Here is another shorty but goody! This was the night Hoot almost fell to his death in outerspace. I know Hoot will chime in with more comments and fill in some more details, but I believe his ankle has never been the same since that night. Anyhow, I for one am super glad that all turned out ok that night and my pal indeed did not fall to his death! And I like how we just continue on with our goal that night. :)
And the end of this clip is a very nice shot of the projection mechanism for the "zero-g basketball (or some sort of ball) game". I believe Kyle was asking if we had any pictures of this, and Hoot said 'no, but we have some video', and I am pretty sure this is the shot Hoot was thinking about. Enjoy!
You guys need to do a full blown video of all these pics and videos with running commentary. You should see if Martin would help you.
ReplyDeletei'm sure Martin would love to include some of this stuff in his ultimate tributes,
ReplyDeletethat would be awesome, having you guys describing everything, all the stuff you did, showing your video clips, and the pictures, i think you should do it :)
Thanks for the footage guys. At Band HQ we have a couple Birnbaum guides from the early 90's and they all talked about the Zero G Basketball and out of everything I really didn't remember ever seeing that. Mesa Verde Times saves the day again.
ReplyDeleteYep, I almost died. I was less than a foot from falling to my death. The plywood I landed on was rotten and not structural at all. That's why one should NEVER try shit like this.
ReplyDeleteI didn't notice right away but I had fractured my right foot. Even today, 12 years later, it hurts when it's going to rain. The pain makes me happy though because it gets me thinking about the fun we had:)
It didn't hit me 'til a few years later just how close I was to death. Like I said, we just didn't care about our own well being. Horizons was too important.
it never fails to amaze me how this was clearly so fucking dangerous (i.e. what if your arm gets stuck between moving vehicles and a wall or something?) and yet you guys kept going back...
ReplyDeletewhich I am thankful for ;) in a weird sorta way.
This stuff is great. It's amazing how you guys seemed to document all those things I used to wonder about while riding Horizons. Like "Wonder what makes that shadow on the wall?" I remember trying to lean over and see how things worked. Here we are 10 years later and you guys are revealing the secrets! This is awesome! Thank you!
ReplyDeleteWe had to risk it. Horizons was too important to us.
ReplyDeleteWe kept this material for so long because it was ours and we didn't think anyone else cared so we didn't share it.
We were willing to risk our lives so that we would have these pics and video. I look back and think "OUR LIVES!!!!!????" Seems dumb now but yes it was that important.
Time catches you WAY faster than you think. 1997 seems like two minutes ago to Chief and I.
The great thing that's happening here is that you, the fans want to hear this crazy tale.
So were the ride vehicles elevated in the outer space section? How far off the floor was that? Could you not run around in that section? It was always hard to figure that part out since the sets don't come right up to the vehicles.
ReplyDelete@Scootma: Technically, the ride vehicles themselves were a only a few inches from "a surface". That surface being the platform/floor that basically formed the ride path if you will. However, that path wound thru the Horizons building going up and down, throughout the 2 floors inside the building. You have to remember though, these 2 floors arent like a standard 2 story house height. Granted, I dont know the exact height of the highest point of the platform either.
ReplyDeleteSo where we were when this happened, was coming out of the space area with the lady in the pod thing attached to the erector set looking truss thingy. This was a large room, and the the ride path was elevated in this room, so if I had to guess, I would say at its highest point it had to be 15-20 feet?
Where Hoot slipped off the platform was right where the "spaceport" begins, where the little yellow shuttle is docked. The part of the set there felt like very flimsy plywood, definitely not made for people walking on it. And to answer your third question, we never made it to a doorway to the floor of the big space room (under that lady), that was an area that was not very high on our list to try to get too.
A few more steps Hoot and you would've been sunk. You always hear about people getting caught between cars (or moving walls) and you're like "WTF?"
ReplyDeleteGlad you were okay and not scared off. I think it prolly gave you a deeper sense of being with the ole Century 3.
What better place to fall to your demise? I find it a bit funny that on FutureProbe you had to jump out of a moving vehicle to almost die, while with Mission:Space all you have to do is remain seated..
ReplyDelete"with Mission:Space all you have to do is remain seated.."
ReplyDeleteLMAO!!