posted Jan 7th, 2010 - More Airspeed news came from Dubai, as the last day before the official start of the competition went by. The 4-way world champions from Arizona, now with a complete lineup in Dubai, visited the drop zone early in the morning to find out what it looks like.

The first days at the event site were more like a tourist vacation for the team members, as Craig Girard explained:

"We have been touring around Dubai for the last two days, and the city is very interesting. I have been completely surprised to find that there are so many different nationalities working here. It has been very nice to travel around and find really cool things to see. I didn't know what to expect before we arrived, but there are so many different cultures who live here. When we went to the mall and traveled around the casual style of dressing was very normal. Very relaxed."

It was not very normal any longer when Airspeed decided to visit Ski Dubai. Yes, the complete lineup went snow skiing after Mark Kirkby had arrived. The outside temperatures in Dubai are in the 80s, and snow skiing doesn't really come to mind as a recreational activity.

However, everything seems to be possible in Dubai, and Ski Dubai is located only ten minutes away from the hotel where Airspeed is accommodated:

"Ski Dubai is a huge indoor ski slope and located less than a 10-minute walk from our hotel. It was really cool, and we had a great Airspeed holiday skiing in Dubai! Then last night we went to the middle of town and to the top of the Burj Dubai. We had a look around the observation deck, and the view was fantastic!"

Other observers in Dubai also followed the action on Thursday from an outside perspective and were quite impressed with the event site. Cypres representatives Rob Kendall and Jupp Veltmann are visitors in Dubai and provided some interesting feedback, as the place got busier. Rob Kendall was blogging for the Cypres website.

He reported that teams were arriving to check in and do the necessary paperwork. Then the teams had the chance to make training jumps and look around from above. He said that the weather was perfect and that the Bell 212 helicoptors were up and down all day long, including 4-way teams with jumps from competition altitude.

The Cypres reps will keep on blogging directly from Dubai, and they also posted some photos at the popular Cypres Facebook pages.

Dubai Championship
Who will win the 4-way Open Class?	Arizona Airspeed Hayabusa Defence Canada Evolution France Aerodyne Cypres Maubeuge
	Current Results