Leach chasers – it has to stop.

[Johnathan Brouwer]

Well I just got back to Indiana and got caught up on sleep.

In regards to the "white van" discussion, we ran across-not over two white vans multiple times- after coring the late in the day Pratt, KS storm we noticed them again.. They were from Mississippi State, at least that was what the sticker said on the side of their vans. Never had any contact with them, maybe someone knows of this group.

Multiple times over the few days we were approached by individuals inquiring and we would speak with them, shake hands and have the "discussion"

I think most are just curious.

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

The guy in the picture is my grandpa. I dont know if he was taking a leak at the time or what was going on. LOL. I'm in the truck gathering data.

He needs to learn how to make trucker bombs from the cab I'm thinking, lol. I just took a few quick pics there with the telephoto at 400mm. Then moved on. I get home and am looking at them full sized and saw that and was like, what the hell.

 

[Bob Schafer]

The word is LEECH, not leach, lol. dictionary.com

In my few seasons of chasing, I've never had someone come as close to running me over as what happened a few days ago. I don't remember which day, but it doesn't matter. Yep, it was the white vans, CO plates. That's all I caught for an ID.

 

[Earl Faubion]

The word is LEECH, not leach, lol. dictionary.com

I was going to compliment Chris Sanner and Michael Thompson for being the only ones to get it right, then your post appeared, so make that three. One little letter can completely change a word's meaning.

Bad spellers of the world.... UNTIE!

As for leeches, I've had little problem with them myself, but I am pretty much incognito with only a ham radio antenna to suggest the possibility. On 4-21-07 a young British couple asked if they could tag along and my partner and I said yes. Nice folks they were.

 

[Melanie Kern-Favilla]

Who the hell is Skeletore?

LOL! Skeletore is the cartoon guy in the photo next to Mark Sudduth's (ST member) name in his post. He's only real in my nightmares.

 

[George Grant]

If somebody wants to follow me, that's their problem or benefit. I've had people follow me but I really don't care as long as they don't block my escape route or tailgate. Following another chaser is no guarantee of success as even the best miss things.
As for complaints of chaser convergences, get used to it. There are more chasers on the road with better data. Also, there are limited road options in many areas. For example, on May 23 of this year, I chose to remain on paved roads which limited me, but I didn't want to get stuck in the mud. Many other chasers were doing the same thing. They weren't leaching of each other, they just came to the same decision.
Bill Hark

I must exude the mundane or milquetoast look; I don't remember anyone mocking my movements. But, that's fine with me.

Friday, Colt Forney and I had pulled over to ensure we were on the right road south on the first storm of the day. As we were readying to go again, two carloads of chasers passed by us going south. We followed them for a couple of miles and then turned onto a farmer's lane behind them to view the wall cloud and get out of the way of the oncoming string of chasers. Colt and I managed to thread our Grand Ams through the mud and back onto gravel. Skip and Nick, er, I mean, the other two chasers were stuck. I gathered some plywood from an abandoned/demolished building to help with traction, but we couldn't get them pushed or pulled out. The farmer soon pulled up and was angry. He couldn't say "GD" enough times in one sentence. "Move your 'GD' car so I can get my pickup in there and pull his 'GD' van out." Haha. Sorry guys; I had to mention it!

Geo
P.S. I've been there; trust me.

 

[Tony Literski]

Everyone is looking for a "free lunch" as well. As long as you have tours that charge outrageous rates, and freedom to drive wherever you want, "leeching" will persist unfortunately.my 2 cents.

 

[Shane Adams]

I honestly don't see the issue, simply regarding the numbers out there. Like I said, I'm focused on my chasing, not what anyone else is doing. It seems hard to imagine a storm chaser being able to be distracted from a storm when they're storm chasing, but that's just me.

I've always held the belief that much of this complaining about leeching or following or whatever you wanna call it comes from the fact that every chaser out there now wants that exclusive shot. I look at watermarks on images now and there are no more names, it's always some business-like website URL. Everyone's a professional photographer today, and they all want to make their mark (pun if it pleases you). I saw something earlier in this thread about people "stealing" photo locations....that's laughable. The fact is, you have waay more people who are wanting to participate in a market that's waaay oversaturated to begin with...and then you add youtube into the mix and you have 400,000 chasers trying to make money off stuff that's posted for free all over the web.

I agree with Bill Hark....I think many (if not most) times, it's simply a matter of everyone in the area having the same idea. Chasing, the way 99% of us do it nowadays, isn't hard. When there's 200 chasers sitting in one spot as initiation occurs, you should expect to be followed, if you didn't leave last. I really don't think any of us are important enough these days to be "followed" like the pied piper. Everyone's a great chaser now, because we're all lead by a string to the tornadoes by those screens we all stare at.

If you can't stand the fact that everyone else is catching on to how easy this thing has become, try it going visual, I guarantee you'll see fewer chasers.

 

[Adam Lucio]

I dont mind if people follow me really, as long as theyre not tailgating me. Ive had a couple less experienced and locals ask me and I explained to them I dont mind but im not responsible for anything that happens. [perhaps i should print out a sheet and make them sign it lol.]

As far as the roads go, I didnt see TOO much blocking, there was one guy in a blue full size pickup stopped IN THE MIDDLE of a dirt road, I had enough room to go around him but it was a bit of a risky move as we all know how these edges of those roads can get. Regardless of where I pull over I always make sure theres room for a vehicle to get by...Some of those roads are questionable on the sides so I can understand if someone without a 4x4 not going completely over, but no matter what you drive and where your pulling over, there should always be room for someone else to get by....

Also, I hope people dont judge following so quickly...there were a couple times where I was behind someone, Matt was navigating and advising which roads we should take, and sometimes the person in-front of us would do the same thing....3 or 4 times in a row...I wasn't following them, they just had the same idea we did, so hopefully they were getting annoyed, either way I try and keep a safe distance behind them.

I try and avoid the convergence most of the time, I dont like being a part of it...not because it bothers me, but because I know how quickly others can get annoyed and start pointing fingers and make accusations...I dont want to be a part of any of that.

 

[Alan Broerse]

Leeching and chase circus..what a bone to chew on!!! To keep it short...the Grant county tornadoes 5-24-08 was the worst Ive seen it in central OK. this year....Yes the media wall to wall coverage does inspire locals to go out and see a "tarnada"...but as a TV station stormtracker we are out there to give early warning and save lives. Video comes second...period.... Those persons whose homes are not affected by the storm will drive an hour to get to a slow moving supercell only to line the highway..parked partially in the lane and stand in the remainder....only to pull out a camera phone and shoot a worthless picture..."what the $#@&" . I almost hit a lady filming in the raod with tripod...and she looked at me real stupid when my SUV came within a foot of her as I was in idiot traffic ...There were so many on the highways that most of the media stayed mobil for lack of a safe place to shoot video...on one chase a couple locals pulled into the only wheat field access for blocks....only to pull out 2 lawn chairs...a patio umbrella...and a six pack of beer...I didnt know whether to be jealous...or let him know what a yahoo was....I laughed and went on..(should of shot that for YOUTUBE) I do realize that yahooism is a genetic defect for some and accept that.....for the rest of them though....save us some parking....if its not safe to park...move on!!! and lastly ...stay home....we will save both of us some grief...and we will put it on the air for you.....or YOUTUBE it later.....when all else fails...buy the video next month..ebay will be loaded with them after this season.......lol

 

[Doug_Kiesling]

I don't know what the problem is but Chris and I had one person following us who was a new chaser from Hays Kansas. He came up to us while we were waiting by Utica on the 22nd to talk to us and ask about the storms and what we thought was going to happen.

He asked if he could follow us and I saw he had Iraq War Vet plates and he was a younger guy so I figured he's seen combat, he can hang with us and not get too freaked out.

Turns out he's friends with the producers for the storm chaser show that is filming but wanted to go out and meet other chasers and not just follow the DOWS and the TIV. So next to the several great days of storms and seeing some insane stuff, the other highlight of the trip was making a cool new chasing friend that just wanted to see storms and do it with a group of people.

He ended up chasing with us for the next two days and was one of the coolest guys we have met out their.

As for people hanging on, well the only thing that I have on my truck is a couple of scuba diving bumper stickers and not a ton of techno geek gear. Matter of fact, I really did not see too many chasers that got in the way or did anything stupid.

I'm rolling with the Dry Tortugas Scuba Diving Storm Chase Team.

Scuba Diving, The Yahoo's float to the surface face down dead!

 

[John Hudson]

I came around the corner in Ness City to get some gas, and my eyes were just about in my lap when I saw the convergence there on May 23. I really didn't have any problems with anyone else, and I don't think I got in anyone else's way, either.

Stopped and got some decent pics of the TIV and DOW, a novelty to see for someone who lives as far north as I do. Got to meet some real nice people, including Tim Marshall. I may have run into others (whose names I forgot) as well. I was the guy in the white Saturn with Manitoba plates and a huge grin on my face from all the action.

I did end up asking someone if I could follow them after my Telus wireless card flaked out, and they were just fine with that. I just didn't relish trying to get back to Hays with no data, and a sky full of mesos.

Let's face it, if you're going to chase and you're tired of leechers or any other type of pond life, you're going to have to "get over it", and concentrate on the stuff happening in front of you, instead of who might be in your rear-view.

Only time I ever look back there is to back up. As long as you give me room, I don't care what you're doing back there.

By the way Kansas, thanks for being such a great place to visit!!

 

[Matthew Fischer]

As Adam said before if we could have gone on some those dirt/gravel roads i would have gladly done that to get away from the circus of people following people. But since they were in bad shape from the recent rains the day before and days before that they are very iffy! That one time we got stuck was because we really didn't know how bad the ground was at the time because we just got down there that day. But when you have a rear wheel drive van, you must take the pave roads to get around the storm! Once i got the Kansas place files on the laptop i was able to navigate fine. Are computer is having a problem with the GPS interface into GR3, so we couldn't track ourselves well. but i new where we were once i zoom in on the GPS to see what road where coming up and i knew where we were in the storm too! Most of us don't really follow everyone, we just get off at the same spots because that's the best place to view a storm. High on the hill where we can get struck by lightning and die happy as we view a great storm or the crappy one that just gusted out and it was the last day of the chase because mother nature drank to much gulf moisture and is hungover! But yes there are those in the public that follow us around and yes they get annoying. and i must say that SN is great, it shows i'm doing as well as the big names on this site at picking the good storms to watch and play with! Sometimes i wish SN had a chat feature on there to talk to other chasers on the storm and what they see and what we could be missing and the NWS and join in on the chat to tell us what they see on radar, so we can get the right warnings out!

 

[Mikel Shively]

I pretty much agree with Shane on this. You shouldn't have to worry about what someone else is doing when chasing. Get where YOU want to be... Dont worry about someone else. At least that's what it would be in a perfect world. As far as leeches, I cant remember ever having any, but I really wouldn't care if I had one... Chaser density has become great enough that at times people are going to have the same thoughts as where to go, so therefore people that you may think are "leeching" may not actually be, just having the same opinion on where to go, and happen to be following you. It's bound to happen, and occurs more frequently than what one would think, I would imagine.

 

[Cris Schroeder]

But also, many of us out there (including myself) have radar, and radio communications, and could just as easily be heading in the same spot.

I know from last week that many days we were behind other chasers, other days we were in front. We were not following any one person, simply heading for the right cell..

So while I totally agree with Stuart in this Case, I think that you are going to be followed, whether it be to that extent or not.

I chased on the 25th north of Great Bend and got a late start. I pulled over near the TIV when I saw the State Trooper lights ahead and heard chatter about the road being closed. I started working my way north and east to get in a better position while attempting to stay on the pavement.

Brandon Sullivan was in front of me as I headed out and I ended up following him around most of the late afternoon/evening (according to SpotterNetwork). I worried a bit about being accused of stalking or something but we were working the same storm and the road network limited the options. Other than when I pulled over to shoot photos, though, I was probably a half-mile to a mile away most of the time.

So, Brandon, if you kept seeing a silver Chevy Aveo in your mirror, it was coincidence. I'm still a newb.