4way history needed

[darkwing 4]

I'd like to put together a history of competitive 4way here in the US. I don't have any Parachutists from the 1970s, so I'm going to rely on the kindness of strangers. If you have some info, or could send me xeroxed pages from relevant Parachutists I'd love to put together a web page of early 4way. I want to concentrate on 1985 and before. Perhaps some youngster could extend it to the modern era. I hope that USPA would eventually have some competition history pages on the web. Any potential contacts or other information would be greatly appreciated

I think that a team with Tony Fugit won the first 4-way nationals, which was maybe in 1970. There was also a team "Godfrogs" which won in 72 I think. Then came the Rainbow Flyers dynasty. I knew Sam Brown of the Rainbow Flyers, but don't know any other names, and don't know if he or any of them still jump.

The last hogflop competition was at the nationals in 1976, after which things were pretty much as they are now.

-- Jeff
My Skydiving History

[councilman24 36]

Rainbow Flyers

Sam Brown, Don Carpenter, Rocky Evans, Ken Coleman. Alternate Jim Plummer according to Jim. Sam jumped until about 5 or 6 years ago. I was his rigger. He still jumped an old Shobi rig with a round reserve and Pegasus. Don works where I do and jumped until about 3 years ago. Some family issues have become more important for now. His last rig was a 1982 Northern Lite, Swift, and hmmmm don't remember the main. It was ragged out and we sold it as decoration. I last spoke to Don 2 weeks ago. I expect that Don will jump take up jumping again. Rocky was in Florida running Flagler in the early 90's. Rumors about starting a DZ here in MI with his brother. I think they actually did some AFF stuff in sothern MI at one time. His brother flew at our dropzone for a few years. I've lost track of what's going on in Flagler but I think I heard Rocky was out of it. Ken Coleman was killed in a balloon accident in 1980, maybe '81, in the Chicago area. Rocky was in the balloon too. As I remember it hit some power lines and caught on fire. Rocky jumped without a parachute from a lethal height (high 10s low 100s) but lived. Ken and all others in balloon died in the fire. Rocky and Ken, especially Ken, are credited with inventing modern harness hold training, AFF. If I remember my history right it was Ken that presented it to USPA. I may have that wrong. Jim Plummer never jumped much after I ment him in 1980. He also worked where I do. He did some demo's and was involved some in a start up DZ that didn't last in the '80's. He's still in the area but not in the company phone book. I haven't talked to him in several years.

When I started in 1980 Don was, and still is, one of the friendliest jumpers I knew. He would jump with anyone, no matter the skill level. Don invited me to sleep on his couch when I was still a student. I was on a demo team with Sam, Don, and Jim along with others in the mid 1980's.

The book United We Jump has a competition history. It lists the members of the winning teams through the seventies. I think it's out of print but I had a copy, if I can find it. (edit: The complete text of United We Fall is online at http://www.cs.fiu.edu/~esj/uwf/uwf.html)

I have one of the prototype Super Swooper Tandems (better known as SST and became the Racer). I bought it from Sam in 1980. I understand that they were given to the team by Sherman for either the 1975 cup or 1976 worlds. I've been told it has replacement containers on it but the original harness. It's an H style harness instead of a X style that went into production.

I'll PM you with some more personal information.

Terry

I'm old for my age.
Terry Urban
D-8631
FAA DPRE

[darkwing 4]

Thanks so much for the info. If anyone can send me even just the team names, what year they won, team members, contact info, etc. it would be greatly appreciated.

-- Jeff
My Skydiving History

[tbrown 26]

In 1977 of course the 4 way switched over to a sequential format. 1977 Nat'l champs were the Franklin County Dirt Divers, from No. Carolina. Think they placed 4th or 5th at the World meet in Australia. They moved out to Cali and got into the Pope Valley scene after that. 1979 was a team called Tesseract, which I think finished 4th at the World meet in France. 1981 was U.S. Army, forget whether they won the World meet in Zephyrhills or not. Army won again in 1983, but was not permitted to go to the World meet, because Dept of Defense wouldn't allow military personal in So. Africa (this was in the days of the Vorster/apartheid government). So the U.S. 4 way team was one of the Visions 4 ways, either Fire or Ice, I forget which (Visions was the 8 way team). That was also the year that many of the more competitive teams, like France, USSR, and China boycotted the So. African world meet. FAI sanctioned a World Cup meet, which was held in Abbotsford, BC, Canada. I think Army was the 4 Way team and Mirror Image was the 8 way. After that, I think Army won both the 4 way and 8 way in 1985 and made up the U.S. team at the Yugoslavia world meet. After that I lost touch with the sport.

Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

[skr 1]

There is a write up of how 4 way came into being at

http://indra.net/~bdaniels/ftw/profile_profile.html

It's about 2/3 or 3/4 of the way down. Search for "1969"
if you don't want to scan through the first part of the interview.


The short answer is that I made it up, because as people
started using RW as a medium for competition, the atmosphere
started changing from freedom and exploration to rigid
formats and grim, white knuckle skydiving.

I thought that changing the form of the activity would
break us out of that trend.

I was wrong.

You can see the freeflyers repeating that old history
word for word and move for move. It started out free,
but now they are using words like "compulsory moves".

They should probably start telling the truth and change
the name to "Forced Flying".

Freedom is not a body position.

It's not a maneuver either.


I guess I'm still disgruntled that people could take something
so free and beautiful and turn it into assembly line drudgery.

I thought I had let all that go but evidently not :-) :-)

I do mostly jump with students these days because they
are closer to the original vibes that I got from skydiving.

Skr

[Jumpervint 0]

Tesseract was from the Spokane area, of all places. Not exactly a jumping hotbed. One of the members, Emmet Floria (sp?) still comes out and makes a few jumps now and then. He just turned 60 this year. I'm not sure who else was on that team and where they are. I could ask around if needed.

Vint

. . . . .
"Make it hard again." Doc Ed

“A person needs a little madness, or else they never dare cut the rope and be free” Nikos Kazantzakis

[indyz 1]

Quote

I'm not sure who else was on that team and where they are.

According to his website (link in his signature), Darkwing was on Tesseract.

[jcecil 0]

Quote

There was also a team "Godfrogs" which won in 72 I think.

According to the USPA, the team from Greene County Sport Parachute Center won the National 4-way title in 1972.

Quote

Larry Bagley to me
show details 1:38 pm (56 minutes ago)

this is what is engraved on the perpetual plaque at headquarters:
1972

Greene County Kentucky

Bob Boswell Dick Hoff
Ken Heisman Tony Livers
Jim West, Alt.

-----Original Message-----
From: [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Fri 2/9/2007 8:07 AM
To: [email protected]
Cc:
Subject: 1972 4-way RW championship


I was wondering if you have on record who won the National 4 way RW championship in 1972. I've always heard it was the team from the Greene County Sport Parachute Center in Bardstown, KY, consisting of Kenny Heismann, Bob Boswell, Dick Hoff, and Tony Lyvers. Other sources on the internet, however, claim it is a team called the Godfrogs. If you have this information in your records, could you please help set the record straight?


Thank you for any information you can provide.

Jacob Cecil
C-35777

[lekstrom10k 0]

I jumped with Sam Brown at Rantoual last summer with his son .Also the year before . He has been to Napoleon a few times and swears he is going over to Midwest at Romeo to jump with Cliff Alfiche ,I dont know if it ever worked out. Rocky sold his C-182 to Randy Allison at Midwest. It was origionally from the Todd farm at the Silver Eagle DZ north of Port Huron in Crosswell Mi. It went to Flagler Fl for a while then back up to near Romeo about 30 miles from where it started from, now with a carb C206 engine and 3 blade prop .new paint and much more. Rockys brother was airport manager for Three Rivers south of K-Zoo Rocky and Tom Orielly did AFF and PreAffI courses there for a while. Most of those guys ended up on Excite - Us 10 way team After winning the World -Meet in South Africa

[docjohn 0]

I have an extensive PARACHUTIST collection. See below.

http://manifestmaster.com/parachutist/years.html

PM me and let me know what info your looking for.



.

Doc
http://www.manifestmaster.com/video

[jonstark 8]

I love ya Skratch. You put history and art into context. It was all about freedom and expression. It was and is a yawp!

Some of us got fed up with the rigidity of big-ways, set sequences, paid for organizing with "fees" attached, etc.

It doesn't have to be on video either.

jon

There is more to life tho and freedom to explore the reaches

Quote

There is a write up of how 4 way came into being at

http://indra.net/~bdaniels/ftw/profile_profile.html

It's about 2/3 or 3/4 of the way down. Search for "1969"
if you don't want to scan through the first part of the interview.


The short answer is that I made it up, because as people
started using RW as a medium for competition, the atmosphere
started changing from freedom and exploration to rigid
formats and grim, white knuckle skydiving.

I thought that changing the form of the activity would
break us out of that trend.

I was wrong.

You can see the freeflyers repeating that old history
word for word and move for move. It started out free,
but now they are using words like "compulsory moves".

They should probably start telling the truth and change
the name to "Forced Flying".

Freedom is not a body position.

It's not a maneuver either.


I guess I'm still disgruntled that people could take something
so free and beautiful and turn it into assembly line drudgery.

I thought I had let all that go but evidently not :-) :-)

I do mostly jump with students these days because they
are closer to the original vibes that I got from skydiving.

Skr

[steve1 5]

You make a lot of sense, Skratch....I think your explanation is a big reason why the numbers of skydivers have started dropping.

Don't you miss the old days, when all you had to do was look for something round and get in. Life was simpler then, and maybe a whole lot more fun. Thanks for the insight.....Steve1