guest
January 3rd, 2001, 09:22 AM
Dear readers:
Ten seconds before midnight on December 31, 2000, 15 skydivers launched from various points on the Petronas Twin Towers, opened their parachutes after slider-down delays and cruised in to pinpoint landings in a small landing zone surrounded by 250,000 people and within 30 feet of Malaysia's prime minister, Dr. Mahathir Mohammad (except for the four who landed at the secondary LZ to relieve traffic congestion).
The jump was the result of my desire to visit a Malaysian woman named Christina Hoh, whom I'd met in the U.S. and to jump from the Twins, the world's tallest building at 1,483 feet. From that desire and visit, I met Christina's cousin, Dann Lee, who suggested that we create a sporting event to make the jump rather than trying to do it outlaw.
We originally conceived of a world championships of extreme skydiving. When I returned to the States after my first visit, I met with Mark Hewitt and designed the basic competition structure, and it was at that time that Mark suggested the idea of a trans-millennium record that would stand for 1,000 years.
Shortly thereafter, Dann elisted the help of his sister, Jasmina Jacinta Lee,and the three of us formed SkyVenture Productions to secure approval and put on the World Championships.
UNfortunately, the approval process took so long we had to move the championships forward to an as-yet undetermined date in 2001, but we continued to pursue the millennium jump.
DUring the course of these negotiations, I asked Dennis McGlynn to choreograph the dive, and when approval was finally granted -- about two weeks before the event -- I sent Dennis and Brenda to Kuala Lumpur to meet with Petronas executives to answer their "technical" questions about the jump. Dennis and Brenda did a superlative and successful job at that, and on 22 DEC 2000 clinched the deal by making a 2-way from the window washing gondola of one tower for the PEtronas execs.
I showed up a few days later and we put the finishing touches on the deal, to include a production company insurance policy, which was the final large hurdle to overcome.
In the meantime, jumpers were arriving for the event, people who spent thousands of dollars to get last-minute tickets during the holidays to come to KL and make this magical jump happen.
On Christmas night, DEnnis, Christina, John Huffman and I scouted the building to see how it looked with all its lights blasting. We decided we needed to make some night jumps to figure out the lighting we'd need, so we requested some jumps during our 3 pm meeting the next day and by 9 pm, we jumped. Joe Weber and Per Erickson joined Dennis, John and me to make jumps from Level 73 (980 feet), then Dennis and I dashed back up and did a 2-way from Level 60 (800 feet) because we were the only ones with two rigs packed.
We learned a lot from our night jumps about how we were going to light the canopies and landing areas, and four days later, we started jumping in joyful earnest at about 7:30 pm, December 30, 2000.
We jumped until about 1 am, when we got rained out unbtil 7 am, when we did a few more jumps to practice the choreography.
We needed at least one more jump, though, and Petronas obliged us, and at 7:30 on December 31, 2000, we set a new world building record, when 11 jumpers launched from various points on Levels 60 and 73 of both buildings, while Dennis and I watched from the gondolas alongside the two Malaysians who would also be part of the final attempt, Aziz Ahmad and Azlan Ismail.
The team performed the 11-way perfectly, much to the delight of the growing crowd.
A few hours later, we set a record that will not be broken for 1,000 years, when all 15 of us launched simultaneously and landed without incident.
The prime ministed presented us all with medals, then hung around on the stage with his wife, mingling with us for several minutes, part of which time was taken up by Omar Alhegelan gently cajoling them to give us blanket permission to jump from all buildings in Malaysia for the next couple of days.
See SKYDIVING Magazine for a more compelete report, but suffice it to say this was a magnificent team effort by an incredibly gifted bunch of jumpers who also stepped up big-time to meet the demands of perhaps the most spectacular parachute exhibition jump ever made by anywhere, regardless of the launch platform. I cannot thank the jumpers enough, and I owe a particularly deep debt of gratitude to Dennis, Brenda,and John, and also to the gifted though occasionally exasperating Avery Badenhop.
Beyond that, every extreme skydiver in the world owes an incredible thank you to the Petronas COrporation for its willingness to explore some new territory with a cultural group light years different from its own.
And beyond that, every extreme skydiver in the world needs to send a hearty "Well done and thank you!" to Dann Lee and Jasmina Jacinta Lee. Without those two individuals and the unbelievable work and effort they put into this, this jumpwould not have happened. I can tell you unequivocally that the two of them -- and Jasmina Jacinta in particular -- have even the highest powered people in Malaysia shaking their heads wondering how we managed to get PEtronas to allow us to jump from their Twins because Petronas doesn't even like to let people inside the building, much less jump from it.
PLease, people, send a a heartfelt thank you to these two extraordinary people at skyventure@hotmail.com. please tell them what you think of their accomplishment and how much you appreciate it, because what the SkyVenture Team has done will pay enormous dividends for extreme skydiving, dividends that may be hard to imagine at this point.
Finally, here is the list of jumpers who participated in this event and, yes, they were lucky to get to jump Petronas, but they EARNED IT with their hard work and dedication and total professionalism at the moment of truth -- even the Ill Vision boys!
So thank them too when you get the chance, because all of them (even Ed) were fine ambassadors for their countries and their sport and I am so intensely proud of of each and every one of them (even Ed)that there are tears in my eyes as I write this.
The SkyVenture Team
Jasmina Jacinta Lee
Dann Lee
Robin Heid
The Jump Team
Robin Heid
Dennis McGlynn
Brenda McGlynn
John Huffman
Aziz Ahmad
Azlan Ismail
Micke Nordqvist
Per Erickson
Joe Weber
Hannes Kraft
Omar Alhegelan
Avery Badenhop
Ed Trick
Cliff Ryder
Jeb Corliss
Support Team
Chistina Hoh
Louis Wong
Chris Chen
Papa Lee
Mama Lee
--Robin Heid
BASE 44
TT 4
Ten seconds before midnight on December 31, 2000, 15 skydivers launched from various points on the Petronas Twin Towers, opened their parachutes after slider-down delays and cruised in to pinpoint landings in a small landing zone surrounded by 250,000 people and within 30 feet of Malaysia's prime minister, Dr. Mahathir Mohammad (except for the four who landed at the secondary LZ to relieve traffic congestion).
The jump was the result of my desire to visit a Malaysian woman named Christina Hoh, whom I'd met in the U.S. and to jump from the Twins, the world's tallest building at 1,483 feet. From that desire and visit, I met Christina's cousin, Dann Lee, who suggested that we create a sporting event to make the jump rather than trying to do it outlaw.
We originally conceived of a world championships of extreme skydiving. When I returned to the States after my first visit, I met with Mark Hewitt and designed the basic competition structure, and it was at that time that Mark suggested the idea of a trans-millennium record that would stand for 1,000 years.
Shortly thereafter, Dann elisted the help of his sister, Jasmina Jacinta Lee,and the three of us formed SkyVenture Productions to secure approval and put on the World Championships.
UNfortunately, the approval process took so long we had to move the championships forward to an as-yet undetermined date in 2001, but we continued to pursue the millennium jump.
DUring the course of these negotiations, I asked Dennis McGlynn to choreograph the dive, and when approval was finally granted -- about two weeks before the event -- I sent Dennis and Brenda to Kuala Lumpur to meet with Petronas executives to answer their "technical" questions about the jump. Dennis and Brenda did a superlative and successful job at that, and on 22 DEC 2000 clinched the deal by making a 2-way from the window washing gondola of one tower for the PEtronas execs.
I showed up a few days later and we put the finishing touches on the deal, to include a production company insurance policy, which was the final large hurdle to overcome.
In the meantime, jumpers were arriving for the event, people who spent thousands of dollars to get last-minute tickets during the holidays to come to KL and make this magical jump happen.
On Christmas night, DEnnis, Christina, John Huffman and I scouted the building to see how it looked with all its lights blasting. We decided we needed to make some night jumps to figure out the lighting we'd need, so we requested some jumps during our 3 pm meeting the next day and by 9 pm, we jumped. Joe Weber and Per Erickson joined Dennis, John and me to make jumps from Level 73 (980 feet), then Dennis and I dashed back up and did a 2-way from Level 60 (800 feet) because we were the only ones with two rigs packed.
We learned a lot from our night jumps about how we were going to light the canopies and landing areas, and four days later, we started jumping in joyful earnest at about 7:30 pm, December 30, 2000.
We jumped until about 1 am, when we got rained out unbtil 7 am, when we did a few more jumps to practice the choreography.
We needed at least one more jump, though, and Petronas obliged us, and at 7:30 on December 31, 2000, we set a new world building record, when 11 jumpers launched from various points on Levels 60 and 73 of both buildings, while Dennis and I watched from the gondolas alongside the two Malaysians who would also be part of the final attempt, Aziz Ahmad and Azlan Ismail.
The team performed the 11-way perfectly, much to the delight of the growing crowd.
A few hours later, we set a record that will not be broken for 1,000 years, when all 15 of us launched simultaneously and landed without incident.
The prime ministed presented us all with medals, then hung around on the stage with his wife, mingling with us for several minutes, part of which time was taken up by Omar Alhegelan gently cajoling them to give us blanket permission to jump from all buildings in Malaysia for the next couple of days.
See SKYDIVING Magazine for a more compelete report, but suffice it to say this was a magnificent team effort by an incredibly gifted bunch of jumpers who also stepped up big-time to meet the demands of perhaps the most spectacular parachute exhibition jump ever made by anywhere, regardless of the launch platform. I cannot thank the jumpers enough, and I owe a particularly deep debt of gratitude to Dennis, Brenda,and John, and also to the gifted though occasionally exasperating Avery Badenhop.
Beyond that, every extreme skydiver in the world owes an incredible thank you to the Petronas COrporation for its willingness to explore some new territory with a cultural group light years different from its own.
And beyond that, every extreme skydiver in the world needs to send a hearty "Well done and thank you!" to Dann Lee and Jasmina Jacinta Lee. Without those two individuals and the unbelievable work and effort they put into this, this jumpwould not have happened. I can tell you unequivocally that the two of them -- and Jasmina Jacinta in particular -- have even the highest powered people in Malaysia shaking their heads wondering how we managed to get PEtronas to allow us to jump from their Twins because Petronas doesn't even like to let people inside the building, much less jump from it.
PLease, people, send a a heartfelt thank you to these two extraordinary people at skyventure@hotmail.com. please tell them what you think of their accomplishment and how much you appreciate it, because what the SkyVenture Team has done will pay enormous dividends for extreme skydiving, dividends that may be hard to imagine at this point.
Finally, here is the list of jumpers who participated in this event and, yes, they were lucky to get to jump Petronas, but they EARNED IT with their hard work and dedication and total professionalism at the moment of truth -- even the Ill Vision boys!
So thank them too when you get the chance, because all of them (even Ed) were fine ambassadors for their countries and their sport and I am so intensely proud of of each and every one of them (even Ed)that there are tears in my eyes as I write this.
The SkyVenture Team
Jasmina Jacinta Lee
Dann Lee
Robin Heid
The Jump Team
Robin Heid
Dennis McGlynn
Brenda McGlynn
John Huffman
Aziz Ahmad
Azlan Ismail
Micke Nordqvist
Per Erickson
Joe Weber
Hannes Kraft
Omar Alhegelan
Avery Badenhop
Ed Trick
Cliff Ryder
Jeb Corliss
Support Team
Chistina Hoh
Louis Wong
Chris Chen
Papa Lee
Mama Lee
--Robin Heid
BASE 44
TT 4