OmniSkore Coverage - World Parachuting Championships, Corowa, Australia

Tidbits (Timbits + Tedbits)

Friday, October 22 -

0800
HOLY INBOX BATMAN! The mail is overflowing with ALLEZ LA FRANCE! and GO USA! Hey, any Russia fans online out there? Anyone? Buellerski? Keep it coming folks they love you!

Charlie Brown and Doc Ripley

Watching DZ-TV in the bar

"Give me bandwidth or give me death!"
Your webmaster closing the bar last night.

4-way, Freestyle & Skysurf online for today, but the weather forecast is not very good for the next 36 hours. While were waiting for some of that action, I'll answer some questions that popped up in the mass of e-mail:

  • Please wait a couple of days before pointing out that a team's photo is not up. We haven't even started 4-way yet and people are wanting to know where the pictures are. They aren't taken yet!
  • The freestyle and skysurf judges were up late judging last night, and those results will be very slow in coming. But they will be up sometime today.
  • Several questions about mixed nationality of freestyle and skysurf teams. I plead ignorance. Please go dig through the FAI page, figure it out and let me know.
  • No, Dan Pallasch is not Airspeed's alternate. That's Charlie Brown's job.
  • If I get one more complaint about the speed of the webcam, I'm going to unplug it ;-)

I've just been informed that indeed we are on a weather hold, it is sprinkling so I'm going to whip out the didgeridoo and scope out a cup of coffee...

1100
We're still on a weather hold, a bit of a cloudy and windy day today. Time to grab the camera and do a walkabout.

Want to check out an interesting site about performance enhancement through the use of drugs? Check out http://www.nodoping.org in Switzerland, a site about the World Conference on Doping in Sport. 

1215
They put a plane on call, it went up and came back down. It's a really cool day and the teams aren't too keen on getting on a plane with no door anyway.

I've started a page dedicated to staff photos. There are a bunch of very hard-working people over here busting their bums and they all deserve a big round of cyber applause!

1500
AND NOW we're cooking over here, the skies have cleared and round 1 of 4-way is half done. Russia looked good on their jump, posting a 22.

Over on the skysurf side, France Fradet/Iodicce just smoked his round 3 with a score of 91.3. Suffice it to say that Eric is no stranger to competition, having already etched his name on the Ottley Sword four times in 4-way, and his prowess on the board is no fluke. 

Back to 4-way - France just did a 23, they looked like they had some level problems at the top before they settled down. And now USA - very slow out the door, they also do a 23, clean. I think everyone is just a LITTLE bit nervous on round one here, me included! Round one of 4-way is done and IT'S A RAT RACE.

But it's not the only rat race going, Russia/Rozov is holding off France/Fradet with some dazzling skysurf work after three rounds. Ooh, I just saw his (Rozov) round 4 and all that spinning gave me an instant headache just looking at it. The guy's amazing.

And we've got the Big Guns coming up for round 2. Great Britain smoked it with a 23, and moments later the Norgies matched them, while Russia took a J out the door and ended with a 20. While we are waiting, let me say that as the meet progresses I'll have more photos here, I'm just too swamped the first couple days of a meet to get out the door and mingle (especially with DZ-TV being set up a half-click from the action). Okay France is up, they do a 23 also, a good jump. And now Airspeed, they are looking more comfortable on this jump, can they squeeze that last side-flake donut in? Yes! A 24 for the USA, and they have a one point lead after two rounds.

Oops, I've forgotten about the lady's 4-way. It's gone through 4 rounds and Australia has a 4 point lead over Great Britain. I'm sorry, I'm just not sold on a feminine category. Formation skydiving makes for a wonderful unisex sport. And I'm still trying to figure out how you can have a feminine category without also having a masculine category. Opinions? Ted's opinion is that he's in favor of anything that improves participation in the sport, and if a feminine category increases participation in formation skydiving, he's all for it. He's got a good point, I think.

1900
Round 3 of 4-way will continue tomorrow, along with freestyle and skysurf. The 4- and 8-way drama is coming off as advertised so far! Can't wait to see how this one pans out, huh? Allrighty then! Off to the bar!

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