Countdown for Good Vibes continues despite setback

July 6th, 2011

Preparations for New Zealand's biggest annual skydiving event, the Good Vibes Boogie 2011, are stepping up a notch, but the normal hype has been dampened by the death of one of its past key figures and co-founder, Ted Rudd.

The event organisers, Skydive Abel Tasman, have this week placed on YouTube a promotional video of this year's event, the 10th since its inception, .

Ted Rudd worked for Skydive Abel Tasman as a tandem instructor and a student jump master between 2001 and 2003. He died recently after base-jumping off a mountain near his house in Norway.

"We are going to have a sort of memorial boogie this year," Skydive Abel Tasman owner Stuart Bean told the Nelson Mail. "At the end of the day, there are elements of risk in the activity he was carrying out when he had his accident."

Base jumpers freefall from mountains or other high places using specially designed suits, before opening parachutes to land safely. Ted Rudd was an expert at skydiving, making more than 7500 jumps in Australia, Taupo and Motueka.

The event runs from Wednesday August 17th to Sunday August 21st, starting at 9am each day, and is the biggest gathering of skydivers in New Zealand.

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