Looking back at CarolinaFest 2019

CarolinaFest: The skydiving boogie with amazing jumpers, badass load organizers, memorable skydives, all the southern hospitality, and an experience that will not be forgotten! The 11th annual Carolina Fest was rocking! Let’s take a snapshot of the awesomeness:

CarolinaFest 2019 Stats

• Aircraft Lineup: King Air, Skyvan & 3 Twin Otters
• 21 Free Loads
• 6749 Total Event Jumps
• 337 Total Loads Flown
• 400 Registered Jumpers

CarolinaFest 2019 Milestones

• Carolinafest sold out in 3 days!
• 100 turbine loads on Saturday – the first time in the event’s history
• The DZM was quite pleased that it was an injury-free boogie
• The high-give championship belt went to the DZ’s very own Bubba Bruson

We could recap the event in our own words, but our amazing vendors, organizers and participants’ words are so touching, we feel they share the story the best!

Performance Designs rep, Beau Riebe shared

“From a professional standpoint, Carolinafest is a must-attend! It is the kick-off boogie of the summer season and attracts hundreds of eager and passionate skydivers. For PD, it’s a great chance to get in some customer face time early in the season. Jumpers can try whatever new canopies they’re interested in purchasing for the season or get current on their reserve by demoing the PD Optimum. Skydive Carolina sets up vendor row in a brilliant way to where jumpers couldn’t miss us even if they tried!”

Above Photo By Dan Schiermeyer

FS Load Organizer, Joost Niki Luysterburg summarizes the event:

I’ve lost count of what my tally is of attending this amazing skydiving event. I think it’s either 7 or 8. Losing count doesn’t mean this Boogie gets boring after attending a couple of times. Quite the opposite. This year CarolinaFest sold out (maximum 400 skydivers participating) in less than 4 days! And I wouldn’t be surprised if next year it’ll be 2…

Why is this? The atmosphere, great vibes, happy feelings, total awesomeness is what this Boogie exudes. Enough airplanes to get everyone up to their heart’s content, great facilities, and excellent staff. Food on-site, FREE LOADS each morning and last but not least; MORE than enough organizers to make sure no one has to jump alone. This is one of the few Boogies I’ve organized at, where you can dedicate yourself to small groups of inexperienced people, without leaving out the larger groups. Like most Boogies, there were moments where we as organizers were busy, but there were even some moments where the organizers had to look for people to jump with.

This is a good thing; it means everyone is taken care of. Everyone is out having a great time. Everyone is making the skydives they want. Everyone gets to jump with an organizer if they want. I remember when I was a young inexperienced skydiver at boogies where it was impossible to get organized because the skydiver to organizer ratio was horrible. Not CFest. Enough organizers get assigned each day to different experience levels, so as a skydiver you’re never left out.

Belly, vertical, angle, tracking, spaceballs, tubes, inflatables and flocking… everything is accounted for at Carolina Fest. Set your alarms and calendars, get in early in 2020 and DO NOT MISS OUT!!!

Above Photo By Dan Schiermeyer

A few participants chimed in on the event’s group page and shared some great words about their experiences:

Mike Di Lisi – Well Skydive Carolina, you sure know how to make a Canadian blush! I was absolutely blown away by the level of hospitality and passion shown by each and every staff member and volunteer at SCPC!

It took nearly a week but I’m just now catching my breath after such an epic event! It was an honor to be part of CarolinaFest 2019! I’d like to send out a giant Canadian “Thanks Eh!” to the manifest, packers, pilots, fuelers, maintenance crew, Dale’s Dive-In, the awesome management team and all of the other amazing staff and volunteers!

Special mention goes out to the gator drivers who were consistently there to pick us up before we could even stow our toggles! It’s the little details like this which really show Skydive Carolina‘s commitment to safety. Every person I jumped with was more than happy to land a mile out from the hanger knowing they would be picked up quickly!

Looking back at my burble app, I had the opportunity to jump with more than 50 awesome individuals at this event, many of you for the first time! Thanks to all of you for the awesome fun jumps, countless high-fives, and endless smiles!

Until next time Skydive Carolina! ??

Annette Diaz – This was my 6th year coming and it never fails how amazingly organized and wonderful this boogie is. Thank you to all who make this happen time after time. Outstanding! ?? Until wet meet again. ?

Kaleisha Leon – Boz & I wanted to thank everyone for making our first Carolinafest such an epic experience! As a pretty new jumper, everyone was so helpful and full of advice. A special thanks to Gian Franco Malinconi Reyes Zachary R SabelGaret Bloodworth for agreeing to jump with the aerodynamically challenged. think I found my new favorite boogie (apart from TSK). See you all next year ❤️♥️❤️♥️

Above Photo By Byrds Eye Studio

LJ Burgess, Office Manager extraordinaire shared her highlight,

The support for Sam Smith was overwhelming. On Saturday of the event, a vast majority of the attending jumper’s gathered together in their ‘Support Sam’ apparel and took a group photo.

Sam Smith had been an event organizer for the past several years, and a few months ago, was seriously injured on a landing.

Below Photo By Dan Schiermeyer

Skydive Carolina expresses gratitude to all the participants, vendors, our hard-working team and volunteers – including a couple that came all the way from Minnesota to offer their services! And if this year is any indication on how popular the event has become, we will be sure to announce ahead of time when registration will open, so everyone will have an equal opportunity to register. 

Until next time, party on!