Lincoln Sport Parachute Club hosted their annual Redemption Boogie at the Plattsmouth Municipal Airport July 17-20, 2008. The boogie offered on-site vendors, a Skydive Arizona Twin Otter, plenty of RV power, great parties and some of the best boogie food you will ever have. "We enjoy life a lot and skydiving is not just about the adrenaline," say Forlini. This year's boogie was about celebrating life. A returning tandem student brought his father and 89-year old grandfather to make a three-generation skydive. Two women brought their grandfather's ashes and inquired about making a jump, LSPC organized tandems for them to release his ashes. Three skydivers, having made their first tandem at the 2007 boogie were in attendance as licensed jumpers.
Redemption Boogie offered different types of organizing and coaching to help develop and accentuate the talent of all skydivers. Jeremy Payne covered the vertical flyers while veteran organizer Sandy Grillet took care of the flat flying. Skyventure Colorado's Brad Cole and Jason Russell took on the fun task of one on one coaching as well as some larger dive organization. Everyone leaned a lot and walked away from Redemption Boogie a better skydiver. An unofficial Nebraska Women's State Record was made on Saturday under the direction of Chazi Blacksher and Linda Fette. The two were joined by Marcia Clark, Lisa Parks, Terri Risinger, Jen Schaben, Anna Schuster, Karry Schwartz and Andrea Wosel to successfully build a women's 9-way. "It was awesome to see so many Midwestern women in the sky," said Schwartz.
What do you do after a hard day's jumping? Relax with a bunch of fun!!! Friday night's theme party, Pirates versus Ninjas brought out the scallywags, while only a few ninjas were to be found. A giant twister board showed just how short Pirate skirts can be. Saturday night offered a Laid Back Luau where after a hard day of jumping everyone chilled out among a torch lit area eating some of the best BBQ ever served at a boogie.
Vendors were on-site: Sky Venture Colorado representatives promoted tunnel time during their coaching dives and offered excellent deals on time blocks. EG Sky Suits displayed and array of jump suits and set-up with a sewing machine to repair equipment. Performance Designs came back again to demo thier huge array of canopies. Firefly Suits also attended, taking measurements for new orders and selling stock suits. UPT-Vector kept spectators on edge during Skyhook demonstrations. Not all vendors could be on-site for the event. Many vendors contributed prizes for the Saturday night prize giveaway. One of the larger companies to donate was Deepseed, one of the newer and most promising jump suit companies in the world. Their array of "casual wear" from swetashirts, to hats, to t-shirts was very sought after during the prize giveaway. All attendees of the boogie were also given the opportunity to register on the Deepseed website to win a free Jumpsuit allocated for Redemption Boogie. Many thanks to Deepseed!
The boogie isn't only about skydiving, it's also about remembering and helping others. Throughout this decade, Lincoln Sport Parachute Club, mostly through Redemption Boogie has donated thousands of dollars to their designated charity - American Cancer Society. Boogiemeister Frank Forlini summed up the club's mission: "The club chose ACS because of the unfortunate fact that cancer has affected everyone somehow or some way in their lives. If we can make a few dollars by having fun and skydiving, it only befits us to give some back to the betterment of humanity." This year's donation was heart felt after losing a long time club member, Wayne Gau, to his battle with cancer late last year. LSPC donated a record amount to ACS helped by strong tandem numbers and donations by on-site vendors that went straight to ACS.
The boogie isn't only about skydiving, it's also about remembering and helping others. Throughout this decade, Lincoln Sport Parachute Club, mostly through Redemption Boogie has donated thousands of dollars to their designated charity - American Cancer Society. Boogiemeister Frank Forlini summed up the club's mission: "The club chose ACS because of the unfortunate fact that cancer has affected everyone somehow or some way in their lives. If we can make a few dollars by having fun and skydiving, it only befits us to give some back to the betterment of humanity." This year's donation was heart felt after losing a long time club member, Wayne Gau, to his battle with cancer late last year. LSPC donated a record amount to ACS helped by strong tandem numbers and donations by on-site vendors that went straight to ACS.
Redemption Boogie is about remembering, honoring and creating more memories. This well organized and smoothly run boogie will be back next year to celebrate LSPC's 50th year of learning and loving the sport. See everyone there!
We are sending another package over this year, so we hope to have more to show you from the event this time round. Have fun everyone that's going, and if you're not, and you are not a million miles away from the Guys, Go Check them out!!
