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Cliffy Windbag · August 28th, 2003, 02:15 PM

Thanks, Austin. I guess it's either balls or sheer stupidity (maybe some unexplainable combination of the two [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] ). Chasing isn't actually my job; it's purely a hobby that I do as many weeks a year as I can swing. Because I've been around awhile, I sometimes get hired as a consultant to take people chasing (usually videographers doing some kind of documentary) and I often sell footage to TLC and Discovery, but that's about the only money I make. Now, if tornado season was as dramatic everywhere as it is on the Plains and lasted there longer than usually just May and June, I'd be making enough to have a Vette to chase in and a Viper for weekend cruising. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] The consulting gigs, depending on the budget of the people for whom you're working, can clear you a cool Grand-a-day or more. I wish that were my full time job!

The chaser you're talking about is probably Jeff Piotrowski. He's a big, swollen red babboon ass buffon of the highest order. This is a guy who consistently and purposely puts himself in harm's way in an effort to nab the most dramatic footage. He's a sensationlist dickbag driven by the money and exposure of commercialism. Aside from a guy named Warren Faidley, who actually trademarked the name Stormchaser, if you can believe that, Jeff is the biggest shmegma in the chasing community. The video you undoubtedly saw was on May 3, 1999, when Service J (as he's affectionately called) drove within 1/8 of a mile, into the outer circulations, of an F-5 maxi-tornado that was well over a mile wide. Telephone poles were being ripped out of the ground without any tornadic wind touching them; it was the cables connected to the poles actually in the tornado yanking on the untouched poles downwind . . . that's how powerful this tornado was. Service J was right in there, God bless him, licking up the pure theater of it with his enormous, canine-like, slobbering tongue. He damn near died. Had the tornado not taken a slight shift away from where he was positioned, a lot worse would have happened to him than telephone poles flying on top of his truck.

There was also a chaser (not chasing at the time) who was in his car at a gas station when an F-4 tornado ripped through Hoisington, KS a couple years ago. He had the presence of mind, noting the direction of the wind, to drive up tight alongside a retaining wall, against which his car was wedged when the tornado passed over him. You might be referring to that incident as well.

August 28th, 2003, 02:15 PM	#12
Cliffy Windbag Emulating Nabakov Cliffy Windbag is offline Join Date: May 2003 Posts: 472 Rep Power: 10	Re: Storms Thanks, Austin. I guess it's either balls or sheer stupidity (maybe some unexplainable combination of the two [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] ). Chasing isn't actually my job; it's purely a hobby that I do as many weeks a year as I can swing. Because I've been around awhile, I sometimes get hired as a consultant to take people chasing (usually videographers doing some kind of documentary) and I often sell footage to TLC and Discovery, but that's about the only money I make. Now, if tornado season was as dramatic everywhere as it is on the Plains and lasted there longer than usually just May and June, I'd be making enough to have a Vette to chase in and a Viper for weekend cruising. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] The consulting gigs, depending on the budget of the people for whom you're working, can clear you a cool Grand-a-day or more. I wish that were my full time job! The chaser you're talking about is probably Jeff Piotrowski. He's a big, swollen red babboon ass buffon of the highest order. This is a guy who consistently and purposely puts himself in harm's way in an effort to nab the most dramatic footage. He's a sensationlist dickbag driven by the money and exposure of commercialism. Aside from a guy named Warren Faidley, who actually trademarked the name Stormchaser, if you can believe that, Jeff is the biggest shmegma in the chasing community. The video you undoubtedly saw was on May 3, 1999, when Service J (as he's affectionately called) drove within 1/8 of a mile, into the outer circulations, of an F-5 maxi-tornado that was well over a mile wide. Telephone poles were being ripped out of the ground without any tornadic wind touching them; it was the cables connected to the poles actually in the tornado yanking on the untouched poles downwind . . . that's how powerful this tornado was. Service J was right in there, God bless him, licking up the pure theater of it with his enormous, canine-like, slobbering tongue. He damn near died. Had the tornado not taken a slight shift away from where he was positioned, a lot worse would have happened to him than telephone poles flying on top of his truck. There was also a chaser (not chasing at the time) who was in his car at a gas station when an F-4 tornado ripped through Hoisington, KS a couple years ago. He had the presence of mind, noting the direction of the wind, to drive up tight alongside a retaining wall, against which his car was wedged when the tornado passed over him. You might be referring to that incident as well.