OmniSkore! coverage of the 2007 US Nationals.
Omnibits by Tim Wagner

0800
Good morning! The competition has started and we are scrambling to start taking team photos the weather is beautiful and there's teams all over the hangar and stay tuned for a great show.

0930
4-Way FS round one is nearing completion, and what I've been able to see so far is pretty good stuff, but we desperately need another monitor at the DZTV table because I can't make out much with the just the mixer screen. FIXED! Thanks Donavan! Should start taking some team photos here shortly. In 90 minutes of competition I think they've flown nearly 30 loads already.

In round 1 of 4-way Open, Airspeed and Fastrax Red opened up with solid 23s, but Fastrax was busted to a 22 so Airspeed has the early lead with Dan BC's Perris Fury in third with a nice 21. Golden Knights Gold posted a 20. Much more commentary later as I'm off to take team photos.

1400
I have been called to judge duty after taking about 80% of the team photos. Looks like I'll have those posted later tonight or tomorrow morning. I have a small break right now though.

The meet is moving very quickly and efficiently, manifest is doing a great job of keeping the teams busy, and as the clock moved past noon round 4 was almost done. I think there are five Otters, one for fun jumpers and four for competition, and they're all flying nonstop.

The Riz > Ice Pick exit for round 4 is giving a lot of videographers a headache, it's a difficult formation to get a good angle on and lots of teams are getting a goose egg for their exit. Been there done that! Overall though the teams are doing very well. Okay, back to the judging booth...

1645
With the wonderful assistance of Erin Horton I got most of the 4-way team photos posted, I think we're still missing a couple.

1800
Okay I got to judge a bunch of jumps on Judge Judy's panel, unfortunately that meant I couldn't watch the other 2/3s of 4-way. But looking at the scores, there are some tight races in Intermediate and Advanced, while in Open, Arizona Airspeed is putting on a dominating performance. Their scoresheet is nearly spotless and they have a 8-point lead over Fastrax Red, who by the way is not shabby at all: a 24.3 average through 6 rounds.

There is an international presence at this USPA Nationals: France and India each have a pair of teams here, and they are very good teams.

Here's Airspeed's round 7 up on DZTV...wow...the grace...the speed...the engineering...the video...what a team...another clean jump, 28 more points on the board. That right there was a thing of beauty. It's almost not fair, a team skydiving that well on the 7th jump of a long day! You guys are supposed to get tired and sloppy, didn't you get the memo? What an impressive day's work...

NEXT

Note: All Omnibits commentary are the expressed opinions of the writer, not USPA or Skydive Chicago.