Doe's anybody remember Bob Neely?

[skydiver_33460 0]

Bob Neely was one of my 1st AFF instructors, a friend a mentor, and one hell of a skydiver. He tradgically died on a base jump at a Florida antenna. I think about him him all the time.

[Hooknswoop 19]

Yo Primo!!

The video of him puling an AFF student's ripcord on exit with his reserve handle was priceless.

Derek

[Cajones 0]

Yo Brumo!

Hell yes! A legend.

He was "freeflying" when people didn't know what to call it.

He is still missed. His little brother is still jumping up in St. George.

- Cajones

The laws of physics are strictly enforced.

[Miami 0]

Quote

Bob Neely was one of my 1st AFF instructors, a friend a mentor, and one hell of a skydiver. He tradgically died on a base jump at a Florida antenna. I think about him him all the time.

Bob heavily influenced how I shot video, and is part of the reason why I like it so much...

He came up from FL one day to our dz in MS. No one knew who he was. Myself and my roommate had just taken over the video operation of our dz and were both fairly new at doing videos. He shares all sorts of crazy stories of videos and tandems back in FL...of tandems going out and doing headdown, him doing headdown with them and docking while shooting their video...and this is with first time tandem students. We laugh it off, but a couple weeks later we get a tape in the mail...he had made an extra dub of the tandems he had videoed that weekend...about 12 or 14 in total. We watched that video with our mouths hanging open the entire time. Everything he had talked about was exactly as he had described it...we were blown away by how he was able to fly with those tandems.

He continued to come up on occasion...kinda just when ever he felt like it. It was always great to have him around...always had great stories, was great to jump with...just a great guy overall. We were all very sad when we heard of what happened...but he will never be forgotten.

Miami

[mdwhalen 0]

Bob did the best videos of anyone I have had the pleasure to jump with. They are still my favorite videos to watch to this day. I met him in Clewiston in the early 90s when he regularly videoed our RW group down there (Jack, Jeannie, Amy, Pat, Pam, JD, Cathy, Rob, etc.). I've even, on occasion, copied his way of taking his camera helmet off and videoing himself debriefing the jump while he was under canopy! We lost a classic when we lost him.

"I have magic buttons ;)." skymama

[skydiver_33460 0]

Bob was a olympic gold medalist in diving back in the 70's. My favorite "bob" story is when the Golden knights were in town. He convinced some of them to come out and base jump the antenna with him. He jumped off the antenna, triple gainered,opened, weaved in between the guy wires under canopy and landed his canopy on the small roof of the antenna shack at the base of the antenna. The knights sat there looking at him like they just witnessed the impossible....that was Bob...making the impossible possible,and make it look effortless...

[kimgriffin 0]

I did not know him that well but I remeber his friendly face when he used to drop off pictures when I worked at Skydiving Magazine - usually of BASE jumps. Seemed like he lived big and had plenty of friends.

[gofastrlbrown 0]

I knew Bob. we jumped at Skydive Palm Beach and you are correct he died jumping an antannae 1184 feet, had a key to dumbwaiter which eliminated the climb up.

It is strange, the more I practice, the better I get!

[tjm 0]

I've never met him personally, but he jumped around here in south Louisiana for a while and I have heard plenty of stories about him. They say he was an odd fellow and he was wild as hell. Pulling off the impossible.

Outside of skydiving I heard how he was big into gymnastics and trampolining (for lack of a better term) and one day at my college (ULL) he wrote his name on the gym ceiling by jumping up and down on the trampoline. I was skeptical and checked it out. The bastard actually did it and it is still there today on one of the gurters.

If you're not living on the edge; you're taking up too much room!

[yeyo 1]

Heard some cool stories this Brumo dude...
My DZO was one of his friends that found his body at the antenna. They were good friends and Bob was his BASE mentor.
From what I heard, he was an awesome skydiver, base jumper and person.

HISPA #93
DS #419.5

[psychoswooper 2]

I remember Bob RIP. Crazy, talented, and fun. Always a pleasure to have around.

[TampaPete 35]

I can promise you the stunt of writing his name on the gym roof is true. He did this in the early 70’s. Neely was one of my trampoline coaches. He taught me how to do a back flip and a double back flip when I was in 5th grade (many moons ago).

What most of you don’t know is he was a world champion platform diver from the 85-foot ladder as well as a world class trampolinist. He was a pure athlete. (Skydiver 33460 he wasn’t an Olympic diver he was a professional ladder diver). He climbed to the top a bridge in Lafayette (La.) and lowered a weight on a string until it touched the water. He took the string home and measured it so he would know the height. Then he climbed back up and nailed a layout reverse sommersault on the first jump from about 80 feet up. Years later I designed the bridge that replaced the one he jumped from.

And any wild story you can think of I know is true. He loved life and loved sharing it with everyone. We were driving back from Houston to Lafayette after a trampoline meet. It was about midnight in November and we stopped at the interstate rest area. When we (about 7 of us) got back in the station wagon there were two hitchhikers sitting in the middle of the back seat. Neely got in last (he was driving). One of the other college jumpers asked who the two new guys were and Bobby said “they looked cold. We’re taking them Lafayette.” And that was that.

His favorite sayings that I remember from way back were “that’s some neat shit” and “hello boys and girls”. If you knew him you were lucky to know a very unique, crazy, funny and kind individual.

[skydave114 0]

I remember him best for his "instant downplane" stunt. He tried to get me to try it, but I always declined.
It's a Mr. Bill, where "Bill" deploys, still hanging on.
He once got restricted to "work jumps only" for doing it, so some of us would "hire" him sometimes for "no fun jumps"

[TampaPete 35]

Dave –

I can understand why you guys were amazed at his presence in the air. He truly was at home in 3D space. One year we were at USTTA trampoline nationals in New Orleans. When we went to the gym there were three brand new trampolines for us to compete on. Two were Nissan tramps (the standard tramp for competition) and one was this yellow monster from I think Australia. We all tried a few jumps on the yellow submarine, as it was quickly nicknamed, and it was HOT! Tramps are designed to throw you back toward the middle but the yellow sub would throw you were ever it wanted to. We all chose to compete on the Nissans but not Bobby. Neely threw his routines on the yellow submarine. In finals he was in the middle of a very difficult routine when the yellow sub threw him off sideways. We didn’t even notice it until he landed on the floor on his feet and stuck the landing. Remember he stuck the landing from about 25 feet in the air. In the middle of the air in the middle of a double twisting double back summersault (two back flips with two twists all done together) Neely noticed he was gone and adjusted the trick to land on his feet on the floor (a really tough feat). When he stuck the landing he gave the big victory V with his arms that we all present at the end of the routine. The crowd went nuts.

He had the best cat sense of anyone I’ve ever seen.

[tkhayes 140]

Bob filmed me and Evelyn Drake on a tandem in 1994 at Quincy. Evelyn was 89 years old and I was scared shitless. Bob was great and taught me a lot about doing tandem videos in just a few days that i knew him there.

[One4n5 0]

Man, I'm jazzed to find this thread about Bob. I was lucky enough to meet this wildman in 1975 when he came in to join our High Dive Show at Seven Seas in Arlington Texas, which was a sealife park akin to Seaworld. All of us locals knew right away "this dude is special". He called everyone "buddyro". If you knew him you couldn't help smiling while in his presents. And if something jazzed his adrenaline gland he would get a giant grin and holler "ACT-SHON" (or "action!" in his cajun accent). He was the master of having fun and making you have fun as well.

The show consisted of springboard diving, trick diving, mini-tramp, fire dives, Dillies(clown dives) and the grand finale 85 foot high dive. Bob killed in all areas. You should have seen him do Dillies. Outrageous! Truth is, he made all of us better and our shows always kicked butt.
Of course "The Divers" always had the best parties and Bob would make his famous "Coonass Gumbo". One party he dug a hole in the backyard and roasted a pig. Great!

The next year the park changed owners and became Hawaii Kia (same bit just with a Hawiian theme). Attached(I hope) is a pix of Bob saluting the crowd after a high dive.

1976 was the final season. The park folded and Bob went home to Lafayette. I paid a visit and met his brother and his Mom. Cool folks. He showed me around town. TampaPete: He took me to the bridge you referred to. Aint no way you would get me off that thing! The bayou river looked a little too funky. He said the only thing he worried about was tree limbs, gators and the occasional dead cow floating by. But this was the only place around he could practice for upcoming contests. After he won the World High Dive Championship I wondered how his competition felt knowing the only way he could practice was to dodge dead cows & gators.
Sometime around late 60's early 70's he and his bounce partner Gary Smith won the World Synchronized Trampoline Championship. If it had been an olympic event they probably would have won that too.

Last time I saw Bob was early 80's. He came through town with a smokin' hot chic in tow. She was a heavily trained ballet dancer and also turned out to be the niece of the ex-governor of Louisiana(one of the very crooked ones). I just smiled.
At that time Bob was big time into wind surfing, which kind of surprised me. It's a very cool sport but didnt have the big adrenaline rush that Bob oh so loved. But he brought a couple of boards with him so we headed to the lake and had a ball.

I lost contact with him after that and learned of his demise several years after the fact. I was not surprised. I've been around many adrenaline junkies in my day but Bobby was at the top of the list. And he wouldnt have it any other way. He did exactly what he wanted to do and blew a lot of minds in the process. They said it was a late deploy that got him. I'm not a jumper but I'm guessing he was trying to add just one more somersault and one more twist to the bottom. Just ran out of ladder.

I was so blessed to spend time with you.

Thanks, Buddyro
Lee B.

BTW, can anyone direct me to videos or stills of him?
Many thanks.

[trampfossil 0]

Bobby was a great friend that I bounced with many times in Trampoline before he became a high sky base jumper. All his trampoline friends miss him as much as his Diving friends do He was always the life of any party and a great competitor win or loose Bobby seemed to have the right idea Always HAVE FUN!!!Here is a picture of him in Hawaii at worlds in 79
It is easy to spot Bobby in the hat at a Trampoline reunion In Cleveland!

[TampaPete 35]

trampfossil –

Was thinking about Bobby. Today is 18 years. He was a real influence on my successes.

It’s been some neat shit Bobby.

BSBD

[kkeenan 13]

Bob really was a unique person, even in the all-unique world of skydiving. It's great to hear of his earlier exploits in trampoline and diving. I had heard that he came from a diving background, but it's great to hear the stories.
Bob was a jumper at Clewiston when I met him. We were on a few jumps together, but I never got to know him well. I remember him mostly from many videos that made the rounds back then. He did a series of jumps from a T-tail King Air, which the dz had just started using and which would have made the FAA crazy.
RIP Bob. You were a good guy to have around.

_____________________________________
Dude, you are so awesome...
Can I be on your ash jump ?