation enough to everyone. I never knew Roger Nelson, but I'm going to keep his legacy alive by doing another jump ASAP.

-- Toggle Whippin' Yahoo
Skydiving is easy. All you have to do is relax while plummetting at 120 mph from 10,000' with nothing but some nylon and webbing to save you.

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The only reason I am so angry over this is his show WILL prevent at least one person who may have gone down to SDC to learn how to skydive from doing so. Slander, plain and freakin simple.

I simply cannot understand how everyone can be like, who cares what Jim thinks. UMMMMMMM - how about potential customers for SDC????? Doens't anyone care that there are laws against such verbal abuse in the media? Doesn't anyone care that he said that Roger deserved what he got?? All this crap about how great Roger was (not arguing that FACT) and no one wants to really protect his name.

LAME

-- (N.DG) "If all else fails – at least try and look under control." --

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I posted a response!
please if you do this keep it without any ignorance!
I just stated the basics. Roger is an ICON, help organize the records therefore can not be unsafe.



Here's what I sent:
"Rome,
Your take on Roger Nelson and his dropzone was totally off-base. The man was an icon in the sport of skydiving and probably had more of a positive effect on student training than any one other person in it's history. While it's true that there were an unusually high number of fatalities at Skydive Chicago over the last several years, they almost all occurred among experienced jumpers and had nothing at all to do with the "school." In fact several of them occurred on world record attempts of massive proportion (imagine 300 freefallers trying to link up for 3 seconds and then get far enough away from each other to open their parachutes before hitting the ground).

It's skydiving for god's sake, not underwater basket weaving. Not many people who take it up are stupid enough to deny there's a significant chance they'll die from hitting the planet at an unsurvivable rate of speed. Sometimes their survivors are dumb enough to think it's someone else's fault, (forgetting that nobody pushed their loved one out of the airplane), but they're no better than the people who sued McDonald's because their kids got fat. Don't be one of the stupid people Jim. When someone dies skydiving, it was their fault, not the dropzone owner's.

"Football is for pansies. It ain't a real sport unless you can die from massive internal injuries. Skydive!"

Dave from Washington"
"I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!"
(drink Mountain Dew)

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This was originally in another, now-locked thread.

Obviously enough folks care what he says to listen to him, and to post here about it. Writing a cogent, coherent email is exactly the right thing to do; show him that you can play his game, on his turf, and come out smelling like a rose. Don't try to make him smell like an asshole, that's his job and he's good at it.

It's just as easy for him to think of skydivers as being different and overly risk-taking, as it is for us to think of whuffos as being different and somehow irrelevant.

Wendy W.
There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

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In that case, someone who heard the show should inform SDC. Let the lawyers do the rest. Fight fire with fire. Isn't that why the legal system exists?

To answer Quade's inevitable comments, no, I don't think this is a good idea, but I think that trying to get a very public media company to actively portray skydiving in a good light is a lost cause. The most we will get is a "Skydivers mourn the loss of a friend" on the back page. All in all, it's a shitty situation. In my opinion, our best hope are public and successful demo jumps, like the one over the olympics. Maybe we can finally make RW (or FS as it's now known) to become an olympic sport once enough countries get teams? Until then, all that is required of Rome is to keep the waterspout on low.

-- Toggle Whippin' Yahoo
Skydiving is easy. All you have to do is relax while plummetting at 120 mph from 10,000' with nothing but some nylon and webbing to save you.

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The only reason I am so angry over this is his show WILL prevent at least one person who may have gone down to SDC to learn how to skydive from doing so. Slander, plain and freakin simple.



Actually, it's more likely that his story will encourage people to go to SDC for a jump than it will prevent any from doing so. That doesn't make it right, but bad publicity increases sales, as just about any instructor at a DZ soon after a fatality can attest. The only recent exception that comes to mind (*possibly*) is Davis, due to the Sacramento Bee's depiction of the instructors there as druggies, but I'm not even sure they saw a decline in first jump students.

Blues,
Dave
"I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!"
(drink Mountain Dew)

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Just to point out that talk radio is never soft - they always go to the edge to get you to listen. Who would listen to a four hour program of a person saying nothing but nice things about people. The host angers you, you flood them with email, phone calls and help drive up the ratings. The ratings are used to make more money - the radio station never lets on how many of those rating points are from people that hate the host. Talk radio learned from Jerry Springer and the WWF - drama sells. Combine that with the typical "if it bleeds, it leads" idea and you have a winner (ie, Howard Stern and all his clones).

I doubt that Rome even cares about skydiving or what happened at Skydive Chicago. What he said on his show is the equivalent of a trolling post on this forum. When I worked in radio I saw this all the time - a subject would come up and the host would instantly take the most controversial standpoint to generate pissed off callers. Don't let him push your buttons.

Want to make a differance? Turn off the station and do not call them. Maybe a few educated emails to the program director and the host informing them of the irresonsible nature of their program. If it really was slander, then please inform the Nelson family lawyer and let him take care of it.

Any angry outburst against this station or host will further his misconceptions about the sport and those in it - and those that loved Roger. Remember, Spread the Love, not hate.

I am still in too much shock over the lose of Roger to listen to a program like this, and I doubt I ever will. Skydiving is not and never will be a main stream sport - most people will never understand our passion and the connection we have. No matter the whuffos will never understand. Even those closest to me that know what this sport means to me hope that I will be quitting soon.
_________________________________________
you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me....
I WILL fly again.....

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I guess, call me ignorant... BUT who is Jim Rome??? I guess if he mattered, I would have heard of his show??? Just my humble input.
>>--> Todd <--<<



Mahahahahha

Never heard of him either, Todd guess we're from the old school and not on the hip of things yet:D

Rodger was a good man

If the guy bashes him maybe its just pure jealousy

Who knows

Rodgers in OUR hearts and this person voiced his opioion...bad one but not how we feel let him vent his loss not ours

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Even those closest to me that know what this sport means to me hope that I will be quitting soon.



I hear ya Bo. My mom told me on Sunday night (when I called her for some comfort) that she, my brother and sister think I'm crazy. Then she called Monday morning to apologize for that, saying that actually, my brother and sister never said that... Gee thanks Mom, I feel so much better now.

People who listen to that kind of talk radio listen to it just to hear that kind of thing, an I doubt most people take it seriously. Somebody who actually uses that crap to form their opinions probably shouldn't be Skydiving anyway, IMO.

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"Any angry outburst against this station or host will further his misconceptions about the sport and those in it - and those that loved Roger. Remember, Spread the Love, not hate."

I personally know of two other people who sent him an email. They were not angry outburst emails. They were well thought out and very concise.

Hey, If you all don't have a problem with legitamate slander and misrepresentation in a public media forum, good for you. WAY TO STICK UP FOR ROGER.

-- (N.DG) "If all else fails – at least try and look under control." --

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