Bonedaddy

I'm trying to contact Jeff Willard, who was a frequent jumper at the ZHills Boogies in the late 70s and early 80s. If you happen to know how to contact him, would you please let me know?

In the early 80s there were a number of Tubesteak Boogies organized by Shoobi Knutson that were held in Brooksville, Florida and later at ZHills. The boogie was by invitation only and featured color coordinated sequential jumps that were a thing of beauty in the air. Shoobi was gracious enough to invite me to film them and has been after me for quite some time to get them out of Kodak slide carousels and into a format that can be seen by everyone. Of the 4000+ 35mm slides I have of various skydiving meets, many of them are of the Tubesteak Boogies. In order to avoid having to go to the Smithsonian to borrow a slide projector, I bought a slide scanner and am now in the process of scanning the best of them. Attached below is one of them.

I sold my Cruise Air and bought a Pegasus. As much as I liked the Cruise Air, the first thing you did after opening was pump the brakes to get the end cells inflated. The Pegasus had cross-port venting that allowed the end cells to inflate immediately after opening. Of the 145 jumps I made on the Pegasus, I only had one reserve ride in which it opened in a rapid spin. I cut away and opened the Firefly reserve, which, like the Pegasus, was rock solid and stable. The landings were incredibly soft as well.

Does anybody know what happened to Louie Howell? He frequented ZHills in the 70s and was one of the nicest guys you’d ever meet.

Over the past few weeks I've been going through 25 Kodak carousels and 47 assorted boxes of 35mm slides (you know, those cameras that actually required film instead of a flash card) I made while I was doing skydiving photography during the late 70s and early 80s. The vast majority of them are freefall shots I made during various Freak Brother Conventions, Herd Boogies, Turkey and Easter meets at ZHills, Tubesteak Boogies, and at drop zones across the country. I've got several thousand slides to sort through, and I'm only picking out the best shots so that I can eventually digitize them and get them into a format I can see at a later date without having to use a dinosaur slide projector. One of them is classic Dave DeWolf. I made it at the Herd Boogie in the early 80s, and it shows Dave naked in a cardboard box that is suspended from his shoulders by ropes. On the outside of the box it says "Raffle tickets $1.00. Clothe a Herd Member." If you pitched in a buck Dave would raise up a little door he had at his crotch. Unfortunately, I made the photo at an angle that shows his johnson through the raised door. At some point I'll get it digitized and somehow pixelate out his johnson so I can post it on this website without getting locked up for distributing porn. And, oh, the toga party pics! The other photo is of Carl Daugherty and Charlie McGurr lying on the roof of the old packing shed at ZHills after their midair collision during on the the meets in the late 70s. They're being attended to by medical personnel, and if I remember correctly one of them was transported to the hospital and the other somehow avoided transport with minor injuries. Once I get them into a format that's usable I'll post them here.

Just remembered another one--Heat-seeking Moisture Missiles. I'm really glad the P.C. police weren't around in those days.

I was going through some old log books from the late 70s and early 80s the other day and ran across some great 10-way team names, mostly from the Turkey Meets and Easter Boogies at Z-Hills. Most of them would not be considered PC today, but I think the creativity back then was great. Here are some of the ones I found in the logbooks. Feel free to add more. Twenty Tits Nine Holes and a Pole Crystal Crusiers The Humpers Toxic Shock and the Rely-able Ten Elmer and the Gluebags Hoof Hearted

Losing Rocky and Carl in the same week really hurts. Shortly after Rocky's hot air balloon accident in which Ken Coleman was killed, some skydivers were taking Rocky back to Florida and spent the night with me and my wife at our apartment in Atlanta. Rocky had been badly burned and his skin was still very red. We all went to some little pancake restaurant, and while we were there the owner, a sweet little old lady, came up and called him "Shiny" (he was because his skin was still growing back and he really was shiny) and said she would pray for him. He was a great guy and I'll miss him. And this wasn't Carl's first time at having a mid-air canopy collision. In the late 70s, I was in ZHills at the Turkey Meet or Easter Boogie, I think, and Carl and another jumper collided under canopy while approaching the packing area from different directions. I forget how high up they were but it wasn't all that high. Both canopies collapsed and both of them landed on the tin roof of the old packing shed that was there before the dz moved to its present location. Both lay there for quite some time. If I remember correctly (and this was 40+ years ago, so who knows?), one of them went to the hospital and one of them managed to get off the roof with minor injuries. Several boards that supported the roof were broken in the collision and as far as I know were still broken when the packing shed was taken down some years later.

Now that's a coincidence! I haven't been on this website in ages and today I get on it and the first thing I see is my name. Long story here, but I'll keep it short. In 1982 I was transferred with FedEx from Atlanta to Knoxville, Tennessee to work as a ramp agent. Knoxville's not exactly the skydiving capital of the world, and moving to Knoxville put it four hours farther away from Z-Hills and Deland. Shortly after moving here I went back to grad school (for all the years it took my wife and I began to call it "gradual school") and I eventually got my Master's and Ph.D. in forensic anthropology, started my own company working with law enforcement, medical examiners, and coroners to identify human skeletal remains, and have been with it ever since. Between being farther away from the big boogies, the pressure of grad school, and running my own company something had to give, and it was skydiving, unfortunately. The last jump I made (just short of 1000) was in 1996 at my 30-year class reunion. I was in Pennsylvania a few years ago working on some unidentified remains and stopped by a drop zone just after Dave DeWolfe made several jumps on his 80th birthday. We had a great time reliving the glory days of The Herd, Soss, Whale, the Herd t-shirts photos, the funny stuff that happened (on the Herd's loudspeaker one day at the Turkey Meet they called out "Sunday, Sunday, see Hooper stuff flaming nitrous bottles up his ass and ride to 12-5 without a ticket! Sunday, Sunday!"), stuff Carbone used to pull, and lots of other stuff I can't remember. I still have a photo of Dave at the Herd Boogie one year walking around in a cardboard box buck naked. If you donated to The Herd, he would pull a string that raised a little cutout door in the front of the box, displaying Dave in all his naked glory. Nobody but Dave! I really miss the skydiving days, but at this point in life I'm too old and brittle to pick it up again.

I'm not advertising so don't ban me! My skydiving days are long over and I'm getting rid of a lot of stuff these days. I've got a 1980 Pegasus main with about 150 jumps on it, a 1982 Firefly reserve with 2 rides on it, and a 1982 Vector. All are in great shape (just unpacked them the other day) but I doubt that they're worth anything or that a rigger would pack them anyway given their age. Is this anything anyone would want or should I just pitch them?

I know this isn't the place for it so I'm not advertising gear for sale. All I need is some advice on what, if anything, I can sell this gear for so I can then put it in the Classifieds. I've got a 1981 Pegasus 7-cell (with no mods) is very good condition and 146 jumps on it, a 1982 Firefly reserve with 2 reserve rides on it, and a 1982 original Vector. I unpacked the Pegasus the other day and it's still in great shape. Presumably, the Firefly reserve is as well but i didn't unpack it. Any estimates on what to sell this gear for would be appreciated.

Still here, but I'm in the process of moving and will be out of the picture for awhile. Right now the gear is packed away and won't be available for some time. As soon as things are in the new place and settled down I'll get back with you.

For what it's worth, I've jumped the old ropes and rings Clouds, Strato Stars, newer model Clouds, Cruise Airs, Stilettos, and a bunch of other canopies as well and nothing, but nothing, was as stable or put me down as comfortably as the Pegasus.

how many jumps does your gear have ? any repairs done or needing to be done ? what are the DOMs ? what size person is it made for ? Just pulled out my logbooks and checked. The Pegasus, Firefly, and Vector were all bought new in November 1981. The Pegasus has 146 jumps and is in great condition (alternating blue and white cells). The Firefly is in mint condition with 2 reserve rides on it. The Vector is blue and white and is also in great shape. Nothing needs any repairs. I weighed 180 while jumping the rig and it landed me softly.

That was one of those rare days when I was glad I arrived at the DZ later than usual. Could have been me.