Monday 23 October

0730
Good morning! Just getting to work, now setting up the CF team pages. 4-way is on call. Hack hack....okay, the CF Rotation teams have been posted, round 1 is being judged, 2 Stupid just posted a 9...

...an hour later, round one of CF Rotations is done, and AZ Frayed Knot takes the lead with a 12...4-way Open round 8 now being judged, DeLand Groove just did good 19 with a couple of minor glitches...Fastrax does the same...I think one of the impressive teams here is Perris Fury, I don't know how "professional" they are, but they have a 18.4 average through 7 rounds, and they only teams in front of them are "pros"...good job...

...19 is the number: the top 5 teams in 4-way open all posted a 19 for round 8...the next two rounds should be a lot of fun: round 9 is 4 randoms and zirc > zirc, round 10 even faster...

...There is an ESPN truck here, and Michael McGowan is wearing a transmitter for live video, if some one sees it on TV let me know...we were discussing the weather a moment ago, it is supposed to turn cloudy later today with a chance of rain tomorrow. A look at the weather radar shows a system down in the Baja headed north. Maybe it will veer east. But it's pure blue outside right now...yesterday I posted a video of DeLand Groove's round 6. Here is Fastrax's round 8...in 4-way Advanced, AZ DiveWerkz has opened a huge 11-point lead ahead of CK Vision...

1000
The last of 4-way round 8 Intermediate is being judged and round 9 of Open is in the air or will be soon...

...okay round 8 of 4-way Intermediate is done and Ranch Pulse has padded their lead by another point...word has it that Frayed Knot has made some sort of appearance on ESPN...

...here comes 4-way Open round 9, and Fastrax has a 26 if it's clean, I don't think they had that zircon at 18, and all the judges agree and they get a 25...that was the old failure to catch the leg at the end of the zircon thing, been there done that...and now Groove draws a round of applause with a 27, but the judges popped them twice down to a 25, so they go into the final round with a two-point lead...Perris Fury just dazzled the crowd with a super clean 24, and Odyssey has a 28 busted to a 27, while Black Cat tops the round 9 scoring with a clean 29. Meanwhile, the canopy rotators have finished 3 rounds and Frayed Knot is up by 2.

This just found in the mail box:

Just saw USPA nationals on ESPN2. Been watching it all morning waiting to see something. It was the last 20 seconds of filler.

Saw Deland Groove turning a few points, ground footage of a USA flag colored canopy landing and a POV swoop approach.

Pretty cool. Anyone got the video?

With their big score of 27 on round 9, Airspeed Odyssey has pulled to within one point of 3rd place, so with 2 points separating 1st and 2nd and 1 point separating 3rd and 4th, this last round will be very interesting. And guest team Black Cat is tied for 2nd in the standings, they are doing very well.

A couple of emails have requested where people can send messages to teams. Send them to jump@skydiveaz.com. I have no printer here, or I'd be happy to.

1130
WHAM!!! In a single jump, AZ DiveWerkz more than doubled their lead in 4-way  Advanced, and there is only 2 points separating the next 3 teams. (UPDATE: I'm told that the CK Vision camera guy fell off the plane and missed the first 12 seconds of the jump - ouch) Veeeeery Eeeeenteresting. Round 10 is about a half hour from taking off. Round 4 of CF Rotes has been posted, Frayed Knot now with a 4 point lead...

...wow - in 4-way Intermediate, Air Force CAD posted a big 17 and now trail Ranch Pulse by only 2 points!

It's approaching 1230 here and we're on a bit of a break before round 10 of 4-way.

AND we're on with round 10 now, Perris Fury just posted the first score with a solid 29. FiaZco sure has a good video guy...oh of course, it's Tony Hathaway...ouch...GK Black's jump has more brain-locks than an Alzheimer's convention...they post a 23...correction, busted down to a 20...double ouch...that may have just cost them the 3rd place medal...here's Fastrax, they post a 30 busted to a 29. So DeLand Groove needs a 28 to win...it's looking really good for them, a huge round of applause from the viewing area, it's a 33 if it's clean...and it is! DeLand Groove is the Open champion. What a great jump to end it, no disputing that finish! Airspeed Odyssey has jumped into 3rd place with a strong finish and Fastrax gets the silver. Here's the video of DeLand's round 10.

In 4-way Advance, AZ DiveWerks has sown up the gold and CK Vision the silver, but there is a tie for 3rd between Perris Voltage and Cross Keys O2. If there is no jump-off then Perris Voltage will win based on their highest individual score. OOPS my mistake, the event wasn't finished yet. Perris Voltage wins 3rd place. The tie was after 9 rounds....

1400
Those high clouds have arrived, but they are no bother right now as the judges finish with 4-way Intermediate and CF continues to jump rotations.

Oh goodie goodie. Michael McGowan just handed me a thumb drive with some photos. Great eye candy coming up shortly...

 

From the lens of the indispensable Michael McGowan!

Okay, here come the final jumps from 4-way Intermediate. Air Force CAD has made a tremendous charge on two of the last three jumps, will they catch Ranch Pulse? Pulse posted a 12 a few minutes ago and now CAD...no, they have a 12 too, and Ranch Pulse is the winner of 4-way Intermediate. SCD Furies win the bronze and 4-way FS is IN THE CAN. CF is going to finish though round 6 of rotations today.

1630
The day winds down with round six of CF rotations as the FS crowd scatters to the watering holes and shares war stories of great tragedy and incredible heroism. Some 8-way teams are getting in some final practice jumps -- some I'm sure their only practice jumps -- before registration closes tonight. As of now there are 5 open and 4 intermediate teams registered for FS 8-way.

Earlier today I asked USPA's Larry Bagley whether or not next years nationals at Skydive Chicago would be a "team selection" nationals. He quickly gave me a lot of information that I couldn't quite digest on the spot so I asked him to email me a clarification. He has graciously provided this reponse:

As we discussed, there is no such thing as an "on" or "off" year when it comes to the USPA National Skydiving Championships, because, one, there is no uniform definition of what it means; and, two, USPA has no control over the decisions made by the IPC. The IPC has already awarded the 2007 World Cup of 4-Way Formation Skydiving (including a women's class); Artistic Events (all three); and Accuracy Landing. So the results of this year's nationals will be used to select US Teams in those three disciplines. A world cup is only slightly different in prestige and protocol than a world parachuting championships (WPC) - they're both considered first category events and require the same basic infrastructure.

And when the IPC meets in January, they can (and most often do) just about anything they want. A world cup can (and has) been changed to a WPC without prior notice - a simple majority of the delegates present can change a title.

So, remember the purpose of the USPA Nationals - to select the nations very best in each discipline. Incidentally, the results may be used to select US Teams, only time will tell for what and when.

Thank you for that Larry! So all you teams out there, every year could be considered an "on" year for team selection.

1700 Wrapup
Competition jumping is done for the day and another great day it was. 8-Way FS and more CF on deck for tomorrow. Thanks for dropping by and see you!

Jan Meyer, Chief Engineer and Webmaster
Tim Wagner, Sushi Critic