One4n5

Man, I'm jazzed to find this thread about Bob. I was lucky enough to meet this wildman in 1975 when he came in to join our High Dive Show at Seven Seas in Arlington Texas, which was a sealife park akin to Seaworld. All of us locals knew right away "this dude is special". He called everyone "buddyro". If you knew him you couldn't help smiling while in his presents. And if something jazzed his adrenaline gland he would get a giant grin and holler "ACT-SHON" (or "action!" in his cajun accent). He was the master of having fun and making you have fun as well. The show consisted of springboard diving, trick diving, mini-tramp, fire dives, Dillies(clown dives) and the grand finale 85 foot high dive. Bob killed in all areas. You should have seen him do Dillies. Outrageous! Truth is, he made all of us better and our shows always kicked butt. Of course "The Divers" always had the best parties and Bob would make his famous "Coonass Gumbo". One party he dug a hole in the backyard and roasted a pig. Great! The next year the park changed owners and became Hawaii Kia (same bit just with a Hawiian theme). Attached(I hope) is a pix of Bob saluting the crowd after a high dive. 1976 was the final season. The park folded and Bob went home to Lafayette. I paid a visit and met his brother and his Mom. Cool folks. He showed me around town. TampaPete: He took me to the bridge you referred to. Aint no way you would get me off that thing! The bayou river looked a little too funky. He said the only thing he worried about was tree limbs, gators and the occasional dead cow floating by. But this was the only place around he could practice for upcoming contests. After he won the World High Dive Championship I wondered how his competition felt knowing the only way he could practice was to dodge dead cows & gators. Sometime around late 60's early 70's he and his bounce partner Gary Smith won the World Synchronized Trampoline Championship. If it had been an olympic event they probably would have won that too. Last time I saw Bob was early 80's. He came through town with a smokin' hot chic in tow. She was a heavily trained ballet dancer and also turned out to be the niece of the ex-governor of Louisiana(one of the very crooked ones). I just smiled. At that time Bob was big time into wind surfing, which kind of surprised me. It's a very cool sport but didnt have the big adrenaline rush that Bob oh so loved. But he brought a couple of boards with him so we headed to the lake and had a ball. I lost contact with him after that and learned of his demise several years after the fact. I was not surprised. I've been around many adrenaline junkies in my day but Bobby was at the top of the list. And he wouldnt have it any other way. He did exactly what he wanted to do and blew a lot of minds in the process. They said it was a late deploy that got him. I'm not a jumper but I'm guessing he was trying to add just one more somersault and one more twist to the bottom. Just ran out of ladder. I was so blessed to spend time with you. Thanks, Buddyro Lee B. BTW, can anyone direct me to videos or stills of him? Many thanks.