Looking for sponsorship

[Francis]

I would like to know the main source of your inspiration for this project, but regardless, it's misguided. You are certainly not alone. In today's storm chasing, public relations world, you have to be willing to take unnecessary and foolish risks to catch the public's, sponsor's and media's eye. It's more of a skilled stunt performance than reality and it serves little purpose when closely examined. Unless you are willing to put your life on the line for the aforementioned purposes, it's not gonna happen! (The risk factor is an unavoidable reality for responsible spotters, sanctioned scientists, etc.).

Warren

I'm not looking for the medias eyes, or fame, or anything like that, like I've said before, but I guess that's the message I was letting out since everyone thinks that's what I'm looking for. I actually would very much enjoy being alone in a field and looking at a storm, because that's the beauty of it. Just when you're in front of those storms and you see the raw power of those things and imagine that it could crush you and all your dreams so easily,,,that just fascinates me, attracts me. So I guess that you can say that of course the thrill of the chase is awesome, but for me, the power of severe storms and more specifically tornadoes really inspire me and drives me.

That's really what got me hooked on this, just to see that one minute you're standing at a McDo waiting for storm to initiate, and then you go take a leak and gas up and the storm is tornado warned and an EF5 destroyed the very same place you were standing 10mins ago....that's just insane for me. This was one of my experience in Moore, OK this year and it really got me thinking. And I didn't even take any pictures of the damage out of respect for people that were there, so I think you;re misguided also in thinking I'm looking for fame. If I really was I would've stayed in the music business, as I also said earlier.

Have a good one, hope no hard feelings and hope to meet you someday so we can share stories and hopefully figure out that we're not so different and we have the same passion,

Francis.

 

[Shawn Schuman]

I don't think that's what being a noob is about at all. There are plenty of people here, myself included, who are relative noobs as well. The difference is, most of us understand that we know very little compared to the more experienced folks here and we recognize that this forum is a tremendous resource for learning, growing and developing relationships. There's nothing wrong with being passionate - I think the world needs more people who genuinely live with passion. There's also nothing wrong with following your dreams. If you understand the ramifications and you're willing to accept them, sure, go for it and see what happens. But you've shown a certain arrogance that honestly appears to be unbefitting your level of understanding and experience, and it isn't going to ingratiate you to the storm chasing community. That may not matter to you, but I'd suggest that it ought to.

A little humility goes a long way, that's all. Some of the responses here may be a bit harsh, but I suspect pretty much everyone would like to see you do well. There's a great deal of knowledge and experience here, and many have been in your shoes at some point or another. I'm not suggesting you let anyone tell you what you should or shouldn't be doing, but you'd do well to bear that in mind.

 

[Francis]

I don't think that's what being a noob is about at all. There are plenty of people here, myself included, who are relative noobs as well. The difference is, most of us understand that we know very little compared to the more experienced folks here and we recognize that this forum is a tremendous resource for learning, growing and developing relationships. There's nothing wrong with being passionate - I think the world needs more people who genuinely live with passion. There's also nothing wrong with following your dreams. If you understand the ramifications and you're willing to accept them, sure, go for it and see what happens. But you've shown a certain arrogance that honestly appears to be unbefitting your level of understanding and experience, and it isn't going to ingratiate you to the storm chasing community. That may not matter to you, but I'd suggest that it ought to.

A little humility goes a long way, that's all. Some of the responses here may be a bit harsh, but I suspect pretty much everyone would like to see you do well. There's a great deal of knowledge and experience here, and many have been in your shoes at some point or another. I'm not suggesting you let anyone tell you what you should or shouldn't be doing, but you'd do well to bear that in mind.

Nicely said man have a good one.

 

[Francis]

I'll just take this whole thing down and let's all forget it ever happened. How do I take this down anyways?

 

[Bill Hark]

I'll just take this whole thing down and let's all forget it ever happened. How do I take this down anyways?

I would suggest starting with Tim Vasquez' books (weathergraphics.com), Storm Chasing Handbook, Severe Storm Forecasting, and Weather Forecasting Handbook. Study those along with Mike Hollingshead's DVD/Blu-ray Storm Analysis 101. I don't have much to add to the very good posts earlier in this thread by some very experienced chasers. No need to take this thread down as it is very educational for other new folks.

Bill Hark

 

[Jason Boggs]

I agree with the others. Just learn as much as you can, and if chasing is your passion, just do it with safety and ethics in mind, and you'll do fine.

 

[Seth Price]

Books and experience.

I would suggest starting with Tim Vasquez' books (weathergraphics.com), Storm Chasing Handbook, Severe Storm Forecasting, and Weather Forecasting Handbook. Study those along with Mike Hollingshead's DVD/Blu-ray Storm Analysis 101. I don't have much to add to the very good posts earlier in this thread by some very experienced chasers. No need to take this thread down as it is very educational for other new folks.

Bill Hark

These books are a great place to start. The Storm Chasing Handbook is one of the best introductory books out there. I also like Weather Maps by Peter Chaston. It gets right to the point of each weather map, and only takes about 300 pages to do so.

Practicing forecasts every day in the spring helps as well. Start with the Storm Prediction Center homepage (http://www.spc.noaa.gov) and expand from there. The more "armchair" chases you can do- the more lessons you can learn without spending extra money.

The key to this hobby is education. Taking geography and meteorology classes is good, but do what you can to educate yourself first. You have to figure out what parameters are worth looking at- and every chaser has his own, developed from education and experience.

You will learn almost nothing following another vehicle without their consent. You will learn a lot more busting (seeing nothing) every day on your own forecast than you will seeing a tornado every day parasite-ing behind another vehicle.

If you want to do this, you'll have to earn it. The US is full of people who pay to go on storm chases (hence the tour groups), and you will be hard pressed to find someone to sponsor you.

When I decided to go storm chasing, I read everything I could; I was fortunate enough to go with a university group, similar to your class there. In order to pay my way, I worked as a grocery store stocker full time at night, while going to school full time during the day. Chasing on my own, I've slept in my car many nights, showering at truck stops, or made ~800+ mile/day car trips to get back to work on time. I moved to the desert of New Mexico to be within striking distance of the panhandles in a few hours. My family is supportive of me, and has chased with me off and on throughout the years. My previous girlfriend was not; it didn't work out.

As far as making money at it as a "professional", I hope you do. I have no problem with someone turning their passion into a career. And if you can find a way to do it, great. If you think the money is in academic research, it's not. If you think it is in traditional tour groups, it's not. If you think it's in photography/video, it's not. Maybe you'll find that way to make a career out of it, but you will be on your own. It will have to be your brain that develops the idea, it will be your experience and education that will be your tools. People who want to photograph storms, people who want to do academic research- they are a dime a dozen. It would be hard to find someone to pay you for that- especially without the education and experience.

Bottom line. It's the off-season. Time to knowledge up. Around March, start making your forecasts each day. Every day you aren't learning about storms is a day you've lost.

 

[cdcollura]

Wow ... What a request.

that was me 10-15 years ago so I know how you feel.

Even the folks who chased typhoon haiyan recently didn't get sponsored ... Aka: it's tough!

good luck

 

[Patrick Marsh]

Ask prominent figures in the Meteorological community and 99.9% of them will tell you they've never heard of me.

I may not be prominent, and I may not have met you in person, I know who you are. =)

...couldn't resist...

 

[Steve Worthington]

Francis, the only money your gonna see in storm chasing is the money you wasted doing it. If you don't do it just because you wanna do it, then you need to find something else to do. If you cant afford to do it with-out sponsor money chances are you wont find sponsors because they wanna know that you`re gonna be out sporting their logo and not sitting in your driveway out of gas money.

 

[ngjere]

Let's for a moment take storm chasing out of the equation. What you have very clearly and succinctly demonstrated Francis throughout your communication is you hold the mindset of a millennial generation member. The following Wall Street Journal article written a few years ago perfectly captures the systematic thinking of this generation and their expectations for the future workplace and lifestyle. Basically, they want it all, right now, on their terms.

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB122455219391652725

To which I say:

"Know your place."

No one wants to dissuade you from chasing. They want you to reconsider blazing a trail that's been turned
into a four lane superhighway that's loaded with potholes already. A trip that you want someone else to pay for I might add.

There's an old saying that goes something like this:

"Your ego is writing checks your ass can't cash"

Good Luck, Be Safe, Learn Much.

 

[Shane Adams]

It's been a while since we've heard from Francis. Just wondering how the project has been going.

 

[Justin Wilcox]

Haha! When people ask me "How much you make?", I instantly think of Francis. I just cant stand it when people want to pursue a "career" in storm chasing. Over the past 4-5 years of hearing people ask how much money I make, I get a little snappy. Just witness a good beautiful, but powerful storm just once. If the thought of making money still matters to you, then you should forget storms even exist. On the other hand, I see nothing wrong with trying to raise money for a chase trip, be it Go Fund Me or Teespring, or anything along those lines. But expecting sponsors to just be there waiting? Lol... Yeah, no.

/rant

 

[Dan Robinson]

To be fair, Francis did seem to be taking to heart the advice of this thread in later posts.

 

[Rob H]

On the other hand, I see nothing wrong with trying to raise money for a chase trip, be it Go Fund Me or Teespring, or anything along those lines.

Even that doesn't really make sense to me. You can spend hours watching Roy Britt's YouTube channel (http://www.youtube.com/vortexva), that French series, and more for FREE. Even stuff like Andy G's 2011 DVD, or Storm Assist's 2012 DVD (shameless plug) are like $20-$25 - and you can't really find much better footage than those. I don't see the appeal in financing Reed's chasing webcasts, let alone paying for someone completely new to chasing to get shaky video of shelf clouds and a tornado from 10 miles out.