Orange Gondola

There’s a very special reason and meaning for this orange gondola to honor one of the most important people to the SkyWheel, Eward Sijbandij.  

Eward was the Managing Partner of Global Leisure Services, which has been working with SkyWheel Myrtle Beach since its inception in 2011. He and his team helped maintain the operations of our SkyWheel and keep it spinning for over a decade.

During SkyWheel’s 10th birthday in Spring 2021, Eward led his GLS team to completely disassemble, refurbish and reassemble the entire SkyWheel Myrtle Beach in 4 months. During his entire time at SkyWheel, our crew has deeply admired his passion, experience, sense of humor, EDM playlist and his dedication to the success of SkyWheel. Together with his wife Mandy, CEO of Global Leisure Management, they have created this observation wheel experience here in Myrtle Beach that millions have enjoyed and hundreds of millions around the world have seen. They were affectionately known as the “Ferris Wheel Family”       

This past December, we lost Eward Sijbrandij while he was enjoying his other love, soccer. He was 34. During the 2014 World Cup, Eward envisioned all the wheels he worked on around the world shining Orange for his native Netherlands football team. SkyWheel Myrtle Beach was among a dozen ferris wheels that made this lighting happen for him in December, and SkyWheel dedicate this orange lego gondola with the Frisian Flag to him and his family.     

We hope the lights on this display, on SkyWheel Myrtle Beach, and the international family of Ferris wheels Eward created, shine for his legacy. And that these lights are legacy that continues to live on and shine through his family: his wife Mandy, Rixt, Femke and Mila Sybrandy.