The
Battalion
Features Section
Wednesday, April 13, 1977
Page IB
Skydiving
Taking the short way down
Frisbee is more than hobby
nP’VIT’KT V \/f A 1VT T17OT rnic cLrillc ^
By BEVERLY MANJEOT
( I|Frisbees crammed in a backpack hang
from the bedpost and clutter the floor.
Canned film clips of frisbee throwing
techniques hide the desktop. A file
cabinet bulges with frisbee pamphlets and
a | Frisbee Takes Guts” poster hangs on
Jthie wall
||The room belongs to Robert (Bob) Lee
I _ ■ in j s j r . 5 regional director for the Inter-
Afl na tional Frisbee Association. For Ennis,
• VC frisbee is more than a pasttime, it is a seri
5: *1.21
5*1.31
u*l.
ous sport that combines the skills of an
artist and an athlete.
Ennis’ interest in frisbee began in 1968
when there were only two models, the
master and pro, on the market.
“My dad and I used to throw in the eve
nings for an hour or two after he came
home from work, but our routine was lim
ited to just throw and catch,” he said.
During his freshman year in college,
Ennis saw a newsclip of two professionals
who earned their livings throwing a disc-
He realized frisbee could be more than
iA&M Press documents earlier times
3 new books
Bob Ennis
just something to do in his leisure time.
He started practicing regularly and soon
became proficient in ground skips, high
sweeping arcs, and the boomerang style.
He participated in his first tournament
in Canada where “competition between
the older and younger players pervaded
the total tournament atmosphere.” Ennis
has since attended tournaments in Austin,
Dallas, and Houston. During the 1976
Greater West Guth Open, a frisbee com
petition held in Corpus Christi, Ennis
won an award for the longest hovering
disc, 11.4 seconds. (The world record is 15
seconds.)
“My junior year I felt I had something
to offer,” Ennis said. “I had some films
and publicity releases and I wanted to try
teaching a course.”
He volunteered his time and talents to
the Free University program as an instruc
tor. He receives no salary, but for him the
lack of commercialization is the beauty of
the sport.
His class can usually be seen practicing
their skills around the Academic Mall on
Wednesday afternoons.
“There is no competition stressed in my
class,” he said. “The intent is to relieve
tension and have fun.”
Sara Whittern, a freshman from Dun
canville and one of Ennis’ students said,
“Bob knows what he is doing. He has his
program organized really well. One Sun
day we called him and he came out and
threw with us. I thought that was pretty
nice of him.”
Mike Barry, a freshman electrical
engineer said, “Bob’s a real nice guy and a
good teacher. I was really impressed by
how well he can throw. ”
Ennis said, “The most difficult trick you
can perform is the entire freestyle move
ment. It isn’t any one catch, but a combi
nation of moves. You can use your head or
bump it like in volleyball.”
Edward Retta, a Senior psychology
major said, “You watch Bob do his free
style moves and go: wow, how does he do
that?”
Ennis said, “There’s no doubt in my
mind, frisbee is more than just a passing
fad, it’s more than hulahooping or su
perball. Frisbee doesn’t ever become bor
ing if you allow your mind to be open to
new ideas and suggestions.”
Another frisbee student, Marianne
Woods, freshman management major,
said, “You can tell Bob’s really into it. If
there was a tournament here, I d want to
go-”
The A&M Frisbee Club, headed by
Ennis, was officially recognized last
month. The club applied for $200 to $300
for travelling expenses and to buy shirts,
etc. There are over 100 people who throw
seriously on campus, but so far only 12
have pledged their support.
Asked about his future frisbee plans
Ennis replied, “I plan to play frisbee as
long as I can enjoy it. I see no complica
tions because I discover new things about
it every day.”
By KYLE CREWS
The bumper sticker on the green Ford
sums it up pretty accurately: “Skydiving -
The Ultimate High.”
Les Lyons, owner of the car and the
area’s leading advocate of jumping out of
airplanes, is the president of the newly or
ganized Brazos Valley Sport Parachute
Club.
The organization is composed of approx
imately 50 members. Its sole purpose is to
provide a means for any interested person
over the age of 16 to enjoy the sport of
skydiving. ,
‘‘The most exciting thing about
skydiving is that nothing you can do com
pares to it,” Lyons said. “It is a very
exhilarating experience to realize that any
thing that happens on the way down is
between you and nature.”
He added that most people who go up
for their first jump do it as a means of
proving something to themselves. He said
he also feels that it is a great way for a
person to build confidence in himself.
Anyone joining the club is required to
pay an initial fee of $50. This covers the
membership fee, the cost of the initial
training for the first jump, the jump itself
and the first month’s club dues.
The first jump is an event that takes
place on any given weekend at a drop zone
at The American Parachute Center in
Gatesville.
The prospective jumper goes through a
five to six hour training period on Saturday
morning. The jump takes place that after
noon providing that the prevailing winds
are not greater that ten miles per hour.
Eight new club members were trained
at a recent week-end session. One person
received a sprained ankle as a result of
landing with his feet spread too far apart.
David Jefferson has recently gone
through his initial training and first jump.
His first landing found him in a lake.
H owever, this did not “wet” his
enthusiasm for the sport.
T just hoped the water wasn’t too
deep,” he commented.
Fellow club-member Stan Moore stated
that “a lot of curiosity” caused him to join
the organization.
T ve jumped about 12 times now, and I
plan to continue,” he added.
Moore is in charge of putting out the
club newsletter, the Whuffo News. The
name is derived from one of the more
common questions put to club members
from non-jumpers: “Whuffo you jump
from a perfectly good airplane?”
New members are required to make
five static-line jumps as a means of learn
ing the procedure of jumping. The term
static-line refers to the 12-foot-long nylon
webbing that automatically opens the
parachute pack and pulls the chute out.
The static-line jumps are followed by
three jumps in which the student is intro
duced to the ripcord. A “dummy ripcord”
is utilized by the parachutist in an effort to
familiarize himself with the mechanics of
opening his own pack.
Members then progress to free falls.
These are jumps where the skydivers
delay opening their packs for a given
period of time. This time span varies from
five to thirty seconds.
By the time the diver has progressed to
this stage of free fall, he is jumping from a
height of 7,500 feet.
“The ultimate thing in skydiving is to do
a 60 second free fall,” Lyons said. “This is
done at 12,500 feet - over two miles above
the ground.
“It is really great to fall for a full min
ute,” he added.
Most of the members of the organiza
tion never worry about their chute not
opening. A reserve chute is always worn in
case of a malfunction in the, main
parachute.
“Besides,” Lyons added, “you take the
attitude that it won’t happen to you.”
By ANN RICHMOND
Three books published by the Texas
&M University Press last month deal
ith life in the 1800’s and around the turn
Jf the century in parts of Texas and the
Southwest.
“Cavalry Wife: The Diary of Eveline M.
Alexander, 1866-1867” is Ms. Alexander’s
I iccount of the journey she made with her
lusband, a cavalry officer, from Fort
1 >mith, Arkansas, to New Mexico where
lived for eight months. This is her
lescription of the journey westward and
>er vivid accounts of the army way of life,
he people, and the events of that time.
2 j!r5l book has 160 pages with illustrations
Thicket” by Bill Brett is a story that re
volves around the stealing of a herd of
steers in Southeast Texas near the turn of
the century and the events that follow.
Brett’s narrator claims the story is true.
True or not, it is well told and retains the
flavor of the times in describing the people
of that region and their way of life. The
book has 116 pages with illustrations.
Price is $6.75.
David Jefferson after an accidental but soft water landing.
Brazos county civil defense still ready for crisis
“It
, “Broadcloth and Britches: The Santa Fe
jTrade” by Seymour V. Connor and Jimmy
48 j°or8i v h Skaggs, tells how the trade began in
60i OH ^21 with the arrival in Sante Fe of a trader
6 C ,J rom Missouri. The book explains why the
fade began, how it prospered for 40
'ears, and why it declined as people and
he railroad moved westward. The book
'as 225 pages with illustrations and maps.
*' r ice is $10.95.
1 maps. Price is $10.00.
The Stolen Steers: A Tale of the Big
By COLIN CROMBIE
The Civil Defense is as prepared and
organized today to meet a crisis as it was at
the height of the Cuban crisis, Jake
Cangelose said last week.
Cangelose, Brazos County Civil De
fense Director, said “people have a ten
dency to know what to do” when disaster
is imminent.
Preparation for nuclear attack is only
one concern of the Civil Defense. From
his office on the 12th floor of the
Meteorology Building at Texas A&M Uni
versity, Cangelose explained that 80 to 90
per cent of the Civil Defense’s budget and
time goes to natural and man-made disas
ters such as tornadoes and train wrecks.
Emergency exercises for training local
goverment people concentrate on these
disasters, he said. Government branches
“have the responsibility for the safety and
the welfare of the people,” he continued.
The local governmental operation, he
said, uses the resources of the two cities of
Bryan and College Station, of Texas A&M
University and of the rest of Brazos
County.
Civil Defense work is mainly voluntary,
Cangelose pointed out. He said that about
300 people (or about 80 per cent of the
Civil Defense) in Brazos County have re
serve voluntary assignments.
The use of buildings as fallout shelters is
also a voluntary service, he said. If a shel
ter area meets the requirements of protec
tion from nuclear attack radiation, he ex
plained, then the familiar black and yellow
sign that indicates a fallout shelter also in
dicates an agreement with the building
owner to use the shelter during a national
emergency.
Cangelose, who has been Civil Defense
director about 20 years, said that all
emergency food supplies have been re
moved from the shelters but that none
were dumped or wasted.
Seventy per cent of the supplies were
sent to India during a famine, he said.
They were tested and accepted although
they had a shelf-life of about six years and
had been in the shelters for about ten
years. The remaining supplies were do
nated to the state of Texas. Some were
used as fish food at fish farms.
Cangelose unfolded a map of Brazos
County showing 58 fallout shelter loca
tions, including 40 on Texas A&M’s cam
pus. He said shelter capacities vary tre
mendously in Brazos County, the shelters
holding from 50 to 800 people.
Citing a Department of Defense booklet
on “Fallout Protection,” he described the
effects of a five megaton nuclear explosion
(equal in force to five million tons of TNT).
Most buildings would be razed within two
miles of the explosion and such damage
caused by the blast wave ( a moving wall of
air pressure produced by the explosion)
would decrease to shattered windows 50
miles away.
A major danger, dependent on weather
conditions and especially wind direction,
said Cangelose, would be fallout, the par
ticles of radioactive debris. The amount of
fallout is greater with a dirty bomb (one
that explodes close to the ground), he said.
A clean bomb, he said, is one that ex
plodes in the air and produces less fallout.
When a national crisis develops, inter
est in civil defense develops, Cangelose
said. He compared it to the way in which
interest in fire insurance increases when
there is a fire next door.
Tremendous interest in civil defense
developed durirfg the Cuban crisis, he
said, but just now “there is no serious
worry about meeting some country head-
on.”
There is a possibility of an accidental
launch of a nuclear missile and there
would be “direct communication between
us and the Russians” to prevent war, he
explained.
In case of a disaster there would have to
be total involvement of all people in the
community for them to survive, he said.
He added that if disaster was impending
then directions would come through a
medium such as the Emergency Broadcast
System.
Cangelose said his advice to the private
citizen is that “at any time of disaster if you
want to know what is going on, rely on
your local TV and radio: the first lines of
communication. ”
Slatlo 11
Suntan not bad for skin
Catching a few rays in a crowded dorm courtyard.
Battalion photo by Elaine Merrifleld
By DEB KILGORE
Sun worshipers can unfold their beach towels and have fun
in the sun, because some doctors claim gradual suntanning
protects the skin, instead of harming it.
“If you produce a reasonable suntan in the summer, it pre
vents you from burning,” said Dr. Clyde M. Caperton, a Bryan
dermatologist. “It also gives you a general sense ofwell-being.”
Dr. Charles A. Behrens, a staff physician at A&M’s Univer
sity Health Center, agreed that suntanning has some value.
“It does give you vitamin D, and it is of some value to people
suffering from acne,” he said. “It dries the oil secretions that
accompany acne.”
Caperton defined a suntan as “a body’s response of pigment
(skin coloration) to sunlight, or ultraviolet light, whether it is a
clear day or not.”
A sunburn results from overexposure to these ultraviolet
rays, Caperton added.
‘It’s a matter of degree of exposure,” he said. “You go from
suntan to sunburn to skin cancer.”
Behrens agreed suntanning can cause skin cancer, but he
emphasized it was only a “remote possibility.” Both doctors
said the most harmful results of overexposure to the sun were
premature aging, wrinkling and leathery skin.
Despite these harmful results, people continue to tan. Dr.
John Knox, chairman of Baylor University’s department of
dermatology in Houston, said “Suntans once were associated
with the lower working classes. The well-to-do had fair skin.
Somehow in the ’20s and ’30s suntans became vogue. It be
came the status symbol of the leisure class.”
If you are going to suntan, Knox suggested wearing more
clothes to protect the skin and avoiding midday sun between 10
a.m. and 3 p.m.. He also suggested wearing a sun screen and
reapplying it regularly, especially after swimming and on
cloudy days.
Behrens said a heavy application of tanning lotion before
exposure to the sun was the best protection. Most of the
tanning lotions you can buy over the counter will cut down on
burning,” he added.
Caperton added that lotions containing PABA (para-
aminobenzoic acid) were the best.