OmniSkore! coverage of the 2008 US Nationals.
Omnibits by Tim Wagner
Premeet Stuff

1000
It is Sunday, October 19, and registration is registering and teams are training and I'm setting up DZTV and judges are practicing so we're having a fun crazy morning so far.

1100
Okay, let's see of the camera works...

1300
The DZ is buzzing with teams and staff working hard for the start of competition tomorrow, and there lots of familiar faces in the crowd. Hopefully I can get some eye candy from Michael McGowan during the week. I'll be taking team team photos all week, doing some 8-way FS judging, and blogging here when I can. There are three judging panels set up in the main hangar, and we should see some non-stop results getting posted during 4-way.

1430
Just got through doing some FS 8-way training. The buttons still do the same thing as before. Every time that Skydive Arizona has hosted the USPA Nationals, DZ owner Larry Hill has assembled a "fish bowl" in the main hangar, where spectators and competitors can watch the judging in action. This year Larry once again raised the bar a notch for the judges; he covered the fish bowl with a ceiling of plastic sheeting and put an air conditioner in each judging station. He's used wall-mounted versions before, but these work much better.

Cool. Just learned that Dan BC, Jack Jefferies, Ian Bobo, and Shannon Pilcher are doing 4-way. Don't know how many teams we got yet, but there sure are a lot of them out there.

Cool just got even cooler. Larry just installed an air conditioner in the DZTV room. Thanks Larry!

1730 Wrap
The 4-way briefing is starting in half an hour, the beer truck is getting lighter by the minute, and hopefully Jan and I will have team pages posted tonight.

Dan/Jack/Ian/Shannon didn't show up with a team name. I suggested Captain Jack's Sparrow's, but they went with Performance Desires. But whatever name they jump under, I sure look forward to see if they can nip on Airspeed's heels. There appears to be a LOT of talent in the 4-way Open class this year, with many guest teams from overseas. It's going to be fun to watch. Also check out Kurt's coverage too.

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