Leach chasers – it has to stop.

[Sarah Austin]

Yahoos and Leaches

Apparently I have offended a few people.

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

What I said was not meant to attack anyone with a country accent. After all, I was born and raised in Arkansas. I too have had an accent most of my life. If I offended you, I appologize. I personally do NOT have anything against any ethnic group or accent. I was very frustrated, however, on May 24th, at the fact that this particular person almost ran me over. I was not even standing on the road. I just wanted to film the tornado. I did not need anyone to yell at me that I could stand on their vehicle. I was not there for a tailgating party. Hopefully I didn't just offend anyone who enjoys tailgating. LOL!

In the future, I suppose I will not refer to any accent as not to offend.

By the way, Susan Strom, I saw your special on The Weather Channel. It was quite interesting. You really have some amazing pics.

 

[John Erwin]

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.

Actually I think this is the largest growing segment. They probably see a reality show on TV and think "hey that would be fun!" and then want to fast-track to the action without trying to learn anything. The easiest way to do that is to follow the well-known names and vehicles, which is rather easy today given the technological advances over the past couple years.

We were all new at this at one time, but I think the division happens soon afterwards between those willing to learn and those that just want a quick rush.

 

[Seth Price]

Pop the hood. Let them wonder what's going on.

 

[Darren Addy]

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.

I think this is an excellent point. I'm (now) embarrassed to say that on my first chase we came up on a tornado that was going into the roping-out phase. I was so excited I jumped out of the car (wisely letting the car come to a stop first) left the car door wide open, ran behind it about a hundred feet and stood on the center line of the highway snapping pics. I earned my Yahoo stripes that day and have now (hopefully) learned some lessons and changed my behavior accordingly.

Everybody tends to look at those farther down the road with respect and those behind them on the road with disrespect. It's good to temper our views with a reminder that we were in their shoes once upon a time.

 

[Bob Schafer]

I think this is an excellent point. I'm (now) embarrassed to say that on my first chase we came up on a tornado that was going into the roping-out phase. I was so excited I jumped out of the car (wisely letting the car come to a stop first) left the car door wide open, ran behind it about a hundred feet and stood on the center line of the highway snapping pics. I earned my Yahoo stripes that day and have now (hopefully) learned some lessons and changed my behavior accordingly.

Everybody tends to look at those farther down the road with respect and those behind them on the road with disrespect. It's good to temper our views with a reminder that we were in their shoes once upon a time.

I'd say this brings up an excellent point, too.

Being a pretty laid-back guy, I won't often yell at someone. That's just as well, I guess, if there's some noob out there doing something dumb. Yep, we were all noobs in the day. A calm, collected "suggestion", perhaps, would be in order rather than an ouburst of obscenities.

However, if there's some tour group or known veteran out there pulling crap, let er rip!