Andrewnewell

Get in the Skywalkers!!!! Anyone know if any American teams representing?

Euro record! 40 way!! Get in! Thats what Im talking about! was super nice to fly with all the participants. the whole event was "super cool". Will be great to do it again some time soon. A shame that a large majority of the flyers from the Euro record, will not be able to attend the world record in chicago this year, because of Competition comitments (World cup...). whats with those dates?!?!?!?

What is it? What is freeflying to you? Im asking this because no matter what your answer will be its bound to be different for allot of other people. Having seen footage of you guys, and understanding the high degree of skill it takes to pull off the stuff you guys do, I can appreciate it. But despite this there will always be people that won’t get it, judges included, even ones with hands on experience. I suppose it comes down to what you think looks good and is "True Freeflying", what ever that is, and what you know will score well with at a specific event. You can either play to the judges and show a performance you think they will like, whilst incorporating your own style or you can go a different direction, show your own style/concept of what competitive Freefling is all about, turn a few heads, and run the risk not scoring as well as you'd like. For sure there is a need for a greater amount of judges who have freefly experience first hand. I totally agree. I’m sure this would have a beneficial effect of the scoring of technical flying. But for what limited amount of first hand experience the current judges have I think that the majority give a score that they feel is fair. Barr the one team, I thought that all of the teams at Gera (despite only getting 3 rounds in) were placed well. It’s disappointing to hear the story about the judge and her favourite teams. But I suppose that’s always going to happen within an artistic discipline to some extent. I would say that there are very few competitions, even RW, that are totally bias free. I’m just glad theres a panel of judges not just the one, all giving a score from their own perspective. This years World cup is going to be a bit of a mix up with some good teams not competing anymore and some up and comers working very hard. It'll be interesting to see what the judges make of some of the new styles and ideas.

The German freefly team. Their position could be the result of being better or a lack of teams showing a better performance. In regards to being judged on own merit, there is the example of Guanno who in 05 in the first round were .1 higher than Babylon? There is of course the whole first Jumps senario to consider but I think that this a good example of high class teams doing there thing with little bias. In the end I think Guanno got the bronze and were only 1.7 behind the top french team. Thats cutting it pretty fine, dispite Mr Fedykins comments about syle bias ect... By the way, the Guanno boys did a bloody oustanding Job at Gera and in my personal opinion deserved a better placing for their efforts.

I kinda like that type of presentation and style but I would agree that there is room for other styles of flight. It would be nice if every team was judged on their own merit and style instead of being judged against the one model. Saying that the Germans have been doing things a little differently for years and have been quite successful.

Mate there’s two judges for Technical and three for presentation. Well I think so at leaste. Your right, if people don’t like it then you can always wright a letter, but to be honest there seems plenty of teams out there who are happy to fly under the established rules and judging system. Otherwise there would be loads of letters?? Looks good? what are you going on about. its an artistic event mate. Its meant to look good, impress, inspire. That’s what its about. I wouldn’t say there’s been a significant dip, well maybe of static tricks that intend to tick the technical boxes, but who really wants to do that in free routines when were surrounded by such a big sky. OK so there’s a drop in obvious tricks and technical portions of the dive but I believe this has been effectively replaced by syncro’ stuff, flying with the camera ect. Not easy mate! Compulsories, yeah fair one, The Alchemy guys were fast! No doubt about it., But it was So bloody fast that a lot of the stuff was obscured or deemed unjudgeable. we could go on about this all day but the same stuff happens in RW competitions, speed is not the only focus, there’s also showing the grip, keeping the heading ect. Lets not let the use of the word "clean" get confused with the concept of showing the grip. two totally different things bro. ***there are less teams competing now than in the past and routines in many senses have become slower. Its very much relative freestyle. *** I dont think its got slower. What are you going on about? The routines that are flown at international comps now are more jammed packed that ever. The style of flight may seem slower/SMOOTHER, but surely that’s teams trying to fly in a more presentable manner. I would say that there are plenty of artistic teams competing the world over. It might be the case that there’s fewer teams at the top end because the level is constantly being raised. Babylon haven’t shown new stuff? You gotta be kidding?! And as for the free organising comments. dude the team guys are sportsmen not the red cross. I declare that you stop this Piffel at once Lord Piers.

There’s actually an examples scale (EG Multi axis rotations better than Single axis...) that acts as a Guide for the judges and a skills box for technical moves. I don’t believe that minimal use of control surfaces has any more weight over any of the other examples. I do think there is an attitude that judges prefer "something simple done well over something difficult done badly. It's not just about tricks. Anyways there were plenty of examples of High technicality shown with most of the top teams at the world meet. (E.g. Linked Head to head eagle, with no hand grips, Not Techy Enough??!). I felt that the rounds that scored the highest were the ones that showed a balance of technical tricks flown in all, Or as many orientations as possible and that also showed originality and balance throughout. Maybe you’re right. But even if there is direct influence I would still imagine that the most influential team (Champions) would still set level that the other teams would work towards, probably by adopting the similar styles and concepts that score highly. I suppose this all depends on what you consider to be inspiring to flyers. The teams that give back to the community in a direct manner, "degree of benevolent action is contained". Good on ‘em, I say. But who’s to say this has greater effect than indirect methods of contribution. I don’t think your statement about Babylon being at the bottom of the net benevolent contributors list is accurate. I mean how are you actually gauging what inspires people to get better? Free coaching? Winning medals? organising? The list is a long one. I believe the current world champ’s actually do a very good job of promoting growth within freefly by constantly pushing the boundaries of what is possible. By pushing it these guys are giving access to different styles, different approaches and different ways to think about flying and what we can achieve.

Distortion of the rules or natural evolution of a specific Discipline? Flying styles will come and go and new developments will continually arise and be exploited by teams to further push the boundaries of what is capable in the air. The rules and criteria on which artistic events are judged have to be modified in accordance with changing trends within the discipline. If this does not occur then we defeat the point of artistic freefly. It’s all about doing something different. Thinking outside the box. Showing something new and doing it with style. Disilusioned. Hmmmm. I’m afraid that this comes down to doing Research. There are teams that enter to win and show their stuff and there are teams that just enter to show their stuff. What I mean is that the latter fail to take the changing trends within the discipline into account. What do they expect? Now Im not saying these teams are of inferior but they are not playing by the rules of the game. It’s their choice. Taking advantage of the state of affairs.? Hmm surely that’s what good teams do. If you’re a high profile team, you are going to have an effect on the discipline and the way freeflying is judged. If I was in one of the top teams and had a chance to inspire people to fly using my team’s concepts and styles I'd do it. Agreed, it’s not an Olympic discipline, but that’s due to many other factors that have been discussed in other threads. There is no reason why Freefly teams shouldn’t train hard and try to raise the standard of their flying. I personally think it’s quite smart to model freefly routines around Gymnastic concepts. Every team has their own style of flying and I will agree that what’s in Vogue at the moment has a particular look. Essentially a freestyle look. There is an obvious reason for this; both freestyle and Freefly are Artistic disciplines. They are judged on the same basic criteria. Before freefly there was freestyle and it comes as no surprise to me that Freeflying will follow the same type of progression as freestyle did. I guess it comes down how you want to label things. I'd rather not put labels on a style of flying and just accept that change and progression happens. You can either go with the this and push a style that’s "in" or Grabb balls and run with your own unique stuff, Its just if you do that then be prepared for people not to understand or like it. There is no real argument about VRW and Artistic freefly. They are totally different. It comes down to what people like doing.

VRW and Freeflying? I don’t think their even the same thing. It’s almost as if people have taken concept of freefly. Which I guess is about exploration and creativity and locked it down into structured competitive VRW? Which kind of makes it not Freeflying at all really. Probably why it's called Vertical Relative Work and not Freefly Relative Work. It seems to me that people see flyers flying upside down or head up and labelled it Freeflying. I’m not saying VRW is bad, if it goes towards more people becoming more disciplined and complete flyers then Im all for it. ***While at the world champs, some teams considered the French freefliers (Babylon) to be performing two way freestyle not freefly while the French called the US freefly 'Ghetto freefly'! *** Fairone. The thing is with Artistic competition is that it’s artistic! Artistic free routines are created to work on a number of different levels... Free routines incorporate technicality and therefore push the boundaries of what can be achieved in flight. This gives a routine weight and complexity showing of a flyers technical skill set. A free routine tells a story (Paints a picture). which basically means that a free routine should have an emotional impact on the judges, which is the goal of any type of Art I guess. It should show a flying style or concept which is unique to that team. In Babylon’s case speed, strength and style. If you were to bust out a bad ass break dance routine at an Olympic gymnastic floor work competition, the judges might not be too impressed. Artistic Freefling is a free fly competition not a free tricking competition.

Boogieman are the way ahead!!! Ive jumped plenty of differnt suits over the years, being pretty dissapointed with many on the above list and I can honestly say Boogieman suits are the best Ive flown in. comfort, durability and great style. without a doubt the best suits for freeflying!!

You got to be kidding!!!! I'd personaly stay away from Racers, chasers and feardrops for freeflying! I like to feel like I have a well engineered and tight fitting container on when I freefly and not a bag of old socks strapped to my back. All this "it was good in my day" means jack shit if the development of a product fails to keep up with the changing pace of the sport! There are plenty of very good modern rigs out there i.e. Vector, mirage.... Go for one of these!

awsome news!! Big congrats to Giancarlo, for passing this test!

That video is unreal!! You cant teach that s**t!

I strongly advice you to do some time in bedford with Fabian. Like Nige said very good coach and a wicked facility!!! Unbeatable combination.

Hi, Was wondering if anyone on here knows of any produced C brackets that can fit a PC1000, for both orientations (Normal and upside down)? I brought one from Aero Dynamics a few years ago but it seems theyer not around any more. Thanks Andy

Ill be around after new year, not there for the crimbo boogie unfortunatly.

Boogieman all the way my friend!

Gotta agree with you on that one! Door stop! Hahahaha. Like the review! Yeah Katrinka get your self the Skydive U DVD's (back fly, sit fly) some proper technical thought has been put into those videos.

Fedykin,You crease me up! "Get away from me you bloody mentalist!" Alan Partridge

Very cool!!!!!!!!

Clown shoes! Lol. You guys are cruel! Hahahha. Yeah will be giving him some remedial vibe giving lessons on my return to civilisation. You'll all know when Im back as I'll give out the vibe all women within a hundered miles of my location will have multiple orgasms and the birds will start to fly backwards! Watch for the signs! Hey Dharma, hows tricks mate, me and Fedykin maybe getting down to Eloy around the end of March. Will keep you in the loop. Glad everyone so far likes the new Video. Not bad flying for a guy dubbed clown shoes hey?!

Please check out Outbreak Freefly's new video at www.pearsontowers.com or watch it instantly on Google Video http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=3473962518303001790&hl=en-GB The video is called the Outbreak and was put together by Mikey Carpenter. Its got some great cuts and some cool tunes. Thanks for the shameless plug

I Think the DZ has alot of potential and its got some good guys working there, who really make the place. But other than that there is very little else there. A year or so ago this was a DZ on the up. There was great vision but little substance and Lillo DZ has suffered as a result. They have now addresed the issues with the bar and WC area. There is also a new freefly school there. Lillo has recieved some deserved critisism over the last few months but seems to be getting its self back on track.

Landing a wingsuit. How about having a very long peice of fabric, say 500meters long and about 50 meters wide that could be suspended from two large cranes, buildings or even a bridge into a gorge at the one end, like a fabirc slide. you could work out the angle of the flyers decent and adjust the angle of the slide so that they would match. the flyer would have then a landing area that would mould around the body on contact, slow the speed of the flyer with friction and channel the flyer ensuring he keeps going in a straight line. ( not vering off left or right. Maybe even some water pooled at the bottom as a break, kind like a log fume roller coaster break system? Anybody have any thoughts on that? would it work?

To save your self from embaressment, You only have three options as I see it. 1 Kill her! 2 Kill your self! 3 Kill the whole world! Hope that helps you out.