XMAS BOOGIE 2009
07 / 01 / 2010
This year saw the 23rd edition of the annual X-mas boogie at Empuriabrava. After all this time the boogie is still going strong and is still one of the most attended and successful winter boogies in Europe thanks to the assortment of aircraft and load organisers.
This year the boogie ran from the 25th of December until the 4th of January. Each year the dates vary in accordance to the festive season holidays. Nevertheless, the attendance was much the same as over the previous 5 years.
Aircraft used were the Twin Otter from Empuriabrava, Jan Wildgruber’s Beech 99 and the Twin Otter from Pau. Waiting times were a minimum (less than 1hour), thanks to the short rotation times done by the aircraft fleet.
For the more experienced FS skydivers Ian “Milko” Hodgkinson, Billy Payn and Regan Tetlow were available for load organising which was for free and included a video. Jumps ranged between 20 and 40 ways. Karsten Dieck and Ivan Coufal took care of the less experienced skydivers in FS.
The freeflyers had a privilege of being able to jump with the best of Babylon: Steff, Fred, Vince and Nimmo. The Babylon guys mixed in with groups and probably got to jump with almost all the freeflyers during the boogie. Tim Porter was also on site and done outside video on some organised jumps, or otherwise just mixed in with freefly groups and solos.
As usual, around this time of the year, weather is always an issue. Despite the bad weather conditions in Europe and most of Spain, there was only one day that was not jumpable due to bad weather in Empuriabrava, allowing the participants a rest day after 3 consecutive hard jumping days where most had done between 20 and 25 jumps.
After the skydiving was over there was nightly entertainment in the Skyrats bar at night, which included a band or DJ and a nightly screening of the daily video put together by Vania da Rui with material provided by the videomen.
Total people registered: 298
Total number of jumps done: 5.682
Total number of loads flown: 320
Countries represented: 21 European countries + Japan and USA
This year the boogie ran from the 25th of December until the 4th of January. Each year the dates vary in accordance to the festive season holidays. Nevertheless, the attendance was much the same as over the previous 5 years.
Aircraft used were the Twin Otter from Empuriabrava, Jan Wildgruber’s Beech 99 and the Twin Otter from Pau. Waiting times were a minimum (less than 1hour), thanks to the short rotation times done by the aircraft fleet.
For the more experienced FS skydivers Ian “Milko” Hodgkinson, Billy Payn and Regan Tetlow were available for load organising which was for free and included a video. Jumps ranged between 20 and 40 ways. Karsten Dieck and Ivan Coufal took care of the less experienced skydivers in FS.
The freeflyers had a privilege of being able to jump with the best of Babylon: Steff, Fred, Vince and Nimmo. The Babylon guys mixed in with groups and probably got to jump with almost all the freeflyers during the boogie. Tim Porter was also on site and done outside video on some organised jumps, or otherwise just mixed in with freefly groups and solos.
As usual, around this time of the year, weather is always an issue. Despite the bad weather conditions in Europe and most of Spain, there was only one day that was not jumpable due to bad weather in Empuriabrava, allowing the participants a rest day after 3 consecutive hard jumping days where most had done between 20 and 25 jumps.
After the skydiving was over there was nightly entertainment in the Skyrats bar at night, which included a band or DJ and a nightly screening of the daily video put together by Vania da Rui with material provided by the videomen.
Total people registered: 298
Total number of jumps done: 5.682
Total number of loads flown: 320
Countries represented: 21 European countries + Japan and USA