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Tidbits -
Saturday
1000
It was cold, damp and cloudy yesterday, and rainy all
night, but this morning the clouds have broken and the teams
are getting ready for their first call.
There were rumors about the Knights and Perris Maubeuge
being here, but there's no sign of the Knights, and Maubeuge
left yesterday, both teams probably putting too much faith
in the weather forcast. Still, eight teams are here, and
Skydive Arizona is well represented with three of them;
Airspeed Vertical (aka Team USA), Synergy, and Temptation
DZ.
The Perris Valley Skydiving staff has been their usual
top-shelf self. Jack Gramley, Melanie Conatser and
dubbing/video coordinator Dave Singer had everything ready
to go when we arrived for setup yesterday afternoon. This
morning Jack handed me an Ethernet cable and a piece of
paper with network configuration info and said "Here's
your T1 connection!". Can't complain about that! If
only all the big DZs could get wired like that!!!
Anybody remember Paul Quade, the engineer/jumper who
solved the video banding problem during the Nationals here
last year? (He provided the infamous Humbuckers.) This
morning he arrived with a box of glazed donuts for the three
judges (me, myself & I). Thanks Paul! Fortunately I've
had a little help devouring them. Skydivers are good for
that.
The first Otter just took off; if the weather holds,
we'll have the first scores posted within the hour. Stay
tuned!
1130
The clouds are causing some minor difficulty and a hold
is possible. Good chance to stretch the legs and get an ear
to the vibes!
1345
Airspeed lost a couple points when they had to rebuild a
phalanx, but aside from that -- and the fact that their
video still needs to be steeper & deeper, come on
'Stein! -- they are looking terrific. Matrix is doing some
fast skydiving but boy is it tough to see some of their
separations!
You beginning teams out there, please make a note of what
I told 302 after their incomplete separation bust in round
1. They came to the judging room and asked me to show them
the penalty. I explained to them that there isn't
necessarily a penalty to show; just because they were
busted, doesn't mean there was a penalty. It means they
failed to clearly show me the separation. There very may
well have been complete, simultaneous separation, but if I
couldn't see it, I can't give credit for it; that's the
rule. Kudos to them for taking the information and making
corrections in their technique to avoid another such
penalty.
Word is that bad weather is approaching -- apparently
it's been raining for a while in Huntington Beach, and it's
supposed to be headed this way. I still hear airplanes
running after judging round 2, so stay tuned, I'll pass it
on when I get the word!
1500
Well, we're on a weather hold, after four Open teams did
round 3. Airspeed, jumping the Skyvan in preparation for
Spain, didn't quite get theirs in before the clouds closed
ranks. The sky is not looking very happy right now!
1730
After a few hours of watching close-knit clouds march
by, the day has been called and the meet will resume with
wheels-up at 7:30am tomorrow. Ciao! Webmaster's note:
Ted is providing the bits and results from Perris while Tim
stays at home working on World Meet and Nationals web
sites...when he'd RATHER be skydiving....
Sunday
Well folks we are underway again, the weather is on the cool
side but the clouds have scattered.
In the Intermediate division, local team Equinox had to
withdraw when one member couldn't stay. Arizona's Synergy
(301) posted a 5 to Perris Time Warp's 11, but I question
whether PTW should be in Intermediate, the way they're
skydiving (raw scores in the double digits? C'mon, guys).
In the Personal Item segment this morning, the ongoing
story of T1's adventures in the Bomb Shelter. Now before I
share this with you, understand that the BS is the first
great DZ restaurant; it set the standard when it opened, and
like all such ventures, has had its ups and downs. I've
always enjoyed eating there.
Well, last summer during one of my SSL or America's Cup
visits here, I had lunch in the BS that turned out to be a
bit of an oopsie on the part of their chef. Melanie and
Diane (Conatser, Melanie's mother) felt bad about it, but I
shrugged it off, I know those things happen, even in good
restaurants.
Fast forward to Friday night. I ran into Diane in the
Bomb Shelter bar, and she asked me what I wanted for dinner
Saturday night. Seared Ahi tuna steak, I told her, but she
wasn't familiar with that, so she brought me Rusty, the
chef, and introduced us. I chatted with Rusty and he said he
would look for Ahi tuna for Saturday night's menu. Great
guy!
Saturday morning, Rusty came looking for me in the
judging room and explained that there wasn't any Ahi tuna
available ("They're all on the Japanese side of the
Pacific this time of year," he said), and wanted to
know, what was my second choice? "Salmon!!!" I
said. "Salmon it is! Blackened okay?" he said.
"Sounds great!"
So last night after the work was done I went into the
restaurant, and sure enough, there was "Fresh Blackened
Salmon" on the nightly specials board. When the
restaurant started to look busy I placed my order.
"Medium rare, no potato and extra veggies please,"
I told the cashier, and took my number, 650. Hmm, lucky
number! That's the length of a standard classical guitar
fret board in millimeters.
Well, it took a while before my number was called, me
surrounded by other skydivers eagerly inhaling their
blackened salmon and telling me how wonderful it was, and
when the cashier brought me my plate, I was mildly surprised
to see a beef steak instead of salmon. I told her what I was
expecting, and she took it back to the kitchen window. I
followed her to make sure that Rusty knew to make it medium
rare. When he saw it was me, he was horrified. The last
salmon was already on a plate in front of him, fully cooked
and on its way to some other lucky customer. I told him that
was okay, I'd be happy with the steak.
Poor Rusty, he was beside himself. When I was halfway
through my steak he brought me something brown and flat on a
plate by itself. It was a breaded fish of some type, covered
with olive oil and garlic. A calamari steak!!! It was
absolutely divine. Rusty told me to see him in the morning
for an Eggs Benedict breakfast. Thanks, Rusty!!!
And I'm on my way to that right now..
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