posted Feb 2nd, 2015 - The 5th Dubai International Parachuting Championship 2014 and the Wind Games 2015 did not really have that much in common. The event in Dubai is an outdoor competition for the teams who could still not get enough of 4-way and other events at the end of the season, while the Wind Games indoor meet follows soon and very early in the new year.

Both events are neither drawing the best teams in the world nor many national teams to the same location at the same time. However, both events still have very strong fields and offer interesting new information. NMP-PCH Hayabusa tested the new lineup for the first time in the new 2-year cycle with Evolution and SDC Rhythm XP as the strongest opponents. Arizona Airspeed traveled to Spain for the first meet with Niklas Hemlin as the returning 4-way world champion, and with NMP-PCH Hayabusa once again as the strongest opponent.

Wind Games 2015		Rd. 1	Rd. 2	Rd. 3	Rd. 4	Rd. 5	Rd. 6	Rd. 7	Rd. 8	Rd. 9	Rd. 10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open	C,17,6	3,4,M	F,11,15	D,2,5	J,13,N,K	Q,1,O,P	19,22,B	10,7,9	14,G,H,16	L,E,8,12	Total	Avg
1	NMP-PCH Hayabusa (BE)	33	28	31	32	32	36	28	29	29	26	304	30.4
2	Arizona Airspeed (US)	32	30	30	29	34	32	24	30	29	24	294	29.4

Videos: NMP-PCH Hayabusa and Arizona Airspeed at the Wind Games 2015

5th DIPC and Wind Games had the attendance of the reigning 4-way world champions in common, which allows once again a closer look at the two teams who did not compete directly with each other and who will face each other very soon.

Arizona Airspeed and SDC Rhythm XP have both signed up for the Paraclete XP Indoor and Outdoor Championships 2015 where they will really define their starting points toward the final showdown at the USPA Nationals 2015. Only the winner of this year's national championships will compete at the World Meet 2016 at Skydive Chicago.

SDC Rhythm XP competed with NMP-PCH Hayabusa in December in Dubai, while Arizona Airspeed met the Belgians last month in Spain. Both teams surely studied each others results carefully, as much as the audience did and also the Sun Path Products NSL News. What are the equation and the conclusion?

5th DIPC 2014		Rd. 1	Rd. 2	Rd. 3	Rd. 4	Rd. 5	Rd. 6	Rd. 7	Rd. 8	Rd. 9	Rd. 10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open	Q,5,6	F,22,18	19,8,21	4,16,K	14,A,H,17	B,12,E,3	O,J,15,L	C,20,N,G	M,9,P,7	11,1,10	Total	Avg
2	NMP-PCH Hayabusa (BE)	26	22	18	22	19	24	32	27	32	19	241	24.1
3	SDC Rhythm XP (US)	24	22	19	19	25	22	29	26	35	17	238	23.8

Videos: NMP-PCH Hayabusa and SDC Rhythm XP at the 5th DIPC 2014

The Sun Path Products NSL News formulated a similar equation earlier, which was related to the current 4-way top spot in the world and the situation of the Canadian bronze medalist in Prostejov, Evolution.

The previous equation seemed to be an easier one. NMP-PCH Hayabusa outscored Arizona Airspeed at the Wind Games, while Evolution had defeated the Belgian world champions with their new lineup in Dubai. Logically and mathematically, the Canadians would earn the top spot.

The indirect comparison between Arizona Airspeed and SDC Rhythm XP before the upcoming Paraclete events is more complicated since both teams ended up behind NMP-PCH Hayabusa at 5th DIPC and Wind Games.

SDC Rhythm XP placed 3rd in Dubai and performed somehow in the shadow of the battle for the 1st place between the reigning 4-way world champions with the new lineup and Evolution. The 23.8 average almost slipped through the cracks, even though Rhythm finished only three points behind Hayabusa.

Arizona Airspeed surely noticed the SDC Rhythm XP performance in Dubai, and Rhythm watched Airspeed's battle with Hayabusa at the Wind Games. There was a 10-point difference between Airspeed and the Belgians in Spain, compared to the three points in Dubai. This margin roughly reflects the scoring difference between indoor and outdoor results, as the Sun Path Products reported on 21 September 2014.

The conclusion could be that SDC Rhythm XP is much closer to Arizona Airspeed at this point in time than it may have seemed so far. The Paraclete XP Indoor Championship 2015 is less than four weeks away...