2009 USPA Nationals

[surfbum5412 0]

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45 points, lol. Yeah those points looked SUPER difficult. So difficult you don't even have to move...you just touch and retouch 45 times :-)

Everyone I have talked to says the same thing...most boring thing I have ever seen.

It's true. You don't have to move that much, it seems. Simply touch and retouch 45 times. God knows why it takes so many years of jumping and hours in the tunnel to learn that little fact :) I've been spicing up my own skydives with a lot of unnecessary movement for years, maybe this is where I have been going wrong... :-s

Bloody boring world records, it aint fun unless you are GEEKING OR FUNNELLING, everyone knows that. You should have a point docked if you fail to pull a face on exit. (And while we're at it, what's with the boring black or navy suits and predictable white gloves? Where are the go-faster stripes, and Hawaiian or cow-print suits? How about some flames or bikini babes on the helmets? Dull, imagination-free, athletic purist, competitive ba$tards!)
;-)

I'm not talking about uncontrolled movements, I'm talking about more challenging draws in a more challenging orientation (i.e. Arsenal)

And don't start about stereotypes...

[nbblood 0]

The draw is a computer generated draw, not something somebody made up. Again, you clearly do not understand or appreciate the level of flying or the competition rules and environment.

Oh, yeah, and I'm a freeflier. But I also spend time doing video for competition teams and I always get in a few RW jumps every year too. I choose freefly as my dedicated discipline, but I have a healthy respect for FS. Yeah, Arsenal and Standard were pretty unbelievable too....but that's comparing apples to oranges. To fly at that level in either discipline takes unbelievable amounts of preparation. Do you have any clue what the backgrounds of Shannon Pilcher, Ian Bobo, Thomas Hughes, and Gary Beyer are? There are reasons why these guys are household names in skydiving. It ain't because they suck!

Oh, yeah, and there's a reason this was a WR......because nobody's ever done it before!!

If you think it's boring and don't appreciate it, that's fine. To each their own. Go somewhere else and don't bother yourself with it. It really is that easy. I wouldn't recommend knocking guys like Shannon, Ian, Thomas and Gary. It will only serve to make a reputation for yourself. Yours won't stand against theirs. I GUARANTEE it! Who knows, someday you may want to make a jump with them??!!

Blues,
Nathan

If you wait 'til the last minute, it'll only take a minute.

[billvon 2,400]

>I'm talking about more challenging draws in a more challenging
>orientation (i.e. Arsenal)

Prove you can do the non-challenging, easy, boring 45 point rounds, and people may listen to you when you describe what a challenging round would be.

Until then you'll sound like the belly flyers who consider freeflying as something people who can't get stable do.

[Ron 7]

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And you are a typical forum writer; if all else fails and you don't know what you're talking about, attack the other persons credibility.

Sorry, he knows what he is talking about. I am willing to bet you would not be able to do a 15 on that dive.

As Bill said... You sound like those guys that claim that the reason people take up freeflying is because they can't get stable.

Force did an amazing job.... The fact you don't think it is amazing says more about your ignorance of the skills needed than anything else.

And before you think that is some sort of PA.... Ignorance just means you don't know... And unless you are one of the spaceland 4 or a handfull of others, you are ignorant of what it takes to make a world record.

"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

[JohanW 0]

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.. freeflying as something people who can't get stable do.

You mean it isn't?

Johan.
I am. I think.

[NWFlyer 2]

Apparently one of the intermediate 8-way videographers vidiots pulled a stunt the judges didn't really appreciate.

http://www.uspanationals.com/blog/2009/10/nationals-day-5-friday-1016.html (scroll down to the 2 p.m. update for more detail)

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2 pm: MAJOR drama in the judging room earlier... An 8-way intermediate team's videographer effectively shut down a judging panel for about 15 minutes by diving off the top of the Otter to the right (after sitting on top) instead of exiting from the left-side camera step. There are a couple of issues with this, the first and foremost being the safety issue. If the videographer should strike the tail on exit, the worst-case scenario involves damage to the tail that compromises the aircraft's maneuverability enough to result in a crash.

Secondly, when you put an airplane between yourself and the team, you're guaranteed to lose sight of them, which could certainly compromise their score.

While there was some pretty capable flying on the part of the videographer in that his team was out of frame for only about a second or less, that counts for exactly nothing. Instead, the team received a zero and the DZO ejected the videographer from the drop zone for the rest of the event. Fun is fun, but putting safety issues in front of a panel of national and international judges at the United States Parachute Association Nationals is not smart.

"There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

[Remster 24]

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Apparently one of the intermediate 8-way videographers vidiots pulled a stunt the judges didn't really appreciate.

http://www.uspanationals.com/blog/2009/10/nationals-day-5-friday-1016.html (scroll down to the 2 p.m. update for more detail)

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2 pm: MAJOR drama in the judging room earlier... An 8-way intermediate team's videographer effectively shut down a judging panel for about 15 minutes by diving off the top of the Otter to the right (after sitting on top) instead of exiting from the left-side camera step. There are a couple of issues with this, the first and foremost being the safety issue. If the videographer should strike the tail on exit, the worst-case scenario involves damage to the tail that compromises the aircraft's maneuverability enough to result in a crash.

Secondly, when you put an airplane between yourself and the team, you're guaranteed to lose sight of them, which could certainly compromise their score.

While there was some pretty capable flying on the part of the videographer in that his team was out of frame for only about a second or less, that counts for exactly nothing. Instead, the team received a zero and the DZO ejected the videographer from the drop zone for the rest of the event. Fun is fun, but putting safety issues in front of a panel of national and international judges at the United States Parachute Association Nationals is not smart.

Was it Bill?

Remster

[MajorDad 0]

I could totally see Bill do this.....

He's always so out of control!

Major Dad
CSPA D-579

[kallend 1,623]

Hard draw in 10-way speed - I predict a whole lot of busts.

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The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[ltdiver 3]

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Hard draw in 10-way speed - I predict a whole lot of busts.

First round had 40's for everyone except the top 2. Wonder what happened? Someone's foot over the line, or was the formation built wrong? I'd hate to think that most of the teams really -did- earn a 40 just because they took too long to get together!

ltdiver

Don't tell me the sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon

[kallend 1,623]

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Hard draw in 10-way speed - I predict a whole lot of busts.

First round had 40's for everyone except the top 2. Wonder what happened? Someone's foot over the line, or was the formation built wrong? I'd hate to think that most of the teams really -did- earn a 40 just because they took too long to get together!

ltdiver

Haven't seen the details of the round, but the Raeford Dragon is very fragile and hard to build quickly. I'd suspect a lot of incompletions. Even Airspeed had a bust.

Edited - Airspeed's bust has just become a real score. I wonder how they managed that.

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The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[kallend 1,623]

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Hard draw in 10-way speed - I predict a whole lot of busts.

First round had 40's for everyone except the top 2. Wonder what happened? Someone's foot over the line, or was the formation built wrong? I'd hate to think that most of the teams really -did- earn a 40 just because they took too long to get together!

ltdiver

The blog's been silent all day, the video is showing re-runs of 16-way.

Right now it looks as if Airspeed had a bust on the star (how can you bust on a 10 way star?) and a bad time on the handprop. Knights have it wrapped up.

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The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[dqpacker 7]

Airspeeds bust was due to a bench falling down on exit and separating them into two groups. So they got a rejump.

[kallend 1,623]

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Airspeeds bust was due to a bench falling down on exit and separating them into two groups. So they got a rejump.

I hope some of the video gets posted - from what I could see from the awards ceremony there were some very neat stunts after the 5 second holds.

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The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[champu 1]

My only problem with the 4-way FS world record was that all competition was shut down for an hour so they could hold a world record ceremony in the middle of the event. I like the SLD Force guys and am happy for them, but this was really frustrating.

We lost two warm up days to weather and spent two stressful competition days on and off of weather holds getting in only five rounds (twice I was geared up in the loading area on a five minute call when the weather hold was announced and one time I was on the plane rolling down the taxiway when the plug was pulled.)

One of our team members had to leave Wednesday afternoon so it was apparent by that morning we weren't going to finish the comp, but I would have liked to have spent my last couple hours in Texas jumping instead of looking up at wasted blue sky. I pled my case to manifest that the shut down was going to cost us our shot at getting one more round in and they told me to take it up with Scott (the meet director) who was unavailable at the time because he was hosting the ceremony that prompted the shutdown in the first place.

Hopefully we'll be able to get the jumps we didn't do refunded.

[billvon 2,400]

Yeah, that was annoying. I'd much rather them do that sort of thing at the end of the day, even if it meant not scoring that round until then.

[kallend 1,623]

Well, I guess they're just not going to post any 10-way video at all.

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The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[rehmwa 2]

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Yeah, that was annoying. I'd much rather them do that sort of thing at the end of the day, even if it meant not scoring that round until then.

absolutely - that's what the awards ceremonies are for in the evenings - any meet should keep moving

(scoring rounds shouldn't slow down keeping the planes flying.....)

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Driving is a one dimensional activity - a monkey can do it - being proud of your driving abilities is like being proud of being able to put on pants

[billvon 2,400]

>scoring rounds shouldn't slow down keeping the planes flying.....

Right, but it eliminates the suspense and excitement, and I think that's what Scott was going for. (I guess you could just score them but not post the scores for that round, but that would probably get people complaining even more.)

[rehmwa 2]

Sure it's a special round, but it's also a meet - score and post, score and post - just like rounds 1-5 and 7-10

celebrate after the beer light when you can do it right and not impact everyone else

But I wasn't there this year, I don't know anything about it other than Champu's concern did strike a sympathetic chord with me

what a great jump though

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Driving is a one dimensional activity - a monkey can do it - being proud of your driving abilities is like being proud of being able to put on pants

[Ron 7]

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I'd much rather them do that sort of thing at the end of the day, even if it meant not scoring that round until then.

Option #3 Get all the jumps already judged (and lock the judges into a small room to keep quiet) THEN stop things for 20 mins to make a nice presentation and show all three jumps on the big screen one right after the other in the order they were jumped.

This way we would not have had to be shut down for an hour when we finally had good weather AND could have had some pomp and BS.

"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

[Ron 7]

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Airspeed's bust has just become a real score. I wonder how they managed that.

You already know, but the benches caused two teams issues during the event. Airspeeds R1 and Annie's R2.

We (Annie's playthings) busted round one cause we held it for 4.8 seconds. OUCH!!!!!

I have nothing but respect for Annie, she took a beating on R2 due to the bench issue, checked with the pilot to make sure her rig was not torn, and then made it to the formation.

After they gave Airspeed a rejump, they inspected the plane and saw the issue we had and gave us a rejump as well.

"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

[Ron 7]

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I hope some of the video gets posted - from what I could see from the awards ceremony there were some very neat stunts after the 5 second holds.

I'll call the team and see if they can put it on YouTube. The stuff they did was AMAZING.

In no order, but the things I can remember:

1. They spelled "F" "U" "N" in freefall

2. They had 8 people form an arrowhead and two people start spinning about 100 feet away. One of them separated and headed at the 8 way, when the "ball" got there, the 8 "pins" broke apart... yeah, bowling.

3. They built a star, putter, and a golfball. The putter knocked the ball (Rook) into and through the center of the star.

That's all I can remember.... But way cool.

We broke the handprop into two 4ways and did the world record draw with Shannon judging. He then acted like a camera flier and fell on us. We thought we were doing good stuff till we saw the GK's slaughter us.

"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

[wmw999 2,122]

The Knights' after-formations were incredible. We didn't think we were awesome, but OK, but dang. We were kind of like little babies out there in the after-dive world.

But we had fun.

Wendy P.

There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

[champu 1]

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One of our team members had to leave Wednesday afternoon so it was apparent by that morning we weren't going to finish the comp, but I would have liked to have spent my last couple hours in Texas jumping instead of looking up at wasted blue sky. I pled my case to manifest that the shut down was going to cost us our shot at getting one more round in and they told me to take it up with Scott (the meet director) who was unavailable at the time because he was hosting the ceremony that prompted the shutdown in the first place.

Hopefully we'll be able to get the jumps we didn't do refunded.

Update: Yesterday the cost of the jumps we didn't do was refunded. Kudos to Spaceland.