Leach chasers – it has to stop.

[Sarah Austin]

Leaches and Yahoos

There were so many chasers in Oklahoma on May 24th. I have never seen so many chasers and yahoos combined. I almost got run over by a yahoo, and I was clearly standing on the grass by a long shot. I got back in our vehicle when the lightning came closer. The guy yelled at me, "You can stand on my truck if you want to!". You can only imagine the accent.
Later, We were followed for a while by a new chaser. We moved up the road twice and this particular person parked right behind us both times. When he heard we were heading East, he jumped back in his vehicle to follow again. This time we left him in the dust hoping to reach the next area of rotation in time.
It is definately annoying when you're trying to drive, but can't because people stop right in the middle of the road. At one point, I wanted to throw Tim V's Storm Chasers Handbook at a few people. Even though there were several tornadoes reported on that day, I still say the traffic was more dangerous.

 

[Dennis Sherrod]

Today was a nice quite change from the normal rat race convergence of the past 10 days. I chose north of Hays, KS area and bagged two tornadoes and only saw, what I assume, was one local resident near Glade, KS. But, I did see three deer, two pheasants, and a big turkey all running from the storms.

 

[Tom Mitchell]

If you think the stormchasers are pissed off about leechers, think about how the poor storms themselves feel...

 

[Bill Tabor]

I haven't read all the posts yet here, I just now saw this thread but do agree with the stealth mode ideas. Stewart what kind of vehicle are you driving? Do you have a lot of stickers, antenna, lights, etc? If so, that may be your problem. I'm always in stealth mode - no stickers, etc and I don't recall ever having someone in tow- and I chase quite frequently so that says a lot. As others mentioned it helps too when you stop at a convenience store or restaurant to keep people from breaking into your vehicle, or when you sleep overnight. I tend to think in chaser convergence areas too it helps by not drawing sheriff attention to my vehicle - hence no over night jail time. I'm not sure if it helps in road blocks or not, but the LEO's I usually talk to are amenable.

I think that whole U turn thing is funny though. It's cool you did a few of those just to shake em out. I think I would have kept doing those every half mile or so for awhile and then started waving at them as I pass, but I can see how the whole thing would get annoying soon.

 

[joel ewing]

I'm the type of guy that if I have a tailgater really riding close to my bumper...it'll make me more and more angry as each mile goes by. But...I feel I'm too old nowadays to be giving somebody the finger, but man...I still want to sometimes.
Warren Faidley and I are both from Tucson (southeast Arizona) and have hooked up on many, many chases throughout the years since probably the very early 90's. A few years ago in eastern New Mexico I noticed some vehicles trailing us (Warren in the lead), myself and a few other team members in our own respective chase vehicles, as we boogied down the back roads on a hot chase. I was driving the last vehicle....behind Warren and some other team members. The "uninvited" vehicles absolutely locked onto my rear bumper and rode there dangerously for miles with probably only two or three feet between us. Finally, it was time to pull over and fuel up before the intercept. Since these guys had been tailgating so closely for so long ..I was completely filled with anger and steamy venom. All of us pulled up to the pumps...and I got out of my vehicle and marched over to the tailgaters...ready to jump their s--t. Well, when they got out of their vehicles...I saw that they were all just a bunch of pimply-faced local kids...and humble kids to boot. They asked who we were, and when I mentioned Warren...their eyes got big as saucers and said (and I still have to chuckle at this) "You mean...the REAL Warren Faidley...I've got his book, even !!". I said yes, and you would have thought that Warren was the Second Coming. These kids all but peed themselves. It was (and no, I don't mean to sound like a "girly guy". lol, but it was cute as hell. So I introduced them to him, and proceeded to fuel up. Well, we were still chasing...so we wrapped it up quickly. Prior to leaving, I told the kids that it wasn't normally very cool..and it definitely wasn't respected in the "chaser world" to be a "Chaser's Chaser"...but for today...it was allright if they wished to keep following us. And yes, I definitely tightened them up about following as close as they had been. A little schooling was all that was needed.
It still peeves me when I get tailgated...whether on a chase or not. But I have learned over the years that when I'm out in the alley...and it's a chase day...we're gonna get "chaser's chasers". We all will. But that day I just mentioned taught me that most of the time...the guys who tag behind, are most likely locals...and a lot of them are just kids who are really into storms. And please know that a LOT of them look at us chasers with envy. They think that we've got the coolest "jobs" on the planet...and some of them actually "revere" us. So....treat them accordingly. If they're tailgating....instead of flipping them off or screaming at them (as the "old" Joel tended to do), be as kind as possible...and at the same time school 'em that tailgating is not cool at all. It worked for me! Thanks for listening to this. Joel

 

[Joey Ketcham]

I'mtheir eyes got big as saucers and said (and I still have to chuckle at this) "You mean...the REAL Warren Faidley...I've got his book, even !!".

That's funny.

Warren's book was the first book written by another storm chaser that I bought, not sure if any other chasers had written a book prior to that but up until Warren's book I only had books about the science of weather. I bought the book as soon as it was published and I still have it.

 

[Marc Remillard]

I got back in our vehicle when the lightning came closer. The guy yelled at me, "You can stand on my truck if you want to!". You can only imagine the accent.

I agree about leach chasers, but please, there's no link between an accent and a yahoo / leacher.

I chased in the plains last week and I respected every ethics everyone should respect, even if I have a terrible accent. (I think there's some proofs in the way I write)

 

[J West]

I'm glad this leeching problem has not taken root up here in the Great Lakes, as I've never been party to it. There have been plenty of times where un-involved locals were driving like bats out of hell or tailgating, however...that angers me. I will say that after watching all this streaming video, there are a few people who like to take liberty with various rules of the road...namely stop signs and speed limits. However, I also realize the visibility is also a lot better down there than up here in the northern forest

 

[Susan Strom]

I agree about leach chasers, but please, there's no link between an accent and a yahoo / leacher.

I agree. Actually I rather fancy those thick country accents heard in the Plains. Reminds me of nice people in the Plains.

Good point that Joel made too. I'd feel so bad if I got angry at someone following, only to find out they were just young admirers. Glad it didn't happen that way.

 

[Adam Lucio]

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.
.

Sorry to bump this thread but someone alerted me to a very bonehead typo in the above post I made...I feel i should correct myself because the typo totaly changed the meaning of my post. I would never follow someone and hope they get annoyed lol.

I meant to say "i hope they WERENT getting annoyed"

 

[Aaron Dooley]

Agreed...

I agree with Stu.

These people block roads, slow everything down, and risk their lives with no education, equip., or training. I too have done the U-Turn thing, most recently on a non-chase day in Pflugerville, TX on the way to the lake just to fish lol.

It was horrible in OKC area on May 1st this year.

 

[Paul Harrop]

I love the University students that feel a Honda and half a credit-hour of Intro to Met. gives them a self-appointed license to be chaser-wannabe-yahoos. In April, I was near Ringgold, TX on a nice storm that looked like it was about to go. So I had my driver pull off the road on the top of a hill. My chase partner, in a separate vehicle, pulled in front. We watched the storm (which was tightening-up and heading for us) for about 10 minutes, all by ourselves. The came the goon squad. A small car, full of young men pulled up, followed by another. They came up and ask if I had radar. I was preoccupied with my photography, so I invited them to use my GRLevel3. They monkeyed with it for a bit and then walked away. I heard one of them get off his cell phone and announce that so-and-so would be there momentarily and they have a "real storm chaser" riding with them today. Wow... a real storm chaser. Go figure.

Anyway, this same group followed my chase partner and I through some terrible roads leading into Nocona, TX. The storm was done, and we all pulled into a Dairy Queen. Thats when I noticed a tire on my vehicle rapidly deflating. Instead of reciprocating for the radar use, by at least gesturing a shallow offer of help (which would have been politely refused) they stood around, taking pictures of the downed chase truck, laughing and sucking down Blizzards while we changed the tire in the wet parking lot.

Many people have helped me in the past, and I believe in paying it forward, but I'm starting to question my generosity.

Long story short, I would not have minded them following, had they shown the slightest gratitude or courtesy.

 

[Matt Grans]

In my getting prepared to go out and chase next year I've interviewed a few chasers and the thing I'm always told is that the "yahoos" can be far more dangerous than any tornado.

I understand the want to tag along from time to time, but it seems that some folk out there are just plain clueless. I say, go lead em into the hail... heh heh heh... they can never prove you meant to...

 

[Shane Adams]

It's important to understand the distinction between a "yahoo" and a "career yahoo". I've accepted that the term 'yahoo' largely means "inexperienced" or "clueless"....something we all were at one time. So everyone was a yahoo once.

The people who learn and become experienced, dedicated chasers are simply going though a necessary phase of chaser-learning (yahoo). The ones who just seek out the thrill and never bother to or care about learning how to really chase, those are the yahoos that everyone loathes (career yahoo).

I just felt it was needed to distinguish between the two definitions of the term, as I've seen it applied for years.

 

[Nathan Edwards]

This thread has been an interesting read. This year was my first solo chase (i.e. not with a tour) and I was pretty worried that I'd be tempted to fall into the leech chaser category at times if I got out of my depth, but as it happened over 3 weeks, I only stopped twice to ask other chasers for data when my connection went out and in those cases moved on my way straight away. I actively try to keep away from any sort of convergence. To me, I like the idea of taking shots on the storms where most people aren't. It seems all the more special if you get a shot of some cool structure which isn't posted already in much better quality on the forums by the time you finish the chase!

On several days this year I ended up with 'leechers' myself. Now that was a real concern for me as I wasn't 100% confident in my own abilities but was willing to take certain small risks. I wasn't willing to risk people who happened to be tagging a long however and one one occasion, I didn't punch a storm purely because I had someone who had been following me for a few miles and was concerned of the ramifications of them following me into a dangerous situation. On another storm, another guy ended up getting smacked by tennisball hail shortly after pulling up behind my car, probably assuming I was safely south of the storm, but I'd screwed up due to storm tilt and the distance from the nearest working radar site and put myself right under the RFD area. If the dents in my car were anything to go by, he'll be rueing making that decision!

There are a couple of categories I think these leechers fall into.

1. Locals (I believe these are the people I think make up much of the leechers. They have no option other than to follow other cahsers as they have no experience. Very dangerous)
2. Chasers without data (I'm sure some are too embarrassed to go up to a stranger and ask for data. In my experience the 2 chasers I asked for data during my trip were very cordial and pleasant but I can see that some people might prefer to just follow rather than actually communicate. Walking up to a stranger and starting a conversation with them can be difficult for some people I guess.)
3. Wannabees/Groupies (I know a few of these who actively look out for the DOW/TVN team etc and latch on so that they can say that they chased with Reed Timmer or the TIV crew or some other big name in storm chasing. I don't imagine there are many people like this out there, but I guess this must be the most annoying of the lot. Luckily I'm a no name when it comes to storm chasing so I have a little while before these become a problem for me )


I don't think much can be done about locals as they'll always be an issue. I'd tolerate storm chasers with data issues following me, and embrace them if they actually came up and made conversation. The groupie type leechers ain't going away without any sort of restraining order I'd imagine

Anyone know of any other type of leechers?