It\u2019s 16:40 at JFK International Airport, and Jake Simmons anxiously sips his coffee three hours before his flight to Caracas, Venezuela. He drums his fingers on the table, hardly the figure I was expecting, but Jake Simmons is a contradiction. He\u2019s a nervous flyer, which is a rather strange admission for one of stormchasers.com\u2019s most daring reporters. If there\u2019s a natural disaster, pending or aftermath, Jake is usually catching the next flight out to cover events on the ground.<\/p>\n
Unlike herobeat.com, which focuses on the heroes, stormchasers.com caters to regular people hoping for that big break\u2026 that one in a billion lightning strike that triggers their Crisis Gene and imbues them with powers. The irony is, you really do have a better shot at being hit by lightning than getting superpowers, but that doesn\u2019t matter to the thousands of visitors who click on stormchasers.com every week, looking for advice or sharing it. Part of me wonders if interviewing their star reporter is ethical, considering that 1 in every 100 Storm Chasers dies in a reckless stunt trying to get closer to natural disasters. That beats out mountain climbing in Nepal as the world\u2019s most dangerous hobby. Even sky diving gives you better odds for survival at 1 in about 150,000.<\/p>\n
Storm Chasers, however, are as much a part of the identity of the hero culture as the metahumans themselves, and every single superhero out there has at least one story that involves saving the life of a power groupie looking to self-trigger. So if I\u2019m going to talk to any staffer, it\u2019ll be Jake Simmons, seen by many within the field as the \u201cThe Voice of Reason.\u201d<\/p>\n
HERO BEAT: <\/strong>I have to ask\u2026 the Voice of Reason?<\/p>\n JAKE: [Laughing] <\/strong>Yeah, I don\u2019t get it either. What they call reason, I just call common sense. Don\u2019t go running out into a lightning storm holding an iron pipe over your head. Don\u2019t walk out naked in the middle of an ice storm. Don\u2019t go walking into certain favelas in Rio. Shit like that. A lot of people don\u2019t get that metahumans are triggered when there\u2019s a large-scale event happening\u2026 tsunamis, earthquakes, nuclear meltdowns, landslides. Running into danger just because it\u2019s dangerous is the kind of ignorance I\u2019m fighting against.<\/p>\n HERO BEAT: <\/strong>But your critics argue that you, your readers, you still<\/u> risk life and limb for a one in a million longshot. So why take that kind of chance?<\/p>\n JAKE: <\/strong>For the same reason people play the lottery. Someone\u2019s got to win. For other people, it\u2019s destiny. They feel it in their bones\u2026 they were meant to be powered.<\/p>\n HERO BEAT: <\/strong>So, destiny or lottery?<\/p>\n JAKE: <\/strong>For me? Oh\u2026 definitely lottery.<\/p>\n HERO BEAT: <\/strong>So where is the lottery taking your tonight?<\/p>\n JAKE: <\/strong>To Venezuela, to Lake Maracaibo where the terrain and weather patterns create massive lightning storms that appear 180 nights a year for ten hours at a shot. It\u2019s a re-occurring natural phenomenon that you can set your watch to.<\/p>\n HERO BEAT: <\/strong>You\u2019ve covered this before, though. In fact, it\u2019s one of your top pick destinations for Storm Chasers looking to trigger their Crisis Gene.<\/p>\n JAKE: <\/strong>It\u2019s definitely insane\u2014over 260 lightning flashes every hour. It\u2019s breathtaking. I\u2019d probably go even if I wasn\u2019t gene-priming. I get together with other Storm Chasers to talk about the latest hotspots, but not this time. This time, I\u2019m covering the Venezuelan Government\u2019s grand opening of danger tourism and the new Maracaibo Resort.<\/p>\n HERO BEAT: <\/strong>Other companies catered to danger tourism and Storm Chasers first though, right?<\/p>\n JAKE: <\/strong>Definitely. You have Sagarm\u0101th\u0101 Unlimited in Nepal that takes Storm Chasers up Everest, and there\u2019s Do or Die that offers to take their clients into the Danakil Desert in Ethiopia. But this is the first time that danger tourism is being sanctioned by a government. I\u2019m really curious to see what kind of tourist shop they have set up at Maracaibo Resort.<\/p>\n HERO BEAT: <\/strong>You don\u2019t sound convinced.<\/p>\n JAKE: <\/strong>I\u2019m not sure I buy what it\u2019s saying in the brochure\u2026 four people triggered at Maracaibo over the last year? I doubt it, but I\u2019m also a realist, right? Danger Tourism happens in poor countries. There you are, running into mudslides and standing on beaches waiting for a tsunami to come, but this is some poor village\u2019s reality. You\u2019re there as some privileged Westerner hoping to get a superpower, and you see everyone who has to live this poverty and shit on a yearly basis. So I get it when the Venezuelan Government and the locals try cashing in on this. If we\u2019re going to treat their backyard like it\u2019s our playground, they might as well make us pay for the privilege.<\/p>\n HERO BEAT: <\/strong>Is there a fear that this kind of recognition might diminish the adventure or the\u2026 authenticity?<\/p>\n JAKE: <\/strong>Purists are always going to bitch about how they were the first ones there, and there\u2019s the very real risk that when a location hits the mainstream, the area gets flooded with amateurs who become a liability to themselves and each other. But even then, most of the hardcore Storm Chasers I know don\u2019t bother with tourist traps like Maracaibo or Everest. They minimize population creep\u2014when too many people ruin your odds\u2014and maximize the danger in places like the Antarctic during winter, or aboard trawlers heading into an Atlantic Storm. Most Storm Chasers want to minimize their personal risk or discomfort, which is self-defeating. The serious ones? They know that powers happen in that potential last second of your life when you\u2019ve got one foot firmly in the grave and no idea where the other foot is. I hate to say it, but the real Storm Chasers we lost were probably the closest to triggering than anyone else.<\/p>\n HERO BEAT: <\/strong>Going back to your readers, they seem to cover a wide-ranging audience.<\/p>\n JAKE:<\/strong> Yeah. I guess that was the one thing I wasn\u2019t expecting. When I first started blogging, I knew I was going to speak to like-minded chasers who were as serious about it as I was. But when our site started getting covered in the Comedy News outlets and Entertainment News, we started attracting curiosity seekers and daredevils.<\/p>\n HERO BEAT: <\/strong>You called it the Vulture Culture meets Jackass in one of your articles.<\/p>\n JAKE:<\/strong> God, yes. People love watching other people fuck up a disaster surfing attempt, and our segment on Storm Chaser Fails is huge. We avoid showing death and significant injury, obviously, but remember when I mentioned common sense? We see a huge lack of it in the videos we get.<\/p>\n HERO BEAT: <\/strong>Are you ever worried that it waters down the legitimacy of your site?<\/p>\n JAKE: <\/strong>Initially, yeah, but the number of readers who stuck around for the more serious articles and discussions was amazing. I was never expecting those kinds of numbers, and now, people come to the site to read me, to read about my experiences as a Storm Chaser. It\u2019s incredible.<\/p>\n HERO BEAT: <\/strong>So here\u2019s the question on everyone\u2019s mind. Has anyone won the lottery yet?<\/p>\n JAKE: <\/strong>On record, no. But off record, I\u2019m friends with two Storm Chasers who put themselves in harm\u2019s way and ended up triggering.<\/p>\n HERO BEAT: <\/strong>Why off the record? You\u2019d think this would validate all the risks they took.<\/p>\n JAKE:<\/strong> I actually asked them that, but in the end, I think it came down to one thing. Survivor\u2019s guilt. There isn\u2019t one of us who hasn\u2019t had a friend or acquaintance die during Storm Chasing. Or seen someone die during a natural disaster. When the Crisis Gene finally triggers, I think the question switches from \u201cSomeone\u2019s got to win,\u201d to \u201cwhy was I lucky enough to win.\u201d<\/p>\n STAY TUNED NEXT WEEK WHEN WE CONTINUE OUR CONVERSATION WITH JAKE SIMMONS AND HIS EXPERIENCES STORM CHASING.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It\u2019s 16:40 at JFK International Airport, and Jake Simmons anxiously sips his coffee three hours before his flight to Caracas, Venezuela. He drums his fingers on the table, hardly the figure I was expecting, but Jake Simmons is a contradiction. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6OdZi-3X","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":261,"url":"http:\/\/mozaikcomics.com\/HeroesWithoutBorders\/blog\/2016\/01\/14\/hero-beat-storm-chasers-part-ii\/","url_meta":{"origin":245,"position":0},"title":"HERO BEAT: STORM CHASERS PART II","author":"Lucien","date":"January 14, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Continuing our conversation with Jake Simmons, star reporter and blogger for stormchasers.com and his experiences covering the exploits of Storm Chasers: The men and women who dive into natural disasters, hoping to trigger their transformation into metahumans. You can read Part I of the interview (here). Jake Simmons is flying\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Hero Beat"","block_context":{"text":"Hero Beat","link":"http:\/\/mozaikcomics.com\/HeroesWithoutBorders\/blog\/category\/hero-beat\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":208,"url":"http:\/\/mozaikcomics.com\/HeroesWithoutBorders\/blog\/2015\/12\/10\/hero-beat-talking-with-riot-act\/","url_meta":{"origin":245,"position":1},"title":"HERO BEAT: TALKING WITH RIOT ACT","author":"Lucien","date":"December 10, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"It\u2019s Friday night at the end of a long shift, and Harry\u2019s is packed. Obviously, Harrys\u2019 isn\u2019t the bar\u2019s real name, the officers of the Armored Mobile Police (A.M.P.) and the investigative arm better known as Amplitude Squad like to keep their favorite watering hole a secret. So I\u2019m here\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Hero Beat"","block_context":{"text":"Hero Beat","link":"http:\/\/mozaikcomics.com\/HeroesWithoutBorders\/blog\/category\/hero-beat\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":392,"url":"http:\/\/mozaikcomics.com\/HeroesWithoutBorders\/blog\/2016\/04\/28\/hero-beat-is-back\/","url_meta":{"origin":245,"position":2},"title":"Hero Beat is Back!","author":"Lucien","date":"April 28, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Hero Beat is back! Work has been hectic recently, and I can't wait till I get to announce what I'm working on at my day job at Ubisoft Montreal. Until that time, however, here's a new Hero Beat article talking about The Narcissist, who we showcased in a mini arc\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":151,"url":"http:\/\/mozaikcomics.com\/HeroesWithoutBorders\/blog\/2015\/11\/19\/hero-beat-interview-with-grimsta\/","url_meta":{"origin":245,"position":3},"title":"HERO BEAT: INTERVIEW WITH GRIMSTA","author":"Lucien","date":"November 19, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"It was April 27th,\u00a02011 at the height of the Super Outbreak of storms when over two hundred tornadoes touched down across Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, and Mississippi. It devastated towns and killed 355 people over the course of four days. Four of the tornadoes that spawned that day were F5s, the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Hero Beat"","block_context":{"text":"Hero Beat","link":"http:\/\/mozaikcomics.com\/HeroesWithoutBorders\/blog\/category\/hero-beat\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mozaikcomics.com\/HeroesWithoutBorders\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Grimsta-copy-218x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":288,"url":"http:\/\/mozaikcomics.com\/HeroesWithoutBorders\/blog\/2016\/02\/04\/hero-beat-roadkill-inc\/","url_meta":{"origin":245,"position":4},"title":"HERO BEAT: ROADKILL INC.","author":"Lucien","date":"February 4, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"You\u2019ve probably seen their white and yellow vans driving around Manhattan following a metahuman \u2018incident.\u2019 That\u2019s the industry\u2019s polite term for when metahumans get involved in something messy. Roadkill Inc. isn\u2019t a name that inspires confidence, Donna Bartlet will be the first to admit with a broad grin, but nobody\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Hero Beat"","block_context":{"text":"Hero Beat","link":"http:\/\/mozaikcomics.com\/HeroesWithoutBorders\/blog\/category\/hero-beat\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":174,"url":"http:\/\/mozaikcomics.com\/HeroesWithoutBorders\/blog\/2015\/12\/03\/hero-beat-a-day-in-the-life-of-the-tour\/","url_meta":{"origin":245,"position":5},"title":"HERO BEAT: A DAY IN THE LIFE OF \u201cTHE TOUR\u201d","author":"Lucien","date":"December 3, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"It\u2019s called \u201cThe Tour,\u201d and only a handful know how grueling, how exhausting, and how heartbreaking it can be. The Tour is the two-year average of most heroes who hit the streets before injury or PTSD or burnout bring their careers to a sudden halt. 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