posted Jan 10th, 2010 - Round 3 has already been completed in Dubai. The jumps are being judged, and the scores will hopefully be posted soon.

In the meantime, Arizona Airspeed's Craig Girard has used the time to upload the videos of the first two rounds to YouTube, as well, which provides a better quality. The video of Round 1 has been added to yesterday's NSL News story. The video of Round 2 is embedded below.

Airspeed's 1-point deduction was actually caused by the video angle. France Aerodyne Cypres Maubeuge had a 1-point deduction in Round 2, as well, which was not mentioned in yesterday's update.

It seems like the 4-way competition is always the last event of the day. Accuracy begins early in the morning when the wind conditions are the most predictable and reliable. Canopy Piloting has been the next event so far, while the 4-way teams wrap up the day. They have made one jump per day so far, and it might continue like that.

There is enough to see and to do during the spare time. The NSL News covered Airspeed's skiing vacation at Ski Dubai already earlier. The Hayabusa Defence members went shopping yesterday and bought some native clothes to merge with the Dubai crowds.

The NSL News also received some more interesting details of the South African team that competes in Dubai.

Alex Jordaan, former Inviscid and Area 51 member, was already intoduced earlier by the NSL News. He has been living in Abu Dhabi for the last 18 months without any skydiving. However, he has worked as a wind tunnel instructor for a year in that time period and was current when he competed with Area 51 at the World Challenge 2009.

Before that, he had attended each national championship in South Africa since 2000, except for the two years that he jumped with Inviscid.

His team mates Claire King and Dirk Venter have been competing in 4-way since 2006 and have about 1000 jumps each. James Meyer has the highest number of total jumps. This 3-way competed together with Gavin Chapman at South Africa's national championship in 2009 and placed 3rd with a 10.2 average. Gavin Chapman could not make the trip out to Dubai, and Alex Jordaan filled the open slot.

Claire King and Dirk Venter have recently launched the new South African Skydiving League (SASL), a 4-way project which was already attemped years ago by Alex Jordaan. The new league works with a unique format. It is an annual league with one competition per month. It applies a different handicap system, which is based on each individual competitor.

Each SASL competitor keeps the resulting league points after a meet as an individual, and there is an individual 4-way winner at the end of the year. The league applies a real 4-way ranking, as well, however, the emphasis is on the individual results.

The participants can enter on as many teams as they like and use their highest score each month. The teams can repeat the three jumps per month and submit their best video by uploading it to an internet server. The draw for the three jumps is released at the start of each month, and the participants can complete them at any time until the last week and at any dropzone in South Africa.

Claire King is also an FAI Judge. Alex Jordaan said that she has become heavily involved in South Africa's judging and that she is responsible for a lot of the recent positive changes in the country.

Claire King and Dirk Venter have written their own computer system for judging when the new SASL needed an electronic scoring system and lacked the funds to buy one. Their focus was on affordability and flexibility, without additional hardware required besides regular computers.

The SASL is already using the system, and it was also used at the Canopy Piloting World Championship in South Africa last year. Claire King and Dirk Venter have now been invited to present their InTime scoring system at the IPC plenary next month.

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