Word: chuted
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...They call it "parachute riding," and it works like this: first a parachute is laid out on the ground with all the shroud lines straight; then it is harnessed to the rider, who stands, sits or stretches out on a flat piece of heavy cardboard. Helpers then lift the chute so that it can fill with wind-all the while chanting "Come and help, Gus!" (the name for springtime gusts in the Rockies)-and away the rider goes over the grass on his cardboard chariot at speeds as high as 30 m.p.h...
...possibility that the chute might actually take off, taking the rider along with it, adds spice. That, in fact, is precisely what happened to Colorado State Junior John Junker three weeks ago. Gus helped too much, lofted Junker into a tree, fracturing an elbow...
...were right back at it, under the watchful eye of Senior Richard Delanoy, who has devised a safety measure for the sport. Four Sigma Chis line up downwind, like baseball outfielders; whenever Gus blows too strong and the rider seems on the verge of liftoff, the outfielders rush the chute and plunge headlong into it, thereby safely collapsing the nylon canopy. "It's exciting when you see that chute billow out and you begin to move," said A. G. Phillips at the end of his parachute ride. "You feel that you've got hold of the wind...
...remembers "singing hallelujahs as I did my first aerobatics in 1923, all alone, without the damn instructor in the rear cockpit." He also recalls "something like psychic ecstasy during my first parachute jump. The ecstasy ended when I landed in weeds and gravel and the open chute pulled me through them...
...captaincy of Harvard's Nordic ski team is not the most gloried position in Harvard sports, but for Jon Chaffee '66 it was a chute to two years of skiing around the world, in an enviable version of military service...