Tuesday 21 October

0700
No water falling from the skies this morning, the stars were shining when we left the hotel, and the hangar looks like a yoga convention. 4-way Intermediate is on a 15-minute call. Let's see what's in the inbox...do I really want to know...

...more Viagra than I can shake a stick at, how to make the stick bigger and go faster, something to shake a stick at, stick it all in the trash bin...otherwise there's a pile of questions in the mail I'll try to get to later, but quickly the most important question(s): where to find the schedule of events to what's going on. That would be over at http://nationals.com. We don't publish a schedule here because we have no control over it and it could change at any minute, so we concentrate on what's happened and what's happening. What's going to happen? Haven't a clue...now, I'm going to keep the webcam off for a while and try to post a few more steaming videos, so check back in a while...

...allrighty, I got some more steaming movies posted, sorry I can't meet everyone's request for specific teams as it's not easy capturing them when they're running three different judging stations while I got one VCR and a mixer...

...tee hee, check out who is the hottest bachelor in the southwest! It's none other than Jeremy Peters, videographer for Arizona Airspeed Dragon. Go get him girls!

I got my little boy plastered all over the wall!

There's quite a bit of email to get to later, for now I'm too busy running DZTV. But a quick note, the vast majority of feedback says to ditch the J (read yesterdays bits if you don't know what I'm talking about).

0915
It's beautiful outside and 4-way Open round 9 is under way and can someone please bring me a talk stack of buttermilk pancakes and a glass of milk? No? Dang...T1 and I got to the raw fish restaurant 10 minutes too late last night, we're gonna have to try again tonight...we "settled" for Outback Steakhouse and it was really very good...

...speaking of very good, sometime tonight or tomorrow or Thursday I am going to announce the winners of the 2003 Totally Unofficial Omniskore Most Excellent Videographer awards, one for each of the categories. Judging criteria will include consistency of exits, steepness, tightness, image stability, overall judgeability, and most importantly, how much they bribe the judge (me)...

 
 

...sniff sniff...I SMELL KRISPY KREME DONUTS...I am trying to get the webcam up again, but it is not cooperating, and I don't have to time work on it...

...I love this email:

"Hey, Jeremy is nice; but my vote would go to your brother Ted. More pics of him, please! :-)

Although my boss would disagree; you guys are doing an fantastic job..keep it up! The steaming videos are a wicked pissah (that's Boston-speak for "great") distraction!"

Tee hee, where's the camera...I'm sorry folks, I can't seem to kick start the webcam and I don't know why it won't work...we're motoring on through round 9 here at 1030, and I'm hoping that we have a nice pause before judging the top finishers in each class...

Top: The GK Black and DZ Momo's food trailer. Above, the style & accuracy area; left, the armory across the road from the DZ where a lot of teams are creeping.

We are into judging round 10 now, there will be a pause before judging the finals, so stay tuned here shortly...to answer a couple of emails on the same topic, I'd love to write more about the Advanced and Intermediate matchups, but 1) I just don't have the time and 2) I've asked for help from the competitors and got no takers...

...THE WEBCAM IS UP! A sudden realization that just maybe my IP address had changed on my PC, and it had, so I had to adjust the HTTP port forwarding on the router, so now it's getting through....

OKAY LISTEN UP they are judging all the open teams through round 10 EXCEPT FOR MAJIK, GOLDEN KNIGHTS GOLD, AND AIRSPEED VERTICAL, they will judge their rounds 9 and 10 as a big finale[emphasis now removed]. That's the scoop, I just got 20+ emails demanding to know what's going on, so there it is. I expect they'll be judging those rounds pretty soon. Stay tuned here and I'll keep you posted!

1200 NOON O'CLOCK
Indeed, the masses are restless for the big finish here, I had no idea they were saving the last two rounds of the top three teams in Open for last until I bugged the chief judge. That should be exciting, and we're not far away. A tip for you surfers, try opening up the results pages in their own windows so they're not in a frame (right-click on the main links menu and pick 'open in new window').

Status report - round 9 is finished jumping, as is most of round 10.

Okay, here we go with Airspeed Vertical round 9...nice start...a nice jump, 18 right on the freeze frame...a couple of those vertical transitions were borderline to me...let's see how they call it...they're watching it a third time now...and it is 18 clean! GK Gold now...nice...18 as well, they were a notch faster than Airspeed, let's see how they score it...they got a nice round of applause from the gallery, it was a sweet jump...and it's a 19, not 18, official and clean! Majik now...looking good...a 19 too! They keep a 2 point lead if it's clean, and it looked so to me...damn sweet vertical moves they got...and another big round of applause as the 19 is made official, so Majik takes the lead into the final round! A look at the draw on round 10, and it's not the kind of jump that's easy to make up any ground on. I think the Knights are going to need a miracle jump or Majik will have to make a mistake for the lead to change on the final jump...

1300
They just now gave a 15-minute call for Airspeed, GK Gold and Majik for round 10.

Above: The dubbing station, and to the right, Jack Jefferies giving a little play-by-play with some of the teams in running for medals.

Somebody just accused me of bias, so let me set the record straight. I am rooting for the U.S. Army Majik Airspeed, but I'm secretly hoping the Florida Marlins pull it out of their hat...meanwhile, in the Intermediate class, it looks like Windline Lightning has just nailed down a solid gold medal, congratulations! They finished with a 12.4 average, which is NOTHING to sneeze at...they are followed by O2 Project and Cross Keys Vision, congrats all...

...okay folks, here's round 10! AZ Airspeed Vertical up first...very solid...a 19! Pretty good score for such a slow draw...looks like they had a slightly slow start with a very solid finish...it's posted now, a 19. GK Gold now...easy on that refresh button...here we go...nice bunyips, but it's a 17...still a good score for that round! Still waiting for judges to confirm...yes, it's a 17 clean...okay, now Majik! They need a 15 to tie, a 16 to win...here we go...it's a steady one...17! If it's clean, Joey's finally going to a world meet! Waiting for the judges...there it is! CONGRATULATIONS DELAND MAJIK! You're going to Croatia! It's on the webcam, check it out!

Before I get any slaps for singling out Joey, for those of you who don't know, he's been on a very long line of outstanding teams that always seemed to be on the verge of winning the big one. But a bad jump here, a tough break there, has always kept him out of the Big Show. So no slight on Doug & Solly & Gary -- just an especially big congrats from me (and those like me) to Joey for finally get that opportunity!

watch this video (download first - it's not streaming)

In the Advanced Class, Spaceland Inferno jumped steady the entire meet and finished with a gold medal and a 14.7 average, not too shabby at all. There was an exciting finish for the silver, as Elsinore Adrenaline edged Warp Factor by a single point on round 10 to take it. Congrats to all!

A quick note about Nationals videos. These ladies -- Annie and daughters Rosalyn and Olivia of Airzone Xtreme -- are producing the video(s) and the drop zone -- Skydive Florida -- will be selling them. I will have more details as the become available. Why am I not making them this year? I only have ONE LOUSY EXCUSE and I'm sticking to it...

1500
The 4-way awards ceremony is tonight, as well as the 8-way briefing. In between this here webmaster is going to take a break and do that mingling thing. T1, you wanna toss something in here?

[T1 tosses something in here]

First, if you haven't met T2's "lousy excuse", you should -- there ain't a thing lousy about him, not even his dirty britches!

I had the pleasure of being in the hangar during the final 4-Way Open judging. That is an experience I will never tire of -- the chill that goes up and down the spine and the euphoria one can't help but share with the winners, knowing they're having a feeling at that moment that they would put in a bottle and keep forever if they could. Oh, and another reason T2 really was singling out Joey -- they jumped together in northern California in the late 1980s. Hollister, I believe it was.

Having said that ... DeLand Majik has some serious work ahead of them, and I hope they'll pursue their task with the enthusiasm, energy and desire it's going to take to win in Croatia next year. Here's a quote from France's Mondial03.com coverage of the world meet in Gap a few weeks ago, after their 4-Way team's final round:

"Another exceptional jump of the French FS 4 Way Open, who not only satisfied to win does it with style. The flight is fluid and diabolically precise. They leave little hope to their opponents and shows jump after jump that the Formation Skydiving 4way is a French event..... What a great team."

Now, ignoring for the moment the absolute flailing that OmniSkore would receive if we ever said anything like that about any American team at any competition (much less a world meet where we were the official web site, ostensibly providing complete and unbiased coverage, winkwinknudgenudge), the current world champions averaged 22.9, and would have broken 23 had they not been popped on the block 12 interpretation in round 1. That, folks, is some serious 4-Way skydiving. Majik will need to add two points to their current average, plus of course whatever France will be adding to theirs, just to be competitive in Croatia. Knowing these guys, I believe they're up to the challenge. So, stay out of their way when they're training, give them the good parking spaces and the best seats at the sushi bar and all the support you can muster. They are the new U.S. Team and they have a sword to bring home!

[End T1 toss]

1600
Ladies and Gentlemen and skydivers, I am pleased to announce that I have recruited Missy Nelson to write some tidbits for the Artistic Events! Thank you Missy!

Okay, I'm working on a few more steaming videos.

2100
Folks, I uploaded some steaming videos, I've no time to test them, I just ducked out of the banquet to make the links so ya'll tell me if they're broken please. Sex, lies and videotape to follow from the banquet. See you tomorrow!

t2

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Ted "T1" Wagner, Chief Engineer | Tim "T2" Wagner, Webmaster