2008 Woodie Awards
Balls to the wall: skydiving
Nick Stockton
Issue date: 2/7/07 Section: Features
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Alex is absolutely terrified of heights. In the weeks leading up to our jump, he really drove this point home.
Alex had planned to record the chronology of the day leading up to the jump. This did not come about. In his words, "When you think about the fact that you're going to be falling 14,000 feet, you tend not to write about it."
Here is what he got:
10:15 - woke up
10:30 - 11:02 - Nick called and told me he was on the way. I started to make a mix of music for the day that would just make it wonderful to dance to. Ended up with a mix with some Aesop Rock, Eagles Of Death metal and TV On the Radio with a splash of Blood Brothers.
11:04 - pick up our photographer Valerie
11:05 - 11:41 - Dance party on the way to Taft
11:41 - arrive in Taft.
While this is is a pretty entertaining synopsis of the morning, it could pretty much describe any day of Alex's life.
After we arrived in Taft, we confirmed our reservation and found out our jump time. In the meantime, we met up with Wayne Berryhill.
We had met Wayne the week before when our jump was rained out. While we were waiting to see if the rain would clear up, he regaled us with dirty jokes, clean jokes, and a brief history of his insane life.
While getting our jump set back a week was a bit of a bummer, the plus side was that we got to hang out with Wayne and the rest of the Skydive Taft crew.
"Everyone at Skydive Taft is wrapped up in some sort of badassery, so it kind of took a lot of the fear away," Alex speaks the truth. These guys and gals are well versed in staying alive while being strapped to the back of some terrified wannabe daredevil. Thinking about that really takes the edge off."
We also met up again with Jade Tatom, who had caught our attention the week before due to his crazy camera-rigged helmet. Jade is completely off his rocker.
We weren't at the hangar for very long before Wayne pulled us aside and gave us our basic jump tutorial. He showed us how the body position of the jumper can affect the overall jump, which made all the difference
Alex had planned to record the chronology of the day leading up to the jump. This did not come about. In his words, "When you think about the fact that you're going to be falling 14,000 feet, you tend not to write about it."
Here is what he got:
10:15 - woke up
10:30 - 11:02 - Nick called and told me he was on the way. I started to make a mix of music for the day that would just make it wonderful to dance to. Ended up with a mix with some Aesop Rock, Eagles Of Death metal and TV On the Radio with a splash of Blood Brothers.
11:04 - pick up our photographer Valerie
11:05 - 11:41 - Dance party on the way to Taft
11:41 - arrive in Taft.
While this is is a pretty entertaining synopsis of the morning, it could pretty much describe any day of Alex's life.
After we arrived in Taft, we confirmed our reservation and found out our jump time. In the meantime, we met up with Wayne Berryhill.
We had met Wayne the week before when our jump was rained out. While we were waiting to see if the rain would clear up, he regaled us with dirty jokes, clean jokes, and a brief history of his insane life.
While getting our jump set back a week was a bit of a bummer, the plus side was that we got to hang out with Wayne and the rest of the Skydive Taft crew.
"Everyone at Skydive Taft is wrapped up in some sort of badassery, so it kind of took a lot of the fear away," Alex speaks the truth. These guys and gals are well versed in staying alive while being strapped to the back of some terrified wannabe daredevil. Thinking about that really takes the edge off."
We also met up again with Jade Tatom, who had caught our attention the week before due to his crazy camera-rigged helmet. Jade is completely off his rocker.
We weren't at the hangar for very long before Wayne pulled us aside and gave us our basic jump tutorial. He showed us how the body position of the jumper can affect the overall jump, which made all the difference
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