Tidbits (Timbits + Tedbits)

Monday, October 25 -

0700
I rolled out of the sack this morning to the sound of a hundred sheep outside my bedroom window and the sight of clear blue skies above. First call for freestyle and skysurf is at 0800, first call for 8-way is at 0845. Stay tuned for a great day of competition skydiving!

It's long hours in the freestyle judging room!

The traditional Russian yard sale.

0900
By request: If you check out the webcam page, you will now see a set of drop-down lists that will take you to the team pages. These drop-down lists have the team numbers added to help identify who is on the webcam. Also by request (you're welcome, Netscape users) - you can now access a table of raw scores for the FS events, that page should load nice and quickly for you.

8-way is into round 4 now, and the talk around the bar is whether Russia - or France, for that matter - can clean up their style enough to catch USA. Russia has more scoring formations in time than USA, but they've busted on all three jumps so far. We don't know yet if they are switching to 4-way this afternoon...

Australia's round 4 wasn't good, they had bum bear trap and someone went low for a few seconds, they got a 10. France is up now, they are looking sharp again today - great bear trap out the door there - and they post a 23. The French 8-way is hands-down the most improved team here from a year ago. Coming up now is Russia...their raw score is 23, but the judges are chewing on it...and it stands, a 23. Only one left for this round is USA. Moments away...here we go...a very slow start, and OUCH they busted down to a 20 (separation), and just like that their lead is down to one point after 4 rounds. And France is just six points behind!

APB: Two rigs identical to these - one Aussie and one French - were stolen some time yesterday, along with a camera helmet and some other gear.

They are running 4-way now, very unusual to switch events after one round. Looks like the Australian women just took the lead with a 15 point effort in round 6 - nice jump ladies! 

Finishing up round 4 of 4-way now, the British just did a 17, and the rival Norgies are up next, what, are these two teams joined at the hip? Another 17. And I think the name of the hip is South Africa! (their coaches are Gary and Solly). Nice jumps by both teams.

Over on the freestyle side, Ashley just scored 93.3 on his round 6. He is doing some amazing stuff. I hear they have made all 8 jumps in the freestyle and skysurf events, so as soon as the judges catch up there will be a cut in those events.

1200
Now they are judging round 5 of 8-way, I don't know what is going on with the schedule. I'll just run this stuff up as it goes by. Haven't seen USA's round 4 of 8-way yet, or France, or Australia. I just heard that USA 4-way is getting on the plane for round 4, and now up on the screen is France 4-way. I've never seen a meet run like this, with 4- and 8-way going on at the same time. France, some really nice ritz > picks, they post a 19. Russia 8-way is up now. Round 5 of 8-way is a tough jump, with compress > compress and a frisbee > frisbee, a lot of brain work and strength required, and Russia busted one of them on a rough jump for a 14. Not a good jump for Russia. But Airspeed is up doing 4-way, what's up with this?

France is picking up the pace in both FS events.

1245
The heat of battle is making ripples across the airport...Airspeed's round 4 is coming up...here they go, a very sweet ritz > pick out the door, one glitch on a cat > cat, and they end up with a BANG they busted that cat, and France takes the lead after four. Wow! Airspeed has their work cut out for them out here, if it continues like this. A tough competition at a tough pace.

Glancing over at the men's skysurf, I see that Fradet/Iodicce  has closed to within 3 points of Rozov/Burch. And glancing back at FS, we have teams jumping round 6 of 8-way, while two teams have yet to do round 5.

1400
France 8-way round five...they had a very nice jump going until about 8 seconds left, and ended horribly on a double-bust, and ended up with a 13. That is tough for them, they were doing so well, but they still have a lot of time left. 

The concentration of competition...	USA 8 readies for round 5
Russia 8-way, speed and experience.	France 4-way, preparing to take the lead

Australia XLR8 just did a 16 on round 6, a very sweet skydive by any standard, and they are alone in 4th place. Russia 8 is next; they get a 21 busted to a 19, they were lucky it wasn't busted to a 17 or worse, it was pretty sloppy.

Ted and I admire the French 8-way effort. They know that the only chance they have is to go very fast - as fast as they can - and they also know the slightest mistake will have a high price. And indeed, when they are not making mistakes, they are every bit as fast as the U.S. team. It will be a shame if this is their last world meet together.

Stevie is dubbing USA 8's round 5...glitches on two of the frisbees, hard to close that last grip...a 16, whew! USA8 up by 3 points at the halfway point for 8-way.

They are making the boys from Arizona switch back and forth between 4-way and 8-way (they're in the plane now for round 5 of 4-way). Well, if they win it all, there won't be anyone saying it was made easy for them.

1600
Round 5 of 4-way is about half done. This looks like a pretty slow jump, with a zipper > star and cantee > cantee. The whole 4-way draw looks pretty slow, which will probably serve to keep the contest closer. Russia is up now; my those zipper > stars sure look vertical...they get a 16, no busts. Hey look! Great Britain and Norway have different scores on round 5! And the Brits take over third place by a point, 17 to 16 on that jump. France 8-way is up for their round 6, a very impressive hope diamond out the door [I learn later that the team wasn't happy with it], it looks like a good jump, and it is a 21, very nice. The USA boys won't be doing their 8-way round 6 until tomorrow morning. But first here is their round 5 of 4-way; it is a 17, they match Britain's score. Only one jump left for round 5, France 4-way. They need a 17 to hold their lead...

...and an hour later we are wondering what happened to France's round 5 dub. Not a clue. Ouch - Russia 4-way just took it on the chin from the judges on round 6, a double-bust out the door for a 17. They had a rough exit and the video angle didn't help them any. Wow! The Brits just blazed a 23 on it. Very nice! And now the Norgies: they match them with their own 23. They have a righteous battle going for that number three slot on the winner's podium! I'm impressed. Oh no, there goes the neighborhood...skydiving's International Man of Mystery just walked in the door, now we're in trouble! Run for your lives! Grab the booze first!

1800
It's a wrap for the day. Apparently there were manifest conflicts that kept France from catching up in 4-way and USA from catching up in 8-way. The weather forecast is calling for rain tomorrow, but there is a long way to go, and we're at the halfway point jumpwise. To keep you otherwise occupied, there are two more video clips over HERE. G'night!

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