Tidbits (Timbits + Tedbits)

Saturday, October 23 -

Team USA meditating this morning

Tedro in the DZ-TV control room

The shopping district along the road

0630
Good morning cyber-campers, it's as beautiful crisp Saturday morning in Australia, a fine day for fine competition!

More than 40 messages in the mail this morning, please excuse if I don't reply to all, thank you. I got five responses about the feminine category question. All five were from women and all five, to some degree or other, were against a separate category for women. Two even found the idea patently offensive. Okay, moving on...

We have heated battles going in all events in the early going. In men's freestyle, USA Rimple/Hetherington has jumped into the third position, behind AUS Crick/King and FRA Arnoud/Fardel. In women's freestyle AUS Stevens/Truman has a more comfortable lead over the competition. In men's skysurf, RUS Rozov/Burch has padded their lead somewhat over FRA Fradet/Iodicce and SUI Furrer/Heggli through five rounds. In women's skysurf, it's a dead heat between USA O'Brien/O'Brien and SUI Wegrath/Krecker for the top spot.

4-Way round 3 is in progress again, and it looks like few of these teams are enjoying the task of a bipole > bipole out the door. The Brits are up; very nice camera work by Ian, they do a 16, not bad for the draw. Russia up next, OUCH they funneled the exit, that's going to cost them, and they finish with a 13. USA is up - very nice looking jump - a 19. And now France - they don't look nearly as smooth as USA this morning - and they post a 18. They had a couple of glitches on that jump, and USA ups their lead by one. And how about them apples: USA's round 3 was so clean the judges didn't even look at the jump twice! That's a first! And finishing round 3, the Norgies (hi Bob & Mike) match Britain's 16 so they are tied at 60, 4 behind France and 6 behind USA, and round 4 is under way now.

The man, the myth, the yogurt.	Omar & G2 in USA tent
Sarah from the UK Woman 4-way	Norgies getting ready for round 4
Shark Air, it ain't...	The legendary "FUN" flag
The French Delegation

1200
Still working on round 4 of 4-way; some clouds moved in and we are on a weather hold. And what do I do with a weather hold? Why, send up a video clip of USA 4-way round 3. You might want to bookmark that page and check back for more clips as the meet goes on.

Really good corn dogs here!

Mr. Gumby and the flag brigade

Hometown freestylist Chris Rimple and teammate Grant Hetherington are doing very well in freestyle. They are a whisker apart from France's Arnaud/Fardel for the second position, with leader Australia Crick/King only a few points out front. Ashley Crick, if you haven't noticed, is also contributing to the commentary here, but his time is limited as he concentrates on competing. I'm no expert on freestyle, and I haven't seen any of Ashley's jumps, but I've seen a couple of Chris and Grant's jumps and they are doing some wonderfully coordinated routines. Their hard work and training really shows!

In the women's 4-way, Sweden had a great comeback jump on round 5 to pull even with Australia, and Great Britain is only 2 points behind them. Some great races all around here, now if we can get the weather to cooperate...well we do have plenty of time, the better part of a week left to go here.

1630
They've called it a day over here, and they'll be starting up with 8-way bellyfloppers in the morning, along with the boarders and tumblers. And yes, I *AM* having fun! On to the bar! Make way, coming through!

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