skykittykat

Methinks NC is more your scene now... How is this: Dan Kirk Liz TBD Liz

Wot, no serious Airspeed 8-way??? Or am I reading this wrong?... Who are going to fill the slots to make up the 8-way team? I couldn't access the skyleague website this evening, so apologies for asking a potentially obvious above question here. Much love to you all in Eloy and I miss you guys. Liz

Regarding the media coverage of skydiving/base jumping, for once the full page "story" in the Daily Mail was a positive note. The photos and the text did not put base jumping in a bad light as previous reporting has done so. It was a nice article to read for a change! Liz

Paraclete are doing so well. That 0 was such a shame. What an amazing line-up - it's like a who's who of skydiving living legends - Jack, Dan, Johnny and Kirk! Nice to see Dennis 'mini-me Jack' Rook in the team as well. Airspeed are of course kicking ass and great to see them dominating in 8-way especially with having had a hard year. 4-way - Wow. Fury did awesome and Oddysey did fab to get 3rd after a bit of a dubious start. Being in London sucks as the time difference really messes up following the action! Liz

Sweet!!! Wish I was there and miss all of you guys at Eloy - Betsy, please say Hi to everyone for me. Liz

Dammit - red tape There was this at the World Meet in Germany. Registration is hardly secret info. When the Comp starts, official "publishing" of the scores is covered by those sites that have paid to have "exclusive" rites. Skydiving as a sport is already shortchanged within the media, so why restrict it further? Official or non-official, why try and limit the overall reporting of a sport which needs an injection of participants and media coverage? Just a thought. ENJOY the competition to all the teams that compete. Liz

I agree with Ron's predictions of a scrap between those 5 teams for the medals. ASO - look at the World Cup last year and they had very little training. ASV - the Valentines Meet this year, they had only done 5 or 6 training jumps together as a 4-way and did incredibly well with an excellent average all things considered. I would presume that the new line-up have done more than 6 training jumps so far!!! Natasha will definitely not slow anyone down (don't know who insinuated that one). There will be a total wild card team in 8-way, which will be an exciting surprise and make the Open class very interesting. Don't know the full details, so will have to wait for registration to find out. Liz

200+ days to completion as far as I know. Liz

Funny 99p is a bit steep though. Liz

Even though everyone takes the piss out of Niggle, he does make one laugh (him being laughed at or with) and always brightens up a day - that's why he is so likeable. His unfailing exuberance for life coupled with those Beavis and Butthead comments make him a loveable "little brother" which, in my eyes, he will always be Nige and he has a heart of gold. Anyway, I take it your care in the community project is going well Liz

I really do not want to get into a slanging match over a personal opinion, but by reading my post, it stated that: Please note that I stated ALL TEAMS, so yes, each team could possibly have had a point lower average over 10 rounds at the World Meet, alternatively they could have all scored a point average more. I also stated that I WAS NOT TAKING ANYTHING AWAY FROM THE WINNERS.... As it was, the competition finished when it did so speculation on deduction or addition of a point average is just that - speculation for everyone. I feel I am getting flamed for my own personal views that are not in keeping with a blind faith in my "country". I have not been flamed for my support of Airspeed. Why not? They were not the British 8-Way team at Gera.... Either way, the Women's class in skydiving will always be a contentious issue. The fairest way to do it is to scrap the Open Class and have the Olympic way (apart from the Equestrian events) and have a Men's Class and a Women's Class. Alternatively, just to add a bit more of a debate, scrap one gender altogether. Netball at Olympic level is only played by women. Men do not get a look in Liz

I do apologise if any offence was caused by asking the question of what would happen in the situation I mentioned and I only used Airkix as an example - maybe I should have used an X, Y and Z situation For the record, what Airkix achieved was amazing. Winning at the World Meet and then going on to win the UK Nationals a couple of weeks later. I think they will be legends in the UK Equestrianism - show jumping, dressage and 3 day eventing. 3 Day Eventing, which is the toughest and most gruelling, has been dominated by females for many years. Liz

Airkix did awesome and kicked ass and they will be interesting to watch if they decide to take on a further 2 year committment. WITHOUT TAKING ANYTHING AWAY FROM THE WINNERS IN RW IN GERA, that meet did not give a true average for the teams as the full complement of rounds was not completed. One question is (and please do not flame me as I am only using the unique situation where an all female team are the National Champions (and very much deserved!!!!)): In the Open 4-way, Fire scored an average of 23.4 after 5 rounds and won. Airkix scored a 19.1 after 5 rounds and won. Over 10 rounds, it would be fitting to take off 1 or 2 points for a true score for all teams. If this year's UK Nationals was a qualifying year for a World Championship, would Airkix represent the UK in the Open Class for the upcoming World's or would they be asked to go into the Women's Class? I only ask this as going into the Women's Class would guarantee a podium finish (most probably gold) rather than going into the Open Class where a podium finish would be unlikely. Anyway, Congrats to Airkix and Fire for being Gold Medallists. Liz

Which one - Niggle or Tent Buddy? Liz

Exactly. A HUGE Congrats to all medal winners in all classes and disciplines, especially to the Gold medalists. Liz

Hey Nige, Great to see you again after all this time. For everyone out there, the Bedford tunnel rocks (though the space is a bit disconcerting!!!) and the staff are all fantastic - thanks guys. Liz

They weren't busting, but they were very crashy - very, very unlike their usual style. As I reported at the time on Omniskore, the French looked like that they were dancing, whereas Airspeed looked anything but... Knowing their skydiving style, to me they looked like there was an element of desperateness. I asked a couple of the Airspeed peeps afterwards what had been going on and they said that they were over the line and it was touch and go as to whether they would crash and burn totally or triumph. Airspeed is one of those teams who can go against the psycological grain and triumph. I don't know how they did it, but they did. I am sure that all of those rounds would not make their "personal best" tape, but somehow as a team they made it work for that competition. Looking forward to a cracking competition at the World Meet in 8-way. Liz wwww.omniskore.com

I am on of those peeps who have a "blind" belief in Airspeed and know that they are not infallible. They can really pull it out of the bag. For expample, the World Cup 2005 in Eloy - their skydiving was not pretty and watching each and every round was pure torture as I knew they were "over the line" on each jump and they were very, very close to having a disastrous meet, but they pulled it off... I would put money on there being a jump-off in 8-way at the World Meet with Airspeed winning. I will take this opportunity to declare my personal favrourites taken from overall skill and personalities: (before my non-biased reporting from my live reporting from www.omniskore.com 8-Way - Airspeed and France - Airspeed to take Gold (to Manu and Guillerme - Non, is that leetle Kirk???) Women's 4-way (disagree with the segregration...) The French Girls I hope will win (they just posted a 19 point average from their last comp) with the Russian Ladybirds coming 2nd. The Ukranian chicks are very sweet and hope they achieve whatever goal they have. 4-Way Open - Sinapsi v Fire for Gold - much as I like both teams, Brazil has a soft spot in my heart. Liz

Apparently, according to the British commentators, when the Italian guy held him around the chest, the Italian MAY have tweaked Zidane's nipple.... Personally, the sight of grown men who earn £100,000 a week kicking a ball around crying coz they lost is pathetic. Australia came under fire this past weekend for posting a photo of the All Blacks (New Zealand rugby team) doing the Haka carrying handbags (superimposed onto a photo and put on the net). The joke should have been made on the footballing teams in the World Cup. Being back here in London, there was no escape from the "scenes" of England losing their World Cup match against Portugal. It was the top story on all of the evening news broadcasts even though British soldiers had been killed that day in Afghanistan (that story came top of the second half of the news broadcast and only lasted a couple of minutes - the first half of news for top stories lasts 15 mins and those mins were taken up by England's loss in the World Cup ). The English team sat around crying and only the substitue captain went around shaking the Portugese players' hands. Where was the sportmanship? The lack of sportsmanship was highlighted in Wayne "Shrek" Rooney's red card. Rooney stamped on a Porteguse player's genitals (apparently for "balance"). If Ronaldo had not gone up to the Ref (apparently English players do not do that.....) and if the Ref had not have been Argentinian (.......) and Ronaldo did not apparently wink at his bench...... then England would have won against the Portugese. France were doing quite well in the sportsmansip stakes in the WC final, until Zidane got red carded. I really hope that in the upcoming World Skydiving Meet there are no tears or bad sportsmanship for those teams that don't win gold. Liz aka: LizBits www.omniskore.com

Dan (GQ Jumper) is one of those peeps who has a natural talent for skydiving. I was blown away by the way he flew on the number of jumps he had at the time. If he was the "baby" of a very experienced team or a player/coach team, he would be capable of doing a 16+ average, especially with him being in the tail slot. Now Dan, before you get too big headed, remember I kicked your ass in the tunnel and you are more suited to tail than outside centre, much as you may like to argue the point Liz

Was watching the live coverage on BBC and they showed the whole thing . They didn't suddenly cut to adverts (not that they could as the BBC is funded by everyone who has a tv with no need for advertisers), rather they decided to let it roll as it was a quirky part of Wimbledon. It was very funny and all the security guards at Wimbledon were laughing their asses off before they went over with a blanket to cover the guy (where is a streaker going to conceal a knife or gun????). Liz

Unfortunately the majority of the public will only take news at face value, especially those readers of the Sun, Mirror, Star, etc. Murdoch even said he would support the Conservatives from now on and it is a well known fact that Murdoch's support through his papers can influence the outcome of a general election. Today I was interviewed by BBC Radio Oxford on doing a bikini jump, raising money for Womens' Clinics in the UK, 5 years ago. A guest of mine from Australia came up to pay rent during the interview and had to wait until I had finished. He asked what I had been interviewd on and I told him. His asked the following question: "Aren't most deaths suicide - there have been heaps of them lately?" I asked him why he thought this and he said from the media. He knew nothing about skydiving apart from what he had read in the Red Tops here in the UK. From the small inteview I did and the questions asked by my guests will put a positive aspect to skydiving rather than what is "reported". As a community, we can all contribute to raising the positive aspect of skydiving. Liz

I think that the UK slang sounds better - slightly more refined Anyway, thanks for sharing and it will be good news to all your lady fans out there Big kiss and hugs from across the pond. Liz

I hope for her sake that you didn't suffer from "brewer's droop" Liz

In my defense, I was confused by... ummm.., well, anyway, oh yeah, you didn't give me the FULL story where you had actually stopped drinking!!! Copious amounts of water and lucozade may do the trick along with a big fry up. Failing that, take some Migralieve or similar migraine tablets which will knock you out and make you sleep. You will wake up feeling fine with no headache or room spinning. Hair of the dog is also the way to go! Liz