(Tamara is serving on the judging panel for Freestyle & Skysurf)
On September 25, the weather kept anxiously waiting competitors on the ground. Yesterday began with cloudy conditions which cleared to windy conditions. In the late afternoon, two men's skysurfing teams got airborne to do their round 7 jump.
This morning, the clouds are breaking and competitors are on call. Particularly in the men's freestyle and skysurfing, some hope that round 8 will be completed and others don't. If round 8 is completed, Furrer/Krecker will move back into first place in men's skysurfing and Alhegelan/Gasson may reclaim the first place position in men's freestyle. But if weather permits round 9 to also be completed before 2PM, the final end of competition time, the standings may change again. Rimple/Hetherington and Goren/Gefen are jocking around for the third place position in men's freestyle. Standings in the women's divisions are relatively clear regardless on whether or not all competition rounds are completed.
In women's freestyle, the top two performers are including interesting moves and choreography into their routines. Schwab/Dieck perform an interesting freefly style exit during which Schwab leaves the door into a straddle V-seat position and Dieck is head-down and docked on the ankles of her legs. However, it doesn't seem to present the optimum framing in the video. Later, in the routine, she is performing Layout Backloops and one of those backloops seems to pull the camera from a headup to a head-down orientation. Schwab then tucks her backloops and spins right there in frame for a few rotations before quickly dropping away. Continuing the spinning finish theme, she finishes another routine in a spinning headup Chinese Split with one knee bent 90 degrees. Minardi/Fabbi also include some dynamic exits in their routines. During one exit, you see a close up of her face nicely framed and stationary. Then, suddenly Fabbi sling shots her away spinning her off into barrel rolls. During another exit, her face recedes from the camera and she is holding both hands with her camera flyer, Fabbi. While like this and upsidedown, she actually makes a frontloop right through his arms and then breaks off into layout loops. In one of her, routines, Minardi performs a true head-down Chinese Split Pirouette--a display of good leg strength and flexibility.
This is the last edition of "Stylin' & Surfin' 1998" and we thank you for visiting and hope you have enjoyed this short newsletter. A more complete article about the freestyle and skysurfing at this competition will be posted at http://www.koyn.com/CloudDancer by the end of October, 1998. Also, watch the skydiving magazines for articles on the competition.