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Newspaper Archive of
Shelton Mason County Journal
Shelton, Washington
July 28, 2011     Shelton Mason County Journal
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July 28, 2011
 
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a squirrel? Courtesy photo Local skydiver Andy Farrington wingsuits with the Red Bull Air Force, and donned the suit as a stunt-diver for "Transformers 3." Local skydiver a stuntman in "Transformers 3" movie By NATALIE JOHNSON In the past few years, the skydiving world has seen a resurgence of a unique sub- set of the sport - wingsuit- ing. "You're basically like a flying squirrel," said Andy Farrington. Farrington, whose family owns Kapowsin Air Sports in Shelton, recently donned one of these flying squirrel- like wingsuits as a stunt- man in "Transformers 3." "We jumped off of the Sears Tower in downtown Chicago, we jumped off the Trump Tower and also we were able to jump out of a helicopter probably ten times," he said. "It was awe- some, obviously. Normally base jumping is illegal, es- pecially through buildings. Normally that's trespass- ing, but they basically gave us red-carpet treatment through the building." Farrington said the scene is about 45 minutes into the movie, and involves a five- person special-forces team flying in wingsuits through a portion of downtown Chi- cago. While flying through buildings in a major city was a new experience for Farrington, wingsuit- ing, and skydiving or base jumping in general is not a new experience. Farrington has been skydiving since for 16 years, since he was 16 years old. "When my 16th birth- day came around I made 15 jumps and got my driv- ers license and went from there," he said. Since then, Farrington joined a group called Red Bull Air Force, which con- sists of a group of 10 skydiv- ers with various specialties, whether it's basic skydiv- ing, paragliding, basejump- ing, or wingsuiting. "I think between our group of 10 people we have 100,000 skydives between the group," he said. "We just got done with a project over in Europe where we were already doing a lot of wing- suit proximity flying, where you fly the wingsuits next to rocks and everything. Normally that's yourself and a video person but we were doing it as three of us and a video person." The wingsuits stretch wings of fabric between Veterans' Benefits: What You Should Know Free Presentation for Seniors & Caregivers ************* Please join us for an informative presentation about understanding benefits for veterans. Discussion topics to include: • Understanding VA benefits and the application process • How to become eligible even if you exceed the limits • How VA benefits apply to senior living A question and answer session wiUfoUow the presentation. Refreshments will be served. Beehive Retirement & Assisted Living Community 401 W. Maple St. • McCleary 360~95-~55 a divers arms and legs, and between the legs, Far- rington said. This allows the jumper to ]hove forward faster than tl~ey are fall- ing down, and can extend a jump from 10 seconds to 30. "Normally you jump off a cliff and that's 2,000 feet and you get 10 seconds of freefall.., with wlngsuits you get 30-35 seconds of free fall," he said. The opportunity to work on the set of "Transform- ers" came rather out of the blue, Farrington said, after a friend and fellow skydiv- er, J.T. Holmes, appeared in a "60 Minutes" broad- cast that "Transformers 3" director Michael Bay hap- pened to be watching. "So he told his assistant director to find a team, and they called up J.T. and asked, do you know five guys who can do this?" Far- rington said. "We were al- ready doing it in a bigger group than most people ... so it was kind of a no-brain- er." Farrington said working with Bay was a unique and collaborative experience. "They're obviously used to directing normal action scenes that you see in pret- ty much every movie, like cars rolling around and flip- ping and everything, but for them the wingsuit fly- ing was 100 percent new," he said. "They're kind of directing the scenes but we helped." While Farrington's face isn't visible in the movie, he said that it's cool to know he's there on screen, and appreciated not being replaced by a computer ani- mated skydiver. "It's nice to see producers there that are having real stuntmen do the real stuff, instead of, they could have CGIed the whole thing and to us it would have looked really cheesy but maybe the general public wouldn't see much difference," he said. Farrington doesn't have any immediate plans to work in another movie, but will certainly skydive soon. You are cordiaUy invited to Garden Coarte's Garden Party LU.AUI rriaay, ugust 5th 3:OOpm - 6:00pro 626 Lilly, Rd. NE Olympia, 98506 Rubi's Delectible BufFet i I=. Door I rites Entertainment By: ~:00-~:00 "The forever Youn9 Rock and Roll Chorus" [ram Senior Services for South Sound ~:004:00 Entertainment Explosion Wear your Hawaiian Grass Skirts and join in all the Ir(tn! Please RSVP by Wed. Aq. 3rd 360-q91-qq35 Backpacks for Kids Drive Garden Courte is once again rallying support to help local area Foster children in Thurston County by bringing in a new backpack to our community at 626 Lilly Rd. NE Olympia, from July 1st thru August 19th (8:OOam-5:OOpm daily) You can make a difference in a child's Ii~e by yo~' backpack donation. Any size will be accepted. . I | .~ ,,, ~ All backpacks will be distributed to local | " "(2-f( ~ ~' organizations of children in need I ~AKING A DIFFERENCE ~ 1 TABLE #1 1 TABLE #2 TABLE #4 d I Plus bargain tableS starting at 30% off Selected clearance items in our big outdoor tents, Shop early for the best selectiq ,n. All sales are final, No refunds, no returns, no warrq reties, All merchandise as.is, coming and we need to make room! First & Mill, Shelton 426-4373 or 426-2411 Monday-Saturday 7-6:30 Sunday 9-5 Shelton-Mason County Journal - lursday, July 28, 2011 - Pag~ r ,f / / t ~ J