TIDBITS (Timbits + Tedbits)WARNING - Content may be offensive, or even correct! Saturday, 6 September Impromptus...Post Surgery Notes, Remembering 1995, and more Many thanks to the surprising number of people who have written to wish me well after my surgery. I have enjoyed a quiet couple days at home catching up on PC maintenance and watching Harry Potter DVDs. I continue to be amazed by the change in my heartbeat. If anyone out there is considering the EP Study/Ablation procedure, I can sure vouch for it. My wounds are healing nicely, if somewhat itchy...on another surgical note, I am now scheduled to have my shoulder cut on on 26 September. The doctor is going to remove the end of my left collarbone, which has been digging a little hole in my rotator cuff for many years. I haven't jumped in nearly two years, and I can't wait to get back in the air. Sitting here at home recuperating from surgery has given me some time to reflect and savor some memories of previous world meets. I have in particular very fond memories of the 1995 meet there at Gap. The scenery, the Hotel Arizona, Gap...some of the pictures I took can be seen here and here and here and here and here. Somebody else took this one. I was, of course, flying camera for the Army 8-way team that year, and we went into the meet as big-time underdogs. France had given us a good old-fashioned tail whoopin' the year before at the World Cup in Spain, by a final margin of 28 points if I recall correctly. So when we arrived in France the next year not many people expected us to pull it off, but we did. It was an incredible competition, one that was judged live, with air-to-ground transmitters. Whenever we finished a skydive and opened our canopies, we would look down at the big tent. If people came running out towards the French tent, we knew we had been beaten on the jump. If the Stars & Stripes was running towards the landing area, we knew we had won the round. We went into the final round leading by five points, but we knew the French weren't going to roll over, and round 10 was a tough one. We didn't do well on it, and I remember my heart sinking as the team stumbled badly on an zipper > crank. Miraculously, no one jumped the key, I couldn't believe it. At breakoff, I knew it was going to be close. As soon as I cleared my air and turned around, I looked down, almost dreading what I might see...but there came Trevor, running to the landing area waving the USA flag. We had won by a single point. I still shiver thinking about it. What a meet that was, and Airspeed won their first world meet there. Now here we are, eight years later, and the Army team is representing the U.S. in 4-way, and Airspeed the U.S. in 8-way. Who would have ever guessed! Remember how exciting live judging was? What happened? Okay, I won't go there, don't get me started on it... But it's 2003 now, the World Meet has returned to Gap, and there are few places that can put on a competition like they do. Here's looking forward to a great competition! T2 |
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Ted Wagner, Chief Engineer | Tim Wagner, Webmaster |