Tuesday 6 September |
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0615 Good morning everybody, powering up systems and checking the mail bag...Dan gave a 15 minute call for the first loads moments ago, and they are jumping in reverse order of standings today...when I hopped in my truck to drive to the DZ this morning, I flipped on the radio and scanned to a station and heard a voice that sounded vaguely familiar, and when he signed off the story, dang if it wasn't Greg Jarrett, an old skydiving friend from Spaceland...his wife bought my first rig right about 20 years ago...small world...I'm off for breakfast now, back shortly. I have received a number of requests to please please pretty please post some streaming videos. At this point I don't see it happening for pure lack of time. My DZTV assistant has been reassigned to the dubbing station. IF I have some time to spare later in the week AND enough people bleg I may reconsider...what the Golden Knights did on round 5 yesterday was a work of art... ...an hour later we're waiting for a redub of one team to wrap up round 4 of Open...the problem with finishing judging round 4 was caused by a DVD dubbing machine failure yesterday, the problem has been fixed but there is still one jump yet to be judged... Loyal readers I love you all so much, but if and when you send me a web-page-booboo-email, please send me the information to correct and the associated team numbers. "Please fix Flail Masters page" isn't very helpful, y'know? ;-)
0830 ...the top three teams in Open all posted 17s on round 7, the Knights looked a bit sloppy (they would say "soup sandwich"), but hold on to a 3 point lead...moving on into round 8, at 0900 on day two, that is something amazing... ...DOH...my apologies for the delay getting the Intermediate draw posted, it is now on the home page under the Open draw...
1000 Round 8 Open...DeLand Fire ripped a 21, and the Knights had a melt down near the end of working time...dropped a grip on a box just before the end, and their 20 is dropped to a 19, and it's a one-point ball game...throw Odyssey's 20 into the mix and the leader board has tightened up a bit... ...so does anyone out there want to see streaming videos? I think I'm getting close... 1100
1200 ...and minutes later we are judging round 7 of Intermediate...looks like a fast draw, Arizona Divewerkz just posted a 18...Hat tips to Craig Fenstermaker and Michael Ashley for the web page booboos, they have been fixed, thank you gentlemen...more steaming videos have been posted on the main page...the internet gallery seems to be maintaining email silence...maybe they're gone and I can take the afternoon off...yeah, that's the ticket...I will try to get some videos of Intermediate and Advanced too...
WOOHOO I just got DeLand Black Magick on video and it will be on the web shortly. Remember, this is a belly flier meet, and these guys are not belly down...
1400 Round 7 of Intermediate is done and it's still a close one between Equinox and Divewerkz. No sooner do I write that than the latter picks up two points on round 8 to make it a one-point lead for the former. Mr. Meet Director just informed me that "the finals will be at 4 o'clock." There's one person on the DZ who deserves the most credit. She's not only good looking, reliable, but also one of the best judges in the world. She puts up with lots of BS from Al Gramando, also known as Pond Scum. As soon as she gets a backrub, she'll stop writing this crap. The sooner she stops writing, the sooner she'll get a glass of wine. So... when can I see photos of the baby......toddler. (ps - the webmaster may or may not have written that. Who knows. Walk away from the keyboard for five minutes...)
1410 ...okay Open finals are up...Team Fastrax posts a 17...Odyssey an 18...DeLand Fire is up next...my inbox box is filling up with demands to know what's going on...here we go Fire...nice jump...a 20, sweet...if it stands...it does...Knights up now...not a great jump...18! Jump-off! If it stands...one of their zircons was a soup sandwich...it's an 18, and we have a jump-off! AND THE JUMP-OFF ROUND IS ALL RANDOMS! The Knights were very lucky on that one... Well how about them apples! Did someone smell a jump-off before in these pages? Will it happen tonight? I'll find out ASAP, and sorry to all your East coast sleepy heads trying to tough this one out! 1730 ...so, who am I rooting for? Well, the Knights of course. I've been doing this so long that I bet a couple of you out there don't know that John Hoover and I were teammates on the 1995 Golden Knights 8-way squad. And at last half of that team is here this week. But if DeLand Fire pulls off an upset, they will have done so on the basis of a truly remarkable performance, not because the other teams had an "off" meet. This is a really wonderful team to watch. Very smooth and graceful, with jumps as thoroughly choreographed and executed as anything I've ever seen. Whoever wins this meet is a worthy winner. I have a half hour or so, and I think I'll go grab a beer. Stay tuned my OmniFriends.
Great photos, Chris. That about captures the emotion here. We are about 10 minutes from jump-off... 1845 Fire's jump was smooth as glass and covered with silk, relaxed and now in the books. Wow. I need a beer, stat...VIDEOS ARE POSTED... |
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Ted "T1" Wagner, Chief Engineer | Tim "T2" Wagner, Webmaster |