posted Dec 5th, 2013 - The start of the 4th Dubai International Parachuting Championship 2013 competition on Thursday morning was delayed due to fog in the desert dropzone of Skydive Dubai. That's where the Twin Otters are staying at night before they arrive at the event site on the beach in the morning.

It gave teams, competitors, coaches and officials some extra time to discuss Dubai Asaar's two 8way Satellites, which were not accepted by three of the judges in Round 6. The issue has created quite a few waves, understandably, and the Dubai delegation is still hopeful that the wrong decision might be corrected.

The two point deductions could surely have an impact on the outcome of the 8way competition, where Monaco Vitalsea and Dubai Asaar are currently separated by one single point. The $22,000 prize money for the 8way competition are also a significant value in the race for scoring points.

4way Open

4way Women

4way VFS

8way Open

Teams, competitors and coaches are still trying to understand how such a decision could be made. The rules have definitions how and where to take a grip, while the graphics of random formations and blocks are showing how the formations have to look like.

It has been accepted by athletes and officials for many years that the graphics are only a basic outline of how the formations will actually be presented in freefall. "Cheater grips", such as in cat positions, and building formations with various different grip connections (such as in Block 17, Block 18 and more in the 4way dive pool) have been well accepted, as long as the formations resemble the graphics.

This topic has been discussed in many details many times and was then removed from any meet agenda long ago. It is difficult to understand for teams and competitors and the veterans in the sport how such a judging decision could cause trouble these days.

However, the issue is back on the table and will hopefully soon be corrected and then disappear again, as there is no need for further discussion or clarification. The grips of the Dubai Asaar Satellites are all according to the definitions in the rules: "Grip: consists of a handhold on an arm or leg of another jumper as shown in 7.2. As a minimum, a grip requires stationary contact."

The graphics of the random formations and the blocks are only an outline of the shape and don't require any specifically defined grip connections. The 8way Satellite has to look like a Satellite, and it makes no difference whether the side body grips are on this arm or the other - as long as they are in the correct position to show a Satellite and are "handholds with stationary contact".

The same panel of judges approved several other Satellites with the same or very similar grip connections in Round 6, and it has been a confusing situation for the teams and competitors. Trude Sviggum, Chair of IPC's Competition Committee, who competes with Polaris in Dubai, said that she will take on the issue as soon as she is done with her own two jumps today.