Wednesday 7 September |
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0700 Just after 4-way came to its dramatic conclusion last night, my internet connection went down and as I write this it is still down. 8-way on tap for today and tomorrow. Meanwhile, here are some more shots by Chris Burket from last night:
Checking the mailbox now...wow...lots of people up late last night for the excitement! 0830 I just took a casual stroll around the creeping and boarding areas, trying to get a feel for who is expecting to do what in 8-way. The Knights have done one training camp as a team, and I assume Airspeed has done several. I think it will be a battle between those two for gold and silver, and there are several others with a legitimate shot at the bronze: Paraclete, Deguello, Dallas Thunder, and Perris Vengeance. Airspeed just posted a 17 on round one and they looked very good, a clean jump. Paraclete is a team out of NC and features five former world champion Golden Knights, they post a score of 9, was a 10 before a separation bust. Wow - Perris Vengeance looked real solid and they put up a 11. OOH Deguello just missed a 10 on their jump...
1030 ...round 2 Open, Airspeed looked absolutely MAHVELOUS and danced their way to a 23...makes my mouth water wondering what they might do on round 3 with nothing but randoms...that was a very nice jump...team photos are up now...be forewarned, if you ask for a hi-res original, they are 2.5 MB in size...GK round 2 now, they looked like they were going to match Airspeed performance until a late glitch left them with a 21
1230 Well, it looks like round 3 shook up the race for the bronze as Vengeance and Paraclete dominated with 16s. Looking back through previous nationals, the last time the Knights won 8-way was 1999, and Airspeed has won every year since then. If Airspeed does not win 8-way here, it will be the first time in their history that they didn't win a nationals' gold in either 4-way or 8-way. The Knights very nearly won 4-way yesterday. One of these two teams is going to go home without a gold medal, and that will break a Golden Knight/Airspeed streak going back to...anyone? Going back to 1994, Airspeed has won either 4-way, 8-way or both. NW Express is leading the Intermediate event and just showed off an innovative method of doing open accordian > stairstep using staged piece turns. Pretty neat...
1400 BOO. Helloooooooooo! ECHO ECHO ECHO ECHO ECHO. Sure is quiet in here...no email in like four hours...There is a 4-way awards banquet tonight... ...and a short while later some notes trickle in, like this one:
I would say that if this meet were in Florida, there would be 1) some Florida 8-way teams and 2) a lot more rain. As far as wine goes, look for the guy wearing the Omniskore shirt at the banquet tonight ;-) I'm not sure why it is, but Florida does seem to send out mostly 4-way teams, while Texas & Deguello like to think bigger. Ah, just when I'm about to take a break and stretch my legs, someone hands me a CD full of pond swoop photos. Copy edit crop paste etc etc etc... ...that will have to wait...Airspeed's round 5 is up now...another fine show by Eloy's Boys (and girl), a 19, wagga wagga wows...Paraclete follows with another good jump, a 14...okay, now the Knights are up...OOH their 19 was just out, let's see how the judges rule...that was pretty sloppy yet sloppy fast...judges viewing a third time now...it's an 18, and Airspeed ups their lead to 3.
1600 SPECIAL BONUS POND SWOOP PHOTO PAGE!
1700 ...a reader doth write:
Still is, to be sure. And they are skydiving well. How many practice jumps do they have together? Minutes later, another reader chimes in:
Now those are words to keep me going! Thanks! Anyone want to see steaming videos? Our Phugoid writer reports that they don't have any practice jumps together. So not to belittle the team at all, I think that while they are an 8-way team and they are from Florida, they are not an 8-way team from Florida (Aflac duck quack here). ;-) DOH - while I was quacking, the Knights posted a drive-by 16, the replay looked good. But with four rounds remaining, they trail Airspeed by 4... Our Phugoid correspondent opines
Long-time Tidbits readers would tell her "Tim does that every year." ;-) Another Phugoid reader chips in:
Yes, Phugoid is doing very well for a team with no practice jumps together. They are currently ahead of at least two other practiced teams in the standings. Nothing to quack at, for sure... 1730 1745 - Ladies and germs, I'm going to duck out and clean up before the banquet, so if you're up late on the East coast, please know there will be no more web updates for at least an hour. Thank you.
If you think this is rough, you should see what I get from the AE and CF crowd. Sorry I can't please everybody! (Been searching for help for years). On to the banquet! 2030 Wrap-Up As for the e-mailer three paragraphs above, I can only hope you understand how much work it is just to put the scoring results, photos, eye candy, and team pages on the internet -- and that's not what I am here for. I run DZTV. I am a one man show and 98% of my audience wants to hear about the top teams. Everything else is, as we say at my work, time and materials. But don't get me wrong - I love all competitors, I love this sport, and I love being here for you all. Thank you for being here. Good night, see you tomorrow. |
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Ted "T1" Wagner, Chief Engineer | Tim "T2" Wagner, Webmaster |