BOOGIE DE NAVIDAD 2006

Mientras pongo mi campana en su bolsa, me seco la frente de sudor y miro a mi alrededor, me encuentro a 30 o 40 personas plegando tambien sus paracaídas al aire libre en el césped, en la cálida luz del atardecer bajo un cielo despejado y azul. Preparadas para despegar estan primero la Twin Otter con la famosa Beech 99 justo detrás, seguidas de la Skyvan y la Porter, para hacer el lanzamiento de un "30 way"... 

Es difícil de imaginar que sea invierno en Europa teniendo en cuenta que durante el Boogie de Navidad de Empuriabrava, la ropa de elección fueron pantalones cortos y camisetas manga corta. Sin duda alguna se trata del Boogie más famoso fuera de los EE.UU. que se celebra anualmente y para el cual vienen aviones extras y organizadores de saltos de nivel mundial, de vuelo en formación y freefly .

Organising FS groups from 5 ways up to 50 ways were Milko, Billy, Karsten, Felix and of course me. Looking after the freeflyers were world champions Babylon and go Vertical organiser Tim Porter. One highlight being 5 of the Babylon team on their bellies joining us on a 2 point 50 way, you could see they loved it!
 
Over 380 jumpers registered this year, all receiving a gift pack containing wine and cava to help celebrate the festive period.
 
Is it global warming? I don’t know, but it is certainly a lot warmer than last year, jumping without gloves and thermals, packing outside, what a treat!
 
Perfect weather was had for the whole boogie, only a 1 hour standby for morning fog on boxing day and no injuries apart from my finger getting trapped in the door of the Skyvan!
 
A new floor in the hanger and a new  manifest system with screens showing loads and take off times added to the fresh look of this years boogie.
 
With the jumps of the day being shown in the marquee each night and me spinning the tunes, what more could you wish for?
 
Well, Empuriabrava has always been know as a party town but now there are 3 new bars as well, talk about spoilt for choice!
 
Julia Nikiforova was enjoying her first boogie here, I asked her if she was having a good time, she was laughing so hard for about 5 minutes she couldn’t speak, she then said.
 
 ´´I will definitely come again, I couldn’t imagine spending a better 2006/2007 anywhere in the world, and I have travelled!!´´
 
Billy Payne had been coming to the boogie for the last 8 years and this was his 4th year load orgainsing..
 
´´I loved it! The level of skydiving has improved so much this year. The ability of jumpers to get into a group with you, me, Karsten or Felix and progress onto bigger and better stuff thru the week has been amazing, plus the fabulous weather has made this year extra special´´
 
Cesar has been working at Skydive Empuriabrava for 1 year as an AFF and Tandem instructor and this was his 1st Xmas boogie.
 
´´I cannot believe the quality of the skydives I have been on, the fact that we can put together a 50 way like that without any training is awesome! I have been to plenty of other boogies in the past but this beats them all´´
 
Peter Denigan was visiting from America,
 
´´Man, you guys know how to put on a show, the jumps have been great, I have been made to feel like part of the family, and the night times? What a town! This is party central!´´New years Eve in the Blue Sky Bar…wow´´
 
Blue Sky Bar being one of the new venues we have here. Myself, Bruno Brokken and Anna Howerski borught the new year in with our Empuria band.
 
Piifish said..
 
´´good points were : the RW load organising, the big parties , Regan's capacity to entertain so many people, even those who can't understand a word of what he's saying, the variety of planes.
the weather was great, from the ground we had our share of beautiful views of the bigways, on the cutaways , AFAIK no injury. All in all we had a great time.´´
 
Quoting Caspar from DZ.com.
 
´´days, 26 jumps[ ran out of money ], 6 hours of down time from fog, best skydiving holiday ive ever been on.... weather planes people....i could go on...amazing.
Regan is a legend´´
 
Kevin McCarthy runs his AFF school at Empuriabrava,
 
´´Not teaching and being able to enjoy some great bigways with Miko´s group, feels like I’ve had a holiday!, to be honest need a holiday now, Its just all too much fun!´´
 
Head Manifester Lynne Cocker talked about the new manifest system..
 
´´After a baptism of fire we got it up and running and we really happy with it, especially now we don’t have as many jumpers at the window with questions…its all ther on the screen for them to see!!´´
 
 
On top of all that we had the Tombola, this is not your normal raffle. Over 20000 euros worth of prizes, sponsors by some of the biggest names in the sport. Performance Designs, Cypres2, Sunpath, Parachutes de France, X- shut, Sonic flywear, Alti 2, 2K Composites, Bonehead, Gath, Babylon, Phoenix fly and Larsen and Brusgaard
 
First prize was a complete system, Javelin Odyssey, Sabre 2, Cypres 2 and a Performance Designs reserve.
 
Second prize, Atom Legend, Electra main and Techno reserve all from Parachutes de France
 
Third prize, Phoenix fly wing suit and a block of 25 jumps from Skydive Empuriabrava
 
Plus loads of other prizes like helmets, T shirts, Altimeters, DVDs, sunglasses, jumpsuits,  all hosted by ME and with a local band before and after and other bands on during the week….I could go on!
 
Enough to say it was the perfect boogie to end the year on. A year which saw us complete a record number of jumps, 134010 to be exact! Plus a record number of tandems, 10934 and new skydivers qualifying AFF were 451. 100 of these being thru visiting Instructors.
 
Regan Tetlow