Skydivers to drop in on county
If you look up this weekend, you’ll most likely see a steady stream of brightly colored parachutes as Marvin’s Boogie returns once again to Warren County Memorial Airport.
Held twice a year for the past eight years at the local airport, Marvin’s Boogie has become the largest skydiving event in the Southeast, according to event organizer and skydiving enthusiast Marvin Smith.
“We’ve grown dramatically in both the number of skydivers we draw from across the region and the number of visitors from Warren County who come to check it out and experience the atmosphere,” he said.
This weekend’s event, he said, is expected to draw 200 licensed skydivers and their families (numbering an additional 200 to 300 people) from a half dozen surrounding states. He estimated the boogie will inject approximately $100,000 into the local economy.
Highlighting the boogie will be well over 1,000 individual jumps to occur over the three-day period. Smith said three planes will be used to ferry 36 skydivers into the air every 15 minutes, which will provide onlookers an almost non-stop parade of parachutes falling toward the ground.
While bringing a blanket or a lawn chair to the airport to watch the skydivers is the most popular way for visitors to enjoy the boogie, there are other options for non-skydivers.
Perhaps the most adrenaline packed is a tandem skydive which allows anyone 18 or older and weighing less than 250 pounds the opportunity to jump while attached to an experienced, licensed skydiver. The jumps, which cost $160 and are described by Smith as “pure sensory overload,” take participants to 15,000 feet, whereupon they free fall for 10,000 feet in the span of a minute before the chute opens and they glide relatively slowly to the ground.
Smith said tandem jumps are “extremely safe” as the least experienced tandem instructor has made in excess of 100 tandem jumps.
“In eight years the only tandem injury we’ve had is one broken ankle,” he said.
For those not willing to jump out of a perfectly good airplane, 15-minute observation rides on the planes transporting the skydivers will also be available for $25.
Marvin’s Boogie takes place Friday, Saturday and Sunday at Warren County Memorial Airport and is free.
Marvin’s Boogie
When: This weekend
Where: Warren County Memorial Airport
Things to do: Tandem jumps are available for $160. Plane rides are available for $25.