posted Jul 18th, 2006 - The meet story of the Karp Cup 2006, hosted by Freefall Adventures at Cross Keys and the MidAtlantic Skydiving League, comes along with the first meet videos of last weekend's competitions. CK O2 Project presents the fast sequence of round six, CK Vision features the technical jump-off sequence, and CK Air Pollution shows the AA Class highscore of round three. MASL Director Mike Minicozzi provided the meet story.

Cross Keys hosted the fifth annual MASL Karp Cup 4-way competition on July 15. Martin Karp, Seth's father, drove down from upstate New York, as he does every year to start the meet. Prior to the competition, Martin and Scott Macario, Seth's former team mate, talk to the competitors about Seth.

Anticipation was high for a great meet, and participants got more than they bargained for. With six teams signing up, the Karp Cup 2006 provided competition in all three competition classes at Cross Keys.

Two pick-up teams competed in the A Class. Cold Fusion, which consisted of three team members of Ranch Fusion who made the drive down from New York to form a pick-up team with two Cross Keys locals, walked away with a 9.0 average. The Cross Keys locals of Dirt Bags finished with a 3.5 meet average.

As usual, CK Controlled Descent and Cross Keys Air Pollution were going at it once again in the AA Class. Air Pollution won a 3-point advantage in the first round and defended it successfully round by round. The same three points separated the two AA Class teams at the end of the meet.

Controlled Descent finished with a team record average of 10.0 after six rounds, and Air Pollution's winning 10.5 average was also the best result in team history. With two meets left in the MASL season, these two teams promise to provide even more exciting competition to come.

The AA Class competition was already exciting enough. However, it was the AAA Class that stole the show. Cross Keys O2 Project and Cross Keys Vision really went at each other. The two teams fought tooth and nail round for round: round one - Vision wins by two; round two - tied; round three - CK O2 wins by one; round four - CK O2 wins by one; round 5 - tied; round six - tied.

Cross Keys resident and former Golden Knight Neil Beverly, who holds a judging rating, spent a little extra time judging these two teams because it was so close, and there was no conclusion after six rounds on Saturday. It was the end of the night, and everyone was full of food and beer. So we had to wait until next morning to jump the final round and see who the AAA Class winner was.

Wheels went up at 8:00 am. O2 Project and Vision members wished each other good luck over in the loading area before the plane took off. The teams had the plane for themselves and enough time to think about the round that would determine the winner.

All teams and competitors on site were treated to real suspense when the jumps were dubbed for judging. Both teams had given it their best, and the extra round ended up in a tie, as well. Out came the IPC rule book to look up jump-off and tie-breaking details.

Both teams had tied their rounds five and six, so round four would decide the winner. O2 Project had the higher score in that round (14 - 13) and finally won the most exciting race by the tie-breaking 1-point advantage in round four.

Special thanks to the following people, who helped make the Fifth Annual Cross Keys Karp Cup the exciting event that it was: Neil Beverly for judging, Cross Keys for providing two Twinotters and making sure there was no down-time for the teams, Mark’s Menu for a great buffet.Sponsors for their generous support: National Skydiving League, Performance Designs, Sun Path, Relative Workshop, SkyVenture Orlando, Square 3, Bev Suits, Icarus, Alti-2, Wings.