What
started out as a way to spend excess club revenue has turned in to one of the
largest, and longest running boogies in the United States.
The Couch Freaks anticipate that more than 600 jumpers will attend this
year’s end of the summer celebration.
Dollar
Daze is not your typical boogie. Fort Dodge isn’t even a DZ for the other 51
weeks of the year. However, for one
week a year 30 members of the Des Moines Skydivers set up shop 100 miles north
of their home DZ to host a campground full of their closest friends to skydive,
eat, drink, party, tell stories, and just hang out.
It’s a great way to spend Labor Day weekend, but it is a lot of work
for the small skydiving club.
So,
just who are the Couch Freaks and what’s the deal with their Dollar Daze boogie?
The
Des Moines Skydivers, AKA the Couch Freaks* were organized as a nonprofit club
in 1974 by a group of skydivers who wanted make skydives as inexpensive as possible.
They took advice from an established club, the Lincoln Sport Parachute Club,
and created their own non-profit club. They jumped from a Cessna 195 that the
members maintained and serviced themselves, until they “blew the seals during
flight” and made one last impromptu exit.
Needing
a plane, a couple of members mortgaged their houses and bought a Cessna 182.
Later they purchased a Cessna 206 in the same manner.
Anyone with a regular job was welcomed into the club to help make payments.
Students and demos became important revenue sources. At the end of each
year, they held a Christmas party paid for with money left over after paying
all club expenses for the year. The year-end party continued to grow in size
until 1980 when they decided to have an official party at the end of the summer
and spend the excess revenues on cheap jumps.
The first year about 40 skydivers enjoyed dollar jumps ($1 per jump)
out of the club’s Cessna 206, and the first “Dollar Daze” was born.
Growth
Initially,
the club operated out of a small airport in Dallas Center, Iowa.
In just a few years, Dollar Daze, by then well-known for it’s good-time
atmosphere, outgrew the club’s expectations.
However, Dollar Daze’ notoriety not only began attracting a large number
of jumpers, it also got the club evicted. So
the club moved to Knoxville, Iowa, and began renting larger aircraft to accommodate
the growing number of attendees. The
first large aircraft at the boogie was a 14 place Sikorsky helecopter. Within
a couple of years, even more capacity was needed and the club began using DC3s.
Growth
was good for the boogie, but again it got the club evicted.
In 1987, the club moved it’s operations from Knoxville to Winterset,
Iowa, its current home. Winterset could not accommodate the boogie,
so the club decided to host the boogie elsewhere. After reviewing proposals from several airports, the Couch Freaks
selected Ft. Dodge, Iowa, as their home away from home for the boogie.
Airplanes
The
search for aircraft to accommodate the needs of the boogie became more of a
challenge each year. Working with several
aircraft owners, and coordinating which aircraft to start first, and shut down
first became a yearly problem. Having more lift capacity than needed is not
something a Cessna DZ club is used to! Finally in the mid 90’s, the club began working
with Larry Hill of Skydive Arizona to bring in three or four turbine planes
every year. Although the club has occasionally brought in an additional aircraft
to increase lift capacity, using one vendor for all aircraft has eliminated
most of the headaches.
In
1992 the event grew to about 900 jumpers, raising concerns about having enough
jump capacity. Unfortunately, it rained
the entire weekend and capacity never became an issue—the only real problem
was keeping the beer taps flowing.
The
number of jumpers has leveled off to between 425 and 525 jumpers per year for
the last 10 years. Skydive Arizona’s
fleet of one Super Skyvan, two Twin Otters and one King Air have been able to
handle the crowds with room to spare.
Dollars
and Cents.
To
support all of the event costs, jump prices have increased from $ 1 but were
still offer the best value for your dollar.
In addition to great skydives, attendees are also treated to an unlimited
supply of beer, live bands, and a smorgasbord of Iowa food including pork chops,
sweet corn, and an all-you-can-eat chili feed.
Airport
rent, campground setup, electric hookups, showers, toilets, tents, security,
food, beer truck, entertainment, insurance and aircraft ferry fees more than
offset the registration fees. Profits, if there are any, come from tandems
and a percent of jump ticket fees. If
the weather is bad, the more attendees we have, the more money we lose! Careful planning and good weather play crucial
roles in determining the financial success of each boogie.
It takes a lot of effort to keep the party going. The 30 club members each have to work a minimum of three, six-hour shifts and additional workers are solicited to assist with filling in the other 60 unfilled shifts for a total of approximately 150, six-hour shifts. With no-shows and additional last minutes needs, most members end up working more or longer shifts than expected. By the end of the boogie, the stress level and burn-out rate are high. Everyone is certain they will never be a volunteer anywhere ever again!
Planning for the boogie starts the first week of October each year. That’s when those members who are back on a speaking terms get together to discuss what went well and what went wrong at the recently concluded boogie. A list of do’s and don’ts is developed—though rarely agreed upon, and a starting point is established for next year’s Dollar Daze committee. The club Treasurer and the Dollar Daze Vice President sift through all of the invoices to be sure all vendors are paid and try to determine if the club had a good or bad financial year. Unlike most businesses, club financials always seem to come last. Although a budget is created early in the process to address upfront expenses like advertising and airport rent, success is not determined until all expenses—planned and unplanned are paid.
Club members vote for the board of directors in December. One of the club’s mottos is “be there or be elected.” The five-member board of directors has new members every year. Sometimes the new members know what they are doing, sometimes they learn the hard way. Regardless of their experience and knowledge, planning for the annual Labor Day boogie begins in earnest in early January.
A lot has to happen behind the scenes to put on a boogie 100 miles away from your home DZ. For starters you have to agree to terms with the airport owner, which in this case is the Fort Dodge Regional Airport Commission. Nothing happens quickly with governmental agencies or volunteer clubs. Rental fees, insurance, security, grounds preparation, cleanup and rehabilitation, hangar rental, and prior access to grounds all have to be negotiated and finalized before planning the next steps. It takes a lot of airport space for 700 people to camp for five days. Once an agreement has been reached, then local support from the community has to be reestablished—again from 100 miles away.
Boogies need planes. How many planes depends on the number of jumpers. However, if you don’t have planes locked in by the beginning of the year, you won’t have them come Labor Day. Attendance and weather guarantees have to be made early. The commitment for the turbine aircraft is usually made at the end of the previous boogie—fingers are crossed hoping the numbers work out.
Fort Dodge (population 25,000) also hosts a large rodeo over Labor Day weekend, so hotel rooms for VIPs, organizers and other guests have to be reserved as much as a year in advance. Room negotiations begin before the end of the previous boogie and continue through the summer.
Since there are no services offered at the club’s home-away-from-home airport, the club has to bring everything in—electricity, toilets, water, food and shelter all have to be negotiated and arranged on an annual basis. Since need is unknown when agreements are reached, best guesses are used. Keeping portable toilets clean and showers hot, have provided some of the biggest headaches over the years. There is no easy way to provide comfortable toilets and good showers on a temporary basis when there is limited running water and no sewer connections on site.
Luckily the club has developed a great relationship with the airport management. The airport manager and her key staff all work overtime to ensure the boogie’s success. Without their knowledge and beyond-the-call-of-duty efforts, Dollar Daze would not have survived for 25 years.
Keeping attendees happy
If you can handle the porta-potties, and sometimes hot, sometimes cool showers, the rest is sweet entertainment. Dollar Daze jumpers average more than 13 jumps each during the boogie. Live bands perform on Saturday and Sunday nights with a DJ providing entertainment on Friday night and sometimes Thursday night. An Iowa chop dinner is always on the menu Saturday night and the local Chili Lovers society provides all you can eat chili on Sunday night. A local vendor sets up shop to sell breakfast and lunch on the grounds.
Jumpers from over 30 states and as many as five countries attend the boogie annually. For the past few years the Couch Freaks hosted the finals of the Northern Plains Skydive League. Big ways, head down, CRW, raft dives, balloon jumps and just about every type of skydive you can imagine (even using your adult imagination) can be experienced at Dollar Daze. Many in-air weddings have been performed over the past 25 years.
When the sun goes down the fun heats up. In honor of our past, polyester costume contests are held every year. The beer truck never shuts down, but the music usually ends by 1 am. Since the first load doesn’t usually take off until 9 am, you can enjoy the evening, get a good night rest and still make the first load without missing breakfast. The grill opens at 7 am.
The boogie has changed in location, appearance and size over the last 25 years, but the good times and friendly atmosphere remain the same. From one Cessna 206, to 4 twin-turbine aircraft; from 40 attendees to over 500 attendees; from 180 jumps to over 6,800 jumps; from 6 ways to 60-ways, the boogie has grown. The polyester parties, live music, friendly laid-back attitude, and the fun remain the same. As one attendee stated last year, “it’s like the Sturgis of skydiving, it may not be the biggest boogie, but it is by far the most fun.”
*The Couch Freaks picked up their name and reputation in the early years of the club. Although the stories vary, there is somewhat of a consensus that they got their name from their propensity to decorate their campsites at the Freak Brother’s boogie with couches, throw rugs, and other tacky TV room furniture. The club owned an old school bus that it would use to get to the boogies. The couches were normally strapped to the top of the bus. Original members got their Couch Freak number by climbing out the window on one side of the bus, sitting on a couch on top of the bus, and then climbing in the other side, all while the bus was moving down the highway.