Hey everyone! I just wanted to introduce myself with my first post and give a little insight about the blog I am starting and my life up until this point! At the end I will hold an AMA till midnight PST if anyone has questions for me :)
Currently I am 24 years old and living just west of Denver, Colorado with my father. When I was 9 years old living near Austin texas my father was trying to cure his hepatitis C with a treatment called peg-interfereron (sp) that made him very sick and unable to work or live on his own. Under my mothers care my father progressively got worse but the doctors said to continue with treatment. On a hot July day that my father was feeling better than usual and he went to go outside but fell in our car garage. Between the medication hurting him, mal-nourishment from not being able to hold down food and the 3 hours it took from the time he fell for me and my mom to find him, try to help him up, call and ambulance and wait for it to get there my father was barley conscious and unable to speak clearly. After they took my father to the hospital my mother followed in her car leaving me with our neighbors, little did I know that my dad would recover, but never be the same person again.
Picture of me hunting snow geese outside of Waco,Tx with my dog ranger, taken by my father.
My Father was in critical condition for around 3 days but stabilized and came to, but when he regained consciousness he had full amnesia. he didn't remember who I was, who my mother was, or who he was himself. it was like he was a speaking 48 year old infant. Being only 9 myself with was terribly hard for me to understand and accept.
Riding motocross at Red Rocks MX park, also taken by my father
Moving on about 5 years my father amazingly recovered to knowing his history,his wife/son and having a grasp on reality, but the main disability that persisted was his short term memory. Even though after the accident he was never the same person on from a personality standpoint, other than the short term memory problems he was able to function pretty normally and drive. My father rode motorcycles growing up in Fort Stockton, Tx. and he was very excited to that I was interested in riding, this was my first taste of extreme sports and the calmness and clarity that you would expect the opposite feelings from jumping motorcycles or skydiving. From the moment I threw my leg over that 2000 yz250 I was hooked, but after the fear of going fast with so little protection wore off, I noticed how calm and collected I felt when riding. It was this feeling of being at harmony in such a chaotic situation that I have chased for the last 10 years.
I rode motorcycles for many years and have many stories from it like moving to California and living on a sailboat that I will share in later blog posts, but for now lets move on to what brought me to where I am today.
First skydive at Skydive Temple, Belton, Tx. taken by Steve Ruiez
I was working as a cellular tower technician and making great money for a college dropout when I saw Jeb Corlis' Youtube video "grinding the crack" I was sitting at a tattoo shop with a couple of my friends when it came up on the suggested playlist, while all my friends and even the artist stopped to gawk at such an amazing feat of human flight, my mind was already set. In an instant I knew what I wanted to do with my life. my friends laughed at me saying "it must take so much money" "its too dangerous" and even "that's just stupid" but I knew what I wanted. less than a month later I quit my job and moved to the dropzone to work as a "hey boy" aka slave 6 days a week. I mowed the airfield and did maintenance until I learned how to pack parachutes. I worked for about #300 a week, an $800 pay cut but I was so happy to be learning about the sport of skydiving I didn't care.
Skydiving in Glenwood, Colorado. taken by seth castle
as I progressed in skydiving and packing I moved to another dropzone in texas for the opportunity to jump more. I was jumping 3+ days a week and usually making at least 10 jumps a week, much more than I was making at temple. it was around this time that my mother filed for divorce and left my father. the most hurtful was no one even told me. my mom because she wanted nothing to do with either of us, and my dad for being so embarrassed. when my friend told me that they had split I went home to find the house in ruins along with my dads bank account. besides my mother taking almost everything, he had ran up his credit card and not payed the mortgage. it was then I made the decision to choose my family over my passion. I went to the dropzone and quit and came back to the house.
Snowboarding in Keystone, Colorado. selfie!
After the divorce was finalized and we had a buyer for the house I told my dad that we should get out of Texas, he was hesitant at first but I told him to pick anywhere in the nation and lets go look at it and see what we think. a few hours of googling and we decided on Colorado. we came up and both fell in love with it, the rest is history.
Derek, Jester and myself getting ready to jump off the Perrine Bridge in Twinfalls, Idaho
after about 2 years of living in Colorado, working at the local skydiving dropzone, helping my dad fix his credit, buy a house and get settled, becoming a coach and getting hundreds of jumps, I was ready for an adventure. I had just a few base jumps but was super excited to learn more when I took off to Idaho with my friend Derek. we had only been at the bridge for a week when I met the women who would become my wife less than a year later, Josefin.
Me with the love of my life! Josefin
this is another topic I wont go too far into detail on this blog, I'll do a full post on it later :)
long story short it was love at first sight, we spent 2 days together at the bridge before she left to keep traveling and the moment she did I decided I had to find a way to see her again, we met up again in Portland, then again in Arcadia California. while we were there I asked her where she was going next. She said that her trip was almost over and that she was driving back to Chicago the next day, flying back to Sweden, and then leaving for Kenya 2 days later. It was then I asked the question that changed my life forever....."can I go to Africa with you?"
Maria and I in Mombasa,Kenya taken by Josefin
I always expected to leave the USA even though I grew up in Texas where many people never leave the state much less the country. But I never could have expected the first non US soil my feet would touch would be in Kenya. we spent a week on the tourist side of Kenya in Diani and the big cities before we went to the island of Mfangano on Lake Victoria. the tourist side of things was more culture shock than I had ever felt but I had no idea what was in store, all I knew is I was having fun and happy to be with the amazing women I met back in Idaho.
Typical if not nicer house on Mfangano, taken by me
in the weeks I spent on mfangano I learned just how much the western media not only lies but push the idea that these people in africa and the middle east got themselves in their own bad situations and it could not be farther from the truth. I saw with my very own eyes great people struggling to learn and survive in a world changing faster than their immediate surroundings. While I would like to go into great detail about Mfangano I will do so in another blog post, but I will say that this trip changed my view of the world forever.
monte brento, italy
After spending weeks being blown away by the amazing people of mfangano and doing our best to see how we can help josefin's organization run better, I went and fulfilled my own dreams of terminal base jumping. It was everything I thought it would be when I saw that you tube video 4 years ago the culmination of all my hard work and training paying of was one of the greatest moments in my life if not the greatest. I cant wait to keep progressing in base in the coming years.
My wife and I on our wedding day!
and Finally we land at today, well close enough to it at least. June 17th my wife and I got married. we have spent the last 3 months traveling through the USA doing all kinds of crazy things. from rock climbing, base jumping, skydiving and exploring the western USA. I am so happy to have someone in my life who loves the same things and enjoys doing them with me. I am truly the luckiest man in the world. My family may be small, but my father and wife mean the world to me and make up for not having a quantity of family with quality.
Josefin, Derek, Jester and myself taking the long walk out
So if you couldn't guess I have plenty of stories to come both from my past and soon from my future! Josefin and I are just getting started on our adventures together. we plan on getting a youtube channel to post videos and to keep a blog here, we can also be found on instagram or twitter as @sactheskydiver and @sando.josefin
I would love to make this an AMA if anyone has any questions about my life, skydiving, kenya or anything else! I love sharing my passions with others and would love to fill you in on any of it ;)
till next time thank you so much for reading my first post, I hope you enjoyed and I would love comments and criticism on how I should structure my next posts.
thanks again,
Brian "sactheskydiver" Lancaster