Balloon flight, tattoos and a first-born son: Jets fans prove their devotion

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This article was published 15/04/2015 (3834 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

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There’s no doubt many Winnipeg Jets fans have had their heads in the clouds since their team clinched a playoff berth last Thursday, but Paul Turner has taken things to even greater heights.

The electrical engineer launched a weather balloon bearing a Jets logo into the air on the weekend, a few hours before the team’s regular season finale against the Calgary Flames.

Other fans have expressed their devotion in a variety of exotic ways — naming an infant son in honour of the team or emblazoning their heads with a “hair tattoo” of the Jets’ logo.

Or going the whole hog and getting a real tattoo courtesy of a number of Winnipeg parlours.

Anyway, what’s a weather balloon? It’s a two-metre-long balloon full of helium with an aluminum frame to carry the payload. It is designed to get precariously close to space, expanding as it rises, before bursting, free-falling until a parachute is deployed and then floating back to Earth.

Turner attached a trio of cameras to take video and still pictures during the journey, which he edited into a video posted on YouTube.

“I had this planned for about six months. I put a Jets logo on the side to celebrate their success. It was a great project to do with my kids,” he said, noting son Nicholas, 5, and daughter, Gaia, 2, were active participants.

Launched from their home in Stonewall, Man., the balloon was supposed to rise to about 30,000 metres and land near Teulon. Turner estimated it maxed out at 21,000 metres, however, and then the winds took it clear across Lake Winnipeg near Pine Falls.

Luckily, there was a GPS attached to it, but he had to traipse 3.5 kilometres through dense bush to find it. “I thought I had lost my GoPro forever. I had to cut down a tree to get it. It was a pretty ugly walk,” he said.

A Whiteout veteran from the original Jets, Turner still has his ticket stub from the team’s last home game against the Detroit Red Wings.

“I thought about sticking that on the side of the balloon and sending that up into space, too, but I didn’t want to risk it,” he said.

Jeremy Welwood has found the air a little thinner lately, too, though he hasn’t been above ice level. He and his wife welcomed their first child into the world this week. A huge hockey fan, he’ll never have to apologize for naming his son Jett.

“I think it was a suggestion from my wife, Justine,” he said. “She was definitely the one talking about names for the baby and she brought me into the conversation, which was great. She threw out a whole bunch of names and Jett was my favourite. It was a great quirk, I love the Jets and I play hockey, so we decided to go with it,” he said.

Growing up in Oakbank, Welwood was a big fan of the original Jets and remembers it being a treat to come into the big city for a few games every year with his dad.

His favourite players from back then were Teemu Selanne, Bob Essensa, Rick Tabaracci, Tie Domi and Kris King but in the end none of them provided Jett’s middle name. That honour goes to Justine’s father, Robert.

One of Welwood’s buddies experienced a little more resistance playing the name game when his son was born a couple of months ago.

“He wanted to name him Teemu but his wife wouldn’t let him. We were bugging him and suggesting Pekka, Jussi or some other Finnish names. He ended up naming him Blake, which is still Jets-related,” he said.

If you’re not old enough to start a playoff beard — or your spouse has banned the practice — you might prefer shaving your fandom into your head.

Dunny Valencia, a barber at Hair F/X in River Heights, has been cutting new and old Jets logos into the heads of fans of all ages since the NHL returned to Winnipeg in 2011.

It costs $34 for a haircut and for an extra $10, he’ll shave in either Jets logo. First-time clients get a $20 discount.

“I’m an artist. I ended up cutting hair one day just for fun and I really liked it and decided to make it my career. I started doing freestyle hair tattoos, starting with logos for teams and numbers. I’ve done a lot of portraits, as well,” he said.

“There’s no stencil. I get a picture of the logo and it takes 20 minutes. For the most part, it’s just shaving.”

Those willing to adorn their body with a more lasting memento of their team placed themselves in the hands of tattoo artists, like Karen Melia at South of Heaven Studio.

It only took a few square centimetres, but the logo now graces Lawrence Lavallee’s right arm — alongside figures running up to his elbow.

geoff.kirbyson@freepress.mb.ca