Howdy folks! Been a while again... Not much has been happening still as the weather all over the country isn't exactly permitting jumping, nor do I have ANY money what-so-ever. Since I moved out here to Denver I've been trying to make some $$ to get back on the road as soon as the weather starts to warm up... I was lucky enough to get out to Longmont, CO for another jump (one of the places that I did NOT have pics/vid of) and did a great 7-way tracking dive! Check out the video of that below...
Also, here is a pretty cool little map that I've been keeping up with TripAdvisor (a Facebook app). Crazy!
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Monday, January 10, 2011
I've been slacking a bit in the blog area... more video though!
Hello again, world.
It's been far too long since I've put an update on here, but not TOO much has happened. The weather was so crappy up north in Minneapolis that I decided I would call it quits for that road trip, and I drove to Denver instead. I ended up meeting a really cool skydiver chick that is now my girlfriend and I am calling Denver my home for a while.
Unfortunately, with this bad of weather, it looks like I will be waiting till the spring to do the remaining 23 states. Since I am finally on a better internet connection, here is my video blog from Wyoming and South Dakota, along with the video that Lindsey did for her class project that is acting as my Nebraska video blog!
It's been far too long since I've put an update on here, but not TOO much has happened. The weather was so crappy up north in Minneapolis that I decided I would call it quits for that road trip, and I drove to Denver instead. I ended up meeting a really cool skydiver chick that is now my girlfriend and I am calling Denver my home for a while.
Unfortunately, with this bad of weather, it looks like I will be waiting till the spring to do the remaining 23 states. Since I am finally on a better internet connection, here is my video blog from Wyoming and South Dakota, along with the video that Lindsey did for her class project that is acting as my Nebraska video blog!
Billy Purta & His Mission to Skydive 50 States from Lindsay Nystrom on Vimeo.
Monday, December 6, 2010
A few more states completed, still no fast internet to upload video...
Currently I am in Minneapolis Minnesota, using my phone to type up everything. The only internet access I have really had over the past couple weeks has been from my phone... and while that's pretty fast, its still not fast enough to upload any long videos.
Right after I jumped in Montana I headed down to Buffalo Wyoming, where I Hung out for a week in sub zero temperatures with a super cool group of couch surfers. They took me amongst their group for everything, including a thanksgiving feast that would make any king jealous! After a week though, i had to move on to South Dakota to go find a pilot...
Last Sunday, I was able to hire a guy (Colin Potter) to fly me from Hot Springs, South Dakota over to Newcastle Wyoming for a skydive. It went very well, even though it was only about 20 degrees on the ground along with a foot of snow... and on the flight back to Hot Springs SD I jumped out again, taking care of those two states.
Shortly after that I drove over to Sioux Falls, SD, where I crashed with more couch surfers for a night before heading down to Lincoln, NE. A few days of hanging out there later, I got in touch with one of the main dudes at the Lincoln Sport Parachute Club out in Weeping Water and we set up a skydive. A couch surfer that I had met in Omaha happened to be doing a class project where she had to video interview somebody doing something interesting, and she chose to follow my story :) Lindsey, the couch surfer, got to ride along in the plane and record my lame attempt at a bat hang from the Cessna wing, before I let go and was chased by Chuck. I think my video blog of Nebraska will simply be her interview project cause it should be pretty interesting!
After one more night in Nebraska after the jump, Lindsey and I went to a huge couch surfing party in Omaha and made a lot of new very very well traveled friends, and then I moved on to Minneapolis! It sounds like, however, one of those couch surfers might just be coming up here to hang out and join me for a few days of my adventure :)
Let's hope the weather up here clears up soon and that I can take out a couple more states before I fly back to California on the 17th!
Right after I jumped in Montana I headed down to Buffalo Wyoming, where I Hung out for a week in sub zero temperatures with a super cool group of couch surfers. They took me amongst their group for everything, including a thanksgiving feast that would make any king jealous! After a week though, i had to move on to South Dakota to go find a pilot...
Last Sunday, I was able to hire a guy (Colin Potter) to fly me from Hot Springs, South Dakota over to Newcastle Wyoming for a skydive. It went very well, even though it was only about 20 degrees on the ground along with a foot of snow... and on the flight back to Hot Springs SD I jumped out again, taking care of those two states.
Shortly after that I drove over to Sioux Falls, SD, where I crashed with more couch surfers for a night before heading down to Lincoln, NE. A few days of hanging out there later, I got in touch with one of the main dudes at the Lincoln Sport Parachute Club out in Weeping Water and we set up a skydive. A couch surfer that I had met in Omaha happened to be doing a class project where she had to video interview somebody doing something interesting, and she chose to follow my story :) Lindsey, the couch surfer, got to ride along in the plane and record my lame attempt at a bat hang from the Cessna wing, before I let go and was chased by Chuck. I think my video blog of Nebraska will simply be her interview project cause it should be pretty interesting!
After one more night in Nebraska after the jump, Lindsey and I went to a huge couch surfing party in Omaha and made a lot of new very very well traveled friends, and then I moved on to Minneapolis! It sounds like, however, one of those couch surfers might just be coming up here to hang out and join me for a few days of my adventure :)
Let's hope the weather up here clears up soon and that I can take out a couple more states before I fly back to California on the 17th!
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Jumped out of a helicopter in Montana! Now for Wyoming...
Well that wasn't TOO difficult! It took about 5 days of staring at crappy weather in Montana before one morning it was gorgeously sunny for just a few hours, enough time for me to go up in an R44 and jump out over a nice large field to land in. However, we didn't realize the upper winds were 50+mph and I TRIED to put my spot in a way that would be good enough for 20mph winds (which we thought they were) soooo I had to land in someone's backyard about 1 mile from my intended landing area...
After that jump I decided to head down to Buffalo Wyoming to stay with my next couch surfing host, and got stuck in a pretty icy snow storm along the way. But alas, I arrived safely, and that is where I am currently positioned.
Thanks a ton for Lila setting me up with a place to stay up in Missoula for a night, and of course to Rah for an awesome couch in Bozeman for the majority of my Montana visit!
And finally, here is the video blog :)
After that jump I decided to head down to Buffalo Wyoming to stay with my next couch surfing host, and got stuck in a pretty icy snow storm along the way. But alas, I arrived safely, and that is where I am currently positioned.
Thanks a ton for Lila setting me up with a place to stay up in Missoula for a night, and of course to Rah for an awesome couch in Bozeman for the majority of my Montana visit!
And finally, here is the video blog :)
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Idaho complete, Wyoming attempted... Montana in progress.
Well this has been a fun past week! I started off this road trip on Monday morning when I embarked upon the 10 hour drive to Twin Falls, ID. I arrived within about 3 minutes of my GPS's initial guess of my arrival time, that was pretty fantastic.
I narrowly avoided one of the most intense storms I have ever seen in my life... I was driving through the very flat parts of Nevada, and could see a storm about 15 miles wide coming towards the road that I was driving on. Just as the edge of the storm, which appeared as a solid wall of gray with things flying inside of it (I don't think it was a giant tornado... didn't look "swirly" enough, but I've never seen one) got within 1 mile of the road I was at the end of it. The winds, even 1 mile from the gray, were sending huge things of tumble weed flying 20 some odd feet above my car, and I had to hold my wheel almost 90° to the side to keep my car going straight... it was intense.
Thankfully, a good friend of mine (thank you, Erin!) recommended that I have the dropzone owner up in Twin Falls (Abbie) a call about a place to stay. Abbie and his buddy, James, were down for adventure in any form of falling out of planes or jumping off of objects and had some of the coolest stories/videos you could possibly imagine. I convinced them that it would be a good idea for us to fly all the way over to Wyoming to a small airport right over the boarder to try to jump there (since there is no actual dropzone in all of Wyoming), so we did! Well, we tried. About 13 minutes from the airport, the weather got too bad and we definitely needed to turn away from the clouds in front of us and call it quits. We did, however, have a lot of fun while in the plane, and got to jump out over his old dropzone location in Idaho on our way "home." If you are EVER in the Twin Falls area, I would highly recommend going straight to Abbie (say it like bobby, but without the first "b") at snake river skydiving!
The next day they had convinced me (didn't take much) that it was a good idea to go BASE jump off of the famous Perrine Bridge, right there in Twin Falls. After a lot of training and running through emergency scenarios (aka, in the 4 seconds you have till you hit the ground, if no parachute is above your head within 2 seconds, flail about wildly to try to get the parachute to come out), I was standing on the 2' platform sticking over the edge of the bridge. Yes, it was by far the most terrifying moment of my life, and I screamed like a little girl when the sensation of falling immediately presented itself (which, by the way, does NOT happen while skydiving).
Shortly after climbing out of the canyon, searching for a mannequin that we lost after he fell out of the plane (see video blog for details) and declaring him MIA, I left for Montana.
I arrived in Montana Saturday night, and have been waiting for the clouds to go above three feet, and the snow to stop falling so I can go jump out of a plane here in Bozeman. Wish me luck, oh blog readers.
There really was no point in you reading all of this, because it has been all incorporated (except the snow falling in Montana) in my lengthy video blog of Idaho, which you should watch. There are some fun/funny moments, there are some boring moments, and there are some terrifying moments (aka, the BASE jump). Enjoy!
Be sure to watch it in 1080p if your computer can stream fast enough!
I narrowly avoided one of the most intense storms I have ever seen in my life... I was driving through the very flat parts of Nevada, and could see a storm about 15 miles wide coming towards the road that I was driving on. Just as the edge of the storm, which appeared as a solid wall of gray with things flying inside of it (I don't think it was a giant tornado... didn't look "swirly" enough, but I've never seen one) got within 1 mile of the road I was at the end of it. The winds, even 1 mile from the gray, were sending huge things of tumble weed flying 20 some odd feet above my car, and I had to hold my wheel almost 90° to the side to keep my car going straight... it was intense.
Thankfully, a good friend of mine (thank you, Erin!) recommended that I have the dropzone owner up in Twin Falls (Abbie) a call about a place to stay. Abbie and his buddy, James, were down for adventure in any form of falling out of planes or jumping off of objects and had some of the coolest stories/videos you could possibly imagine. I convinced them that it would be a good idea for us to fly all the way over to Wyoming to a small airport right over the boarder to try to jump there (since there is no actual dropzone in all of Wyoming), so we did! Well, we tried. About 13 minutes from the airport, the weather got too bad and we definitely needed to turn away from the clouds in front of us and call it quits. We did, however, have a lot of fun while in the plane, and got to jump out over his old dropzone location in Idaho on our way "home." If you are EVER in the Twin Falls area, I would highly recommend going straight to Abbie (say it like bobby, but without the first "b") at snake river skydiving!
The next day they had convinced me (didn't take much) that it was a good idea to go BASE jump off of the famous Perrine Bridge, right there in Twin Falls. After a lot of training and running through emergency scenarios (aka, in the 4 seconds you have till you hit the ground, if no parachute is above your head within 2 seconds, flail about wildly to try to get the parachute to come out), I was standing on the 2' platform sticking over the edge of the bridge. Yes, it was by far the most terrifying moment of my life, and I screamed like a little girl when the sensation of falling immediately presented itself (which, by the way, does NOT happen while skydiving).
Shortly after climbing out of the canyon, searching for a mannequin that we lost after he fell out of the plane (see video blog for details) and declaring him MIA, I left for Montana.
I arrived in Montana Saturday night, and have been waiting for the clouds to go above three feet, and the snow to stop falling so I can go jump out of a plane here in Bozeman. Wish me luck, oh blog readers.
There really was no point in you reading all of this, because it has been all incorporated (except the snow falling in Montana) in my lengthy video blog of Idaho, which you should watch. There are some fun/funny moments, there are some boring moments, and there are some terrifying moments (aka, the BASE jump). Enjoy!
Be sure to watch it in 1080p if your computer can stream fast enough!
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Gearing up for Epic Road Trip #2
First off, I doubt this will be near as epic as the first epic road trip... but one can only hope! Just started sending out couch requests a couple days ago for the first few states. No real way to tell when I'll be showing up at each one, but I plan to leave Cali on the 10th of November. The route in the last blog post will hold mostly true, at least till I get in my car... then who knows what will happen!
I really do need help now more than ever before. This trip will be putting me through temperatures that might possibly drop to -30°f! Now obviously I won't be skydiving if they get that low, and I hope it will be bright and sunny at each of my destinations, but I doubt it. I don't have any free cash for this trip, things are going to be very tight... Hopefully some of the dropzones along the way will be willing to sponsor me a jump (or two!) and I'll throw them due credit on here!
If anybody (all 2 of you) reads this that has any idea how to skydive in Wyoming, please, let me know. My current plan is to show up to a small airport and bug every pilot around to take me up in their plane to 3k ft and squirm out of the door... we'll see how it goes :( Maybe I will get lucky and there will be an experienced R44 pilot up there that will take off his doors for me and it will go smoothly! HELP!!!!
I really do need help now more than ever before. This trip will be putting me through temperatures that might possibly drop to -30°f! Now obviously I won't be skydiving if they get that low, and I hope it will be bright and sunny at each of my destinations, but I doubt it. I don't have any free cash for this trip, things are going to be very tight... Hopefully some of the dropzones along the way will be willing to sponsor me a jump (or two!) and I'll throw them due credit on here!
If anybody (all 2 of you) reads this that has any idea how to skydive in Wyoming, please, let me know. My current plan is to show up to a small airport and bug every pilot around to take me up in their plane to 3k ft and squirm out of the door... we'll see how it goes :( Maybe I will get lucky and there will be an experienced R44 pilot up there that will take off his doors for me and it will go smoothly! HELP!!!!
Monday, October 18, 2010
Well, looks like I'm moving to Alabama =-O
Nobody really saw this coming... but it LOOKS like I will be moving to the gulf coast in Alabama.
I still need to run through all those states in the NW section of the country, so I'm devising a plan to move myself here AND go through those states at the same time. This is NOT a 100% sure thing, but as of right now, the move seems to make sense on many levels.
IF this is the case...
This is the revised route plan. Click on it to check out the route in google maps.
In theory, I will throw as much stuff in my little hybrid as possible (clothes, computer stuff, skydiving gear etc.) and take this trip, which will put my car, and a lot of my stuff at my new place in Alabama. Then I will simply fly home, and uhaul the rest of my crap in a direct route over here in 2 days of driving.
I still need to run through all those states in the NW section of the country, so I'm devising a plan to move myself here AND go through those states at the same time. This is NOT a 100% sure thing, but as of right now, the move seems to make sense on many levels.
IF this is the case...
This is the revised route plan. Click on it to check out the route in google maps.
In theory, I will throw as much stuff in my little hybrid as possible (clothes, computer stuff, skydiving gear etc.) and take this trip, which will put my car, and a lot of my stuff at my new place in Alabama. Then I will simply fly home, and uhaul the rest of my crap in a direct route over here in 2 days of driving.
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