Thursday, September 23
The first two days, I was starting to wonder if anyone was out there. This morning I got in there were 25+ messages in the inbox, and only two of them were for corrections. Thanks! It's feedback like that that keeps us going. I hear planes cranking up outside...
I've received several e-mails asking why "guest" teams aren't being listed in the official standings. "Guest" teams are not eligible to win medals under the rules, and as such they are not listed with an official placement. But they are still listed on the results tables. Also the reason some 4-way teams have completed 8 rounds while others have done only 4 is because of many 4-way teams are also doing 8-way. Teams like FX stayed with 4-way. And if AZ4 or another team ties FX's record 37 in round 6, FX gets to keep the record because they did it first. 10:00 a.m.
Meanwhile, we've actually wrapped up one event here at this competition, and the winners of 8-way Intermediate are Converging Gangs in first, Lebanon Air Fr8 second, and Excruci8 third (missed 2nd by one point). These results are not yet official though until a Chief Judge or Meet Director tells me so.
12:00 noon Holy BANDWIDTH Batman, I just ran a lunchtime check of my e-mail.
Thank you all, thank you very much (taking a bow here). Too many to
respond to right now. But to the two more of you who asked what is a
"guest" team, once again that is a team that has at least one
member who is not a citizen of the United States and is thus ineligible
to win a medal at these championships. Hold it - round 6 is up -
Sebastian XL - yes this is a guest team, the Brits - nice exit...going
fast...going to be a British record at least...35 points! Looked clean
too, yes that is registered. And up next is...GK Black...this is the
"older" team that used to be the one to beat, now the
"younger" Gold squad has been kicking butt...they're out
now...very smooth...and a 34 clean! Purple is up next...can you believe
all these 30s going up on the I have a major change in standings; in the 8-way Intermediate, Warp Factor 8 was determined to NOT be a guest team and will take home the gold medal for that event. Gongrats Warp Factor 8! 2:30 p.m. I have been told by the meet director that the Knights and Airspeed are still doing 8-way as much as they can today. I'll find out more about the remaining schedule and post it here as soon as I know. At 4:00 we're judging round 7 of 8-way and on a weather hold. It looks like 10-way speed will be a race between Carl Daugherty's XTZ and Roger Nelson's Skydive Chicago STL. The Knights are having NO luck with cameras today...first their camera is disassembled for tape extraction after round 5...then on round 7 the camera was bumped on climbout and recorded the jump at maximum exposure, so they are rejumping the round...Charlie's pretty pissed, apparently they had another good jump, they'll have to do it over again. And AZ8...very nice round 7, a 22. We're on a weather hold now, ya'll take a break, I'm gonna pull my ass out of this chair now... 5:00 p.m.
How's that for taking advantage of a weather hold? 7:00 p.m. Tonight is the awards ceremony for the completed events of 4-way Intermediate and 8-way Intermediate. See the Page of Champions for more info. Congratulations to the winners! Now it's BEER O'CLOCK! See you tomorrow! ~ PREVIOUS DAY ~ NEXT DAY ~ |
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7:00
a.m.
...while
we're waiting for some results, a little discussion about the judging.
Last night in the tiki bar there was a lot of grumbling among the
competitors about how clean their skydiving was and how badly they were
busted anyway. Much of the controversy centers around the fact that if
the judges don't see the point or the inter, they don't give credit for
it. Many teams were busted because the video angle was flat enough to
keep the judges from seeing what they needed to see, and the teams got a
lot of I's. So much of the
discussion then centered on what is a "J"
versus what is an "I" if
the judges can't see an inter. Is it the team's fault or the camera's
fault? Is it a bust, or a rejump? Hopefully it won't matter next year
with a little rewrite of the rules; the only J
that should be allowed is because of clouds/water/etc. It should be
the team's responsibility to show the performance requirements to the
judges via the camera. And if the judges don't see it, it's because the
team/videographer didn't show it to them.
Okay
then, AZ8 scored a 22 on round 6. Their skydiving is looking so nice;
they are getting that little "pause" on each point that I
always liked so much about the Knights' style of jumping. Keeps the
judges happy and the team in sync. Too bad they won't be around for 10-
and 16-way, they gotta go get ready for Australia, where they will of
course represent the USA in both 4- and 8-way Formation Skydiving. And
of course we will be there bringing it to you via this web site!
Okay
now...they got that tape out of the mess, and GK8 round 5 is...a...29!
Now THAT was some seriously smooth skydiving. They were so smooth it
looked like slow motion, gliding through the points. VERY impressive.
That's good enough to bring them into a tie with AZ8 on the leaderboard!
Pending round 6 which is...a...looking good...wow! A 24! Whatever the
Knights had for dinner last night, gimme some of that! They now lead
8-way by 2, and minimums for the event have been met. Wow!
board?
Purple is...going...to...post...a...oops, industrial haze...a 36! Clean
again. Up next is...DeLand Genesis...looking good, a bit glitchy...it's...a...32.
Uhm, not bad I guess! And GK Gold is...a 33...and now the moment we've
been waiting for, Airspeed is up...it looks really good...it's a...it's
a...wow...smooth...smokin'...it's a 39! AIRSPEED
HAS A NEW WORLD RECORD! Whoa, my hands are shaking too much
to type. That was an awesome skydive! Remember now, the record is not
official until the FAI certifies it.