Friday 6 September
The one thing I hear most from the competitors so far is "Wow, what a place!" Referring, of course, to Roger Nelson's new state-of-the-art skydiving resort here in Ottawa, Illinois. Most people have heard of it, but few appreciate it until they walk into the main hanger and take in the scope of the place. All the main skydiving activities (uh, ground activities) are here in one building: Airplane hanger, packing, team rooms, gear store, movie theater, restaurant, manifest, offices, maintenance, the whole shebang. The big question mark will be, of course, the weather, which so far has been superb, with cool mornings and warm sunny afternoons. And the forecast is good through the weekend.
An early scoop: Roger met with the Big Three team captains (Airspeed Vertical, Majik, and the Knights) to see if they would be interested in being in the same plane together throughout the competition, and they all agreed that would be good. The big question now is will USPA allow it under the rules (which state the jump order will be based on a random draw). It will be interesting to see how this plays out...
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Above: The two Sarahs and Krissy are handling registration with clinical efficiency. Right: Meet Director Tony Thacker, Marylou, Madolyn, and Larry "Bags" Bagwell. |
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There has been a long, steady stream of competitors going through
registration and I am seeing a lot of familiar faces...heading out with the
camera again...
...the hanger is dang near swarming with competitors...the current registration count for 4-way is 4 Open teams, 13 Advanced teams, and 9 Intermediate teams, but those numbers are going to climb a lot as the eyes get dotted and the tees get crossed...
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Eating, stretching, lounging, aiming, and creeping.
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Way cool, Mr. Tony Hathaway just dropped by with some nice pictures of
Synchronicity. Anybody else out there with some pictures you want to share,
just bring your Flash memory card by the DZTV booth.
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Several loyal readers have asked where they can send email to competitors, and I will have that info posted on the main page soon...okay, that address is missy@skydivechicago.com
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The competitors' briefing is under way and it's a packed house in the
theater...Bill Ottley just got a nice O...the draw is now posted...
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...okay, we just got all the team pages created late at night, and if we get
ONE COMPLAINT about missing team photos before round one even begins we're
going take the day off ;-)
See you Saturday!