All chasers are ignorant when they're new. The difference is, today's newbs think they know everything. I touched on this on my debut show: when you're a new chaser, shut your mouth, open your ears.
I think Shane expressed my feeling on this issue well. In fact, I said almost those same words to Tia the other day when complaining about the chaser community. I'm certainly a younger guy, and don't have half the experience that a lot of the veterans on here do but things were even greatly different when I started out. When I got my license and ventured out on my first chase I knew I didn't know jack. I had all the visual information I had stored up in my little 16 year old head after a childhood of tornado programs on TV, a weather radio and some paper maps.
I saw some cool stuff, and fell on my face a couple other times, but like Shane said, screw up or not, it was MINE. There was no stormtrack forum with 1200 people to paraphrase my own forecast from, no spotter network to hone in on my target, no GRlevel3 to follow the pink polygons and hook echos, and I didn't have a laptop to get any real-time data updates. I made my forecast, walked out the door and got in my car. If I didn't nail my forecast, I went home and figured out why the hell I was coming home pissed off. That's not to say that these things are bad, but they should be treated as luxuries, not necessities. The MIDSCAR kid was having cell card issues mid-chase and screamed "If they get us killed I'll f*cking sue them!". Are you kidding me? Their blame of the lack of cell data on their lack of awareness right next to a textbook supercell in the middle of the day is the epitome of the problem with new chasers today.
I didn't have a website when I started out, and I didn't even know any of the chasers that I'm friends with now. For all I knew, it was just me out there being a jackass spending all his money on gas looking at cool skies after a childhood of being forced to watch from home. I went out time after time, learned a couple things, and kept my mouth shut. I think a big problem is, when you're new you want see cool stuff SO bad, your eyes can almost make you see them. Problem is, back in the day you saw some crap, got excited, and realized you were excited over bull ****. In 2009, you see some bull ****, crap yourself, falsely report it on SpotterNetwork to advertise the fact that you saw a tornado when you absolutely have not, quickly upload the video of your bull **** on youtube, make plans to deploy probes into this bull ****... etc. I could ramble on for pages about this with my point being, when most of the more seasoned chasers started out in this hobby they kept to themselves with their mouth shut realizing most of what they were getting worked up over was nothing, until they got enough chases under their belt to learn the real **** from the bull ****. Today's kids come loaded with technology broadcasting their inexperience through a bull horn. It's obvious and easy to pick these guys out through their youtube videos, but simply through reports to the NWS or via SpotterNetwork it's a little more challenging.
I will say I find it more comical than frustrating when I see kids planning on building intercept vehicles or probes when I can't find a single good tornado image or video under their name.
