New Boogie Born in Alpine, Wyoming

By Carol Jones

Melvin Brewing, a local microbrewery in Alpine, Wyoming, holds an annual beer festival, Madness Days. The brewery asked local jumpers Bill and Carol Jones to organize tandem skydiving for this year’s event, which it held July 19-21. The result was a beer boogie featuring skydiving rather than the usual skydiving boogie featuring beer!

Kapowsin Air Sports in Shelton, Washington, provided their Porter aircraft for the event, along with three tandem instructors, four tandem rigs and a videographer. Skydive Arizona in Eloy also lent a hand by providing one tandem instructor and two more tandem rigs. Members of the Jones family and many others also kicked in to help with videography, rigging, packing and general ground-crew duties.

The improvised crew of professionals rocked the boogie, and the local community exploded with enthusiasm. The group flew 63 loads—including 116 tandems and 40 videos—in less than two and a half days. About 20 experienced jumpers attended the madness. Those in a quest to jump in all 50 states were particularly happy to get in a Wyoming jump. Everyone agreed it was an event worth repeating. And with that, the Melvin Sky Trash boogie was born.

Carol Jones | D-17918
Alpine, Wyoming