Rob Harris
Charles Thomas
>>A double mall <sic> they told me on the news ???
>
>Heard the same thing, suposedly it hapenned during a shoot for a Pepsi
>comercial.
>
>To bad he was a great guy,
Called Skydive Arizona.
The woman said that Rob was "doing a cutaway during a commercial and had
a problem with his reserve. He didn't make it."
I really hope that someone's wrong about this. The man is an
unbelievable athelete and light years ahead of everyone in his field. If
it's true, my heart goes out to his friends and, indeed, to all of us.
It is an enormous loss to everyone in skydiving.
SkySports
facts, as known at this time.
Rob Harris is dead at the age of 28.
The Extreme Games and two-time World Champion Skysurfer died on Thursday
Dec. 14 while filming a stunt for a TV commercial. The accident occurred
on location in Canada. The stunt team had been working all week to film a
series of stunts for a major soft drink company. This was to have been
one of the last shots.
Eyewitnesses said the stunt was to involve the intentional cutaway of a
special third canopy, which would give the filmmakers a shot of Harris
cutting loose from the canopy and going back into freefall (with the
normal compliment of main and reserve.) A special rig was equipped with
an extra cutaway handle for this specific stunt. For this shot, Harris
was wearing a tuxedo. He was not jumping with a skysurf.
The eyewitness said that Harris had difficulty cutting away the intended
canopy. When he did, he was seen to be struggling with his equipment in
freefall. At the time of impact, the reserve canopy had been activated,
getting line stretch, but had not yet achieved inflation. The rig was not
equipped with an AAD.
Services are pending. He is survived by his mother Beatrice, brothers
Larry and Jim, friend and teammate Joe.
His loss to our sport is both tragic and immense.
Pete McKeeman
SkySports Intl.
Skysurfing Organizer
ESPN Extreme Games
ROB HARRIS, USA
Born: Dec. 17, 1966
Died: Dec. 14, 1995
Home: Manhattan Beach, CA
Occupation: Nightclub disc jockey
Competitive Results:
Gold medal 1995 Skysurfing World Championships
Gold medal 1995 Skysurfing Extreme Games
Gold medal 1994 Skysurfing World Championships
Bronze medal 1993 Skysurfing World Championships,
First place 1993 Skysurfing Arizona Open, Intermediate category
Southern California native Rob Harris and his teammate, camera flyer Joe
Jennings, are currently the No. 1 Team in the young sport of competitive
skysurfing.
For the past two years, they have personified the sport with their
creativity and cutting edge displays of team interactive video. Rob's
easy-going, fun-loving California style was one of the things that made
him not only respected by his peers, but admired and liked by all who knew
him.
Harris and Jennings have been partners since they won the Intermediate
category in the first skysurfing competition held in April of 1993. The
two formed a relationship that flourished on both a professional and
personal level. In the last two years, this included working together
through Jenning's production company, filming specialized stunts for TV
commercials and network programs like Baywatch, Blossom and World of
Wonder.
Competitively, Harris and Jennings ascendancy to the top of the sport of
Skysurfing is nothing short of astounding. They took the bronze at the
first World Skysurfing Championships in 1993, finishing behind the French
originators of the sport. Their No. 1 victory in 1994 was a surprise to
both themselves and to the Europeans, who had dominated competitive
skysurfing. They won with innovative performances that showed Rob's
incredibly precise and technically correct skysurfing skills choreographed
with Joe's three-dimensional camera flying. "There is nothing else like
it," Harris said last year about skysurfing. "I love all kinds of board
sports, and to ride a board while skydiving just makes it all too much
fun."
In 1995, Harris worked weekends as a nightclub disc jockey in Los Angeles
so his weekdays were free for jumping in Arizona. He would train one week
on his own, making about 35 jumps. Jennings joined him the next week to
work on the Team's total performance. This long distance dedication to
improvement helped them become the standard for others to follow, taking
the interactive performance to a new level never before presented.
In June, this dedication paid off as they proved to be one the true
'stars' of the first ESPN Extreme Games in Newport R.I. They wowed both
the TV audience and the other athletes by totally dominating the contest.
At the Extreme Games, they put their own indelible imprint on the world of
sports by mesmerizing viewers with what has become their signature move,
the self-named 'tidy bowl in the hole.'
In September of 1995, they continued this trend in Ampfing, Germany by
becoming competitive skysurfing's first ever two-time world champions.
Harris began skydiving in 1990. He soon moved from on-your-belly student
skydiving to freestyle and then to skysurfing. "After my first year and
300 or so freestyle jumps, I started jumping a board, which is something I
always wanted to do." With a longtime love of skateboarding and
snowboarding, Harris was a natural candidate for skysurfing. "I like the
freedom you have while in the air, whether it be in freefall or under my
parachute, swooping a landing," he says.
He's done a lot for the sport of skydiving." Skysurfer Amy Baylie-Haass
said of Harris before last year's Extreme Games. "Rob Harris and Joe
Jennings are the guys who have it all and are willing to share."
When he's not working or training, Harris spent some of his spare time
re-mixing dance music, and he continued to snowboard and skateboard.
Earlier this year, Jennings said of his partner, "Rob was dedicated to
being the best skysurfer in the world. His own commitment to this sport
pushed me to fly camera far better than I had ever expected to fly."
- * -
qx0...@inet.d48.lilly.com
Rob Harris IS dead.
No details available here.
kleggo
id...@uniserve.com
from the 2000 >> 2500 Ft level. Seams verry low to me, its actualy
against the rulles here in Canada to be in freefall below 2200FT
100ft more would of saved his life.....
Just curious, about the details of this tragic loss to our sport.
My condolences to his famely and all his friends.