OmniSkore! coverage of the 2008 US Nationals.
Omnibits by Tim Wagner
Monday, October 20
0730
Good morning! Round one of 4-way is under way, I'm busy taking
team photos so there won't be much to read here for a while.
0845
Round one is done and I'm editing team photos...back after a
while...
0930
Okay, most of the team photos are up, and glancing at the
scoreboard it looks like everything is starting to fall into place.
Last night when I got home I found
this nifty piece on azcentral.com, and a very nice article came
out in this morning's paper:
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Now with all that team photo work out of the way, I can actually start to watch some of the jumps and work some DZTV levers. BTW, the baby picture was sent by Doug Park, watching the NSL and OmniSkore show from DeLand.
If you would like a high-resolution original photo of your team, click HERE, and BE SURE TO ENTER YOUR TEAM NUMBER! As usual, I ask for a modest donation to one of the USPA trust funds...
...just got to watch the Knights' round 3, and they posted a very nice looking 26. There are some really good scores going up, a 23 for AZ Divewerkz...
...dang I stepped out to grab a soda and missed Airspeed's jump, it must have been nice because it's a 28 and it looks like the World Champions are going to be very tough to beat here...
1100
The word on the runway is that 4-way will go seven rounds today.
Round 3 is almost complete and it's 5 minutes after 1100 as I watch
Spaceland Directe post a 22, so as usual Meet Director
extraordinaire Bryan Burke and his posse is running a flawless USPA
Nationals...and now round 3 is officially done. Airspeed is four
points ahead of the nearest competitor, and six ahead of the next
medal eligible team. Those guys (and girl) have a 26.3 average at
this point, and round six looks of the draw looks like a real
burner...
...round 3 Advanced just wrapped up, and CSC Rhythm is running away with a 18.7 average and a 8 point lead over Centerline XP, that's some awesome skydiving for an Advanced team...
...in
Intermediate, the judges have not made round 2 official, I'm not
sure why, but in any case it's a very tight leader board as
Intermediate round 3 comes to a close...it looks like
R4 is going to have a two-point lead when
the rounds are made official...
1230
4-way Open round 4 is being judged, and it looks like that Piver
> Viper is a tough block move out the door, and Airspeed posts a 23
on it...I have to say, as a former videographer and constant pundit
on the topic in these pages over the years, that the overall video
quality at this meet is much better than I have seen before. I don't
think I've seen any of those annoying super-wide angle lenses that
can make judging such a pain...the Russian 4-way team
Black Cat just matched Airspeed's 23, both
teams missed a 24 by about 2 video frames...
From the mail box: "Any reason why [Performance Desired] they are a guest team?" I think that would be because Willy Boeykens is their videographer, and he is from Belgium...
...and
just like that, round 4 Open is done and Airspeed is in full
control. The 2nd and 3rd medal slots appear to be between the Golden
Knights and Perris Fury, who posted an
awesome 23 of their own to pull into a tie with the Army team. Two
world-class guest teams, the Russian and
French, are tied for bragging rights (and I
mean that in a complimentary way) with 97 points.
In 4-way Advanced, the Gold and Silver positions have good leads, while the Intermediate is a tight battle.
Hat tip to France Maubeuge ZC on round 5, they matched Airspeed's 20, the top two scores for the round. Nice video too.
1500
I got some eye candy from the indispensable Michael McGowan and
did some photo editing. Then I took a break, walked around a bit,
checked my email, and there's one from Jack Berke (of Deguello fame,
of course). Poor guy has been working virtually 24/7 since hurricane
Ike hit Texas and messed up his
Deguello
training. But he will be here Wednesday, and I ran into Cherie
Berke moments ago inside the hangar. This will be Jack's 20th season
with Deguello, and just earlier today I was thinking about how many
20-year Nationals veterans (as a judge or participant) are here this
week. Maybe some readers can point them out to me. I know that this
is my 20th appearance; I've been to 18 as a judge or competitor. My
first was 1986 at Muskogee, OK. Ah, back in the days of Cessnas and
DC3s and ground-to-air video judging. Zero-P was just over the
horizon.
Meanwhile,
round 6 of 4-way Open is being judged, and this round should be LOTS
of fun. The Knights look like they have some glitches and the judges
are chewing on their 26...and they spit out a 25, they may have been
a bit lucky there. Wow, just when Airspeed gets queued up, the door
opens and Larry Bagley walks in to introduce us to
Graeme Windsor, the president of the IPC. Nice to meet you
Graeme! While we get introduced, Airspeed rips out a 30 on round 6.
A short while later, France Maubeuge ZC posts a 29. And whoever is doing their video work is doing a superb job, the jumps I've seen have been beautifully easy to judge.
All these guest teams are giving this nationals an international flavor that seems pretty cool. Three French 4-ways, a Russian team, and a team from Monaco.
1700
Round 7 to finish up a long day. Airspeed cruised along for a
18, and shortly after that Maubeuge ZC did one of the prettiest
rounds of the day for a 20, and Fat Cat matched their 20 too. And
now round 7 is in the can, and while Airspeed has a pretty good lock
on the gold medal, they're only four points up on Maubeuge ZC in the
standings. Might make for an interesting finish tomorrow.
I have been informed that round 7 of Advanced and Intermediate
will not be officially completed tonight because of a couple of
rejumps that need to be done in the morning. The big question
tomorrow is who will come out on top in Intermediate? That's all for
today, see you tomorrow!
Note:
All Omnibits commentary are the expressed opinions of the writer, not USPA or Skydive Arizona.