Nationals ruminations

[billvon 2,476]

Well, another nationals has come and gone. The medals have been awarded, the beer trailer emptied a few times, and the wounds from the 10-way exits bandaged. Bryan Burke can go back to managing normal skydivers, rather than the somewhat more high-strung competitors.

In terms of safety, it was about average as such events go. Four moderate injuries that I saw, from a spinning CRW entanglement that looked like it was going to be fatal (but resulted in suprisingly mild injuries) to some landing-in-the-desert injuries. The landing area was always busy, and usually had people doing 180 to 360 degree hook turns - and sometimes had people landing every which way. But overall the pattern was usually predictable and most people had no trouble.

We had a good meet overall. Our 4-way team, Perris Thesia, had one jumper who had never done 4-way before, one who had done only pick-up teams and occasional camps, and one who had a year of training. (And a player-coach.) We ended up not coming in last, and ended with a 10.2 average, which was about what we were seeing in training.

I ended up with a silver in intermediate 8-way, which came as a suprise. We put together a pick-up team a few weeks before nationals and didn't get to make any practice jumps at all. But within a few jumps we were pulling the exits out cleanly and flying well (if cautiously) together, and getting 6's and 7's. The point spread ended up odd - the first place team (Arizona Old Works) the second place team (Blovi-8, our team) and the third place team ended up way, way apart in score, to the extent that we considered not even doing the last round. Not only was it at 7am the next morning (due to weather) but it wouldn't have changed anything even if one team competed and the other two didn't - the teams were that far apart.

But we ended up showing up anyway, and had a good round to end the meet on.

Amy entered 8-way with Moxie and did 16-way with the Perris team. She ended up with a bronze in 16-way. Both of us avoided 10-way, which we were both happy about after we saw the injuries the next day.

It's been a tiring week, and I think I'll take a few weeks off from jumping to remind me what it is that normal people do on weekends when they're not training for something. But overall we're pretty happy with both our performance and Nationals overall. Thanks to Skydive Arizona for putting it together, and to all the people (Betsy, Bryan, Jan, Judy, Brent, Amy C and dozens of others) who made it possible.

[jsaxton 0]

Congrats on the Medals

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[Ashtanga 0]

It seemed that there was not as many competitors as in the years before. What are your thoughts?

[agent_lead 0]

i love amy

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www.facebook.com/agentlead

[Eule 0]

One of those strange guys that actually wants to stay in the plane all the time was at Nationals and took a few photos: http://www.pbase.com/flyingphotog/eloy_uspa

Eule

PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

[Mike111 0]

sounds fun!

[kkeenan 13]

I agree, it was a fun meet. It's a real chore getting back to "normal" life after a week at SD-AZ. The week was sort of a cross between Boot Camp and a Greatful Dead Road Trip. Each Nationals is different, but they're all fun. Now I'm trying to get de-toxed from a week of free Red Bull.

Kevin

_____________________________________
Dude, you are so awesome...
Can I be on your ash jump ?

[ScottMcC 0]

In Freestyle there were more competitors than there have been in a long time (7 teams).

Freeflying had fewer teams than in the past, 4 each in open and intermediate.

VRW-4 way had a huge turnout, especially for being a test event.

Skysurfing had 3 teams and a guest.

So artistic events was kind of a mixed bag. Can't comment on the FS because I really wasn't paying that much attention.

Oh yeah...we were stoked to get 4th in Freestyle!!!! Yay!

[kkeenan 13]

Before this thread goes away, I think Bryan Burke deserves a public mention for his work as Meet Director. Every operation that I have observed Bryan handling has always run like clockwork. He is a great organizer and seems to have ESP when it comes to forseeing and correcting problems. With the events pushed into a single week at Eloy, there was the potential for a lot of conflicts. Bryan orchestrated the aircraft and jumpers in a smooth-running operation that kept everyone safe and happy. And if there is a conflict between you being safe OR happy, he will keep you safe.

Kevin Keenan
CRW Competitor

_____________________________________
Dude, you are so awesome...
Can I be on your ash jump ?

[DJL 232]

Quote

Before this thread goes away, I think Bryan Burke deserves a public mention for his work as Meet Director. Every operation that I have observed Bryan handling has always run like clockwork. He is a great organizer and seems to have ESP when it comes to forseeing and correcting problems. With the events pushed into a single week at Eloy, there was the potential for a lot of conflicts. Bryan orchestrated the aircraft and jumpers in a smooth-running operation that kept everyone safe and happy. And if there is a conflict between you being safe OR happy, he will keep you safe.

Kevin Keenan
CRW Competitor

No kidding, I was impressed with how well everything was managed. He did a tremendous job orchestrating the simultaneou events, got chase vehicles out to us when we had to get the f*ck out and landed in BFE. And then dealt with reorganizing the dive sequence when teams were down with reserve repacks.

"I encourage all awesome dangerous behavior." - Jeffro Fincher

[chuckbrown 0]

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The week was sort of a cross between Boot Camp and a Greatful Dead Road Trip.

Kevin

Couldn't describe it better. Oh, and Bryan is, indeed, the Man.