Does someone know what is really going on in Malaysia. My buddy here says he's going, but there is so much confusion. Is there a deal on flights? Is it really going to happen? Who's in charge? Is there going to be the $25,000 prize?
Does someone know what is really going on in Malaysia. My buddy here says he's going, but there is so much confusion. Is there a deal on flights? Is it really going to happen? Who's in charge? Is there going to be the $25,000 prize?
Fellow World Extreme Skydiving Teammates:
You have been hand chosen for the World Championships of Extreme Skydiving
for your Base jumping talents and personal qualities of seriousness and
professionalism. Only the best of the best received this invitation, which
means You Are One of the Boys (or Girls). One other equally important
qualification is your political stand, or previous lack thereof.
Now, having said that, we have come to a curve in the road. The Malaysian
partners, Dann and Jasmina Lee, are trying to pinch Robin Heid and Mark
Hewitt from the event because Robin told them things early in June that they
didn't want to hear, namely that: a) there is not enough time to put on a
world championships if Dann and Jasmina do not come up with the money to pay
judges and staff and prize money by the end of June; and b) that Robin and
Mark will NOT allow them to make their profits off money contributed by the
jumpers.
Now they want to cut us out of it, and underbid the project, not only in
terms of money, but in terms of jumper quality. As most of you know, Robin
has worked tirelessly and conscientiously for almost two years to make this
dream event happen, and he has consulted closely with Mark every step of the
way since he first returned from Malaysia in 1999. Together, and with the
support of so many of you, we have put together a slate of the very best
jumpers, sportsmen and ambassadors for sport and country that exist today in
the BASE jumping world. With your support and enthusiasm, we have developed
a competitive event, a set of rules, and a judging staff.
Yet Dann and Jasmina now want to cut us out of it so they don't have to pay
us, and can also charge the jumpers full cost for this event, with no or
little prize money, and nothing but promises from here on out until August.
In so doing, they endanger the continued growth of BASE jumping worldwide
because they will only be able to field a "BoB" Team of jumpers (as in
"Bottom of Barrel") which will raise the carnage factor and probably create
a Jan Davis 2 situation and ruin future opportunities just when we are
finding our corporate legs in many places around the world.
WE CANNOT ALLOW THIS TO HAPPEN.
Now is the time for us to stand as one, and keep our project on line and on
target. These whuffos want to steal the show, make the jumpers pay their
way, with no returns. And as Robin and Mark have assembled the best of the
best from two dozen countries, we have the power, if we unite and stand as a
single solid voice, to shut down the Lees' misguided attempt to steal this
project from us, the jumpers, and get it back on track to go as first
presented.
You have been chosen to be part of this Elite Group, so fight for it! WE
stand for a true world championships, with expenses paid, accommodations
paid, perks, and a fair share of good sponsorship prize money, distributed
in the fashion where everybody receives something for being recognized as
one of the best in this demanding sport. This can only be done with proper
planning and proper funding and we will simply not go ahead if our partners
cannot hold up their end of the bargain in the necessary time frames.
Neither can we let a second rate "beer demo" happen, where vulture jumpers
steal in and do the job half-assed and unsafely just so they can get the
chance to jump Petronas and lay claim to being the world "chump" by
back-stabbing Robin and everyone else who has worked this project so hard -
and back-stabbing the sport too.
We are all part of an incredible team that can do something fantastic, but
if anyone defects from the team to join in this second- rate competition, it
will be bad for BASE and bad for those who do it because they'll disqualify
themselves from the team Robin and Mark have put together. As the Three
Musketeers always said, "One for all and all for one!"
So here's how you can help. Immediately send an email to Dann Lee and
Jasmina Lee at [dannlee@hotmail.com] and register your displeasure with this
turn of events. Tell Dann in no uncertain terms that you are sticking with
the high standards and requirements designed by Robin and me, and will
neither participate in or accept their second-rate competition and their
attempt to suck money out of the jumpers for their own personal profits
(when neither one of them has even made ONE skydive, much less a BASE
jump!!) Then, if you can, FAX this same letter to Jasmina Lee at (your
country code) 60-3-6250-0080.
Please ALSO cc: Robin at edi@tstonramp.com and Mark at
hewittlunar@hotmail.com
These people must learn and learn FAST that they can't get away with
stealing two years of work product from two of the most dedicated and
experienced BASE jumpers there are, and then put on a half-assed event that
will steal from ALL OF US the chance to do something great and make our
sport gain stature in the public eye.
Make no mistake about it: If this half-assed effort goes forward, it will
create serious damage for BASE jumping worldwide. Thus we must say: Unless
you, the jumpers, IMMEDIATELY shut down Dann and Jasmina and the traitors
among us, then we will be forced to cancel the whole event.
Thank you for your attention. Thank you for your support and enthusiasm and
interest these last two years. We are now in the home stretch, and we can't
let a couple of whuffos with misguided ethics ruin what we have ALL
contributed so much to making happen in the right way, which is with the
best people, the highest safety standards and the most comprehensive
planning.
We, the real BASE jumpers/extreme skydivers of the world really need to
stick together on this one because it's the ONLY way to achieve the stature
we deserve. If you are not a part of the solution, you are part of the
problem! Take an aggressive stand for your passion!!!!!!!
Sincerely,
Robin Heid, BASE 44
Mark Hewitt, BASE 45
I get the invitation to go "hand picked" by the Mr. Robin. And the Mr. Dann Lee too invites me. They just say that I'm the good BASEjumper to get the Petronas. They don't know me, I could be winnie the freaking pooh! This thing is not good. This is danger.
Here's a reprint of the invitation email. I'm not sure what the political situation surrounding this is, or who the actual BASE organizers are (surely they've got some BASE consultants). As I cannot attend, I have no real view on the event. I am curious as to the overall perception of the event in the BASE commmunity, though.
_____________
July 27, 2001
Dear Base Jumper,
You are invited for the Malaysia International Championship of Extreme Skydive, 2001 at the Petronas Twin Towers, the world's tallest building.
Here is some update of the championship.
The championship is from August 27-September 2. We will be having a big welcoming celebration for the jumpers at one of the hottest club in town on August 24 or 25. Please come earlier for this celebration.
We are now arranging with our advertising agency and we will be spending a huge amount to promote the event on television, radios and press. The sports Ministry of Malaysia has given their endorsement on the event. The championship is also supported by the Ministry of Tourism Malaysia.
The championship has three categories. 1) Horizontal Displacement(no-suit tracking 2) Freefall Control 3) Open Category. Jumpers can choose any one of the categories or two or all three. Jumpers will jump from the gondola and also from the 73rd floor. We will be building 2 jumping platform on the 73rd floor of both towers. The judging for the championship will be on opening and landing accuracy. Aerial acrobatics will also be judge on creative flips.
The judges are from Germany and Malaysia. Technical directors are from a few places.
If you need more information, please write to us or call us at 6012-2329992 or 6012-2998888.
Please submit your resume with jumping experience at; dannlee@hotmail.com, skyventure@hotmail.com, xtremeskydive@hotmail.com,
xtremeskydive2001@hotmail.com.
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Regards,
SkyVenture Productions
Dann Lee
CEO
P.S. Attached is a copy of the championship invitation, safety rules and championship schedule.
NOTE: Illegal jumps in Kuala Lumpur will not be allowed and would jeopardize the chance of future legal jumping from the Petronas.
_____________
--Tom Aiello
tbaiello@ucdavis.edu
Dear Petronas jumper/staffer/photographer/interested party:
Below find:
1)an email being sent around by Micke Nordqvist, who should know better,
probably aided and abetted by others who don't;
2)an informal narrative thereafter explaining some of the surface issues;
and
3)a formal briefing explaining the structural and process details
1. The email, sent from Dann Lee and disseminated by Micke Nordqvist:
BASE jumpers,
>
> As you know Dann Lee and Jasmina Jacinta Lee of
> SkyVenture Kuala
> Lumpur Malaysia are putting together the World
> Championships of
> extreme skydiving from the worlds tallest
> buildings, BASE jumping from
> the Petronas Twin Towers.
>
> Most of you have been contacted by Robin Heid to
> participate in this
> event. SkyVenture today says that Robin is no
> longer part of the
> project and ask every jumper who have been invited
> to contact them
> directly in order to proceed with project.
>
> Dann Lees email address: dannlee@hotmail.com
> Dann will answer any questions you might have
> about the competition.
>
> If you know of any jumper that have been promissed
> a slot in this
> event, please pass the word. Dann has a list of
> all names but have no
> contact info. He asked me to try locate as many as
> possible of these
> names.
>
> Regards,
>
> Mikael Nordqvist
> Sweden
> BASE 268
2. Informal Narrative
Obviously, the key question arising from this is:
WHY IS ROBIN HEID NOT INVOLVED ANY MORE?
The second key question is:
WHAT SHOULD I DO ABOUT IT?
What follows will hopefully answer both questions. I am confident that by
the time you finish it, you will know exactly what is going on and you will
know exactly what you should do. What follows also gives more detail that
the brief letter you received earlier, alerting you to what's coming, and on
the need for all of us to stick together.
I am now providing this longer, more detailed version to make sure everyone
know EXACTLY what is going on, which, quite briefly is:
There is NO MONEY to put on the event and NO TIME to do it right, and when I
told Dann Lee this, he declared that he didn't need me or my organizational
structure, and stole my jumper list and all the developmental work I have
done on this project for 1.5 years and is now trying to use unscrupulous and
dishonorable jumpers to poorly execute the plan that so many of us worked so
hard to do properly for the last 1.5 years.
And the bottom line is: If we can't do it RIGHT, then we have to pull the
plug on it, because BASE jumping's too dangerous and this venue is too
high-profile for any responsible person to do otherwise.
As many of you who have been with us from the start know: Most everything
about the event - time, date, year, event structure - has changed one way or
the other. However, one thing has remained constant:
The ethic that this event MUST be done first-class or NOT AT ALL.
The time has now come and passed for us to pull the plug on it.
That is what I told Dann Lee at the beginning of June: Unless there was at
least $20,000 in a U.S. bank account that I could draw on to pay
transportation, expenses and modest salaries to my judges and staff, then we
would have to reconfigure the event to be a demo/exhibition/festival with 20
people rather than a full-blown championships, and use the demo festival to
show Malaysia and many potential sponsors what value there was in supporting
our efforts in 2002.
This was not good enough for Dann Lee and Jasmina Jacinta Lee. They have
spent a lot of money and made a lot of promises and are now desperate to
make this event come off, whether it is a good event or a screwed-up event,
and they intend to completely finance the event and their profits on the
backs of the jumpers.
Dann will charge you $700 entry fee and in exchange promise you a free
t-shirt, a cheap hotel room and "discounts" on your airfare similar to those
offered last year at KL Tower - which means, no discount at all. He will
also promise you $25,000 in prize money, even though THERE IS NO MONEY, and
transportation from the airport, and "mementoes" and a bunch of other
promises that are all worth the paper they are not printed on.
Dann is creating a "pyramid scheme" of promises. He promises anybody
anything to get them to commit, then he promises something else to someone
else to pay off the first promise, and so on.
Dann promised ME that he and Jasmina and I were PARTNERS, and he promised me
a contract that would legally cement our relationship. Then he got me to
work for him, write all the proposals to Petronas, all the letters to
government ministers, and design and put together the event and gather all
the jumpers.
Then he violated both of those promises. Turns out, we were NEVER partners;
he just played me for all the information he could get, all the while
stalling me on the contract for FIVE MONTHS. When he finally sent the
contract, it included these two provisions:
2.3 The parties hereby agree that any or all business entered into, procured
by and/or engaged in byt the Third Party (Robin Heid) outside Malaysia shall
be injected into and undertaken by the Company.
9.2 The Third Party to this Agreement covenants that for as long as he is a
party to this Agreement he shall not be engaged concerned or interested
either directly or indirectly and whether on its own behalf or on behalf of
or in association with others or in any capacity whatever in carrying on any
activities/business whatsoever in competition with the Company anywhere
outside Malaysia.
These are the dishonest, bad-faith paragraphs Dann and Jasmina insisted upon
and of which I would have no part. You don't need to be a lawyer to know
that these two paragraphs mean any business, skydiving-related or otherwise,
that I do anywhere in the U.S. or the rest of the world, MUST go directly to
Dann and Jasmina's company, making me an indentured servant and slave - AND
it means I can't make a legal BASE jump anywhere in the world or advise or
help organize any other event anywhere in the world unless it is through
Dann and Jasmina. Great deal, huh?
Anyone who participates in Dann's event will be required to sign a similarly
restrictive document, AND turn over ALL RIGHTS to ANY footage they shoot of
the event, AND anyone who is a staff person or judge will NOT be paid and
will NOT be able to jump in lieu of payment. They will demand that you give
them everything you have, and all that you know, and they will expect you to
essentially work for free so you can watch OTHER PEOPLE JUMP from Petronas.
Real first-class event, isn't it?
You see, Dann and Jasmina think all BASE jumpers are like cocaine addicts
and Petronas is a big pile of cocaine: "Look at all this cocaine, kids. Sell
your soul to us and you can have some!!!"
And now we have Micke Nordqvist and Johnny Weaselkotter trying to step in
and rip off all the jumpers and make a big public relations mess under the
pretense of "keeping the project alive."
And look what is happening already as a result. The fact that I have to
write this letter to all of you is creating strife and discord in the
community. The fact that I have to warn everybody about what is about to
happen, and that the very act of Micke's trying to create a rival competitor
list and bypass a carefully engineered system just seven weeks before the
event, when NOTHING IS IN PLACE, shows that they have their heads up their
asses at best and their hearts in Hell at the worst. Because Micke and the
Weasel won't stand as one with the rest of the World Team, this whole thing
is now in chaos and now even the scaled-down event I had designed is in
danger. Great job, guys.
Wanna know something else?
No one can jump from the gondola at the top of the building. Dann gave that
away to get permission. I even said he could, PROVIDED I flew out there
IMMEDIATELY after approval was granted to negotiate the use of the gondola
system for the event.
Of course, that didn't happen.
Wanna know something ELSE?
Dann will try to invite as many as 100 people so he can get $700 from each
of them, then let only 50 compete in the actual event… but keep the full
entry fee from everyone so he can pay his bills and make his profits from
the jumpers instead of the sponsors, as I promised all of you 1.5 years ago.
I do not object to qualification rounds to pick the best 50 to compete -
this is how Formula 1, NASCAR and Indy race cars (and golf tournaments)
operate: Your past accomplishments get you invited; your current ability
gets you in the show.
I do not object to those who didn't qualify leaving their full entry fee in
the prize kitty.
What I object to is: Without the gondola, a good number of the people Dann
and Micke and Weaselkotter invite will not be totally ready to jump from the
73rd floor.
You are giving up 260 feet AND 10-15 feet of clearance by having to go from
Level 73.Level 73 is 980 feet above ground but only 880 feet above the roof
of the shopping mall at the building's base, and you must fly a few hundred
meters to the landing areas so you gotta pull high.
So what we have here is a situation where the safety factor is going down at
the very same moment the risk factor is going up. And everything will be
rush-rush-rush, hurry-hurry-hurry-hurry and all BASE jumpers know how
incredibly dangerous it is to do high-profile jumps with lots of
distractions when everything is rushed and unorganized.
And it WILL be unorganized. There is no way it can't be, given that we have
no money and no time left to do it right. THAT IS WHY I TOLD DANN THREE
WEEKS AGO WE HAD TO PULL THE PLUG.
Now Dann and Micke and Weaselkotter are trying to basically start from
scratch with seven weeks left to do something I KNOW couldn't be done in ten
weeks - when a whole bunch of things WERE in place.
Just the logistical hassles of trying to track down jumper emails,
especially with everyone packing up now for Norway and elsewhere, there will
be no competitor list in place before the end of July, if then.
Worse, Dann Lee will lie to you the way he lied to me. He will promise
ANYTHING to get you there, and then he will force you to sign documents with
bizarre restrictions before you are allowed to jump, and the $25,000 USD
prize money will suddenly not be available, and there won't be
transportation from the airport (1.25 hours from KL) and it will all be bad
news, and everyone will get mad and make bandit jumps and that will piss off
the Malaysians and our sport will get a black eye and Malaysia will shut it
all down, Petronas AND KL Tower too.
All so Dann and Jasmina can make some money off of my 1,000+ hours of hard
work, and the expertise and knowledge and courage and daring of all of you.
As some of you know, Dennis McGlynn and Avery Badenhop and I had a serious
disagreement after the Petronas trans-millennium jump. There were serious
and legitimate issues involved and unfortunately, none of us handled any of
it (except the jump itself) in the best way possible.
However, without going into any of THAT sordid detail again, let me make a
blanket statement: If I was in a room with Dennis and Avery and Dann Lee and
had a gun with three bullets in it, I'd shoot Dann three times and go make a
jump with my sometimes misguided but always "jumpers-first" BASE buds,
Dennis and Avery.
Looking back, some of the conflict between Dennis and I came directly and
completely because HE saw this coming better than I did, because he's been
ripped off by people like Dann Lee and Jasmina Jacinta Lee before.
So I am asking all of you, and so too are those in my executive team and
advisory council, to completely and totally reject Dann Lee, Micke Nordqvist
and Johnny Weaselkotter's effort to turn our carefully engineered project
into a disaster.
We owe it to ourselves, and JUST AS IMPORTANTLY, we owe it to the Malaysians
generally and Petronas specifically.
Malaysia and Petronas opened their arms and hearts and buildings to us and
we owe them no less than to give back only our very best: Our very best
people, our very best jumpers, our very best behavior, our very best event.
To do anything less violates the trust and respect the Malaysians have
extended to us, and will damage BASE jumping in many many ways - especially
now that we are getting more and more corporate access all over the world
(congratulations Terje, Hannes, Mahle et al!!!!)
Those of you who have been part of this project for 1.5 years know how hard
I've worked on it - and how I have always insisted on a very high standard
for the project, the event, the competitors… everything. Because we cannot
now meet that standard, no matter how hard we try, I told Dann we had to
pull the plug on the event this year, and scale it down to something
manageable with the time and resources we have.
He refused to listen to me, thinking he is so much smarter than all the base
jumpers who have worked with me during the past 1.5 years to make this dream
come true. He has unfortunately found some weasels to help him and that is
why things are in such a mess, because if Micke and Weaselkotter weren't
helping him, he would have had no choice but to listen to the voice of
experience and reason that came from my mouth, but is the product of ALL OF
YOU whom I've asked repeatedly for advice and guidance and counsel during
the last 1.5 years.
This is a key - KEY - point: This isn't just me talking; I speak with the
voice of the very best and most experienced people in the world, all of whom
I have sought out for advice, recommendations, validations and other
feedback at every step of the way.
Just for the information of some who may not know Mark Hewitt and me.
Between the two of us, we have:
48 years of skydiving experience
40 years of BASE jumping experience
20,000 skydives
1,100+ extreme skydives
Numerous gold medals and world records in various national and international
skydiving competitions and record jumps
Coach to numerous national skydiving teams, including the Bolivian and Saudi
Arabian and United Arab Emirates militaries
Director of publications of the U.S. Parachute Association
Senior editor of the world's most prestigious parachuting publication,
"Skydiving"
Designer/inventor of two of the most important equipment advancements in
BASE skydiving (the line mod and deep brake settings)
Master parachute rigger
Holders of college degrees in political science, journalism, and electronics
Producer and / or participant in half a dozen feature films and even more
commercials as stunt men and/or stunt coordinators.
Candidate for governor
Political consultant
PR executive
No other two jumpers in the world have this combination of experience and
knowledge across the skydiving and business spectrum.
And that's just Mark and me. Add in the rest of my "advisory team," and you
have 30,000 more skydives, 2,000 more BASE jumps, and a pile of credentials
from 20 countries that makes the absolute Who's Who of extreme skydiving in
the whole world.
What all of us - the World Extreme Skydiving Team - have created is truly a
"world championships" event because BASE jumpers from all over the world
have made it possible. It would take me several pages to acknowledge and
thank everyone who has helped out on this in a dozen different ways,
including many who will not have the chance to jump from Petronas but who
nevertheless gave generously of their time and knowledge to see this project
through.
And now we have a whuffo and a couple of weasels thinking they can do in
seven weeks what 100 of us have crafted and created in 1.5 years. It makes
me sad more than anything, but I'm writing to you now in hopes that we can
stop our dream from turning into a nightmare.
Despite this, I'm not asking you to blindly trust my judgment, but to
examine the facts presented herein and make your own choices.
But if you DO come to the same conclusion I have, please tell Whuffo Dann
and his Weasel Boys a resounding and unequivocal "NO" and let us regroup and
try to make this happen at another time, with a more honest and capable
Malaysian management team.
Dann Lee and Jasmina Lee deserve our respect and appreciation for getting
permission from the Petronas Twin Towers so that we could do the
trans-millennium jump. It was a great accomplishment and advancement of BASE
jumping. But now they threaten to endanger the progress they have made - and
the progress we are ALL making in a dozen different places with a dozen
different organizers and dozens of jumpers.
Robin Heid, BASE 44
3. THE PETRONAS WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS BRIEFING FOR JUMPERS
Here is a formal briefing on the Petronas situation for everyone involved
with the World Extreme Skydiving Team:
The current status of the world championships of extreme skydiving, to be
held 27 Aug - 2 Sep 2001 at the Petronas Twin Towers is of great concern to
me. Due to both the late date of this event's final approval and the
conditions thereof, it is my professional opinion that this event cannot now
be safely and professionally held as proposed.
Haste is part of this big picture because the problem, simply stated is: It'
s great that Petronas gave us permission to hold this exciting event, but
unfortunately:
a)Petronas gave us no time to bring in sponsors;
b)no money to operate without them; and
c)my business associates are now taking an ill-advised course of action
hoping to salvage the event because they are afraid to ask for help.
Fortunately, I'm not, because it's my professional responsibility to
Malaysia, as well as my business associates and fellow jumpers, to make sure
this event gets done properly - or not at all. Thus do I write to inform you
of this crisis and humbly offer some perspective and solution sets for your
consideration.
The Danger and the Opportunity
The Chinese word for crisis is made from the characters Danger and
Opportunity and that is what we face right now with the World Championships
of Extreme Skydiving.
The Opportunity is that this event can build on the great success of the
trans-millennium world record skydive and derive even greater benefits for
Malaysia and Petronas. The spectacular nature of extreme skydiving, coupled
with the world's tallest and most beautiful building, are guaranteed to
generate enormous awareness of and interest in Malaysia as a leading edge
country with a bold approach to business and life.
The Danger is that the current funding and organizational status are forcing
my associates and me, and therefore Malaysia, into a situation where this
event could do your country more harm than good. Extreme skydiving is a
dangerous sport, and a poorly-run event not only won't reach the audience or
generate the positive outcomes we all seek, it could result in accidents
that would reflect poorly on Malaysia and extreme skydiving alike.
The Basic Situation
Events such as the world championships of extreme skydiving typically take
12-18 months to properly organize execute. This is a worldwide standard
based equally on corporate business cycles and the logistical requirements
of these events.
SkyVenture Productions (SVP) received written approval 14 MAY 2001 to put on
the world championships starting 27 Aug 2001. At the same time, Petronas
declined to provide title sponsorship funding, which immediately made it
logistically near impossible to continue. Moreover, Petronas declined to let
us use their gondola system (which we used on New Year's), and declined to
let us start each competition day before 10:30 a.m., which immediately made
it technically near impossible to put on the event as planned.
Nevertheless, my very determined business associates pressed on, doing their
very best to secure enough funding and sponsorship to allow the event to
proceed as planned. Unfortunately, all potential cash sponsors have either
spent all their sponsorship money for the year, or have an approval cycle
which takes more time than we have left.
So here we are, seven weeks before a showcase event from a showcase building
meant to showcase a country's emergence and spirit - and there's no money to
put on the event, no deals made to broadcast it outside, and no chance to
get it done professionally and safely without an immediate and substantial
infusion of cash within the next ten days.
Worst of all, my Malaysian business associates are trying to press ahead
anyway, despite my warnings and advisements. The reason is simple: They have
spent a lot of their own money and made many promises contingent upon the
world championships happening this year, and when I told them there was no
way to do it safely and professionally with no money and no time, they
became desperate to continue with the event at all costs. In so doing, they
have bypassed my organizational structure and are now trying to assemble a
"B" Team of jumpers at the last minute who were not accepted or approved of
by my staff and me for a variety of reasons. In so doing, they are seriously
endangering the integrity not only of the event but of Malaysia and Petronas
as well. Extreme skydiving is simply too dangerous, and the stakes for
Malaysia and Petronas simply too high, for Dann and Jasmina to proceed
without supervision because they don't have the knowledge or skill to do it
right.
This is not to diminish them as individuals or as business people. Dann is a
talented young man with great vision and unusual wisdom for someone his age.
Jasmina is quite simply one of the most extraordinary women I have ever met.
What the two of them did with the trans-millennium jump was equally
extraordinary and we in the extreme skydiving community honor and appreciate
them for their achievement. But they are also both young and impetuous and
currently so desperate that they are making extremely poor decisions that
can have serious negative consequences for Malaysia, Petronas and extreme
skydiving as well, and it is for this reason that I write this briefing.
Four Alternatives
There are four alternatives, all of which require immediate action:
1)Government funding of RM1,000,000 by 5 JUL 2001 so that at this late date
we can still do the 7-day event safely and professionally.
2)Government funding of RM400,000 by 15 JUL 2001 so that we can present a
scaled down, 3-day extreme skydiving exhibition or festival that will
generate powerful images for the audience we seek and provide a preview of
next year's world championships. At the same time, Petronas shall change the
date of its approval letter from 2001 to 2002 and re-issue that letter to
SkyVenture Productions and Eagle Dancer Images no later than 15 JUL 2001.
3)Postpone the event for one year and Petronas changes the date of its
approval letter from 2001 to 2002 and re-issue that letter to SkyVenture
Productions and Eagle Dancer Images no later than 15 JUL 2001.
4)Cancel the whole thing and start over from scratch with a different local
management team and organizational structure.
Advantages and Disadvantages of The Four Alternatives
Each of these alternatives has advantages and disadvantages, which I will
lay out for you to the best of my ability.
Advantages, Alternative #1.
1)The chief advantage of running a full-scale, 7-day world championships on
extremely short notice is that Malaysia and Petronas can take full advantage
of the Twin Towers' current status as the world's tallest building.
2)A secondary advantage is that my Malaysian business associates will be
able to fulfill all the promises they've made to make this event happen in
2001.
Advantages, Alternative #2.
1)The chief advantage of running a scaled-down, 3-day extreme skydiving
festival or exhibition is that Malaysia and Petronas can take full advantage
of the Twin Towers' current status as the world's tallest building without
spending a lot of money and causing everybody a lot of aggravation trying to
do too much work in too little time.
2)Another important advantage of a festival/exhibition is that it provides
an opportunity for Petronas and the key festival organizers and staffers to
work together on a smaller, simpler project of shorter duration, under
considerably less pressure. This in turn will allow all parties involved to
develop the organization and coordination necessary to present a first-class
event in 2002.
3)Also important is that Petronas and KLCC will only have to deal with 25
people for three days instead of 100 people for seven days.
Advantages, Alternative #3
1)The chief advantage of postponing the entire event until next year - but
getting written permission now - is that Malaysia, Petronas, and the
organizing companies (SVP and EDI) will have the time to establish working
groups, set up the event structure, arrange for appropriate sponsors, create
the necessary promotional events and materials and structures, and have
everything neatly planned and in place months ahead of time.
Advantages, Alternative #4
1)This is by far the safest, easiest and least complicated alternative, and
would prevent my gifted but errant business associates from doing more harm
than good to everyone involved, while allowing a fresh management team to
work with my company to put on a first-class event sometime in the future.
Disadvantages, Alternative #1
1)The chief disadvantage of running a full-scale, 7-day world championships
on extremely short notice is it will cost a lot of money and the event will
still not be first-class because: No matter how much money there is, there
is still not enough time to do everything that needs to be done. The money
would allow me to field a highly professional and safe group of jumpers,
judges and technical support staff, but what little time is left before the
event must be devoted to its safety and logistics. There will not be time to
establish and create the media and broadcast structures and materials
necessary to get the word out about this event worldwide - which brings us
to the bottom line: Why hold a promotional event if nobody knows about it?
2)Doing the full-scale event on such absurdly short notice will be highly
stressful and aggravating for everyone involved, especially since it is
being held during the Merdeka Day holiday.
Disadvantages, Alternative #2
1)The chief disadvantage of a scaled-down event in 2001 is that, while the
3-day festival will cost much less and create much less stress and
aggravation, it will still suffer from limited pre-event publicity and
promotion, though, unlike Alternative #1, there will be time and resources
enough to get a lot of pre-event publicity done because the technical and
logistical parts of the event will take so much less time and energy.
2)A secondary disadvantage is that my Malaysian business associates will not
be able to fulfill all the promises they've made to make a full-scale world
championships event happen in 2001.
Disadvantages, Alternative #3
1)The chief disadvantage of holding no event of any kind in 2001 is that by
the latter part of 2002 Malaysia and Petronas will probably no longer be
able to claim the Twin Towers as the world's tallest building.
Disadvantages, Alternative #4
1)The chief disadvantage of starting over from scratch is that it would
remove Dann and Jasmina from the equation, and they deserve to remain
involved (though more closely supervised) because of their hard work and
dedication in creating the climate for this event to go forward.
2)Starting over from scratch would delay the championships at least until
late next year and maybe even longer.
3)No risk, no gain.
SORRY, NO MORE WORDS ARE GOING ON THIS POSTING.
THE REST MUST BE PUTTING ON THE NEXT POSTING.
Recommendations
In my view, a 3-day extreme skydiving exhibition festival 29-31 AUG 2001
with about 25 total people has the most upside and the least downside. This
festival will consist of two practice days, followed by the Merdeka Day
exhibition, where the world's most elite extreme skydivers will demonstrate
their skills for Malaysia's people and the world's cameras, to include
wingsuit flight, banner flying, and charity accuracy landing.
The exhibition festival will be big enough to be a spectacular show but
small enough that it can be done safely, professionally, at a reasonable
cost and with a minimum of stress, aggravation and haste for all involved.
Moreover, it will be timely, allowing Malaysia and Petronas to take maximum
advantage of the Twin Towers' "tallest building" status while it still
exists, and provide a solid foundation for a formal, full-scale world
championships in 2002.
This alternative also allows for the continued participation of Dann and
Jasmina Lee, the two people who made it possible in the first place, as they
have earned their slot with past achievements and should not be set aside
just because they are making some youthful lapses in judgment and common
sense brought on by momentary desperation.
At the same time, it is important that their decision making be properly
supervised because the reputation and image of Malaysia and extreme
skydivers everywhere are involved here. My recommendation in this regard is
that Eagle Dancer Images be retained by th government on a consulting basis
to oversee the technical requirements of all extreme skydiving events
presented in Malaysia, whether from the Petronas Twin Towers, Menara KL or
elsewhere. The experience of my team and me is second to none in the world,
and we will be able to ensure that all participants in such events
sanctioned in Malaysia will have not only the technical but moral skills and
maturity to handle themselves professionally, whether in the air or on the
ground.
As for the money flow for Alternative #2, I recommend that it be disbursed
50-50 by a comptroller in the government directly to EDI to handle the
technical side of the event and to SVP to handle the permits, insurance and
all local considerations.
In this way, I am confident SVP and EDI can produce and present a
world-class extreme skydiving festival of which you and your country will be
immensely proud, not to mention very entertained.
Summary
We do indeed have a crisis which must be acted upon swiftly: There is great
Opportunity here, but Danger lurks in the wings if we don't execute it
properly, and I have tried my best to lay out for you the basic facts and
situations so that collectively we can make the best decision possible for
all involved.
The Opportunity is that altering the proposed event to accommodate funding
and time frame realities will allow us all to build on the great success of
the trans-millennium world record skydive and derive even greater benefits
for Malaysia and Petronas with this and future events.
The Danger is that the current situation has made my Malaysian business
associates so desperate that they are no long making good decisions, and the
consequences thereof could reflect poorly on Malaysia and extreme skydiving
alike.
The Solution is that we stick together and tell Dann and Jasmina Lee that we
will not allow them to turn a great plan into a disaster, and that we tell
the weasels among us to stop their disloyal, idiotic actions and stand with
us.
All for one, one for all... and please, all of you, let me know which
alternative YOU think we should pursue. I will tabulate and circulate the
results.
Thanks and Sincerely,
Robin Heid, President
Eagle Dancer Images
(909) 657-4000
edi@tstonramp.com
Mr. Miho:
Mr. Robin never invited you. YOU contacted ME, then contacted Mr. Lee before I ever had a chance to in any way, shape or form figure out who you were, or what your qualifications were.
That is part of the problem here. To make a much shorter summation here than the other posts: I told Mr. Lee we didn't have the time or money to put on the first class event envisioned by me and the people who helped me put this thing, and a significant part of that was properly screening the people who would attend -- and not just for technical ability but professionalism and maturity. As the KL Tower jumps proved, there are a lot of technically capable jumpers who are NOT professional and mature enough to represent their countries or their sport or set a good example in the country that hosts them.
Where you fit into all this I still don't know - which is again an example of what the basic problem is here: Not enough time from the date of approval by Petronas (May 14) to get everything done, and to do everything RIGHT.
Which brings us to the one thing you are DEFINITELY right about, Mr. Miho (AKA Winnie the freaking pooh):
"THIS THING IS NOT RIGHT. THIS IS DANGER."
That is EXACTLY what I told Mr. Lee two months ago and why I keep asking jumpers who were invited by either me or Mr. Lee to please NOT go and not let this whuffo create a huge mess for BASE jumping.
Neither Petronas nor BASE jumping is ready for this event at this time and if it goes forward, we will absolutely have another Yosemite situation on our hands -- Yosemite in the sense of misunderstanding and missteps on both sides; and in the sense of this event turning into Jan Davis II.
So let's stop it NOW, folks. If you're thinking of going, please DON'T. This is not the time to be a selifh BASE jumper just looking for a flick from a cool building. This is in fact the time to stand together as one and NOT let this lurking disaster take place. If we all stop it now, we in fact show Petronas, Malaysia and the world that we are a maturing sport with serious professional participants worthy of jumping from the headquarters of a $30 billion corporation that is also the only building in the world that is the national symbol of a country.
We are talking very, VERY high stakes here for the legal future of our sport and that future is being endangered by the "beer demo bozos" who have leaped into the gap left when Mr. Lee decided he didn't want to face reality.
Mr. Robin
My recent letter to Dann Lee:
It just seems like there is a huge gap missing in this organization that could affect all of us:
I am very confused as to why I would have never recieved an invitation. Many other, far less expereinced jumpers have been invited, but not myself. 230,000+ users go to BLiNC Magazine every day. I would also assume that you would have only been able to get the names of the invitees that I have seen from this site as well. So with almost 400 BASE jumps, president of the CJAA, and host of the worlds largest FREE BASE-jumping website, I would be first on the list.
So I am concerned also about the techniques in which you are using to choose these qualified jumpers, if a professional such as myself was ommitted (Never invited).
How, and who is judging expertise?
Who is taking responsibility for these participants qualifications?
---
Thanks
Mick Knutson
BLiNC Magazine: http://www.blincmagazine.com
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---
Everything you ever wanted to know about BASE Jumping, but didn't know
whom to ask.
---
Robin, why have you posted so many times under the name Maringa? Response followed by counterresponse... Seems fishy!
Dear Avery:
It is truly the periodically aggravating but delightfully irrepressible Mr. Miho Maringa who has opened this can of worms that I had tried my best to keep off this Board -- and even asked Mick to delete earlier today.
It IS possible Mr. Miho is a pseudonym for someone else, but I have corresponded with him privately as well and you may write to him too at maringabase@hotmail.com for confirmation of who he is and what he thinks of this whole deal.
I've never met him or heard of him before, but nothing he's written so far (privately or publicly) suggests that he is anything other than what he claims and appears to be: A wild young Brazilian BASE jumper who:
a) I'd probably like jumping with;
b) really wants to jump Petronas; but
c) also has enough sense and maturity to realize a bad situation when he sees it.
Thanks for your interest, though, and say hello to our mutual good friend Johnny Weaselkotter if you see him in Europe, where he is finetuning his wingsuit flying while frantically trying to write a set of rules for a "world chUmpionships" that will start three weeks from now. He's a real pro, is our manic-depressive Weasel, isn't he?
Mark Hewitt's BASE number is not 45. It's 46. Who's signing these posts? Is this Petronas deal just a big scam?
> we deserve. If you are not a part of
>the solution, you are part of the
> problem! Take an aggressive stand for
>your passion!!!!!!!
>
> Sincerely,
>
>
> Robin Heid, BASE 44
> Mark Hewitt, BASE 45
Dear readers:
In the above post, I'm pretty tough on Micke Nordqvist for defecting from "the cause" and not standing in solidarity with the group and I want to apologize to him for saying it. Two reasons:
1) Most important, it's unfair. Micke should not be singled out. There are several skydivers as experienced and generally conscientious as Micke who, in my view, are making this situation worse by cooperating with the Lees. Pretty much every one of them is doing what they're doing for GOOD REASONS, and sincerely think they're doing the right thing, and there's no moral fault in that.
2) The above post was never meant to be public, and was sent to a limited distribution list of people who were on the competitor's list that Mr. Lee stole from me. I don't recall if I even sent it to Mr. Miho or whether he got it through the email grapevine.
Regardless, it was wrong, it shouldn't have been said privately or publicly, I'm sorry and everyone please forget that stuff I wrote about Micke and remember this stuff: He was a great professional on the transmillennium jump, a class guy generally, and I'm glad he was part of my team.
Robin
, and not nearly hard enough on Johnny Weasel.
>Your past accomplishments get you invited; your >current ability
>gets you in the show.
This is crap. The way Robin and Mark picked the 4 Americans that Robin and Mark picked was based on how long you've been friends with them or how long you've been BASE jumping (regardless of your ability) or how pretty you are or how much ass you've kissed. Did they pick the best American wingsuit flyers and the best American aerialists? No. Do they have a clue who they are? No.
I don't think the situation is better or worse now, just different. Robin and Mark are SO out of the loop as far as who are the cutting edge American BASE jumpers (wingsuit and aerialist) that they would have no idea who they were. And they certainly have overlooked the possibility of them being women. The competition that Mark and Robin had planned would have been the only sport whose "World Championships" did not include the best athletes, but the most politically correct and appropriate athletes.
I'm disgusted by the whole situation. Including the threat of being black balled from future events for anyone who participates in August. Come on! What? Cement shoes in the Potomic?
You're ABSOLUTELY right, Inside Whiner: The jumpers picked for the American team were all TECHNICALLY SOLID and absolutely politically correct in the sense that they were MATURE and PROFESSIONAL in demeanor and attitude.
One of them WAS a woman, Karin Sako, who recently won an event at Moab.
Another, Jeb Corliss, is one of the only jumpers in the world to hire a diving coach and practice three days a week doing it for aerials (plus he's a great wingsuit jumper), another, Johnny Weaselkotter, is recognized also as one of the best aerialists and overall BASE jumpers in the U.S. and maybe the world. The fourth, Mick Knutson, is a solid performer as well and most certainly understands the big picture, and if anyone objects to HIS selection, then that persson is an ungrateful, ignorant idiot.
Certainly there are plenty of other good U.S. jumpers who could qualify technically AND attitudnally, but Inside Whiner is just that -- a whiner -- because he wasn't invited.
Robin
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