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UER Forum > Archived US: Southeast > The Great Beach Tower Crane Climb (Viewed 396 times) YoelT  Location: Viet Nam Gender: Male  |  |  The Great Beach Tower Crane Climb < on 7/4/2010 1:19 AM >   After writing this story to save the memories, I internally debated on when to post it since we all know that months and years go by before properly processed pictures of my escapades show up on the internet. I decided to post it now with a few pictures with just basic raw to jpg processing done. It was definitely a case of love at first sight. Driving down the main parkway to the beach brought me over a tall bridge over an intercoastal waterway, and from the apex of this bridge I could see every beach front high rise in a 10-15 kilometer radius. That is when I first laid eyes on her. Every hotel was bright, painted and pretty, and then the dark unfinished shell of high rise with two cranes towering above screamed out from far away: “Look at me!” I only got a glimpse, but I could tell it was big, it had cranes, and it was right on the beach strip. I knew I had to check it out. On my mind for the rest of the day, I talked about it to random, uninterested people at a wedding that evening. The next afternoon as soon the group of people I was with dispersed, I drove back to the beach and drove down the strip to scout it out. It was a Sunday, so I was not surprised and indeed elated that the site was essentially deserted. It was so big, so bland. Repeating gray patterns made up of featureless concrete floors spanned 32 stories high. There was no imposing construction barriers, unlike the much smaller less interesting site a bit further down the road that included a very short crane. If I did not at least attempt to explore the site, I would have failed at life, and surely, a great chance of success was apparent. It was a long time until the cover of darkness fell, so I moved onto the resort that was in a much more remote location to establish my forward base of operations for the next few days. I was here for a professional / academic convention and that late that night as others socialized I geared up and slipped off into the night. The drive was nearly 45 minutes just to get to the target are, and after making a reconnaissance pass to confirm that the site was silent and the area clear I parked in the lot of a nearby hotel. I chose the beach as my path of ingress. Other then a family hanging out near the hotel, the entire beach as far as I could see was effectively dark and deserted, and the street was fairly quiet. Not sure if the area is normally like that, or there is less activity due to the oil spill, but either way, I liked it. Using the sand dunes and dune fence line to conceal the movements of my dark figure on the white beach as much as I could, I trudged the 500 meters to the perimeter of the target site. Wearing shorts and tennis shoes turned out to be a mistake, as my shoes filled with sand. As I closed in on the building, it could not have looked more favorable. The site was silent with no sign of human presence, and aside from street lights in the front and lights in the core of the building it was very dark. At approximately 01:00 hours I directly engaged the construction site from the beach, set up my tripod and went to make a bracketed exposure only to discover that my lens had fogged up. Normally condensation appears on the external glass when moving from air conditioned to hot humid environments, but this time it was a layer of internal glass. It was the most bizarre and unfortunate occurrence. As I tried to figure out what to do, bright lights appeared moving down the beach. Multiple vehicles were moving towards me. As they approached I identified the tractors and 4 wheelers as members of the beach clean up crew. (In fact one of the tractors was pulling a trailer full of people in orange jumpsuits. Have they possibly put convicts to work?) As they drove past no one paid any attention to me and I hoped they moved on but soon they stopped and congregated on the beach directly in front of the construction site. WTF I thought. This was not a good situation, I waited around and then stowed my camera and moved to the other side of the dunes. The show must go on though, I didn't come out here for nothing. Getting into the site from the beach side was no longer an viable option. The clean up crew had bright lights shining in many directions and were very close. The opposite side on the street was wide open so I made my way to the front, and then crossed the perimeter in the light of the street lights. No cars parked and the trailers were dark, so security presence was highly unlikely. I though this was just too easy until I saw the barrier around the base of the crane, but then was filled again with glee as I walked through the wide doorway of the barrier as the door swung in the wind. Once inside, I expected to see the base of the ladder but instead looked downward into a water filled pit. There was no way on or off the crane from here with out some serious and risky climbing. I sat there for a while examining the situation. There was a strong breeze coming in from the ocean, creating a lot of noise around me. Tarps and plastic sheets were flapping in the wind and the noise of constant jingling of metal things filled the air and I began to lose my nerve. Finally I looked up and saw it. A plank way led from the side of the building around the 7th floor onto the crane. It all made sense, why would one start climbing a 33 story crane from the bottom when you could get on further up. By this time it was closing in on 02:00 hours. My planned time on target should never exceed 03:00 based on experiences at a previous construction site. I could still hear the voices of the cleanup crew on the beach, my SLR lens was fogged up, and even though I had my point and shoot as a backup camera, the situation was unfavorable. I had to return the next night, so I made my egress the way I came in. The next day I checked out an derelict oil refinery only to discover that it was being demolished. I spent some time driving around a large port area, but couldn't find a good place to take pictures. Last I hit up a hotel that has been closed since being washed out by a hurricane. I returned to the resort to be social for a while, then in the midst of the night I slipped away again. This time I got an earlier start around 23:30 hours, and my course of approach was nearly identical to the previous night, making an initial recce pass and initiating ingress around 00:15. Wearing combat boots and pants this time, walking on the beach was much more comfortable. The situation was nearly identical to the previous night, the only difference was that the lights in one of the construction trailers was on, but there was no sign of life. I continually looked at the trailer during my time there to make sure there was no activity, and there never was. No beach cleanup crews arrived and I did not get out my camera before entering the site to wait around for them. I found a nice breech in the perimeter next to the beach, and despite getting snagged on the fence, I moved straight into the tower. The interior was a massive barren concrete phantom of the future form of the building. Moving quickly and quietly and constantly looking around to reaffirm that I was alone, I followed the signs to the stairs. Unfortunately these stairs were in the cavernous illuminated lobby of the building which was open to the front facing the road. At the third floor I realized that no one on the outside would be able to see me so I became a little more at ease. I found the model condo here, which was finished and all the lights were blazing inside, which was a little creepy. The door had a keypad, so I moved on to find the stairs that would take me to the top, which I soon discovered, and began my ascent. Most of the floors above this point were identical. There was essentially nothing complete in the building except for the large concrete interior walls and the plumbing. Soon I found the floor with the ramp onto the crane and wasted no time getting on it. My ascent was steady, tiring and fully exhilarating. Despite the cool sea breeze, I was dripping sweat all over. This week was the first operational use of my enhanced load bearing tactical vest fitted with a 2 liter hydration bladder. To this I attached my tripod, camera cases, and other bare essential gear. This set up worked excellent for this confined space environment. Being able to continually drink as I sweated on the climb was a nice feature. At one point I realized that I had passed another ramp, this time mid way up the crane. I thought all this climbing was unnecessary, I looked up and found another ramp toward the top, so I went back down a ladder on the crane with the intention of getting off, and then getting back on at the top. To my puzzlement, I found this plankway to be right in between two levels of the crane and would not be accessible without climbing on the interior of the framework of the crane. This was really not something I wanted to do, so I got back on the ladder and continued climbing to the top passing the final plank way around the 29th floor which was more easily accessible from the crane. Around 01:15 hours I was at the top of the ladder, and made the final awkward move from the ladder through the slewing unit onto the operating platform. I was there, I was on top, was the highest person within the visible horizon, I was making love to a huge tower crane. The view was amazing and the experience was incredible, erotic, and sensual. The cab was open, and the key was in the ignition. I spent around 30 minutes taking in the sights and photographing from the top. I was hopelessly in love with the crane and embraced and enveloped it's beautiful steel body. Once copulation had completed, I put back all my gear and made my descent, this time only a few levels of ladders before I took the exit onto the 29th floor. It was not exactly aligned with the level of the nearest mast platforms, and it was a little tricky and scary to get outside the crane from here due to a small but imposing gap between the crane and the ramp. By 02:00 hours I was making my descent via a set of stairs in the highrise. I wanted to keep moving, so I took out my camera and was shooting what I saw on ISO1600 on the way down. If you ignored the sound of the wind while in the stairwell, it was like descending through 30 levels of an underground concrete bunker. Despite occasional detours from the stairwell to briefly explore a floor, I moved swiftly and in 15 minutes I was back on the ground floor, and emerged from the building to face a very strong wind coming in from the ocean. One could almost hear my joyous feeling I got upon clearing the perimeter (and getting snagged on the fence again and almost getting a face full of sand) which is not unlike the feeling everyone gets after clearing the perimeter after a successful explore, but I just climbed a crane, at the construction site for the tallest building in the area, on the beach! On the egress I was about to remove my camera and tripod and reshoot my shot of the site from the beach that was fogged up the day prior but alas, the wind was threateningly strong. I could feel a few drops of rain so I decided to continue moving. Looking into the inky darkness of the sky over the ocean I could perceive that rainstorm was moving in on me, and fast. The wind was picking up so much that It put me into a run. The helpless feeling of being stuck several hundred meters from cover carrying expensive camera gear while a rainstorm was quickly approaching was quite a rush. Running on sand did not really make satisfactory progress, and for the final 200 meters dash I was being rained on by fierce horizontally moving drops of water. Finally I made it to cover before the worst of the rain hit the beach. I took one final shot before moving out. What an epic exploration this was. www.yoeltaom.as cdevon  Location: west county Gender: Male  |  |  Re: The Great Beach Tower Crane Climb <Reply # 1 on 7/4/2010 2:36 AM >   epic! thanks for the good read! When I say I'm 'clean and sober', it means I've showered and I'm headed to the liquor store. washthat  Location: Birmingham, AL Gender: Male  |  Re: The Great Beach Tower Crane Climb <Reply # 2 on 7/4/2010 2:49 AM >   Exothermic do you have a cliff's notes version of your story? YoelT  Location: Viet Nam Gender: Male  |  |  Re: The Great Beach Tower Crane Climb <Reply # 3 on 7/4/2010 3:48 AM >   I am extremely long winded when I write stories. Glad someone enjoyed the story! Cliff notes version: I climbed a tower crane at the beach, it was cool. Had to visit the site twice before I got on the crane. Construction site was a 33 story condo project. www.yoeltaom.as PositivePressure  Location: High and low where most don't go Gender: Male Set your Tesla coil to broil  |  Re: The Great Beach Tower Crane Climb <Reply # 4 on 7/4/2010 4:25 AM >   I actually really liked that story! But, I've always been partial to long stories. Great shots, great story! xmas_one  Location: Long Beach, CA Gender: Male  |  Re: The Great Beach Tower Crane Climb <Reply # 5 on 7/4/2010 4:42 AM >   Thanks for the well written story, and great pics! Inspiring to say the least. people who know the least tend to know it the loudest FLEW2  Location: La Pascua Florida Gender: Male  |  Re: The Great Beach Tower Crane Climb <Reply # 6 on 7/6/2010 11:24 PM >   Posted by washthat Exothermic do you have a cliff's notes version of your story? Even better, an edition of books on tape, narrated by Morgan Freeman. Great story and images Exothermic, I can relate to your sense of excitement before the ascent. dyslexic, astygmatistic, & spastic. washthat  Location: Birmingham, AL Gender: Male  |  Re: The Great Beach Tower Crane Climb <Reply # 7 on 7/7/2010 1:41 AM >   So was the site active? I know you said the trailer light was on one night and off another. I didn't think they were still building condos down there. I also would like the audio book that is a great idea. YoelT  Location: Viet Nam Gender: Male  |  |  Re: The Great Beach Tower Crane Climb <Reply # 8 on 7/8/2010 1:19 AM >   My agent has contacted Morgan Freeman's agent. The site appears to be an active ongoing construction site, judging from the news of the progress on the web page for the project. Although it doesn't seem like they are in a hurry to get it done. www.yoeltaom.as explorating  Location: Birmingham, AL Gender: Male  |  Re: The Great Beach Tower Crane Climb <Reply # 9 on 7/10/2010 3:59 AM >   I'm just gonna say one thing. "OOooooo, purty!" That is all. hanyou  Location: Central North America Gender: Male  |  Re: The Great Beach Tower Crane Climb <Reply # 10 on 7/13/2010 5:02 PM >   I do enjoy a good love story... especially with hawt crane action YoelT  Location: Viet Nam Gender: Male  |  |  Re: The Great Beach Tower Crane Climb <Reply # 11 on 7/18/2010 6:42 PM >   It was very passionate action. www.yoeltaom.as UER Forum > Archived US: Southeast > The Great Beach Tower Crane Climb (Viewed 396 times) All content and images copyright © 2002-2024 UER.CA and respective creators. Graphical Design by Crossfire. To contact webmaster, or click to email with problems or other questions about this site: UER CONTACT View Terms of Service | View Privacy Policy | Server colocation provided by Beanfield This page was generated for you in 171 milliseconds. Since June 23, 2002, a total of 741619598 pages have been generated.