posted Dec 7th, 2015 - Yesterday's first update from the World Air Games 2015 mentioned that Chris Talbert will provide expert commentary and insights live from Dubai.

The competition draw was his first main topic after the scores of the first two rounds were posted in 4-way Open and 4-way Women. Today's schedule had 8-way competition and 4-way VFS on the agenda. However, strong winds did not allow the teams to get in the air, and Chris Talbert had enough time to catch up with yesterday's competition, as well.

He had a funny opening statement before he got into the details of the draw: "Hello everyone! Unfortunately for you, Kurt was not able to stay through the skydiving portion of the WAG/Clash of Champions here in Dubai. If you were hoping for some objective analysis of the draw for this event, you got the shit end of the stick..."

The Sun Path Products NSL News introduced Chris Talbert yesterday with more details of his competition career. He is not training and competing any longer and not in Dubai, so he could afford writing his first commentary from the World Air Games in a very comfortable position:

"I MAY or MAY NOT be polishing off a bottle of REALLY GOOD scotch as I write this. If you disagree with my summation let me know. You can also e-mail me at any time..."

Then he added a few words of his own career before looking at the numbers and letters:

"Let's start this analysis off with some candor. I am a Golden Knight. I made the team in 1994 and despite my best efforts managed to stay there for ten years. I am also lucky enough to have been a member of Arizona Airspeed for one year, in 2004. My time on Airspeed was the result of, as Lemony Snicket would say, ‘A series of unfortunate events’. We will save the rest of that story for the bar. Besides, most of you have heard it. Whether you wanted to or not..."

Chris Talbert started with the 4-way draw, even though he first did not seem to take it too serious: "So back to my candid revelation. It took me FOR – EVER to decipher the numbers and letters for the draw on SKYLEAGUE.COM... As most GKs will tell you, the blocks and randoms have names for a reason. If you were the youngest of three kids, did your Dad call you 3? No. He called you Tees – Nuts. That is if your last name is Mills, Trinko, Krause, or Heinsheimer."

"To start with, why in the sweet blue popsicle nuts are there different draws? How's about we just draw some shit out of a hat and let it apply to 4-way, Women's 4-way, 8-way and maybe even, just for a goof, VFS? But what do I know. I was one of the guys getting tossed out of the ‘Judges Toilet’ in Teuge a few months ago..."

Alright, Chris, from your other toilet victim at the NSL headquarters: "4-way Open and 4-way Women do have the same draw, and the 4-way VFS guys decided to add an "I" (as in Idiot) to the letters, don't ask me why. So they cannot use the same draw. I agree with your bitching as of the 8-way draw..." Now seriously:

TALBERT WAG CORNER: 4-way Competition Draw

"So after looking at the 4–way draw for the 2015 World Air Games here in Dubai it seems like a pretty 'straight up' or 'all American' draw. Round 1 has two options on the B build after the first page of which either has a valid argument, although I would stay standard, centers facing each other."

"Round 5 has Block 7 which can be built as the old 'Molar' random formation, or as the start of the old block 'Black Hole - Bipole'. In this case, I think a Black Hole build – with a partner swap - will work best for the finish and the build of Block 1 (Snowflake - Snowflake). That means Inside Center on Point and Outside Center on Tail for Block 7."

"Round 8 (16,9,12) is a situation the Outside Center and Point see quite often - which is slot switching, and then getting switched back home. That comes from Block 16 and Block 12 being in the same sequence. The finish of Block 16 gives some tempting options to build a 'non-standard' Block 9 but in the end stay home. Or in the words of Golden Knights Gold Team in 2002: 'Dance with the One What Brung Ya.'"

"There is also an opportunity to do something outside the norm in Round 9 from Random Formation K (Hook) to G (Cataccord). And this is about as dynamic as this draw gets: Build the Hook with the Inside Center side-bodied on the Tail and the Tail catting the Outside Center, then leave the Tail in the center of the Cataccord and finish the page with a 'Mickey Mouse' Phalanx (Q) where the Tail has grips on the centers, and the Point has right hand on the left leg of the Outside Center. From there you could find the top of Block 21 in a sand storm!"

"In my old – ish opinion Rounds 4 and 9 have the best chance of being high score of the meet, for teams at every level."

"This 4–way draw is going to be a great demonstration of how far the flying ability of the international community has come, despite the lack of challenges presented by the dive pool. If you are my age (45) or have been skydiving for ten years you know that Bipoles, Photons, Zircons, Diamond – Bunyips and Tees from three continents have been in the dive pool longer than I have been drinking whiskey and posting inappropriate shit on the internet..."

TALBERT WAG CORNER: 8-way Competition Draw

"On to 8-way. Wow. I am not sure what to say. Four months ago I thought the world record would be broken in Holland, and two months ago I said it WOULDN’T be broken in Eloy. Both times I was - what is that word my boss loves to say to me? Oh yeah - WRONG."

"So, skipping Round 1 where it seems like left is the way to go on Block 4, we will go right to the all-random jump that is Round 2. An 8–way purist like me would say that a world record is going to be tough to come by without one of the following blocks: 1, 3, 4, 15 or 16. But then again, the last time I did better than a 20-point average in 8–way ISIS was a character on Shazam! So all bets are off for Round 2, and both the US and French teams are sure to give us something to talk about."

"Random work in 8–way can be as sensitive as razor burn, and this jump will absolutely require the best each team has to collectively offer. Because I am writing this and you are reading this, you get to hear my prediction. My money is on Kurt Isenbarger and Sean Sweeny to manage the keys and give their team mates the rhythm this jumps demands."

"After Round 2 the 8–way draw becomes a demonstration of good center work. Or as one mentor told me: 'Just do 4-way' (Thanks, Craig...) Rounds 4, 5 and 6 will require good center work with noticeable changes of heading."

"Round 7 has several options when building Random Formation E (Rubik). Rubiks always have a few options but at the 'other than highest level', go with what is standard; regardless of whether it's compressed on piece partners or a 'clicked around' partner swap Rubik. On this jump a team's comfort level will reign supreme and be the deciding factor between good, and great."

"Round 9 is a great jump with (potentially) the non-repeater going to the Inside and Outside Centers and their piece partners. That is assuming Block 1 will go right to left in the center. To close out the meet, two of the slowest blocks in 8–way rear their ugly heads with an all slot switcher in the middle. That's Block 8 (Frisbee – Frisbee), Block 11 (Box – Box) as it’s called, and Block 2 (Bear – Bear). Block 11 generally gives everyone a non–repeater, but some experienced engineering should get two of the four sub-groups out of that. The team with a 2-point lead or better going into Round 10 wins this competition."

"So there you have it. This analysis was brought to you by Chris Talbert, Johnnie Walker Black Label and Cohiba cigars. If you have read this far, you have reached the end of the internet. If we have met, even for a minute, you know that I am ALWAYS making a joke. Allow me to be sincere for a moment. I'd like to thank my long-time friend and the one person who loves Formation Skydiving more than anyone, Kurt Gaebel, for allowing me to contribute this bit of nonsense."

"I'd also like to thank Paul Raspino, Carey Mills, Charlie Brown, Matt Davidson, Vern Miller, Trevor McCarthy, Craig Girard, Kirk Verner, Eliana Rodriguez, Dennis Rook, Neal Houston, Sean 'Scuba Sean' Capogreco, Kurt 'T-Bone' Isenbarger, John 'Splash' Hoover and most of all, the best piece partner a guy could ever have, Eric 'Smokey' Heinsheimer for the good times, the bad times, and the going half mad times.

Blue Skies, Go Compete!"