Setup Bits

The beginnings of DZTV.

Saturday 16 June 
We are still more than a week away from show time, but the organizer is well ahead of the power curve here. I'll have a full report on the facilities here in a day or so. There is still much to be done, many decisions to be made, especially regarding how to set up the DZTV feeds. With any luck we'll be ready by Wednesday and have time to hit the town before the fun begins. Meanwhile, it's time to unpack a zillion cables and start plugging away.

The main facility forms a horseshoe; to my rear is a wing identical to that straight across. The "wing" houses the judges, DZTV, and administration on the bottom floor; the second and third floors are used for delegation gear storage rooms. The "base" of the horseshoe has a bar and dining facility. Note the snow on the Sierra Nevada mountains to the right. Click on photo for bigger picture.

Sunday 17 June
The teams are trickling in as the massive setup job continues. The Big Tent goes up tomorrow. In the photo above, the camera is facing east; the main tent and delegation tents are going up in an area about 50 meters southwest of the building. There are tennis courts covered with camouflage netting (for shade) next to the tents that will serve as a creeping area.

What a difference a day makes! DZTV is almost ready to go.
USA 4 and USA women preparing for battle. The truck at right takes the teams to the boarding area a few minutes away. The landing area is near the end of the runway, and the teams are trucked (or bused) back to the main area.

Monday 18 June
Big news of the day: T1 got his Downtown Granada Driving Tab, worn proudly on his left shoulder just below his Ranger tab, after four hours criss-crossing the old city in a full-size van (yes you can fit them in places that scooters can't go) followed by a compact Opel (carried on shoulder over several obstacles). More on this adventure from T1 soon...

My first attempt to photograph the Norwegian women's team leaves much to be desired. I'll be back, ladies...

The team tents are, uh, warm and cozy.

The teams are continuing to invade the south of Spain, and the preparations are on schedule (or as they say in London, "shedule.")

Hmm...speaking of shedule...the bus starting leaving the hotel at 0830, then went to 0730, then this morning it was 0630. Good thing we got a coffee pot in the DZTV room now!

The early reports coming out of the teams in training here indicate that the military Casa pilots are still learning the jumping ropes. It seems they don't like landing while parachutes are still in the air. Note to pilots: They will stay out of the way. Trust me.

Early registration numbers:

• 9 CF Rotation teams
• 10 CF Sequential teams
• 5 CF Speed teams
• 23 Freefly teams (16 countries)
• 9 Men's Freestyle teams (7 countries)
• 17 Women's Freestyle teams (11 countries)
• 17 Men's Skysurf teams (15 countries)
• 7 Women's Skysurf teams (6 countries)
• 34 FS 4-Way teams
• 10 FS Women's 4-Way teams
• 10 FS 8-Way teams
• Over 1000 total competitors (including Style & Accuracy)

I do believe this is the biggest skydiving competition in the history of the sport! And unlike Bob Uecker, I'm sitting in the front row again.

A view facing west from the creeping/packing area. The team tents are to the right, the main building straight to the left (out of view), and the air base runway at 1000 o'clock (a Casa is just visible).

View facing north from tent area; the creeping/packing area is visible on the right, the main building in the background, and one of the tents on the left.

Tuesday 19 June

Some of the action at registration.

The IPC controller at work, Brenda Reid.

After sleeping late and missing the bus -- we didn't know we were supposed to be on the 0930 instead of the 1130 -- we arrived just in the nick of time. They were serving lunch! Tomorrow I shall try to remember the camera for a cafeteria shot. The highlight of my day is the flan at the end of lunch.

More familiar faces arrived today...saw Cheryl Stearns and some of the Golden Knights loopers & stompers (my friendly reference to Style & Accuracy competitors)...was that Steve Woodford outside a minute ago? The Big Tent is slowly taking shape outside...Ted is done working on NetPost...

...speaking of NetPost, it's probably one of our better kept secrets. It's a bit of software that Ted put together a couple of years ago; NetPost listens to the network that the scoring systems are on, and whenever the judges post an official score -- in either FS or CF (rotes & sequential) -- then NetPost automatically formats an HTML file and fires it up to the OmniSkore web site, as in here: live scoring sample. There is a link to these scores on the bottom of each team page.

Manifest is getting busy.	More shameless self-promotion.
A nice view to the east from a few meters away from where I took the shots below.
The Big Tent slowly takes shape under the sun.

Wednesday 20 June
Aye Karumba that is one huge tent! It's not so much a tent as it is a large steel building with cloth skin. It's HUGE.

More familiar faces streaming in, I see the Russian delegation is here now, hello Alexander! Good to see you again! Vodka later? Da! See you there! Okay, we got some team photos being taken now by OmniSkore assistant Gloria Caravallo-Leach, so expect those to be showing up on the team pages over the next few days. Hello, Perris France Maubeuge! Aha, the Swedish 4-Way women's team! Good to see you again, Ann-Marie. We jumped together at Eloy several years ago, wrestling Jay Stokes around the desert skies on an AFF eval. Enough now, off to the bar!

La Grande Carpa Blanca, outside and in.
"LOS GUASSAAAAA BROTHERS" On about the second day here I stuck my head into one of the rooms across the hall looking for Gloria, but it was occupied instead by a half dozen or so of the Spanish organizers. For lack of anything smarter to say, I put on my Stupid American face and said "WHASSUUUUUUUP!" and they all laughed. Ever since, T1 & T2 have been the "WHASSUUUUUUP" brothers, and today this little poster showed up in their room. Click on it for a bigger version.

Thursday 21 June
Ah, the final day of setup bits. The equipment is all set up, waiting for the big screen TVs to go up in the Big Tent so I can throw the Big Switch and see if everything Blows Up. What's that? Who has what for us? Oh cool, the USA CF team just gave us a couple of nice team shirts. Now I can put off laundry for another day! Remember, all you teams out there, if you'd like special treatment on OmniSkore.com all you have to do is bring us a T-shirt or a bottle of wine and you're set. Huh? What's that? What integrity? Hey, we're capitalists here, not reporters! ;-)

<snip> that verbose garbage I had going earlier -

Is it Sunday yet? I'm read for some competition!

For all you friends, teams, family, etc. out there, if you see a name or spelling or wrong link that needs to be fixed, please let me know at webmaestro@omniskore.com. I've created more than 250 files for this coverage, and I'm sure there are errors galore. Please be specific with corrections. Thanks!

And before anyone flames me for biased coverage in the form of nothing but USA photos today, trust me when I say the camera wanders next time!