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skydived19006

The Death of a Boogie

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Couch Freak Boogie attendance was dramatically low again for the 2nd year in a row, and as a trend declining for the last 5 to 10 years. I wonder what's changing that is causing this, is it typical of other large regional boogies (no large multi national boogies anymore with the death of WFFC, at least that I know of)?

My guess is that turbine aircraft being more common, and smaller boogies popping up, that more and more folks simply are not interested in the drive. It looked to me like there were very few from north of FT Dodge IA (IL, WI), nor Oklahoma/Texas.

Thoughts?
Experience is what you get when you thought you were going to get something else.

AC DZ

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There is a turbine in every backyard.

When we were all belly flyers, we all knew each other and didn't want to miss a boogie, as there weren't as many " back in the day".

RW, free flying, wingsuiting, swooping have turned us into sub groups, leading to fewer jumpers knowing each other worlwide.

Today's jumpers want a lot of jumps, tunnel time, different gear for different disciplines, leading to less $$$$ to spend on jumping in a corn field and drinking beer and telling no shit stories.

Big events such as the P3 in Perris, head down camps and records, etc are attractive to jump on and cost a lot of $$$$.

Exotic boogies cost $$$ and many jumpers save up to attend those, going to fewer domestic events.

It takes hard work to keep long running boogies " fresh". Specialty aircraft is a draw as is
Gear demos, free beer, organizers, etc.

We also have to introduce our newer jumpers to our older ways of funB|

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skydived19006

Couch Freak Boogie attendance was dramatically low again for the 2nd year in a row, and as a trend declining for the last 5 to 10 years. I wonder what's changing that is causing this, is it typical of other large regional boogies (no large multi national boogies anymore with the death of WFFC, at least that I know of)?

My guess is that turbine aircraft being more common, and smaller boogies popping up, that more and more folks simply are not interested in the drive. It looked to me like there were very few from north of FT Dodge IA (IL, WI), nor Oklahoma/Texas.

Thoughts?



I spoke with many people about this when I was there. No one seemed to have a definitive answer.

One of my theories was that with the weather being so hot, many people decided that a day at the local DZ (that probably has a turbine) followed by going home to their air conditioned home, is preferable to driving a long way and camping out in the heat. Sissies!

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The NPSL drew jumpers from Minnesota (Twin Cities area) and Wisconsin. When these jumpers traveled to Couch, so did the camera flyers, friends, girlfriends and the rest of the folks who did not want to be left behind.

When they were done with the NPSL meet, they stayed to party and jump their buns off. We are, also, seeing declining #'s participating in the NPSL.

But, my gut feeling is that the cost is a big issue. I'd love to drive 7 hours to pay a "Boogie fee" and more expensive jump tickets to do what I can already do at Skydive Twin Cities, Westside, Wissota, Superior, Milaca, MN Skydivers, etc. [:/]

Also, I think Chicogo area DZ's and the Cheese Boogie are your new competition. B|

Birdshit & Fools Productions

"Son, only two things fall from the sky."

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It's a lot of time and $$ to travel to the boogies. I've got twin turbines, $$$ on the books and lots of great jumpers right at home. But we still do LP each year to catch up with old friends. In return for a modest reg. fee Wayne puts out free beer, t shirts and a nice dinner each year, plus well maintained camping facilities. I guess I'll keep doing at least that one for a while.

Chicks Rock is a lot of fun too, but V can't jump for a while, so it takes a lot of the fun out of it for me.

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I was at CF 2 years ago, and again this year. I was quite amazed of the drop off in those 2 years. With that being said, the groups that were there, are dedicated groups, and I believe that they will continue to come. There were groups from DZ's that I saw 2 years ago, that were not at this years.

Why is that? Is it because of Nationals coming up soon, or the P3 camps, the economy, or the drive? I would say it can be and is part of all those reasons.

The group I was with were talking with some of the old timers, and the current CouchFreaks. It those who I spoke with's opinion that it will change, but it will continue. The CF boogie may just go back to it's roots where it was a celebration of the end of the summer, and just be a bit smaller.

All things come in ebbs and flows. Perhaps we are in a downturn now, and in a few years it will come back to it's glory.

Who really knows. All that I do know is that I had a kick ass time, met with some great friends, and made some great new ones. I had lots of jumps, lots of beer and was hot as hell.

One of the nights I was talking with a CF, and a bunch of us were asking, how can we make this better. His response was if you have a great idea, put it into play. Just because the CF are running the boogie does not mean that you can't bring great ideas to it.

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I was at dollar daze for the last few years but did not go this year. Overall, I think it's one of the last bastions of old school boogies which is cool. When there were 800+ people there a few years ago, it was amazing and out of this world. Last year, it wasn't as fun with only a few hundred people there.

For my group, we would go and pay the boogie fee and make a couple jumps a day. It's hard for everyone to shell out extra cash on each jump when at home they are cheaper and still out of a turbine. We didn't mind paying the boogie/camping fee, etc because it helps pay for the party, which we enjoyed a lot. With a lot less people though, it felt less epic - just didn't make us want to make the effort to get all the way to IA with 3-4 RVs, a couple of cars, all the tents, etc.

We're from Sky Knights, last year we were playing concerts and electronic music the whole time, year before that porn, etc. I was sorta the driving factor behind our group and with other non-skydiving trips and a desire to go to Summerfest, didn't have time to make the push for it.

I also think that part of it is a lack of marketing for the boogie, it's hard to get info about it and it hasn't changed much. My boogie fee gets me a lot more at Summerfest and there are a lot more "turbine" people there to jump with. (It seems like couch was cessna jumper heavy and talent light when it comes to freeflying and wingsuiting, not that it's a bad thing necessarily).

Summerfest this year was fun for me, but even that felt less epic this year because it didn't have all the world record buzz.

It's hard to put on a good boogie, you have to mix things up, have some change and energy or today's jumper will get bored with it. The DJ at couch last year didn't even really have anyone hanging out, at Summerfest there must have been 100+ people around the Tikibar jamming out to Rook playing a great house set. It just speaks to a mindset.

I guess that point that I am getting at is that for a boogie to grow and be awesome there has to be awesomeness and new hotness. Couchfreaks with 800+ people was epic, 300ish was kinda more like a relaxing weekend of camping. There has to be a draw, a reason to make the journey compared to what is available elsewhere.

Someone mentioned the Cheese Boogie as being competition, that's my home DZ's boogie and I don't really agree. We don't have the capacity or camping or ability to have that kind of party. It's about as big as it can get already with the people that come. I think that the true competition is Summerfest, cause it's one of the biggest boogies left and has essentially unlimited camping room, great parties, a crapton of lift capacity and superior facilities.

You can throw the dice on a calendar and hit a weekend with 2-3 boogies going on depending on where in the country you go and that doesn't help either.

[inline cf.jpg]
~D
Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me.
Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

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Someone mentioned the Cheese Boogie as being competition,



That was me... but, I was speaking about the opportunities to go to smaller, less expensive venues that are much closer to home where you can make great skydives out of turbines.

I'm hoping Couch doesn't go the way of FB, WFC, Albert Lee, ect. I always had a great time and would like to go there again. :)
Birdshit & Fools Productions

"Son, only two things fall from the sky."

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All good, thoughtful responses. This thread should be a good starting point for the DS Club members. My thought was that it's somewhat inevitable, and a culture change. I also had the thought that maybe the Freaks should in large part accept the new paradigm and let it be more intimate, back to roots kind of thing.

It is a huge undertaking to host such an event, there aren't many groups/clubs/DZs up to it. One hall of a lot of work goes into it every year, so maybe scaling down would relieve some of that pressure as well.

I also agree that this one and likely others will need to evolve and change to remain interesting. Hell, there isn't even the nakedness of the 1990s as a draw. Interesting times.

I will say that I hadn't really thought to attempt to be part of the entertainment, and to bring something to the plate. I'll put that thought to the Wichita and Kansas folks!

Martin
Experience is what you get when you thought you were going to get something else.

AC DZ

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grimmie

Iphones and GoPros killed boogie nekkidness:P



Without question. None of the girls that came with us a few years ago wanted anything to do with any of the naked competition stuff cause they didn't want pictures taken among other things.
~D
Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me.
Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

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As a new jumped I was really excited about the prospect of an epic boogie. I'm hearing good things about summerfest, but even then it does not seem to rise to the level of boogies of the past (thinking wffc).

Yeah, times have changed a bit, but I'm fairly confident it can be done. But your talking the standard turbines, plus a jet, plus balloons, plus a helicoptor and it would surely not hurt to have sister base boogie nearby. Add to that you need the facilities, the music, marketing and a way to address the, umm, camera shy crowd.... that's a tall order. One that very few could put together and my fear is that they are of the mindset that "the era of the boogie is dead".

Kickstarter could be an option.

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800 people, epic?

I used to work the rigging loft with Wag at the WFFC. We shared a trailer with registration. Wag got to see the real numbers. Curlin used to pad them to make it look big but no shit at it's peak it was 5,000 actual skydivers plus extras on the airport at one time. This was back in the days when the police were afraid to come behind the fence.

That was a Boogie.

I just wish I could remember more of it, but I'm sure I had a good time. And I don't even drink, exhaustion is a bitch.

Lee
Lee
[email protected]
www.velocitysportswear.com

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skydived19006

Couch Freak Boogie attendance was dramatically low again for the 2nd year in a row, and as a trend declining for the last 5 to 10 years. I wonder what's changing that is causing this, is it typical of other large regional boogies (no large multi national boogies anymore with the death of WFFC, at least that I know of)?

My guess is that turbine aircraft being more common, and smaller boogies popping up, that more and more folks simply are not interested in the drive. It looked to me like there were very few from north of FT Dodge IA (IL, WI), nor Oklahoma/Texas.

Thoughts?



I would agree with that. "Back in the day" most folks had to travel just to find an Otter, making trips on the boogie circuit a near necessity for any serious large or even medium-way action.

I'm sure the other big boogies - Carolina Fest and SDC's big summer blowout, for example - are also putting a crunch on Freaks. Times change, I suppose.

Here in Texas we have also noticed a decline in interest for spending 3-day weekends at the DZ. My guess is again that it's because there's nothing on a 3-day that jumpers can't get every weekend. The demographics probably also play a part. White collar jumpers seem to blow out earlier and don't come out as much on the last day of the weekend. Guess they need to get home to get ready for their big bucks workweek.
Chuck Akers
D-10855
Houston, TX

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800 people, epic?



It's all relative right? :ph34r:

I was at Quincy at the height of the boogie's popularity: 94 and 96. It was amazing. But you also could not mingle and party and jump with everyone. It was immense. Epic: yes.

A 800 people boogie in a small place like FD: I'd call that epic too. ;)
Remster

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Remster

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800 people, epic?



It's all relative right? :ph34r:

I was at Quincy at the height of the boogie's popularity: 94 and 96. It was amazing. But you also could not mingle and party and jump with everyone. It was immense. Epic: yes.

A 800 people boogie in a small place like FD: I'd call that epic too. ;)


Agreed! I was at both places during those big years and both were epic!

-

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When I started jumping 20 years ago, there were very few DZ's that had large turbine aircraft. Sure, the were the big DZ's like Perris, Zhills, DeLand...etc. Heck Zhills still had a DC3 as a fairly normal plane for boogies and it was just a regular jump ticket, not a 'specialty' plane. But now you can find a turbine in almost every state.

Back then, boogies were big draws. It was the only way you were going to jump large aircraft. Now, your local DZ has a turbine and is going to 13k. Back then, the WFFC was a huge boogie... 4k jumpers.

Now take that most people are closer to a big plane than they were, sprinkle in the cost and PITA of traveling to a big boogie and add a dash of local boogies and you get much less interest in large boogies.

I think the days of 4k jumpers at a biggie are long gone and the only thing that will bring that back is a massively bad event that prevents most DZ's from having turbines.
"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

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