Most tandem jumps - who?

[skydiverek 54]

OK, so Freddy from Taupo Tandem Skydiving has 15,000 tandem skydives. Anyone has more?:

Source: http://www.taupotandemskydiving.com/ourteam.php

[azureriders 0]

that source does not seem very creditable when it also claims that he has 2 million skydives total. just saying

[matthewcline 0]

I think it is 'cause they use a different form of measurement, the metric system right?

Matt

An Instructors first concern is student safety.
So, start being safe, first!!!

[rhys 0]

it was not uncommon a few couple of years ago for those guys to be doing 1600 work jumps a year.

I know a few people around the 10,000 tandem mark so I would be inclined to beleive that figure.


The '2 million skydives' is probably due to the fact that logging becomes mundane when you are doing 20 jumps a day and he probably has not logged his jumps for many thousands of jumps.

You can bet your bottom dollar every tandem was invoiced for though.

"When the power of love overcomes the love of power, then the world will see peace." - 'Jimi' Hendrix

[Rover 9]

2 wrongs don't make a right - but 3 lefts do.

[IanHarrop 37]

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that source does not seem very creditable when it also claims that he has 2 million skydives total. just saying

Sure makes his buddy Geoff (right above Freddy) look stupid, Geoff only has 1 Million skydives.
Geoff needs to get busy!

Freddy must be a sky god! That or he has problems with math

"Where troubles melt like lemon drops, away above the chimney tops, that's where you'll find me" Dorothy

[skydiverek 54]

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that source does not seem very creditable when it also claims that he has 2 million skydives total. just saying

I know for a fact that he celebrated his 10,000th tandem jump approx three years ago. And, doing 5000 tandems in three years is possible in New Zealand.

[IanHarrop 37]

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The '2 million skydives' is probably due to the fact that logging becomes mundane when you are doing 20 jumps a day and he probably has not logged his jumps for many thousands of jumps.

You can bet your bottom dollar every tandem was invoiced for though.

My figuring says that at 20 jumps per day and 365 days in a year, he would do 7,300 jumps in a year.
Using the 2 Million number as a target, a guy would need over 273 years to make that number of jumps.

That fellow Freddy must be very well preserved... he started jumping before the Wright brothers invented the plane
Maybe he started out doing Base jumps?

"Where troubles melt like lemon drops, away above the chimney tops, that's where you'll find me" Dorothy

[topdocker 0]

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Maybe he started out doing Base jumps?

Or balloon jumps, they've been around a lot longer than airplanes.

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Jump more, post less!

[IanHarrop 37]

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Maybe he started out doing Base jumps?

Or balloon jumps, they've been around a lot longer than airplanes.

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Balloon jumps are not cheap now, I wonder what they cost back then?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_ballooning

"Where troubles melt like lemon drops, away above the chimney tops, that's where you'll find me" Dorothy

[theonlyski 3]

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Maybe he started out doing Base jumps?

Or balloon jumps, they've been around a lot longer than airplanes.

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Balloon jumps are not cheap now, I wonder what they cost back then?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_ballooning

'twarto care to comment?

"I may be a dirty pirate hooker...but I'm not about to go stand on the corner." iluvtofly
DPH -7, TDS 578, Muff 5153, SCR 14890
I'm an asshole, and I approve this message

[diablopilot 2]

I'm willing to bet Jim Wallace in SoCal has that beat.

----------------------------------------------
You're not as good as you think you are. Seriously.

[Kimblair13 0]

I bet Kea Turner in Guam as well over 8000 now, maybe the most for a girl? And she's like 5 ft tall 100 lbs. She pretty much rocks.

[lekstrom10k 0]

Up north of him at Lodi check with D. Mike Spurgeon. He is in this months parachutist for 18000 jumps. I am guessing 15 or 16 thousand of them are tandems. He had an article a fews years ago for 14000.Check hia age and size and that continues to make it more remarkable. Nicest guy you will ever meet to.

[Ron 7]

Anyone that claims to have 1 million jumps... well I tend to not believe if they later claim to have another number of anything else.

Not saying it can't happen, but he lost credibility so I would not believe any number put out there.

"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

[irishrigger 31]

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OK, so Freddy from Taupo Tandem Skydiving has 15,000 tandem skydives. Anyone has more?:



I worked for TTS and i know freddy quiet well.i will vouch that he has 15000 tandems.he calls himself the "soulrider" everytime he does a tandem he does a soulride.he is a great guy to have o your tandem.he is a cool and funny guy,even though he is german!
as for geoff,who i consider to be one of my best friends. i worked with him in empuria,taupo and christchurch.he is an awesome aff instructor and ran the diploma course in christchurch for 3 years.i would say he has about 20000 jumps.about 8000 tandems and 10000 aff jumps,but that is a guess on my part.
as for the most tandems i believe there is a guy who has done about 38000 tandems,he is always in the uspa mag witht he most jumps,his name escapes me at the moment,think its don k something????
rodger

[skydiverek 54]

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as for the most tandems i believe there is a guy who has done about 38000 tandems,he is always in the uspa mag witht he most jumps,his name escapes me at the moment,think its don k something????
rodger

That's Don Kellner - he has over 39,000 total jumps, NOT 39,000 tandems:

http://www.dkellner.info/DonKellner.html

[kimemerson 7]

What are the odds that the 1 million claim is being cheeky? Like, (work with me on this one. It's a wild guess) he never intended anyone to take it seriously. Because anyone who has been in the sport for more than an hour knows it hasn't been done and anyone who has been in the sport for a week would have heard about it. Accepting the 1 million claim as truth - or as an attempt at truth - is a sure sign of naivete, ignorance, gullibility and dampness behind the ears. We can still take other claims as fact anyway. Hyperbole and cheekiness do not necessarily rule out the truth of other statements. It remains for us to discern truth, and allowing an overly transparent playfulness with the truth to steer us away from the other truths is really more a sign of our inability than it is of the truth or falsity of the claim.
And that's the truth.

[Ron 7]

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What are the odds that the 1 million claim is being cheeky? Like, (work with me on this one. It's a wild guess) he never intended anyone to take it seriously.

I am sure that it was.... But why take the other number seriously then?

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Accepting the 1 million claim as truth - or as an attempt at truth - is a sure sign of naivete, ignorance, gullibility and dampness behind the ears. We can still take other claims as fact anyway. Hyperbole and cheekiness do not necessarily rule out the truth of other statements.

Sure, but now you have to try and decide when he is lying and when he is telling the truth... I honestly don't care enough to research it.

True story... A guy landed from a jump an announced that he had just done 60 hours of freefall. Now for most of us we know that means he ACCUMULATED 60 hours over his jumping career. But a tandem student looked at him in wonder and asked "How high did you jump from!!!!"

The point being that most people will know he is full of it with the million jumps.... But why should we buy 15k tandems then?

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and allowing an overly transparent playfulness with the truth to steer us away from the other truths is really more a sign of our inability

And if a guy lies once... He will lie again. So why should we trust him THIS time?

Your profile claims 999,999 jumps.... well most of us are smart enough to know that you don't have that many. But you also say you have 20 years. Why should we believe that when you already posting something we already know is false?

Point being... he (or you) can be as cheecky as he wants. But that does not mean we should buy his next line of crap..... the old fable of Chicken Little comes to mind.

"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

[rhys 0]

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Sure makes his buddy Geoff (right above Freddy) look stupid, Geoff only has 1 Million skydives.
Geoff needs to get busy!

Freddy must be a sky god! That or he has problems with math

You wanna hear how many AFF jumps Geoff has, I can't remember exactly how many i was told a number of years ago but i almost fell off my chair when i was told, Do'n't quote me but i think it may be up in the 10k regon for aff jumos alone...

He still gives his students 'his all' too which is quite admirable indeed!

I am yet to visit the taupo DZ's but there are certainly some gurus up there!

"When the power of love overcomes the love of power, then the world will see peace." - 'Jimi' Hendrix

[rhys 0]

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Up north of him at Lodi check with D. Mike Spurgeon. He is in this months parachutist for 18000 jumps. I am guessing 15 or 16 thousand of them are tandems. He had an article a fews years ago for 14000.Check hia age and size and that continues to make it more remarkable. Nicest guy you will ever meet to.

Yep, frosty is a good man, and at 70 will out jump most of the instructors on the board. he just keeps on going like the duracell bunny!

"When the power of love overcomes the love of power, then the world will see peace." - 'Jimi' Hendrix

[kimemerson 7]

My brother died a little over a month ago. If I told you I'd give my left nut to see him again you would likely understand that I would not really give my left nut as payment for a seance, but you would also understand that I really in all honesty want to see my brother again.
A claim of a million jumps is a romp through the absurd. It is playfulness. I no more expect you to believe I have 999,999 jumps than this guy expects you to believe he has a million. (You can also run a check on me and find out for yourself if I've at least been a USPA member for 20 years. And that's how you can tell if my one "lie" is indicative of another.) And such play is not lying. It is play. No one expects that any serious discussion on jump numbers would even allow such a claim to be entered into the conversation.
The 15,000 though, is a possibility and we know that. So that's the one we might want to verify or check out. It's the one where a false boast or a lie could be used to deceive someone for any reason. The million claim can't even do that because the general skydiving population already knows and fully accepts that it isn't real. The distance between a statement of one million jumps and the known, accepted reality is such that the claim is an absurdity and we are asked to enjoy the fun, not accept it as a claim. If I go to the circus and I see a dozen clowns fit into a Yugo, I accept that they got those clowns in there but I don't accept that those guys go home looking like that. (Unless they're headed to the DZ)
Jimmy Durante, a comedian of the '30's - '60's (or so. Not sure exactly) after he got off a good joke, would say as his standard line, "I got a million of 'em." It was a signature line. I doubt anyone took him seriously and I doubt anyone called him a liar. One million is such a far flung number that it is in a category all by itself. Anyone who says they have a million jumps, or 999,999, is hoping no one really believes it. And they are hoping no one then assumes everything else they say is also a lie. We can very easily take this guy at his word because he hasn't asked us to believe he has a million jumps. Unless he is trying to deceive us, unless he hopes to gain from it, there's nothing to indicate that a claim of 15,00 is also bogus. The two claims are unrelated because the million is not expected to be taken seriously whereas the 15,000 is in line with what we know could well be true. And you should believe my claim of 20 (21 in June) years in the sport because I haven't attempted to mislead you in any obvious way. If the 999,999 is used as a yardstick for my truthfulness, then we can kiss good humor goodbye. I put 999,999 because it's the highest number that I can use here on my dz.com profile. It won't accept anything with more digits and it won't let me use words. Numbers only. I'd probably have said a trillion for all it mattered and if I say it's snowing in December in New York and to dress appropriately, I hope no one looks at the 999,999 and gets out the tank tops and Tevas and blames the frost bite on me.

[Ron 7]

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My brother died a little over a month ago

Sorry to hear that.

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A claim of a million jumps is a romp through the absurd. It is playfulness. I no more expect you to believe I have 999,999 jumps than this guy expects you to believe he has a million. (You can also run a check on me and find out for yourself if I've at least been a USPA member for 20 years. And that's how you can tell if my one "lie" is indicative of another.)

It is also a lie... And for the average person they are not going to care you are trying to tell the truth someplace else. If you are willing to lie on one aspect, why should you be trusted to not lie on another?

As for checking it.... I could not honestly care. To ME you have lied once, why bother even trying to trust you.

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And such play is not lying. It is play.

No, it is lying. You may think it is cute, but saying something you know is not true is a lie....

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No one expects that any serious discussion on jump numbers would even allow such a claim to be entered into the conversation.

Then there is no reason to believe the 15k number, or your 20 year number either. And you have already shown you are willing to lie over something small.

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The million claim can't even do that because the general skydiving population already knows and fully accepts that it isn't real.

And as I said before... Whuffos don't know it. And THEY are the ones that are going to be looking to see how many jumps a TANDEM master has.

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Anyone who says they have a million jumps, or 999,999, is hoping no one really believes it. And they are hoping no one then assumes everything else they say is also a lie.

YOU just said it was a lie, BTW.

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We can very easily take this guy at his word because he hasn't asked us to believe he has a million jumps. Unless he is trying to deceive us, unless he hopes to gain from it, there's nothing to indicate that a claim of 15,00 is also bogus.

There is evidence to back that it is not true. He was willing to lie about his jump numbers already. He has established the precedent of being willing to lie about jump numbers.

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And you should believe my claim of 20 (21 in June) years in the sport because I haven't attempted to mislead you in any obvious way.

Except the fact you are willing to lie right to me. And that is a big reason not to trust you.

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If the 999,999 is used as a yardstick for my truthfulness, then we can kiss good humor goodbye.

Or just know that you are willing to lie over trivial maters and therefore not trust you to tell the truth.

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I put 999,999 because it's the highest number that I can use here on my dz.com profile.

You put it because you are unwilling to tell the truth. That's fine. But don't expect people to trust you when you try to tell the truth later. And don't get upset when people don't trust you are not lying.

Its cool... You are just trying to defend his lying since you do it too.

Is it a big deal? No. But it does lead others to question your other claims (15k tandems, 20 years).

"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

[kimemerson 7]

Thank you for the condolences. He was a good man but we were not close. Still, a great loss. He thought I was nuts for skydiving but that didn't keep him from riding his Triumph or Indian down the highway at full throttle. He smoked cigarettes all his adult life and died of lung cancer at 55 years old. One month from diagnosis to death So let me put in a plug for quitting smoking, all you smokers. "nuff said. Again, thank you.

I think we differ on the severity or importance of telling the truth or what constitutes a lie and we may not find middle ground on that. But I welcome a healthy discussion and want to say thanks for pitching in. I see this as just a discussion, not a diatribe.

I simply feel that once we get into what I consider the playfully absurd realm of astronomical numbers as claims to the unreal, we are not expected to take it as real, and if we are caught believing, or wanting to believe such absurdity, then it is we who are the fools. As I said, somewhat, if I told you I had a trillion jumps, you would know it wasn't true. But is it a lie? It may be a grey area, or one left to interpretation, but I think that intent is what matters. My saying to you, a skydiver, that I have 999,999 jumps is so obviously not intended to be taken seriously, that it cannot be constituted as a lie. Unless I allow you to believe it and I hope to gain by it. It's a joke. And if one cannot comprehend a well intended joke, then is it the responsibility of the joker to straighten the listener out? Sometimes. Other times it's just a joke. And so I stand by my comment that my saying I have 999,999 jumps should not be taken as a sign that I am an untrustworthy liar. Anyone who insists that I am, based on that 999,999 comment, must also have taken a moral high ground and might also be devoid of a sense of humor all together. And in that case, nothing is safe.

I guess I just don't call every untruth a lie. Again, because I consider intent to be the crux of the issue and I allow for the playfulness of hyperbole. It is when the claims play with reasonable possibilities that the truth matters, not when they are so patently and obviously not truths.

[zoobrothertom 5]

You're the best!!

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I'm back in the USA!!