Thursday 23  October

...last night, Missy Nelson brought me some more tidbits for her 22 October page, and somehow I forgot to hit the save button when I pasted them in so they just now showed up. Sorry about that! Missy is writing some great stuff for us, please be sure to send her a thank you, thank you!

Over the last few days we have received a number of emails that go pretty much like this:

"Dudes... Omniskore rocks!!!! All of my friends, family, and co-workers were able to watch our results close to real time because of your hard work. Many thanks from around the country!!"

We want you all to know that we really truly appreciate it, and it's that kind of feedback that keeps us going and going. Please don't stop!

You know what? Sitting here watching all this excitement is making me want to compete again next year. Hey Airspeed, you got any slots opening up? ;-)

Yes, I am still working on getting some AE streaming videos posted. I am waiting for the right firewire cable so I can get the best quality. Meanwhile, 8-way round 7 is now being judged, and we just updated the AE scores...

...I could use a little help here...I have one watcher, an AOL customer, who cannot get the 8-way Intermediate results page to load. Is anyone else having that problem?

While we're waiting for some scores, let's go back to the inbox:

"With warm heart I offer my friendship, and my greetings, and I hope this letter meets you in good time. It will be surprising to you to receive this proposal from me since you do not know me personally. However, I am sincerely seeking your confidence in this transaction, which I propose with my free mind and as a person of integrity. My name is Wolny Olkusz, the first son of Paul Olkusz, of the most popular black farmer from Zimbabwe, murdered in the land..."

Wolny my friend, great to hear from you! No problem, I'll be glad to help. All you have to do is deliver a bottle of fine Zimbabwe wine to the DZTV room and we'll have those million$ freed up in no time!

1000
A photo of T1 by request. Ladies, he is the last single Wagner left!

I am pleased to announce we have a new contributor to the tidbits pages, Adam Bradbury of the Air Force Academy will be writing some tidbits for the Style & Accuracy disciplines. You can find his installment from yesterday here. Welcome Adam, and thank you!

Airspeed 8 round 7 just got scored a 19 on a beautiful jump, they had a couple of accordion > stairsteps that just took my breath away. The Knights followed up with a 17 on their jump. Airspeed 8 is starting to run away with it, a 9 point lead with three jumps left. How does that commercial go? These guys are good...

....speaking of good, I see that Freefly team Alchemy is continuing to rewrite the laws of physics in freefall. If it can't be done, those guys can do it! Yes, I'm still working on that steaming video...okay, I just got Amy & Curtis Freestyle round 3 uploaded! Freefly and Skysurf coming soon, I promise!

1200
OUCH my good friends Deguello have been having a great meet so far, but they were close to building a fast Rubik out the door on round 8 when it funneled...so their once-comfortable lead over Optik for third place has gone from 6 points down to 1....the Knights had a real sweet jump but busted a 18 down to 16 -- separation between 1 and 2 -- and they had some awesome vertical transitions on Venus > Venus...Airspeed up now, they get a 17...no, check that, they got popped for the exact same failure to convince the judges of separation between the Rubik and the Venus out the door, so the Knights outscore Airspeed on this one...Airspeed's lead is pretty insurmountable, but Deguello has that oh-so-slender one point lead over Optik for the bronze position...

Round Nine, 8-way...Optik just posted a very good 15...The Knights now...I don't know if this is going to be scored clean, but it sure looks like a nice jump...yes, it's a clean 25...

Let's go to the inbox:

"A question for you. What are the rules constituting the make of a team that goes to the World meet? For example, the Airspeed team that competed in Gap was not the same make up as the team that won the Nationals last year. How are substitutions of team members permitted?"

Well there's that thar rule book thing over at http://www.uspa.org/ that I think says you have to have 3/4 of the original team intact. I think. Something like that. Maybe someone can look it up for us.

"I am new to the sport of skydiving and I have a stupid question regarding the 8-way teams. What does “Guest” mean next to the team name? If Perris Vengeance wins the third position, would they not win the bronze??? Thanks for your time."

A "guest" team is a team that has one or more members who do not meet the eligibility requirements. Again, this is all spelled out of course over in that thar rule book thing at USPA. They've recently changed the exact requirements and I'm not sure what they are, but you can't be from Jupiter (the planet, not the Florida town) or Setti Alpha VI. T1 says you can find it here: SCM 1-1.4.

"Hi there. I'm just a nobody from nowhere, but I enjoy and appreciate your coverage of Nationals. Thanks for doing it!"

Well, if you enjoy and appreciate our coverage, then you are SOMEBODY from SOMEWHERE and we do it for YOU!

Okay, Airspeed is up for round 9 now...damn these guys (and gal) are fast...looks like a 25, possibly a bust on a box...hard to believe those 7 guys can keep up with that girl...yep, they busted that box and get a 23...I can't wait to see what they do on round 10!

ALERT ALERT ALERT Missy just walked in with today's AE Tidbits, now posted for your enjoyment. Please do take the time to thank her if you can!

WOW...Optik has made up 10 points on their last two jumps to overtake Deguello by 4 points heading into the final round...

...Missy has been bringing me Freefly footage so I'll have some of those jumps made into steaming video later on...

...Congratulations to DeLand Section 8, winners of the 8-way Intermediate gold medal! That was a pretty impressive win. It's All About Fun and R We Serious (!!!!) take the silver and bronze.

-Way Round 10 - Knights up first - fast but a bit sloppy, 23 points in time but I think they probably popped themselves on a pod or two...OUCH they busted three times down to a 17, they got real sloppy right in the middle...let's see what Airspeed does now...did I say these guys are good? It's a 25 if it's clean...or a 26 if it's clean and they get that point on the freeze frame...yes, there it is, a 26 and Airspeed wins another 8-way Nationals gold!

Now, if I'm not mistaken -- and that sure wouldn't be a first -- I think Eliana is the first female to win a 8-way gold medal at a U.S. Nationals. Does anyone know otherwise? 

1730
With 8-way in the bag, we're just finishing up the judging for the AE events while I try to make steaming videos of them. Freefly team Alchemy has declined to bring me any of their footage and I can't get my analog capture card to work, but I've got a few jumps to post. Check back soon...

1830
Freefly final results have been posted, congratulations Alchemy! Also, I am DONE posting competition videos, as my web hosting service is about to repossess my house to pay for all this bandwidth. I'm headed for the bar now, and if I have time before the chariot turns into a pumpkin I'll have those final scores posted for Freestyle and Skysurf.

But first, this is funny, from the old inbox:

Mr. Spock called me up to point out a minor mis-spelling in your October 23 Tidbits. For all of the Star Trek fans out there, I thought I should tell you that "Setti Alpha VI" is spelled "Ceti Alpha VI." And in case you really want to know all of this trivia, it is the 6th planet (counting from the star outward) orbiting around the brightest star (as seen from the planet Earth, i.e., the "alpha" star) in the constellation Cetus, just in case you ever want to visit the place. It is not a great place to visit. You would be better off visiting Ceti Alpha I. Let me know if you need directions (or some videotapes of old Star Trek re-runs).

P.S. Don't feel bad. I got flamed the other day because I mis-spelled "medal."

I stand corrected. You win the OmniMetal for attention to detail. Thanks!

1930
Beer. No, uhm, 16-way on tap for tomorrow. Friends to catch up with. Gossip to hear. Baseball to watch. Wife to call. Food to eat. Thanks for visiting and see you tomorrow. ;-) T2

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