Posting REAL boogies - Skymama please read.

[goobersnuftda 0]

Skymama- I see you get frustrated with people who wish to post a real boogie beyond the 4 month rule but I believe that you should look at the fact that skydiving has changed over the years not only to the point that when I stared there were no wingsuits or free fly disciplines but so too are these so called “boogies”.

“I'm going to lock this for a few months since we have a 4 month rule, but I do understand people needing to make plans for a boogie such as this.”


Back in the day, a boogie was a real BOOGIE. Unique planes for a unique event. Now every 2nd drop zone in the US has a turbine ..... “come to our boogie this weekend, turbine aircraft with pizza and beer afterwards....”, that is not the real use of the word Boogie in my books.

You need to understand that people cannot pull $5,000 out of the behinds on less than 4 months notice. I don’t know how privileged you are in your employment but for most of us to travel across the world with great expense and manipulation of ones work schedule means a lot of time is required to pull this off.

Case in point. So locked down for notification that people just don’t bother with DZ.com and bypass it all together. Talked to many of the European jumpers and they just do their own thing. These boogies don't even bother on DZ.com anymore because it is a real BOOGIE and with the $$$ involved and scheduling, people need more than 4 months to make plans and arrangements.

www.bushmanskydivingadventures.com
www.exoticskyadventures.com

The downside of making DZ.com irrelevant is that the conversations or updates are only available to a select few (like the issues for the C-130 Herc African Safari boogie). Now don’t think that I am just complaining here but I have a suggestion for you as well.

Open a new forum for REAL BOOGIES. Let the people with their Twin Otter Saturday boogies and beer after jumping do their thing but for a real boogie event, I want to know ASAP so I can plan vacation time and take the whole family there before hand.

The Palau boogie is an expense as well but to take the whole family and research jellyfish lake, it’s worth having as much time as possible to plan and make arrangements.

Please don’t take my comments as being too harsh or snarky. Real boogies are dying off and to find one-off boogies that are once in a lifetime (like Nicaragua where we slid down an active volcano on a toboggan) are once in a lifetime opportunities that will never be done again.

It is really disappointing that in an age of communication and the instant transfer of information that DZ.com is pushing people away and towards stupid Facebook and private email lists.

[wmw999 2,120]

There's always the Calendar. You still have to look for the real boogies, but some of the others are very real to the people who go to them.

There doesn't appear to be any limit to how long ahead of time you can post htem.

Wendy P.

There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

[skymama 35]

Thank-you for your feedback. Don't worry about hurting my feelings, I can take it.

FYI, we didn't always have that rule. People were allowed to post their events as far out as they wanted. Then, a competition started between some boogies that were going on and people started posting to those threads like crazy so their boogie could stay at the top of the list. There was so much noise, the boogies that didn't have a lot of vocal members got pushed to the bottom of the page and missed.

As a result, we had a bunch of complaints from people. As one person quipped, "if you look at dz.com, you'd think the center of the skydiving world is Georgia!". So, we had to make changes but not necessarily because we wanted to.

The Mods are always open to suggestions as to how we can make the site better for the users. Many issues get debated heavily in our Team Room, you all just don't know that. So, for anyone reading this, feel free to post your opinions and ideas. We'll take it all in and discuss it!

She is Da Man, and you better not mess with Da Man,
because she will lay some keepdown on you faster than, well, really fast. ~Billvon

[Remster 24]

I agree with the OP, Andrea...

Those "major travel destination" boogies would be good to have on an open basis... They fill up early and don;t have much visibility here.

Remster

[grimmie 173]

Could we have an "Exotic Boogie" forum? Just for the events not being held at a regular DZ.

More jumpers are relying on facebook to get their info. Or maybe you can just lock the boogie threads when posters try to keep their event at the top?

The far away boogies really take a lot of planning and deposit $$'s to be a success for the jumpers and organizers. We have limited slots usually and overflow hotels fill up quickly with regular tourists, limiting the number of participants. For Palau we only have 80 slots, and they are starting to fill.

Maybe we just need Skymama to join us one of these years, like next!

[goobersnuftda 0]

I know it would upset some to have a new heading called "REAL BOOGIES" but the previous poster is correct. Some boogies can only have 80 jumpers or so because the tropical islands do not have massive lift capacity and with the spouses attending as well, there have been boogies where we have completely owned the whole hotel with there being no other accommodations around at all :)

These boogies are half jumping, half vacation (tours, safari or scuba diving). The do fill up fast and by the time 4 months comes along, they have been sold out 7 months prior. There are lots of special European boogies where they pop over to small countries for the week but they are exclusive because they are quiet. There are even mini C-130 Herc boogies that are only 3 days long but no one really hears about them.

How about this for a suggestion. When the new 20 yr. old wonders want to search for a boogie call it a JUMP BOOGIE. For the rest of us who do not require (x14) jumps per day how about TROPICAL BOOGIE or VACATION BOOGIE? We are quite happy to jump one day, scuba day two, cave tube, volcano slide, jump more, snorkle for lobster etc.

We are old now and have the time and $$$ to enjoy all the things in life we can now afford that back when you were 20 you don't care about because it is all about how many jumps you can do in a day :)

[goobersnuftda 0]

Oh Skymama Rich is right, you maybe need to come to one of these tropical events so you can see just how different it is from the local weekend turbine "boogie" :)

You can go here to see some of Vern and Rich's events but please don't click on it with your play phone (looks like crap and doesn't load everything as it should). Use a real computer with the speakers on, the larger the computer screen the better.

www.burk.ca

[normiss 622]

aaaand window close due to auto play music.
Really?

[trinitycsi 0]

Maybe its just me but you all are missing the easiest way to differentiate the boogies that wouldn't offend anyone. Why not call most of the "vacation boogies" for what they really are.... International Boogies as in non-US boogies.

[NWFlyer 2]

trinitycsi

Maybe its just me but you all are missing the easiest way to differentiate the boogies that wouldn't offend anyone. Why not call most of the "vacation boogies" for what they really are.... International Boogies as in non-US boogies.

Because this isn't a US site, and there are skydivers from around the world on here. There are plenty of "non-exotic" boogies in parts of the world other than the US, those that are primarily geared towards people from the region (though they might get a few folks from far afield). Simple fact is that the 3-4 day boogie isn't really going to attract anyone who has to travel too far to get there. But a "destination boogie" (especially one to somewhere like Palau where everyone has to travel in no matter where they're coming from) is a different animal.

"There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke