Article of the month:
Most of them came
from Europe but also from the rest of the world, 222 skydivers attended
the Thai Boogie 98
organised from February 7th to 21st by Alexis Perry.
Text by Patrick
Passe
This Exotic Sky Adventures event began with 2
days in a Bangkok (Thailand's capital city) luxury hotel. Everybody was
free to visit and explore the Asian charms of this gigantic, overcrowded
city, inhabited by 6 million people. Bangkok is a captivating city, full
of contrasts: skyscrapers, golden Buddhist temples and slums mix, a city
where religion and prostitution share the same neighbourhood, a city without
horizon where money makes kings out of tourists, a picturesque city with
"woks" cooking on the pavements, massage parlours, stores full
of Orient treasures, "tuk-tuks" (small 3 wheel taxis) deriding
the huge traffic, taxi-boats droning on the Chao Phraya lined with wooden
houses on piles. The temperature was over 30° C.
After two unforgettable days of tourism, the Thai Boogie participants
wanted to leave this sweaty atmosphere for a cool sea breeze. The Imperial
Queens Park Hotel porters loaded the luggage in the buses with air conditioning,
which were headed to Hua Hin, 180 km south of Bangkok, on the Thailand
Gulf. This is where Alexis Perry's exotic boogie took place. Everybody
settled at the Regent Cha-Am Beach Hotel: beaches, large swimming pools,
bars, restaurants, warm service, very comfortable and spacious rooms, in
short, everything that goes with a 5 star hotel. 6 pm: welcome cocktail
followed by a buffet under the stars with a local show. Alexis welcomed
everybody, then introduced a Royal Thai Air Force official, the Air Marshal
B. Supbornsug, the man in charge of planes and logistics for the boogie.
Skydivers really felt welcomed and the following day was the first day
of the boogie. Every morning, after a hearty breakfast by the beach, skydivers
met at 8:30. The bus ride to the DZ was 10 minutes long. On the parking
area of this airfield with little traffic, two G-222 waited with their
tailgates open.
These Royal Thai Air Force
planes looked like small Hercules and they can carry up to 60 skydivers.
Jumping altitude was 4000m The runway ran up to the seaside. The landing
zone comprised areas on both sides of the runway, plus the beach for those
who wanted to land there. The boogie life was centred on a large space
surrounded by shady places and packing zones, which also included the manifest
and some Thai fast food counters with woks and bbq's where coconuts and
pineapples were cut with a machete. There was an air-conditioned room on
the side for the videopeople and the staff members. Some of the participants
favoured sit-flying or freeflying but 90% of the lot made RW jumps in organised
groups of 8 to 20 people depending on one's level. Every two or three days,
the 10 load organisers switched groups. Some of them organised groups with
no more than 3 or 4 low experienced skydivers. "Exotic Sky Adventures
boogies are the only ones with load organisers for small groups of people
with little experience of RW." Alexis Perry said. The best groups
jumped with Derek Thomas and Darryl Moran from England, Dieter Kirsch from
Germany, Michael Bouman from the Netherlands and Jeff Ronzevalle from France.
Each group was followed by a videoperson,. There were good and not so good
jumps, some very good from 8 to 20 way sequence jumps 3 or 4 correct 40-50
ways and two poor 74-way jumps with the two G-222 flying in formation.
48-way jump vertical of Prachuap organised by Dieter Kirsch
and Darryl Moran. Two or three times a day , droppings took place over
this large Royal Thai Air Force base when the G-222 came for refuelling.
It will be the location of the Thai Boogie 99 organised by Alexis Perry.
Year after year, Alexis always tries to improve some aspects of the
exotic boogies and now he thinks about optimising more the quality of load
organising and hence the quality of the skydives for his next exotic boogie.
With 5 jumps a day, the participants had 15 quiet days of exotic skydiving
with blue skies everyday, beach jumps in front of the hotel just before
sunset, two jumps on other beaches together with a cocktail and a Thai
buffet for before or after packing, two Hercules jumps on an inland Thai
military base, several jumps over Prachuap whose charms and vivid landscape
are better understood on pictures than with words.
Exotic Sky Adventures staff under canopy over Hua Hin,
main location of the Thai Boogie 98. One can see the runway that ends by
the beach, the vast landing zone and the square packing zone lined with
tents.
The Thai Boogie 98 was also marked by the generosity and the welcome
of the locals, meals under the moonlight, on the beach or on the side of
the hotel swimming pool, during which the moment was the only thing that
counted, evenings on the streets in Hua Hin, when night markets come to
life, savours, odours, colours, lights; an atmosphere that carries the
soul away and gives you a heavy heart when the last day of the boogie comes.
Unlike the preceding years, Exotic Sky Adventures customers were more skydivers
than "tourists-skydivers". That's why Alexis Perry's exotic boogie
99 will once again be organised in Thailand, more precisely in Prachuap,
because there will be planes (Porter, Hercules, G-222) thanks to the Royal
Thai Air Force, a comfortable infrastructure, hotels by the sea and close
to the DZ. Hence, he will be able to offer a better skydiving activity
together with the charms and colours of a heavenly place.
The Thai boogie 98 was indisputably another success to add on the list
of the boogies organised by Exotic Sky Adventures.
Of course, every participant had his/her opinion depending on his/her
expectations. Nevertheless, more than 80 % of the people raised their hands
with cheers when, during the closing dinner, Alexis Perry asked who wanted
to come back to Thailand next year. So see you in Prachuap in February
99.
A hard blow
On the First day of the boogie, 16 skydivers
landed at sea. For 48 hours, one of them was missing, Stephen O'Brian,
a 38 years old Englishman with 700 hundred jumps. He was found dead on
a beach 4 or 5 km from where the boogie took place. It was a hard blow
for everybody: Alexis Perry (who never had a fatality during the previous
exotic boogies), the Exotic Sky Adventures team and the participants. "Droppings
and corrections were made by the load organisers. On the First day of the
boogie, the first jumping day, nobody was used to doing it from the G-222.
On that day, people could not see that the plane was not flying flat and
had an incidence towards the sea, which gave a wrong idea of the dropping
point. The wind also strengthened in a direction parallel to the coast
whereas it came from the sea for previous jumps. The consequence was that
16 people had to land in the water and rather far away from the beaches.
The Thai rescue boats had motor problems and the skydivers stayed at least
20 minutes in the water. However the dead skydiver did not drown but was
killed by the violent impact of his face on the surface of the water. He
landed with a 10m/s backwind without braking his Stiletto. The chest strap
of his rig was undone, as soon as his feet touched the surface of the water,
he was thrusted forward and out of his harness, against the surface of
the water" Alexis said, after thinking and talking with his whole
staff.
Exotic Sky Adventures Team
The boss: Alexis Perry
Alexis' assistants and load organisers: Michael
Bouman and Herman Landsman (Netherlands)
Physician and load organiser: Eric de Coster
(Belgium)
Public relations with Thai people and load
organiser: Larry Henderson (USA)
Load organisers: Claudio Bionda (Italy), Dieter
Kirsch (Germany), Darryl Moran (England), Jeff Ronzevalle (France), Dieter
Schmassman (Switzerland), Derek Thomas (England)
Video coordination: Bruno Brokken (Spanio-Belgian),
Gaby Meis (Germano-Spaniard)
Manifest: Annet van der Jagt (Netherlands),
Karina Willerup (Denmark) Logistics: Alessandro Kornfeind (Italy)
20 countries represented at the
Thai Boogie 98
Australia, Austria, Belgium, China,
Denmark, England, Finland, France, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Malaysia,
Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand,
USA.
Mixed jumps of freeflying and sit-flying over Hua Hin
beaches.
The cost of the Thai Boogie 98
2340 US dollars for the return ticket
Europe-Bangkok, 14 nights in a five star hotel (2 nights in Bangkok), 14
breakfasts, 7 dinners with cocktail (some of them with a show), several
beach jumps, 15 jumps with load organising and video, everyday transportation.
Without the plane ticket: 1690 US dollars. Additional jumps: 20 US dollars.
The cost of living is ridiculously low (local currency: baht), for example:
- one copious meal with a beer: around 2 USD. - a taxi that can carry up
to 6 people for 20 km: 4 USD. - a tuk-tuk for 3 people and 10 km: 2 USD.
- one pineapple ready to eat: 50 cents. - a bottle of water: a quarter.
- one whisky: 1 to 2 USD.
Some statistics :
83 G-222 take-offs, 2 C-130 Hercules take-offs,
4825 jumps, 5 cutaways/reserve pulls, 3 broken bones
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