Messing With Sasquatch: #GoFundYourself

Last year the trend in storm chasing was a bunch of wannabe chasers making police badges in order to add a bit of authority to the various dumbshit weather enthusiast groups they were apart of. This year the new trend is crowdfunding, or what I prefer to call online panhandling. Kickstarter, GoFundMe, IndieGoGo....no matter which site you use the idea is simple. Some noob comes up with either a sad story or try to sell their audience the idea that they are "doing research" or "saving lives." They find enough people to buy their horseshit story and cha ching....they get to chase as many setups as they want to without spending a dime out of their pockets (or their parents' pockets).

Disclaimer: as a preemptive strike I want to go on the record by saying I have no problem with people using crowdfunding as a way of helping themselves out if they have fallen on hard times (ie. medical hardships, crime victims, and those needing help paying their college tuition for one semester). I don't even have a problem with legit storm chasers starting a crowdfunding campaign for a project they are a part of (even though there is one in which one well known chaser is offering a 30 minute one on one chat on skype for whoever pledges $1,000 which I find to be absurd).

Now you're probably asking yourself right now "well Adam is okay with a few chasers doing a crowdfunding campaign, but why is he picking on other chasers who are crowdfunding?" Whenever I hear about a chaser quitting his job just so that he was able to have an "epic" 2014 season and then reality bites him in the ass by having no money and still no job, I have a hard time being sympathetic about his story. And then there was a campaign created by a kid in Mississippi playing the chase to save lives card. He has since withdrew his campaign after he got caught using video of a tornado from another chaser in his campaign vignette without the chaser's permission.

These two examples show to me a sense of entitlement (a trait I despise out of people). Now I love to chase, I love traveling to different parts of the country I have never been to before, I love meeting up with my chaser friends or meeting new chasers while I'm on the road. But I also love having a roof over my head, not going to bed every night hungry, and I love not receiving harassing phone calls from bill collectors. I'm not at a point in my life I can chase anywhere I want to for as long as I want to and still make ends meet. So consequently my chase season consists of 1 maybe 2 Dixie Alley outbreaks, a 2 week vacation on the Plains, and a surprise summer storm in my backyard. Now the point I'm getting at is I refuse to start up a crowdfunding campaign to fund my chase season. If I can't afford to chase a setup I stay home.

Just because I won't do it doesn't mean everyone else will follow suit. If you want to start panhandling people on the internet it is your right to do so. However be prepared for harsh criticism from your peers, and don't be surprised to see this trendy hashtag.....#GoFundYourself.

2015 Chase Season Is Around The Corner

It's February 1st which means that the light at the end of a long, cold, and boring tunnel called winter is near. We have 27 more days until the start of the meteorological spring, and for some chasers (including myself) it will be the start of chase season.

I don't know if the season is going to be an active one or if it will be a repeat of 2014, but for this year I'm cautiously optimistic about getting out and chasing more and to accomplish my goal of documenting at least 10 tornadoes. I cannot be overconfident in my expectations because whenever I am overconfident Murphy's law strikes (it has already struck once two weeks ago when my brakes went out costing me $500 to replace the brake pads, rotors, calipers, and a wheel cylinder). As with every year since I started chasing in 2011 I've made a few changes whether it was adding or upgrading equipment or having new chase partners. This year is no exception.

New Equipment- I finally got a DSLR camera for photography. A Nikon D60 I bought from my good friend and chase partner Wes Carter. He has offered to sell me a 18-200mm lens to go with the camera that I plan on buying in the near future.

New Chase Partners- Technically they're not new since I did chase with them last year in Nebraska on June 3rd, but for this year I'll be teaming up with Christian Johnson, Jake Riley, and April Cullers for my yearly trip to the Great Plains for my chase vacation. Christian and Jake were Meteorology students at UT-Martin and have been chasing together in the Plains and Dixie Alley for several years. A former member of StormChaseTN Christian created SevereWXChasers in an effort to provide daily weather forecasts nationwide and live chase updates while out in the field (https://www.facebook.com/SevereWXChasers). April is a firefighter and paramedic out of Memphis, TN (a great person to have with us in the event we come across a town ravaged by a tornado while chasing). She has also been chasing for a few years on the Plains and Dixie Alley.

This will be my 5th year having KDRMedia handle the selling of whatever footage I get while I'm out chasing. Even though my footage has yet to sell Kendra Reed is the only person I trust in selling my video at a price that's fair for me (not a low ball figure just to have my video and my name tattooed on television screens across the country). I will be live streaming my chases again this year. You can find my live steam at either https://tvnweather.com/live or on my website http://borochaser.net/live-chasing-2/. Even though a good number of chasers I know have opted not to live stream their chases anymore I will (live streaming has gotten easier and less of a headache for me after switching from ChaserTV to TVN).

And there you go, my annual pre-chase season expectations that I highly doubt I'll get to accomplish. But I'm going to fucking try my best to achieve my goal. After all there's that saying from a famous storm chaser, "Never Stop......" you seriously thought I was going to say that annoying quote didn't you? :P~

2014: Like Riding A Roller Coaster

It's New Years Eve which means time to do my year in review blog. This is going to be a short blog because outside of a few bright moments this year has been uneventful. I'm going to highlight some of the bad moments and some of the good moments (yes despite me bitching about how this year sucked I did have some good moments).

Bad Moments- This was the worst year for me in chasing. A combination of a slow season and bad timing financially resulted in only 5 chases with 3 of them in Tennessee. I had to postpone my yearly chasecation due to lack of severe weather activity at the time of my scheduled trip. I was also left empty handed in the tornado department despite coming close on April 28th and June 3rd. In early March the water pump went out in my car while I was on my way to Franklin to help Mira Lee and her girlfriend Akiko Numata move into their new apartment. The timing sucked because it happened one month before chase season got underway and I was stranded due to a mini winter storm that moved through Middle Tennessee making travel hazardous. Despite spending approximately $400 in towing and parts needed to replace the water pump I was reduced to chasing locally in my car. $400 in my chase fund spent to fix my car.

Good Moments- Despite no tornadoes June 3rd was a good moment for me this year. It was my first chase with new chase partners who are an awesome bunch of people (Christian Johnson, Jake Riley, April Cullers, and Jason Bernal), I added another state I chased in (Nebraska), and we convoyed with a pretty cool group of chasers (Steve Worthington, Stacy Valentine, Lisa Dimmitt, Jeromy Carter, and Aaron Gilliland). I did see multiple gustnadoes this day; in fact it was the first time I've ever seen gustnadoes on a chase. All in all a lot of funny moments came out of this chase. Some of which Steve has on video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AOePsF2dmY and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8intircsfjs). I got in touch with my oldest sister Ruth which was a special moment for me. She was the last sibling I was able to make contact with. It all culminated to an almost 4 hour skype chat in which we talked about our lives growing up as well as sharing some stories about my father who died when I was young and never had the opportunity to meet. It was a chat I wished that it didn't end and I'm hoping to make a trip to California to go visit her. I also knocked out a state I had never visited before when I made a trip to Indiana to attend The Indiana Storm Chasers Convention and a night of shenanigans with a bunch of noobs in Indianapolis. That night ended in noob poisoning but I had fun.

There you go, this year was full of ups and downs (as the title stated). I hope 2015 will be more on the upward side especially in chasing.

Messing With Sasquatch: Welcome To The "Hater" Generation

The Urban Dictionary defines a hater as a person that simply cannot be happy for another person's success. So rather than be happy they make a point of exposing a flaw in that person. Hating, the result of being a hater, is not exactly jealousy. The hater doesn't really want to be the person he or she hates, rather the hater wants to knock someone else down a notch.

Now this is what I've noticed on social media...people have paper thin skin. They cannot handle any criticism (no matter how constructive) from a friend or an acquaintance without feeling butthurt. All they want is positive feedback, and when they don't get it they either a) throw a bitch fit, b) throw in the towel and try their hand at something else that will bring them good feedback, or c) assemble an army of close friends to go after the individuals who dared to say "this sucks" or "you could do better." The most common phrases I hear when this type of drama goes on is "haters are going to hate" or "don't let that hater put you down, you're doing a fantastic job."

**Just a word of caution if you are offended by offensive language then I wouldn't recommend reading the next part of the blog because this is a subject that has me pissed off, and I've seen enough on social media over the past several days to help fuel the venom I'm about to spew on this matter.**

Since when does offering up constructive criticism label you as a hater...are you fucking kidding me?!?!? That's what pisses me off about this hater horseshit, instead of listening to the criticism and the advice given afterwards the butthurt individual's inner-defense mechanism goes off and a fuck you contest ensues between the butthurt individual and his/her friends as well as the critic and his or her friends (throw in the occasional spectator with Michael Jackson eating popcorn memes). I get it people are assholes, but once in a while those assholes do offer up good advice on how to improve whatever job or hobby it is you're doing. And I also know that in the virtual world of social media people act like they're a bad ass with a dick as long as a yardstick when in the real world they're the biggest pussy you will ever meet.

Here's a word of advice for all the butthurt individuals out there who may stumble upon this blog.....man the fuck up. Stop taking shit personally and actually listen to or read the negative feedback that could help improve your skill at whatever it is you do that you are passionate about. This type of feedback is coming from people who share the same passion as you do and are 10 times better at it, and for the most part they see potential in you and they want you to succeed.

You may think I'm a dick with the way I wrote this blog, but hey sometimes you gotta bust somebody's balls in order to get the message across.

Messing With Sasquatch: Tornado Alley Closed For Business

It's been over 5 months since I've done a blog....well nothing has gone on for me to write up a blog. I could always rant about the never ending chaser drama but if you heard it before you're not missing much it's same horseshit drama (pissing contests between chasers, photo thieves, one brand versus another, blah blah blah Rico Suave).

After what was an awesome 2013 chase season for me where I got to see my dream tornado with the Rozel, KS event I was ready for what I expected to be a dream chase season. I finally got a car and my drivers license, I decided to give live streaming another try switching from ChaserTV to TVNweather, and put back money for a two week vacation. Well mother nature and life in general had other plans.

The water pump on my car went out in March; I had to spend close to $400 on my car in total just to get it running again. More repairs need to be done in order for me to comfortably drive it out to the Plains so I was forced into having to buy a plane ticket for my trip. That ruined my plans for a two week vacation because I couldn't afford it. Then I had to scramble to find new chase partners for my trip because the chasers I previously chased with were unable to host me during my week and a half long trip.

As bad as those misfortunes were the absolute worst was the fact that this year sucks as far as tornadic activity goes. This year is rivaling 1994 as one of the quietest storm seasons on the Southern and Central Plains. You can literally count the number of tornadoes in the state of Oklahoma with one hand. As I'm writing this blog I should be on my way to Oklahoma City for the start of my 10 day vacation, but nothing good is in the forecast that is worth me taking the time off. This makes the second time in two weeks I had to postpone my trip and needless to say I am pissed off about it.

I'm not privileged like the other chasers who can chase any setup they want to. I have to work for a living, and since I'm a single man I have to fend for myself which financially doesn't give me a lot of leeway to chase every major outbreak that goes on especially with me living 12 hours away from Tornado Alley. I have to plan my trip far in advance storms or no storms....so having to postpone my trip twice due to the lack of decent tornado producing storms is frustrating and I'm going to fucking rant about it.

This year should make all the chasers who moaned and bitched about the last two chase seasons yet still saw tornadoes appreciate 2012, 2013, and 2014 (if they were lucky enough to score) more than they ever will publicly. It's almost the end of May and I have still yet to see a tornado this year. Nothing I can do about it other than to "quit my whining" and see if the month of June finally breaks through for the year.

2013...A Ray Of Light In A Dark Year

Stats for 2013

Chases- 5
States Chased In- TN, TX, OK, KS
Tornadoes- 3
Tornado Days- 2

Milestones For The Year- First time I saw tornadoes on consecutive days (5/18-19)  

**Brief Synopsis**

Like 2012 the 2013 season was a quiet one. There was a local outbreak of tornadoes from a QLCS system that moved through Middle Tennessee on the morning of January 30th that resulted in 24 confirmed tornadoes in the mid-state. There were several events that did affect the South (Adairville, Georgia 1/30, Hattiesburg, Mississippi 2/10) but I couldn't chase any of them due to work. Due to the lack of activity in the South I opted to skip on Dixie Alley chasing for 2013 and gamble on my 10 day chase vacation in May....the gamble paid off.

At first I was worried that there wouldn't be much of an opportunity for me to chase due to the fact that the 2013 season got off to a slow start on the Plains. Outside of a small outbreak of relatively weak bird fart tornadoes on April 17th in Southwest Oklahoma and North Texas it was quiet all the way up to the middle of May (around the time I took my trip). I honestly wasn't looking too forward to making the trip until May 11th when I read a tweet from Scott McPartland that mentioned the possibility of an active severe weather pattern during my first weekend out. As the week leading up to my trip progressed I began to get more excited as it looked as though the season was starting to crank up just in time for my return to the Plains.

I teamed up with Shane Adams and Bridget Geaughan during my trip; I got to chase with them in 2011 after an invitation they sent me on The Debris Show. I had a great time with them and I wanted to go chasing with them again. They're good company to be around, and Shane's old school techniques are always a benefit in this era of storm chasing in which those with the latest technology tend to have the most success.

**May 18th**

My signature chase to date. It was a Moderate Risk day with a 10% hatched tornado probability. When we arrived in our target area which was Greensburg, KS the town was already overran by other chasers. While in Greensburg we ran into my friend and occasional chase partner Wes Carter who himself was on a little vacation from work to chase the weekend setup. He ended up joining us on the chase as storms began to fire up on the dryline. We focused in on a weak looking but isolated cell west of town while ignoring a messy looking tornadic cell near Hays and several high based severe cells near the OK/KS line. We jumped on highway 183 as the cell was moving northeastward staying almost parallel to it. It got larger and stronger becoming severe warned taking on a supercelluar look as we approached the town of Kinsley. After filming several mid level shear funnels in Kinsley we stopped between Rozel and Sanford to setup shop while witnessing our storm merge with another nearby storm. The merger helped kick the storm into overdrive as it finally began to tap into the low level jet and a little after 7:20 PM the storm we tracked for over two hours dropped the most beautiful tornado I have ever seen.

It was on the ground for approximately 35 minutes thankfully missing Rozel. After the Rozel tornado dissipated we saw another tornado outside of Sanford. It stayed on the ground for about 20 minutes; the rope out is among the best I've ever seen. Getting to see this tornado with Shane, Bridget, and Wes made it hands down my dream chase.

**May 19th**

Another moderate risk day this time with a 15% hatched tornado risk. Our original target was Southeast Kansas around Independence, but the storms that day opted to fired up west of I-35. Our lone tornado of the day formed over an hour later near the town of Viola. It lasted roughly a minute before dissipating.

Two more tornadoes touched down from the supercell but we had to give up on it after it rapidly moved northeast cutting off our one road that allowed us to keep up with it. The day went downhill from there as none of the other storms we went after could produce anything before congealing into one big squall line. A frustrating day as we had to let go of a tornado producing supercell while being too far away from the big tornado producers in East Central Oklahoma.

**May 20th**

As frustrating as May 19th was the 20th was even more frustrating. Our target was Southern Oklahoma around the Ardmore area; we made a stop in Norman for lunch early that afternoon. Storms began to fire after 2 PM and we proceeded south hoping to get in position of one of the many rapidly firing supercells that day. We ended up missing the tornadoes near Marlow and Duncan; adding insult to injury was the fact that if we stuck around Norman a little bit longer than we did we could have made a play on the Moore EF5.

**May 21**

We did make an attempt to chase this day as yet another moderate risk was issued for areas south and east of the Metroplex. The chase ended south of Fort Worth after a non severe line of storms moved through the area.

This ended up being my last chase for 2013 as things had quieted down outside of a local severe event in the Texas Panhandle. The rest of the trip was spent chilling at Shane and Bridget's apartment taking in a little RnR. Towards the end of my trip we went to Oklahoma to attend a storm chaser picnic in Piedmont hosted by Rocky Rascovich. Later on that night we hung out with Scott McPartland, Dave Lewsion, Mark Robinson, and Jaclyn Whittal from The Weather Network (Canada's Weather Channel) in Norman for a night of beer, food, and just shooting the shit over chasing and several other topics.

Although this year I saw the fewest tornadoes out of my past two years in chasing this season for me was all about quality over quantity (Rozel was definitely a quality tornado). In what was a quiet year going by the number of tornadoes that touched down I was lucky enough to strike gold on a few of the chases I was able to participate in. 

**Personal Note**

As noted by the title of this blog this was a dark year in chasing. While there were beautiful photogenic tornadoes that did provide a ray of light to the chasers who were lucky enough to encounter them there were tornadoes that brought with it tragedy. Most notably the deaths of Tim Samaras, his son Paul, and Carl Young as a result of taking a direct hit by the 2.6 mile wide tornado that hit El Reno, Oklahoma on May 31st. 

May they Rest In Peace.

Future Website In The Works/Solo Chasing In The Future?

It's been over two months since my trip to the Plains that resulted in my signature tornado grab to date (Rozel, KS 5/18). Since I returned from my ten day chase vacation in North Texas I've gone back to my normal routine in between chases (work mostly although I have had time to unwind and party it up with my bosses and coworkers). During the little downtime I have had I've been busy getting everything together for a little project I'm looking forward to getting started on.

In the near future I'm going to get started on my creating my own little storm chasing website. Nothing too big just a website to share some of my weather photos I've accumulated over the past four years, chase logs, bio, and a live stream page (if I want to continue streaming) to name a few ideas off the top of my head. I planned on getting to work on my website in the next coming weeks however there's been a change of plans that has my money tied up for a little while, and quite frankly I don't mind the delay one bit.

I've been chasing for three years now, and those three years consisted of me riding either shotgun or in the backseat. I don't own a car nor do I have a driver's license (got a permit but was never able to get my license). Well my days of hitchhiking to a meso may be over soon; my friend and occasional chase partner Wes Carter is selling me his old chase vehicle. A 1996 Ford Taurus station wagon....I've rode in that car plenty of times in the past few years and I'm so excited he's offered to sell it to me. I'll have my own car which in turn will allow me to get my driver's license. I'll be able to chase on my own which is something I want to do.

I'll still chase with my chase partners every now and then (if they want me around), but for the most part I'll no longer have to chase around their schedule. Which hopefully will mean I'll get to chase more than the 3 or 4 times like I've been doing over the past two years. I'm also hoping my new found freedom will lead to more Rozels in 2014 and beyond.