Where are the real Exotic Boogies ?

[goobersnuftda 0]

The term "boogie" has changed for me over the past 10 years. When a DZ had a boogie, there were many turbine aircraft that showed up and it was a real event of interest.

Now, every US DZ has turbines. Heck, there are balloon jumps, high altitude jumps, Pitts specials etc. through out the US on a regular basis at normal drop zones (the Perris jet for a while even).

My question is where are the real exotic boogies that are truly unique? WFFC is done, Swedish Herc boogie is over, Thai Sky was cancelled this year so what does that leave?

http://www.exoticskyadventures.com/
http://www.skydivebelize.com/

and that is about it. Germany had a Herc thing a year or two ago for a few days but that fell through as well as one that was attempted in Brazil. The ones that managed to stumble through the event turned out to be a disaster to most involved:

http://www.skydivevietnam.com

So does anyone know of a good, unique boogie that still exists in the world or have they all gone the way of the Do-Do bird?

[grimmie 186]

http://www.xtremedivers.com/boogie.shtml

I'm not sure if jumpers really understand what goes into organizing an "exotic boogie" in a foreign land.
Many great events have been done in by bad organizing, lack of co-operation from the nation it is held and jumpers simply deciding to go somewhere else.
At the "Boogie in Belize" we usually have between 120-130 participants. We fly an otter down from Perris to ensure a good jumpship, three jump pilots and two mechanics. That's insurance, and we have a government that welcomes us with open arms, rare in the skydive world.
It seems boogies have become more family reunion and less about aircraft. Lost Prairie is the usual 200+ suspects. ESA has their crowd, Belize has a lot of the same participants, etc.
The economy isn't helping things either for exotic boogies. Jumpers have less to spend these days.
It takes me about five months of organizing to pull off a success for ten days. And this is our sixth year.

I would encourage all jumpers to attend an exotic boogie to see what it's like. You will have a GREAT time at any of the ones you choose.

Belize is sold out, see you in 2011! It's pretty unique.

[Shell666 0]

Quote

Belize is sold out, see you in 2011! It's pretty unique.

And there you have it! Written PROOF that Richie is planning another one!

'Shell

[CSpenceFLY 1]

Well, I can't say that the St.Pattys boogie (in Fitzgerald,Ga) is exotic but I do think it is unique. It is not held on an existing dropzone, we build the DZ from scratch. We bring in the planes and the event brings people from all over the country and sometime the world. In '06 we had 354 jumpers from 26 states and about 6 countries if I remember right.

We started over when we moved the event but now that we have a new home and with the plans we have for this March I think we will be back in the 300 jumper range again in '10.

[grimmie 186]

Nice job! I want to head out there one of these years and join you guys.

[hparrish 0]

Well hey there's a commitment.