Land Shark

This post definitely falls into two categories: “misadventures” and “wish I had a picture.” I’ve been hanging out on the social sound design forum lately and there have been a number of great posts about field recording. A while back the community was asked to share some of their strange experiences while out recording. I originally thought my baby ostriches were among one of the stranger things that I have recorded over the years, but a funny memory came to me in a dream.

What you’re hearing is a “land shark.” Also known as a rocket that has malfunctioned, landed on the ground, ignited, and then started to head toward a group of people at a very high speed. If you listen carefully at the :11 mark, you can hear the rocketry organization’s president yelling, “We got a land shark! We got a land shark.”

That was the first or second launch when I was setting up to record large scale amateur rockets. The rocket sputtered off the launch pad a few times and then ignited on the ground. I’ve never seen so many people run so fast in my life. Unfortunately, a car and someone got pegged by the rocket and it was at that moment, I thought to myself, “What they hell did you just get yourself into!” Luckily for me I survived the day and left with a ton of killer rocket recordings, which can be found here.