(Seychelles News Agency) – Seychelles will host its fourth international skydiving event in October, dubbed ‘Birds of Paradise Boogie’ with around 45 participants including six Seychellois.
The event, which is being organised by the FlySeychelles Skydiving centre, will see participants from all over the world completing 15 jumps over the islands of Praslin, La Digue and Bird Island.
“We wanted to include more islands in this event but we have some difficulties in getting permissions from those responsible for the islands and so we had to settle for these three for now,” said Franchesco Drosi, the co-owner of FlySeychelles, along with Gabor Vizko.
Drosi told SNA that among the participants are four world champions and world record holders. They are Italian Roberta Mancino, Norwegian Event Rokny, American Will Penny and German Ralph Wilhelm.
The event will take place from October 2 – 8 and Drosi explained that while skydiving is the main event, these activities will also bring a lot to Seychelles, especially as the participants will bring along their families and will be exploring the island nation.
“When we land on these islands, we have arranged for them to be able to have lunch and dinner and also visit places of interest on the island,” he added.
Drosi stressed that they are hoping for clear skies in order for the event to be successful, as it is crucial that it is not cloudy or rainy.
“When we are about to jump, we need clear skies as we have to see the ground. If we cannot see where we are jumping then it is not safe, so if the weather is not favourable on the day of a jump, it will have to be cancelled,” he explained.
In the upcoming competition, six Seychellois skydivers who have recently received their licences will also be participating. They are members of the Seychelles Defence Forces (SDF) who have been receiving training for over a year now. The six Seychellois need to complete over 300 jumps in order to get a higher level license, which will enable them to jump towards smaller targets.
Drosi added that the collaboration between the SDF is going well and despite the cost of training, the SDF is determined to have highly trained personnel for their special operations.
This will be the fourth skydiving event in Seychelles following the first ever Seychelles Innhop experience in 2021, the Seychelles Boogie in March 2022 and the Seychelles Innhop in April.
Drosi, a Seychellois of Italian origin, also revealed plans for Seychelles to host the biggest skydiving event in the world in 2024 called the Tsunami Boogie.
“The Tsunami Boogie is one of the biggest events in the world of Skydiving and has been held in Hawaii, Costa Rica and even the Maldives. Now we want to bring it to Seychelles and it will help to bring a large number of visitors to the islands,” added Drosi.
Fly Seychelles Skydiving is located on Praslin, the second-most populated island of Seychelles, an archipelago in the western Indian Ocean.
Source: Seychelles News Agency
