Skydive Spaceland SpaceBlog

News and thoughts about what's going on at Skydive Spaceland, our state-of-the-art skydiving facility near Houston, Texas.

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Nationals Day 7, Sunday (10/18)

3:32 pm: Finally blogging today! 4-way Canopy Sequential Open began early today and it's still underway. Registration for Canopy Rotation and Style & Accuracy will close tonight, with both events beginning tomorrow.

Scores for 4-way Canopy Sequential are now online and live. Sorry about the delay. Our previous blogger left and we've been scrambling for passwords, logins, etc. But, we should be back in full-force, maybe with not as many pictures, but hopefully that won't detract from people enjoying our updates.

One more thing - registration for Canopy Piloting events closes on Tuesday, but swoopers have been testing out the pond since this morning. It should be a heck of an event!

4:27 pm:Here's an unforeseen turn of events at this Nationals. Sharon Shumway from Redline was injured this morning during a wrap in round 3. She's being kept overnight at the hospital, but no surgery will be necessary.

The rest of the teams have jumped through round 5, and judges will post those scores by the end of today, but all teams have been dismissed for today and will resume jumping tomorrow (but the exact time is still unknown).

Style & Accuracy debrief will be tonight at 6:00 p.m. with a first load call of 7:00 a.m. tomorrow. Canopy Rotation will have a first load call of 7:20 a.m.

6:28 pm: Just a couple of pictures by James Akins:
tap
Aerodyne

11:45 pm: Guest Post from the "Outgoing" Blogger, Christy West
Hey everyone, miss me? :) I just wanted to check back in with you once more before heading all the way back to the "real" (non-skydiving) world. I hope you've enjoyed the coverage and photos of Nationals; USPA is picking up the reins on the blog for the remainder of the event (mostly their web designer, who was introduced only as "G"--must be one of those Men in Black, super-secret government agency things ;-). I'm sure they'll take good care of you!

In the meantime, I thought I'd finish with a writeup of yesterday's events and photos, starting with 10-way since we already covered the other events a bit yesterday. Nine teams vied for multiple awards, including the best (lowest/fastest) 10-way scores and the Judges' Choice Award for the most entertainment provided for the judges after completing the scoring formation. The Golden Knights got to go home with both of those awards this year after posting a total score of 83.42 in the 6 rounds for an average of 13.9 seconds. Our tax dollars provided some really creative and well-executed post-build entertainment too, from crossing vertical line transitions to an out-facing star, to spelling F-U-N in sequence (as one of the judges noted, it's a good thing they had time for all three letters...), to the cream of the crop--a rendition of a golf ball being putted into the hole. I know that probably makes absolutely no sense without seeing the video, but it really was great--we'll see if we can't get that video online for you soon.

Some discussion has come up about the numerous 40s handed out during the meet; a score of 40 seconds is given either if the correct formation is never completed or as a bust if the rules are broken. Six out of 9 teams busted at least once, including silver and bronze medalists Annie's Toys and Arizona Airspeed. The reasons ranged from insufficient hold time on the formation to incorrect formations. There was also a little extra drama in that two teams had rejumps--Airspeed and Toys, both due to issues with the Otter benches (bench falling down during exit and a bent piece snagging a jumper's rig during exit, respectively).

But in the end, I think everyone had a pretty great time. 10-way isn't a worldwide competitive event like the other disciplines, and for that reason very few teams actually train for it. But it's a fun, race to the finish, don't-be-last competition that's always popular with both the highly competitive sponsored teams and the weekend fun jumpers. The fact that you get to goof off during competition after scoring the formation is certainly a big part of the attraction!

Speaking of fun, are you familiar with the C.G. GodFrog Good Vibes 10-way award? As its name suggests, it's essentially an "unofficial" good sportsmanship award that's been around since 1972, passed from one winner to the next every year in recognition of a positive, fun attitude during the event. Congratulations to this year's winners, selected by the Golden Knights (last year's winners)--Ranch Delinquency!!

Freestyle and freefly competitors, I'm not forgetting you! As always, the artistic events were amazing; some of the things we see on the screens just seem to defy the laws of physics, especially some of the flexibility shown by some freestyle competitors… Great job everyone, and congrats to long-term-but-retiring freestyle champions Merriah and Karl Eakins; they looked very sharp at the banquet last night as always. Props also to SoCal Converge (freefly open champions) and IsIs (freefly intermediate champions)!

As for other stuff going on at the DZ, the accuracy tuffet was out and getting pounded yesterday, CRW dogs were having a good time, and final preparations for Swoop Week were in full swing at the pond. CamScore will be working that event too, I believe; they've been working all week to get the laser timing gear set up properly. Apparently the gear was designed for something like a 15-meter-wide gate, not a roughly 80-meter wide pond as we have here, but they have adapted and overcome. The swooping looks like it will be a very exciting event! And the pond has already claimed a formation skydiver or two, of course. :)

Finally, on a more personal note... As someone who has competed at Nationals for several years in a row, it was an interesting new challenge to bring you the daily coverage, updates, and photos of the event--because it meant I wasn't skydiving (at least not until that last-minute 10-way fun). I really, REALLY missed jumping, but it was quite interesting to see how Nationals comes together behind the scenes and try to make you feel like you were here. I hope you enjoyed the ride, and I'll see you in the air!

PS: Steve/Eric: a caffeine IV drip would be a good addition to the media room next time around! :)

PS2: Hope to hear soon that Sharon Shumway is doing well!

VFS advanced silver medalists Gravity Rats

VFS advanced silver medalists Gravity Rats

VFS advanced gold medalists Elsinore VFS

VFS advanced gold medalists Elsinore VFS

VFS open silver medalists SDC Standard XP

VFS open silver medalists SDC Standard XP

VFS open gold medalists Arizona Arsenal

VFS open gold medalists Arizona Arsenal

8-way intermediate bronze medalists Dallas Fusion

8-way intermediate bronze medalists Dallas Fusion

8-way intermediate silver medalists Ranch Deliverance

8-way intermediate silver medalists Ranch Deliverance

8-way intermediate gold medalists Perris Cobra Kai

8-way intermediate gold medalists Perris Cobra Kai

8-way open medalists, Golden Knights (silver, left/front), Arizona Airspeed (gold, center), Paraclete XP (bronze, right)

8-way open medalists, Golden Knights (silver, left/front), Arizona Airspeed (gold, center), Paraclete XP (bronze, right)

Freestyle medalists Dragons (silver), Team Flew Id (gold), Suicide Transition (bronze)

Freestyle medalists Dragons (silver), Team Flew Id (gold), Suicide Transition (bronze)

16-way bronze medalists Deguello 17

16-way bronze medalists Deguello 17

16-way silver medalists Rogue Knights

16-way silver medalists Rogue Knights

16-way gold medalists Arizona Airspeed

16-way gold medalists Arizona Airspeed

10-way bronze medalists Arizona Airspeed

10-way bronze medalists Arizona Airspeed

10-way silver medalists Annie's Toys

10-way gold medalists Golden Knights

10-way gold medalists Golden Knights

GodFrog award (note every other frog now sports a Knights pin)

GodFrog winners Ranch Delinquency

GodFrog winners Ranch Delinquency

2 Comments:

Anonymous Skydive South Africa said...

Great photos. Well done to all!

October 20, 2009 3:53 AM  
Anonymous Adventure Activities said...

That looks totally wicked and terrifying! I would love to get enough courage to jump from a plane!!!

November 27, 2009 4:43 AM  

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