News-wise, it is going to be slow for a while as we have much work to do here. Talk to you later.

0700
(Liz) CF first load has taken off.  To all you CF fans out there, there is a CF expert who will be bringing news of the day's events later on, so please be patient for more in depth reporting.

Every day I'll be posting interviews from various FS teams.  I had the pleasure of interviewing Dalias Gaika from Magic 4, the Lithuanian team. Their team is made up of military airborne instructors and this is their first meet at World Level.  Dalias told me that they were all very excited about being here and jumping against the best skydivers in the world and at the best drop zone in the world.  He was blown away by the quality of the facilities here.  He was also full of praise for Airspeed who coached them in the tunnel over 2 days.  Magic 4 are here to expand their vision and learning, grow as a team and to meet new friends.  They have certainly met many new friends, oh and by the way, Lithuanian Brandy is lethal!!!

 0730
(Liz) It's so exciting - 8-way is getting it's 15 minute call in half an hour.  On my way in this morning at an obscenely early time, Airspeed were already dirt diving. 8-way will definitely be the comp to watch with the 3 big teams battling it out for Gold.  Many predict a jump off.

0810
(Liz -LizBits) - my new nickname courtesy of Dennis R.  First load of 8-way is about to take off with Deguello and Italy. Fox 10 news (local news for Arizona) was here doing a live link with Airspeed creeping and an interview with Craig Girard.  I will upload the photos later.  Asked Kirk Verner about the upcoming day and he replied - "it's kill time!"

0835
Here are some Artistic Events tidbits from Amy Chmelecki:

Skydive Arizona is going off. Competitors from 20 different nations have been buzzing around, getting in their last few training jump, orientating themselves to a new Drop Zone, saying hello to old friends and meeting new friends. They are hoping that they have trained enough and whishing that the judges will like what they have trained. Most of all they are excited to be involved in the world championships, where they can represent their home nation and show the skydiving world what they have been up to.

Over the last few weeks, teams have been slowly trickling into Skydive Arizona. Those who arrived early have taken advantage of the new, amazingly beautiful Sky Venture Arizona Wind Tunnel. The tunnel is a huge hit because it’s wind power is very strong and therefore freeflying in it is not a struggle. The wind tunnel has been used by the worlds best in the last few weeks. It’s walls are smiling. There are 6 Male Free Style Teams, 8 Female Free Style Teams, 7 Freefly teams and 3 Sky Surf Teams (one female and two male). Obviously the Sky Surf turn out is small, which may be a threat to the discipline’s future. However the Sky Surf Competitors that are here, are happy. They are here because they love the sport and they love to fly the board. For the Sky Surfers out there reading this, if you would like to compete some day, now may be your last chance. If not now, you may miss out on your opportunity. SKY SURFING IS AN ENDANGERED DISIPLINE!!!! It needs competitors to have a future.

Reigning champion Female Free Style team Axis 21 (Yoko Okazaki and Axel Zohmann) have been training and managing the Sky Venture Arizona wind Tunnel. At the last minute the husband wife team decided to swap roles and compete in both male and female Free Style. Yoko Okazaki will be representing Japan in Free Style as a performer while Axle Zohmann films her. Axel will also be representing Japan as a performer while Yoko films him. It will be very fun to see the art that this duo creates this year.

Last year’s freefly podium was filled from left to right with talented French flyers. Over all the French dominated the Artistic Events in 2004. French team Babylon is here to defend their world championship title. French team Jok’air came in second in 2004. They have been training hard all year to steal the gold from their brothers. US freefly team Guano is here, this is their very first world meet. They have been a team for five years. They have done very well on the national level and they are very excited to compete at the world level.

Round one of the artistic events has taken off. The weather is beautiful and the energy is powerful. It is going to be a good day!

0910
(LizBits) The French 8-way team just posted a 21.  We are currently watching the Russian round.... Unofficial score - 16.  Judges are now confirming and  yup, it's a 16.  Airspeed - wow - it is pretty heart stopping already.  They looked as though they did a 22 just on the limit - we are all waiting for the judges confirmation. It's touch and go.... 22 just confirmed!!!

1000
The results for the first round of Freeflying have been posted. Guano Freefly (USA) has first place with 8.6, and Jok'air (FRA) and Babylon (FRA) are tied for second at 8.5.

1020
(LizBits)  Round 2 of 8-way is underway.  It's great to see Deguello competing - they have been training hard all year.  They are looking nice.

1150
(T2) T2 chimes in from work. Looks like Roy and LizBits are doing a great job. Thanks! Tonight I am going to change the "CF Speed" button on the main page to point to the 2-way CF Sequential results. Please be patient as we gather team photos, it takes a long time to get them taken, edited and on line. 

8-way FS looks like it's going to be a real battle. Good luck teams! (/T2)

(LizBits) Thanks T2!  Round 2 of 8-way - the French looked beautiful in the air skydiving with such finesse, however Airspeed's more aggressive flying put them a point ahead again, posting a 22.  The suspense is excruciating!  The Italians and the Russians, at the moment, are in their own little battle! 

4-way kicks off soon.  I managed to corner the UK Team 4-Motion last night for an interview.  Rich Orford started by mentioning the F word (F as in FIRST) and failed spectacularly to backpedal - luckily the beer was free!  I asked them how they were feeling about today and they said that they anticipated a potty run on the 15 minute call of the first round!  Seriously though, they all said that this was a fantastic way to end a 2 year project and they can compete under no pressure, bar their own personal bests and enjoy the experience of competing at World level alongside the best skydivers out there. I asked their views on Round 3 and "Ripper" was the immediate response.  I won't say what their predictions were for their score until afterwards!

1220
(LizBits) 8-Way is now done for the day.  All's I can say is that the dog fight is on!!!!  France just posted a 20 to Airspeed's 19 on round 3, so Airspeed end the 8-way day 1 point ahead. 

Need to take a breather and have some lunch before the 4-way.

1330
The judging of FS 4-Way has started, and Team Fastrax gets a 21, and Sky-Light Barkli follows with 20.

1400
(LizBits) We've been trying to get the scores out as fast as possible hence the delay in the tidbits page.  The Ladies are showing some very strong teams. There's not much between the top 5 teams.  In the Open Class, Arizona Airspeed did a ripping round, with the Russian Extreme Ru team just one point behind them.  Everyone is eagerly awaiting DeLand Fire, who are up next.  Maubeuge posted an 18.  Oops, there seems to have been a video downloading change.  Black Cat (Rus) have just been judged and they are on a 23 subject to confirmation.  They got it.  Here is Fire...  On 0.0 they show a 23.  What will the judges give them?  A 23.  Wow.  Things are tight in all aspects of FS.

1430
(T2) I'm checking in from the office again. I now know what it's like to be at the other end, sitting in a cube pounding the refresh button until it falls off, rather than sitting in LizBits' chair and watching it all go down. IT STINKS. I want to be there!

Anyway, from the mail box, this one addressed to Amy and her Skysurf post above:

Great coverage as always. Go USA!!!

I do have a question for Amy since she is on the scene for the AE's.

As most are aware, a large number of people fought extremely hard to keep skysurfing as part of the USPA Nationals. As former members of the US Skysurf Team (Elsinore Boardwalk - 2003), we were part of this effort. Many letters and emails were written, a lot of time was spent and a hard fought battle resulted in what we believe was the best possible outcome.

Question - Where are the US teams? We understand why Craig and Tonya are not there. It was admirable of them to come out of retirement in Perris to help keep the sport alive. Much respect to them and their efforts over the years. Enough can't be said about what they have done for the sport and the effort they have made over an extended period of time.

But - where are the remaining teams? Where are the teams that led the charge to support Skysurfing in the US? This meet is being held in our own backyard and of the three teams that could possibly have attended (Firestarter excluded), not one of them is there. A large number of us who supported their effort to keep Skysurfing did so with the understanding that they would also support the event. This does not mean simply showing up at Nationals. If Skysurf dies at the international level, it will certainly die in the US. If this happens, it will certainly not be the fault of Russia, France, Switzerland or Japan, all of whom have supported the sport as much as possible (France and Russia specifically). The US continually has teams that qualify for international competition and don't go (Skysurf is not the only event at fault here). In 2003, Boardwalk begged, borrowed and did everything within our power to get to Gap regardless of our medal chances. I know that Kebe and Jason did the same. So did Craig and Tonya so many times as well.

While I'm sure good reasons may exist for this year's teams not attending what is essentially a local meet (yes, I understand entry fees are high), it would be helpful for their supporters to understand why this occurred.

Steve Miller Kathee Johnson Elsinore Boardwalk

Comments, Amy et al?

Another email:

The math on some of the scores in freeflying is incorrect. Babylon should be in first now, but is listed as 3rd (assuming you posted the right scores). Also, just a question if you know... are artistic events only doing 5 rounds?

Roy or Lizbits, want to follow up on that one? I'm back to work. (/T2)

(Roy) The AE events will be seven rounds. The results tables will be changed. Those tables have to be done manually. We caught the Rank booboo, but expect more errors since it is a fat-finger operation. Because they are manual tables, the presentation will always be in Team Number order, not in order of Rank.

1620
(LizBits)  Further to Roy's last tidbit, please, please bear with us.  We are totally swamped here and we are getting info to you as fast as humanely possible.

Round 3 has been completed by the ladies and it's still a tight race.  Round 3 of Open judging has been delayed by a re-judge of DeLand Fire's Round 2 as requested by them.  The 18 score still stands.  Until the end of the 3rd Round Open Class, we won't be posting anymore tidbits - just updating the scores as we get them for all disciplines.  

1700
(T2) The Webmaster jumps in for some bits while LizBits and Roy pound out the team photos. The first day of competition is always crazy for the DZTV/tidbits operator(s) and especially so today. But about the 4-way so far. Wow! If I read this right, we have a good old-fashioned race between USA, FRA, and RUS, with only 3 points separating 1st from 3rd after 3 rounds. WAY cool. But wait -- that's the women's event! Over in Open, we have a 3-way tie for 1st, and the leader board shows as USA, RUS, USA, RUS, USA, RUS. Wow. I've never seen anything like it. It appears that the Russians have tasted gold in 8-way and now have their sights on the 4-way gold. This is going to be FUN to watch! (/T2)

1730
(LizBits) T2 has definitely summed up the day.  It has been totally amazing.  Airspeed's Round 3 was poetry in motion and the hangar pretty much erupted when they scored the 34.

We are going to upload the team photos and random dz photos tomorrow morning as things will not be so hectic first thing.  (Roy)One complication is that there are 2 rounds of 2-way Sequential CF still to be judged today. That's 30 jumps, and only two have been judged so far, so those judges are going to be burning the midnight oil. Because of the late hour, and because getting those results to the web page require some extra steps, we won't be able to get them posted tonight -- your faithful reporters are out of gas! But we plan to do that task first thing in the morning and then tackle the photos.

1800
(LizBits) 4-Motion - I asked them what their predictions were for Round 3 and they said mid to high Teens.  They just missed out on getting a 20.

The British Army 4-Way team informed me that they only had 60 training jumps with their new member since Dane Kenny was deemed to old to jump!!  Their words not mine.

Well, that pretty much wraps up the day.  Off to have a chat with a few more teams and get some quotes, etc for the tidbits tomorrow.

Buenos Noches,
Liz and Roy.

2401
(T2 sneaks in past midnight) An interesting email:

Att: Liz

Opening Ceremony (Liz) The Opening Ceremony kicked off with Jason Peters flying the American flag, followed by the IPC and FAI flags and then every country in alphabetical order landing alongside the competitors. Kirby then took to the skies with the Red Bull stunt plane and did a very impressive show. Next up was a demo of skydivers under burning canopies. Yes, you have read right - burning canopies! Led by Steve Curtis, each demo jumper did a hop n' pop from the DC 3 and set fire to their canopy. One jumper cut away his burning canopy, got his main out only to have a malfunction on that - of course that only led to more excitement. On the ground there was a line of fire, which the demo jumpers swooped alongside. To finish off, the DC3 did a very low fly by and everyone retired to the competition hangar for food, beer and the tunes of Mariachi.

RE: the flaming canopies jumped out of an Otter not the DC3 and the person that cut away was a camera person, his canopy (a very nice new crossfire 2) was never meant to flame up, but in the process of attempting the perfect shot, he got soo tweaked in his harnest that he self induced a stall followed by massive line twists.

Ps. Your story sounds better! :)

Ps2. I know that for a fact cause I'm the moron that cut away! ;)

Blue skies.

B.

I do hope we can come up with some photos of those burning canopies.

I'd like you readers out there to please thank LizBits and Roy for bringing this show to you in my absence. And my apologies to both for all the spam they're about to get because I posted their addresses on the WWW.

Good luck to all teams tomorrow! (/T2)

 
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