posted Sep 1st, 2009 - The first update on Tuesday, the first competition day at the FAI World Cup 2009, is coming again from California. Event judge Steve Miller provided additional information of the last SCSL meet in 2009, and John Hamilton sent a photo of the Founding Fathers. Also, the missing scores of the Carolina Skydiving League's August meet have been added to the leaderboard.

SCSL August Meet in Perris

By Steve Miller

The last meet of the 2009 SCSL was as good as it gets. Despite the 112 degree temperatures, 5 AAA Class teams, 5 AA Class teams, 1 A-Class team and 1 Rookie Class came out to play. After an emotional meet briefing paying tribute to our fallen friend, Perris local and freefly pioneer Eli Thompson, Perris' manifest animal Dan Cook cranked it up and got teams off the ground quickly. With 8 of the teams sharing 4 video flyers and an extremely busy tandem weekend on the books, this was no small feat. Hats off to Perris and one of the best manifest and meet organizing teams anywhere.

In the AAA Class, Founding Fathers, competing as a guest team, was the class of the field in terms of both fun and entertainment. In Round 3 (5, D, O, 22), John Hamilton, sporting an amazingly bright orange 'hey look at me" jumpsuit and overcome by the excitement of taking the "big" move in Block 22, confidently attempted to convince the remainder of our Founding Fathers that they should skip the Yuan and move directly to the Satellite.

Still suffering nightmares from his skilled back-flying performance from the previous SCSL Meet, Dan "I can't believe you didn't give us that" BC was unconvinced and strongly encouraged (you get the picture I'm sure!!! ) Hammo to complete the dive as drawn. In Round 4, the highly anticipated "speed" round of what is best described as a "technical" yawner of a draw, Founding Fathers managed to leave 3 points on the judging room floor on their way to a total of 8 infractions on the day. Good laughs were had by all, especially the judges.

In what was now a battle for the gold medals in the AAA Class, Its All Good and Elsinore BTE slugged it out through six rounds. All even after Round 3, the experience of Its All Good led the pick-up team to a 3 point cushion after the fast Round 4. Not to be outdone by their cross-down rivals, BTE (100 training jumps) picked up one point in Round 5 and two more points in Round 6 to draw the meet even after regulation. When Its All Good declined to answer the bell for the jump-off, Meet Director Dan BC awarded the gold medals to BTE. At the end of the day, however, this race was won and lost in the judging room with Its All Good losing 4 points to BTE's 0.

The battle in the AA was the best of the day with BAM (traveling from NorCal) and Perris Matrix tied for the top slot, and Jimani uncharacteristically behind by 1 after three rounds. Jimani, a strong random team, quickly remedied this situation in Round 4 (L,B,K, 9), picking up 6 points on each of the leaders who struggled with the faster sequence. This lead was too much for BAM and Matrix to overcome with the block dominated Rounds 5 and 6 to follow. With just two points separating BAM and Matrix going into round 6, there was potential for another jump-off. With one of their best jumps of the day, BAM made sure the meet was finished banging out a 9 to Matrix's 6.

The Judges Award, an SCSL tradition for the first and last meets of the season, went to both A-Class team Jim and the Pimps for some great skydiving with relatively low jump numbers and Rookie Class team Elsinore Rigby for its outstanding video work.

From a judges perspective, I would encourage teams to wear gloves in contrasting colors to their jumpsuits. I would also encourage them to roll down the sleeves of their jumpsuits regardless of the heat. Bare hands and arms tend to blend with the ground on video. The easier it is for judges to see the points, the easier it is for them to push the scoring button. Also, their seemed to be an unusual amount of trouble with capturing all of the grips on the M (Star) exit on video.

With respect to exits in general, I would suggest that where possible, teams encourage their video flyers to watch the mock-up and spend time going over the count and the intended positioning of the exit formation across the line of flight. Teams should remember that different formations (i.e. long formations v. round formations) present different issues for video flyers. It is extremely important for a video flyer to know what is coming out of the plane, when it is coming out and where it's supposed to be going. Remember, not all non-judgeable exit formations are the fault of the video flyer.

Good luck to everybody at Nationals. Have fun, be safe.