posted Oct 18th, 2014 - The 4-way world has a new order. It was actually no big surprise that NMP-PCH Hayabusa won the gold medals, as many readers of Blue Skies Mag and Sun Path Products NSL News probably know. The Belgians were the top contender in 4-way open, and they confirmed their position without any doubt.

It's the first time since 1985 that neither France nor the U.S. won the gold medals in 4-way open. It's also the first time that one of those two formation-skydiving powerhouses went home empty-handed; France (Volt'R) ended up in fourth place. The three Lemay brothers with Katie Woods won the first medals for Canada since the silver in 1985. Jean Christophe Oumet was filming Evolution and then won his own bronze medal in VFS 4-way, together with Martin, Vincent and Benoit Lemay. Philippe Thibodeau was filming Evolution when Jean Christophe Oumet was turning points in VFS. It was the first time in history that competitors won medals in VFS and traditional 4-way at the same world meet. Incredible ...

TURNING POINTS - World Meet Hiccups

No news in 4-way women and 8-way, where the French Girls and the Golden Knights defended their gold medals successfully. Not to forget: Team4speed retired from VFS 4-way competition after winning their third set of gold medals in a row.

The athletic part of the competition in Prostejov was obviously on world-class level and as exciting as always, and it was naturally challenging for the host to keep up and offer world-class logistics and services.

The challenge for FAI and the hosting DZ was made even harder after Skydive Dubai had raised the bar to a level in 2012 that simply cannot be matched by any "normal" skydiving center in the world. I don't want to come across like a spoiled rotten child, so I have to be careful with voicing a few topics that were not so exciting in Prostejov. As usual, I may be the only one who brings such things to the surface, as the participants don't want to be cross with the officials. However, what I bring up is only critique that I collected from participants and officials in Prostejov and that caught my attention.

The world meet was barely completed due to the weather conditions, and it took a brave meet director and courageous teams to board the planes on Saturday morning, the last meet day. The reason for the time pressure at the end was the fact that a whole day with perfect weather was wasted. The grass runway was too wet and soggy for the jump planes to take off and land, and the host had no Plan B.

I remember the World Meet 1989 in Empuriabrava when the Tramontana winds came blowing in the middle of the competition — as it happens on a regular basis in that part of Spain. Host Roland Hilfiker knew this could happen and moved the whole competition to a nearby airport in Gerona overnight. He was prepared.

Prostejov host Martin Dlouhy also knew that his grass runway gets soggy on a regular basis, and it could happen at any time. It rained too much this year, and he was not prepared to use a hard runway right around the corner to continue with the competition. Alright, no big deal, the meet was completed, but it was pure luck, and the teams and competitors were not happy sitting around on the ground a whole day with perfect blue skies. It seemed that the plans for the competitors briefings were also made on the fly, as the host needed to discuss several topics with his staff during the meetings. Confusing.

Worst of all were numerous power failures in the building where the judges were located. Omniskore, as any other judging system and DZ-TV service, can only function with electrical power, and the work of the judges was interrupted many times. You would never know when it would continue, and the breaks were not short. Of course, the judges would fall behind in such cases, as the jump planes were flying with or without electrical power in the facilities.

It was also very difficult to follow the competition action. There were only two spots with DZ-TV screens, and one of them was located in the packing tent. There were constantly bump-ins between viewers and workers, and there was little space for all. The other DZ-TV spot was sometimes so jammed that the size of the screens did not allow the viewers in the last rows to see much at all.

There was also no consistency with the viewing speed on the screens. It was difficult to detect whether the viewing ran in full speed, 75% or similar, whether it was a live view or a review, and many videos were "stuttering." It surely was not a viewing pleasure of the eye candy that the teams were providing.

Last not least, and I hate to say that too, the participants were also not very impressed with the sanitary conditions. Some visitors even shied away from using the bathrooms, and the portable toilets were miles away from the action (exaggerated).

Doesn't sound that great, does it? Well, here comes the worst, followed by the best. Believe it or not, but officials of the delegations who voiced some of the concerns were yelled at by the host for their input. I am ready to receive hate mail too, I am afraid, but the truth needs to be told to make it better next time.

And here is the best that I saved for the very last: The beer in the Czech Republic is the best in the world, and it compensated for a lot of the pain...