2005 Nationals thoughts

[billvon 3,073]

No one who has jumped at Perris in the last six months could have missed the fact that Nationals was coming to Perris. The new trailers, the new runway, the fancy 'wallpaper' covering the team rooms, the facelift for the Bomb Shelter. Something was definitely in the air. And while Amy (my wife) was training hard for 4-way, I didn't have the time to commit to a 4-way team. So I spent weekends working while she was up jumping her butt off in the 105 degree Perris summer days.

But I couldn't stay away completely. And when I heard someone putting a pickup 8-way team together, I begged off work for a few days to do the 8-way, 16-way and 10-way events. We entered in the open classes where possible, and our goal was simple - not come in last. For the most part, we succeeded.

A few moments from my time at Nationals stand out from the rest. The first happened late Tuesday afternoon, just as the sun was setting. The Knights and DeLand were tied, and were having an 11th round jumpoff. I got on the load after them to do a hop and pop - I had just replaced my brake lines and wanted to test the canopy before 8-way started. So I sat in the back of the plane with Lew and watched the scenery roll by out the open door.

"Hey, guys, we're gonna have to take the hop and pops higher - a competition load is dropping!" yelled the pilot at about 5000 feet. I leaned out of the plane, looking for the other otter, and found it high above us. I watched the teams exit and fall past us about 500 feet away, far enough away that all you could see were eight black legs with booties twitching away above the formation, the cameraman sitting above. Then we turned onto jump run and Lew and I exited into a head-down.

After we landed Lew and I walked back across the runway. Everyone at the drop zone was cheering and hollering at us as we walked back. I had no idea we were so popular! (It might have been the Knights and DeLand walking back with us.)

That night we watched the videos of both jumps, and everyone groaned when they saw the one-second hesitation due to a missed grip during the Knight's final jump. It cost them the meet; even so, the scores were incredibly close, and they lost by two points. It also meant three of them would be shipped out to Iraq shortly; the World Meet would have kept them in the States for another year, at least per the rumors that were floating around. "Wow, those guys are skydiving like their lives depend on it!" quipped Pat McGowan after watching one round.

Another of those moments happened Thursday morning. Scott had told us to be ready for a 6am call for 8-way open class. "6am? The sun's not even up at 6am!" we complained. But he was having none of our bitching; ESPN was coming and they were going to do a live broadcast.

Thursday at 5:30am was dark and cold. We creepered in the darkness, barely able to see each other in our black suits. (Well, I had a red suit on, but that didn't help _me_ any.) After getting ready they told us they'd be putting Airspeed and the Knights up before us, which was no suprise. So we congregated in the bomb shelter to drink coffee and wait to see if it really made it to ESPN.

Round about 6:30 the 'Cold Pizza' ESPN show went live to Perris, where Dan BC was standing by the swoop pond (which was still pretty dark) trying to balance on his one good foot. The commentator started in with her questions:

"Isn't there a really vicious rivalry between the two top teams?"
"What do you like more, the parachute part or the freefall part?"
"Now, honestly, what's the best part? Jumping out, or getting your feet safely back on the ground?"

You'd have to know Dan to see the "what the fuck?" look that crossed his face momentarily as she asked the last question. Later he told us "I mean, she really thinks we spend a lot of our life doing this, spend tens of thousands of bucks a season to jump, just to get back to the ground?" But he handled the question like a pro, with a smooth segue back to a few comments about the 8-way meet currently going on.

Then they cut to a live video of the Knights doing 8-way over Perris. The video was OK for a moment, then went dark and murky as they went below the sun line. After they opened, there was the momentary money shot of the PD logo on the cameraman's canopy, and then the commentator tried to interview the cameraman via a two-way radio link.

"Woohoo, that was awesome! Just a great jump." (Well, more like "ZZatxawsommz! Justzgreatzzzump." The link was awful.) "So how does it feel being up there?" "Just a great jump!" "So . . . how is your team . . . " "Woohoo!" After a few moments it became clear that they couldn't hear each other, and so they just let the cameraman (Craig O'Brien I think) ramble on about the jump. It was odd watching his camera feed, then watching a feed from the landing area, then looking out and seeing the action that was taking place before the five second delay.

One of our proudest moment came towards the end of 16-way. We had started out dismally; we had never jumped together before, and our first exits were funnelling and our flying was messy. But towards the end of the event we were starting to look like we knew what we were doing. We weren't fast or even particularly smooth, but our jumps now looked like real 16-way instead of comic relief when they popped up on the Bomb Shelter screen.

On jump 5 we were going strong, and we cranked out six points in time, which had been our best round so far. A little while later we were watching the Knights team do the same jump. They funneled their exit and tried to compensate by speeding up, resulting in messy docks and long keys. When their score was tallied - six! We had tied the Knights on one round. They still kicked our butts overall, but at least for that one round, we were on level with the big boys.

By the time 10-way was over we just wanted to get out of there, so we packed up the van, had dinner, and left before the last awards ceremony was over. At that point Amy had been at Perris for almost two weeks straight. It was a good time, though, and I'm glad I took the time to participate even in our lowly pick-up team.

[TFFTM 1]

Great narrative!

BSBD
Home of the Alabama Gang

[Jackpunx 0]

Great story.
I did my fisrt and second aff jump that week.. What an awesome new jumper experience..
In my head I was thinking .. this place is off the hook.. then I realized .. it was a huge event..LOL

[jumpjunkie2004 0]

It sounds like a fun time. I can't imagine having the time to practice with a real team, but maybe some day I'll have an opportunity to be part of a pickup team.

Thanks for sharing your story with us!

Jump, Land, Pack, Repeat...

[Frenchy68 0]

Am I the only one who thought that the microphone that was handed to Dan BC was... How should I put it... reminiscent of certain "toys"?

"For once you have tasted Absinthe you will walk the earth with your eyes turned towards the gutter, for there you have been and there you will long to return."

[rehmwa 2]

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Am I the only one who thought that the microphone that was handed to Dan BC was... How should I put it... reminiscent of certain "toys"?

Monopoly? Gnip-Gnop? Rock'm Sock'm Robots? Croquet mallets? Pogo Sticks?

...
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

[VanillaSkyGirl 6]

Bill, I REALLY admired the fact that you and Amy participated in so many events with pick-up teams. I thought that you guys had so much fun, worked hard with what you had and truly took advantage of Nationals being in Perris. It was great to see you and Amy competing. Thanks for sharing your story with us!

[Deuce 1]

Great narrative Bill!

I feel so incredibly lucky, as a camera flier, to have been able to "crash" nationals the last couple years.

The teams dedicate so much time, talent and treasure to their passion, a visitor just can't help but be impressed and carried along in the excitement.

I was only around for 4 way, and then paying close attention to canopy piloting, but it really did seem like skydiving at it's best.

I was especially jazzed by Black Majick's feat of doing competition turning judgeable points on thier backs!. It's stuff like that which define skydiving for me. Always some way to make things weirder and cooler.

I hope I can make it to Arizona for "Nats" next year, it's addictive.

[ltdiver 3]

Bill,

Thanks for summing up the electro-static feeling that Nationals are, especially this year. I'm going to bookmark this thread just to be able to go back and recapture the essence in the coming years.

Each year has its highlights. This year especially. Thanks to Amy for inviting me to join her and her team in the air this season.

ltdiver

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

[diablopilot 2]

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After a few moments it became clear that they couldn't hear each other, and so they just let the cameraman (Craig O'Brien I think) ramble on about the jump.

The cameraman was the airspeed regular, the person hooked up with the mic was Craig Gerard.

----------------------------------------------
You're not as good as you think you are. Seriously.

[tbrown 26]

I'm genuinely puzzled at so few freefly teams. After all, freefly is so popular that it's hard to get an RW load together at some dropzones,or sometimes even at perris ona weekday.

With so many 4 Way teams competing at all three division levels, why aren't there more freeflyers getting out and competing at any sort of level ? I can't really believe that freeflyers aren't competitive.

Anyway, they could get some "critical mass" and make the "Artistic" week a lot more happenin' for them, and a lot less jealous of the relative workers. If RW is such a big week, it's because releative workers make it happen and freeflyers could do that too.

Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

[gemini 0]

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I'm genuinely puzzled at so few freefly teams.

Just goes to show you how really difficult it is to effectively create a team of good flyers who can work together and successfully compete. I know a lot of freeflyers who are excellent solo flyers, but don't have the time or money to build their skills to the level required to successfully compete. There are even a few teams who tried competing once or twice and never competed again; And they are all good flyers!

Blue skies,

Jim

[Ron 10]

Bill wrote well about the open finish. And I am sure that Parachutist, Skydiving, and Skyleague will go on about it as well...And they should, it was one of the most exciting battles I have seen.

But for me personally my battle was not overshadowed by the open gold race.

My team had three goals:
1. Place 7th. We realized that there were 6 teams that we had almost no chance of beating since they were all Pros. So we wanted "Best of the Rest".

2. Tie one of the top 6 in one round.

3. 17.5 Avg over 10 rounds. We have had higher 6 round scores in training, but over 10 a 17.5 would be good.

We knew that even getting 7th was going to be a quite a battle. Our goal was 300 jumps, but we only had 170 jumps together and about 4 days of coaching. And three people had new slots...It was my first year ever as a point, and the OC was in a new slot as well.

Once I saw the draw, I knew the 17.5 was not gonna happen and the new goal was shifted to 16.5.

Syncronicity with 3 of the current female champions that had a 16.9 average together and one new and very tallented jumper in the mid 15's. Rumor was they had about 150 jumps together

Thunder with former Airspeed member Chad Smith. Rumor was over 200 jumps together.

Spark with PC Mark Kirkby...No rumors and no scores to compare against.

And of course Fury with PC John McIver. Rumor was they had 600 jumps together and thier scores were quite impressive.

So it starts:

Round one felt good for us, a solid 18 on the board put us ahead of our "pack"...what is this? An Advanced team did a 19? Who are they, and where did they come from?

Round two was a really bad engineering for us...We only had one '20' and it was the wrong one for the fast 'D' build. We took a weird 'D' with the point facing in...We were quite sure that due to the need to do the one piver viper and the non-standard 'D' that we were gonna lose this round. The jump felt good, and when the scores posted we won our little mini comp.

Round three....Well the funny thing is our Zig marqs suck. Our boogie blocks sucked and the technical blocks were pretty good. Also our 11's never really worked well. We blew the third '21' and ran out of time coming back. We fiqured we got a 14-15 for that round...Looked at the scores and we had two points lost to video...We got a 12. We went from being one point up to being 3 down. It was not the video guys fault....I had presented badly and the OC and I cut in.

Round 4 was a good round for us...Until we saw another video bust. We had tied Airspeed Velocity until the video bust.....Our camera guy was starting to get nervous, we were 3 points lost to video, and the pack stayed with us. Fury was now three up on us.

Round 5 was a good round for us...We won that round by one point and were now back tied with Fury who had a video bust and another bust and Synchronicity was still one up on us. What a freaking race!

Round 6 brought a a good round for us, Fury had to accept two busts which put us two up on them, and Synchronicity just missed the 16th point putting us tied with them....I'm telling you being that tight is quite a rush.

Round 7....Well we only wanted one bad round, but we got two. It felt pretty good, but right after exit I saw the camera guy below us. I slowed down to give him time to get up....Even then we still lost two more points to NJ. We scored a 12 and our lead on Fury was gone. Syncronicity tied us so now we had a three way tie with only 3 rounds left.

Round 8...well we only ever trained block 16 with the memory going to the rear. We planned on having 16 go either way, but with our short training plan, we never jumped it the normal way. In this dive it was quite clear that it was the best was to do it to keep it straight amd prevent slot switches for everyone. We talked about it, creept it both ways and finally decided that while being in a three way tie for our goal we would take a block move we had never done before. It worked, and we gained a point on both Fury and Synchronicity!

9....E-17-14. with our engineering it was a double slot switcher with all Round formations. Plus with bipole bipole it is one of the worst for this kind of dive. Majic had three members brainlock on it....What would we do? We took an amazing bit of advice from Ryan Smith. The centers would be straight and the outside fliers would always build the 17 on the OC with IC hopping. It went well and it was enough to not lose ground with the other two, so we were happy.

10. Well this round would decide who got bragging rights. If everyone skydived clean it would be very hard to win points on this round....But 18 is a very technical block and a simple mistake could cost a ton...Look at the GK's. We did a 15...A score we were OK with. Fury tied us on that round and Synchronicity had a problem and scored a 13.

When the dust settled we got our 7th place. One point over Fury, a well trained, tough team trained by the best and lead by a World Class jumper. And a few points ahead of Synchronicity.

We tied one of the top teams in one round...Until we lost the small victory due to an NJ.

We never really had a real chance at the 17.5 avg...With the two top teams tied after 10 with a 21. And the 5 NJ's cost us, but thats the name of the game and we had no other busts. Our 15.7 was not bad. The 16.2 would have been better and much closer to the 16.5 we thought was possible with this draw.

So out of three goals we got one....I guess it was the only one that really mattered.

8 way went about the same. With no training, we got 4th after the pro's. Maybe the most fun jumps I did all year.

I just got a new job and am moving. so I don't know if I will make it next year...But if you have never been, sometimes the battles way back in tha pack are some of the most fun.

One final note:Synchronicity's tail Becky just escaped from New Orleans before the storm. So her even being there showed real metal. The fact that she performed so well with all the emotional questions of even if she had a home....One word, AMAZING.

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

[SkymonkeyONE 4]

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Just goes to show you how really difficult it is to effectively create a team of good flyers who can work together and successfully compete. I know a lot of freeflyers who are excellent solo flyers, but don't have the time or money to build their skills to the level required to successfully compete. There are even a few teams who tried competing once or twice and never competed again; And they are all good flyers!

Actually, in my travels I have found out something entirely different . You see, the guys that are out there making a living coaching freeflying (Dave Brown, Max Cohn, etc) just don't care at all about competing. Both have told me that there is simply no reason to waste time doing so when they can better spend their time putting together invitational events, records, and coaching. With no way for them to make any money freeflying on a competitive level (since there is no real, paying league), those guys simply focus there efforts elsewhere. There are in reality very few "practicing" freefly teams and that is the reason why there are so few teams competing at nationals. Anomoly does well in competition for two reasons: they are great freeflyers, and they actually practice routines for competition and care to compete. There are a ton of freeflyers (and skydivers in all the other disciplines) who are perfectly capable of competing and doing well (even winning), but they just don't care to spend the time training for an event that, in the end, might not get them on the invite list for the next bigway.

Chuck

[rehmwa 2]

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With so many 4 Way teams competing at all three division levels, why aren't there more freeflyers getting out and competing at any sort of level ?

There's a proposal out there for VRW comps run like we do 4-way (with draws, etc.). I'm told even the best FFers trying this look like they are having a hard time. Next great thing, I hope they make it happen.

http://www.vrw4way.com/descriptions/

Our nationals experience - we went to a labor day boogie and then I read about it on the internet - next year.

Ron - where you moving to?

...
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

[brierebecca 0]

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I know a lot of freeflyers who are excellent solo flyers, but don't have the time or money to build their skills to the level required to successfully compete. There are even a few teams who tried competing once or twice and never competed again; And they are all good flyers!

I think the general consensus among freefliers is not that there are not enough talented fliers to compete at nationals. It's that the judging at nationals is so subjective that few freefliers think it worth it to spend the time and energy training and building a routine that the judges may simply dislike, even though it may be very challenging to fly.

I think you'll see a surge of freeflier involvment at nationals if VRW gets off the ground and becomes an event, because the judging will be more objective.

"Ive seen you hump air, hump the floor of the plane, and hump legs. You now have a new nickname: "Black Humper of Death"--yardhippie

[PhreeZone 20]

I had an absolute blast at Perris. Finished with a 8.1 average with no busts to video (I don't think at least my fault). It was fun to play with the big boys and see lots of people I have'nt seen in years.

I was annoyed on Tuesday with the way that round 10 for intermediate was ran. The calls were spotty all afternoon for the intermediate groups and it was hard to get into any flow since as soon as one would start the call times would change. I know Scott was trying to hype round 10 for Open and everyone... but at the time there were a bunch of mad intermediates grounded waiting on their chance to finish. Most those in Inter could'nt even watch round 10 since they were off creeping and on call for the start up loads again.

Yesterday is history
And tomorrow is a mystery

Parachutemanuals.com

[PhreeZone 20]

Is'nt VRW just like the speed rounds currently? Just with more people?

Yesterday is history
And tomorrow is a mystery

Parachutemanuals.com

[rehmwa 2]

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Is'nt VRW just like the speed rounds currently? Just with more people?

Just like 4-way RW. Sounds really cool and they have a block pool. Looks like the rules are pulled straight from 4-way rw.

6 blocks - 8 randoms currently posted. I'm only sorry to see it fully HD and upright, no combinations including back or belly - to fully emphasize ALL orientations.

http://www.vrw4way.com/competitions/

...
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

[kallend 2,106]

Competing at Nationals, even if only on a pick up team, makes anyone a better skydiver.

...

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

[airgord 1]

I just wish Perris would get more porta potties (and service them ALOT more often) and fix their power problem in the team rooms. We had no A/C thru most of 4 way ( including our training days) and the power was intermittant until 8 way, same as last year.
And while its cool that they want to make Nationals special for all of the competitors, maybe just a little less "show" and a lot more "go", we were jumping after 6pm one day. I'm not saying that everything could have been better, but unfortunately the problems were pretty glaring to me and my teammates.

[billvon 3,073]

While I agree there were some problems with the services at Nationals this year (and we should fix them) I think it's cool that the problems aren't that a 4-way team went in, or that they couldn't get everyone in the air, or they couldn't judge effectively - the problems were that the A/C in the provided team room was intermittent, and people had to jump until nearly sunset. On the scale of things, and looking at the history of Nationals in the US, those aren't such bad things to go wrong.

[Ron 10]

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While I agree there were some problems with the services at Nationals this year (and we should fix them) I think it's cool that the problems aren't that a 4-way team went in, or that they couldn't get everyone in the air, or they couldn't judge effectively - the problems were that the A/C in the provided team room was intermittent, and people had to jump until nearly sunset. On the scale of things, and looking at the history of Nationals in the US, those aren't such bad things to go wrong.

While its always good no one bounced....Not having AC in a team room you paid for is a big deal. Being made to get up early and then sit around for hours when there is good WX is a big deal. Being made to show up early and being made to stay late is a big deal.

All of these were big deals, and while not the end of the world should be looked at.

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

[billvon 3,073]

>Being made to show up early and being made to stay late is a big deal.

No argument there. But there have been Nationals where the big deal was that half the teams couldn't jump because the one plane broke. In the future a slowdown in the wireless network, or the cafeteria running out of soy, will be a very big deal to someone. Still, that's progress.

[Ron 10]

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or the cafeteria running out of soy, will be a very big deal to someone

I don't see that happening soon...Maybe the bar running out of beer.

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