Danish skydiver Kenneth Gajda has graciously shared with us the view through his lens, as he explores the 3rd Dubai International Parachuting Championships (DIPC).
Visit the Skydive Dubai website for scores, standings and general updates from the event.

Photo by Kenneth Gajda

Wow. That’s all I can say. What an amazing opening ceremony. I’ve been competing internationally since 1998 and I’ve never seen an opening ceremony like it – but then I’ve never jumped at Dubai before either. It was a night show and the use of colours, lights and fireworks were superbly choreographed. The illuminated stunt plane and skydivers closed the show that had video, horses, skateboarders and dancers performing on the sand and on the angled stage. It was very cool indeed.

Thursday, the FS and CF have been jumping. The CP was put on a call then stopped with the Classic Accuracy then called. About 1/3 of the first round of accuracy was done before the Meet Director switched to CP for the practice jumps. The CP practice round was completed although some were done over the wind limits – which is legal as the practice round is not mandatory. One competitor had a nasty canopy collapse as he was about to start his turn. Some good drills and a low cutaway certainly entertained the crowd. It then stayed windy for most of the day. CF and FS carried on but the strange decision to switch disciplines part way through the round leaves the accuracy round incomplete.

Classic accuracy kicks off Friday although the winds are forecast to get up again. Hopefully the organisers will be swifter on standing disciplines down when it’s clear they won’t get to jump so we can get a bit of beach time if that’s the case.

Work that tan Alastair – and thanks for all the updates!!

A quick Dubai update from our Chief Mischief maker Alastair, who didn’t jump much today. He did however put forward a solid effort towards increasing his wingloading at the lunch buffet.

It’s been a frustrating day at the competition site. First up was classic accuracy. The WDI* was thrown and the drifter load was about to jump when the winds came in. It’s a shame as it would have been pretty funny to watch those guys getting blown onto the beach. We sat around for most of the day, waiting. This was only the official training day so not too much was lost and the boredom that can manifest itself in to mischief has yet to set in.

The lunch was a feast. Skydive Dubai certainly knows how to look after the competitors.

At 1500** the CF and CP were stood down and the planes went up with classic accuracy and FS. The freefallers were landing out on a branch of the Palm while the accuracy competitors were shooting for the tuffet on the main DZ. The winds were still a bit cheeky and occasionally gusting over competition limits making a challenging round but spirits were high.

The opening ceremony, which is meant to be amazingly impressive, starts shortly so we’re about to head out to that.

We hope to have some more pictures to share with our readers tomorrow – we have a few people on the ground in Dubai madly clicking their picture making buttons!

* For our readers that were not around in round times, WDI stands for Wind Drift Indicator.  Para-Gear can sell you the ingredients needed to make your own high-tech version.
** That’s military time,  because Alastair is hard core like that.  That translates into 15:00 for Europe, 3:00PM for America. Just deal with it, I’m sure there is more to come. 

By Alastair Macartney, one of our heroes from Jump4Heros.

Otters and Porters and flying next the 1,300′ skyscrapers that adorn the beach and border the dropzone in Dubai. Today has been the official arrival day and the DZ was rocking with lots of competitors trying to get some final training in. The PD Factory Team are now here along with other top names like Wuzi Wagner, Red Robbie, Curt Batholomew, Nick Batsch, Marat Leiras, Martin ‘Danger Pants’ Reynolds and Erwin the Tank. The French are flying fast, some of the locals are looking pretty good and, of course, the Brits are enjoying the sunshine and scoring the gates.

The views remain awesome. This morning I flew over a super yacht with a helicopter on board as I was flying my base leg. The sun is shining but unfortunately we’re now on a weather hold due to the wind.

We spoke too soon yesterday. There’s been a broken leg after sliding out a decent run – very unlucky. There’s a few competitors nursing bumps and bruises as well. A big shout out to the DZ staff who retrieved my canopy and freebag from the sea super fast and the rigger for fixing my broken line over night.

Time for the beach…

Thanks Alastair for sharing your Dubai experiences with us – we hope you got yourself a tasty beverage to shake the nerves after that cutaway
And sorry for the sideways accuracy guy… I can’t seem to figure out how to get him to come straight down, and our webmaster is on vacation for a few more days!

Not in Dubai, but a great photo all the same!

Training is in full swing in Dubai with the competition getting ready to start. Final preparations are in full swing. The freefall disciplines are training at the DZ further out in the desert while the CP and classic accuracy are training on the main DZ next to the palm. The views are glorious and it’s pretty overwhelming watching the multi million dollar yachts cruise underneath you as you’re flying your pattern over the sea. The swoop pond is beautifully clean using nothing but filtered water.

The helicopters and Porter are flying non stop allowing the competitors to get some last minute training in. Conditions seem to be pretty good although the wind does swing around through the day.

In the CP there’s been one ambulance ride so far with an unfortunate roll that resulted in a broken bone in a competitor’s hand. We’re hoping that that will be the worst of it. The organisers are asking people to watch their separation between landings with safety being paramount.

In the classic accuracy we’re seeing some traditional Parafoils, Classics and PD Zeros. But also a couple of mischievous Brits from the Jump4Heroes team are flying their Troll BASE canopies. And they’re putting in a good performance despite being a bit uncurrent with one of them scoring a 0.00 yesterday. [Readers, please note, that in Classic Accuracy, that is a very good thing]

The skies and blue along with the beautiful ocean and we’re on a call for the next load. More to follow….

The 3rd Dubai International Parachuting Championships and Gulf Cup is only a few short days away – starting up on November 29th and running through December 10th at Skydive Dubai.
Some of the best teams and athletes of the skydiving world will travel to Dubai to battle it out above the exotic beaches.
The organizers website expects 55 or more nations to attend. Events are Canopy Piloting, 4-way Formation Skydiving, 4-way Canopy Formation and Accuracy.

The games are held under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai.
This event has traditionally been exceptionally generous with price money, and on November 14th, the organizers announced that the price purse had been doubled. A total of $775k will be distributed amongst the winners in the different events, although in Team and Individual accuracy only competitors from the Gulf Region and it’s affiliated partner-nations are eligible.
Breakdown of the price money can be viewed here.

With that kind of money on the line, we can expect to see some rocking competition.

50 of the nations best canopy pilots (or so we hope) are currently hanging out by the pond at Skydive Spaceland in Rosharon, TX – 33 competing in Open class and 17 in Advanced.
Both classes will compete in 3 events (Speed, Zone Accuracy and Distance) with 3 rounds of each. Medals are given 3 deep for each event and for overall as well.
Meet director Albert Berchtold reports that they have already wrapped up the Speed event and were able to complete one round of Zone Accuracy before going on hold due to winds.

According to unofficial scores posted on the PD Blog, Nick Batch (Alter Ego) took gold in Speed, Ryan Brownlow silver and Jonathan Tagle (PD Factory Team) bronze.

The results from this meet will determine the US team of Canopy Piloting, so competition is fierce. After 4 rounds, Curt Bartholomew (Alter Ego) is in 1st place, Jonathan Tagle (PD Factory Team) in second and Ian Bobo (PD Factory Team) in third. Many more jumps to be made, so we will likely see a good bit of shuffling of the top 10 places before the event is over.

Unofficial scores through round 4 are available here:

• Open Class
• Advanced Class

Best of luck to all the competitors – go big, make the gates and don’t hit the ground too hard!

This month we at the Blue Skies office started following Team Scarecrow on their journey towards nationals where they will compete in the 3-Way Artistic Freefly division. Much like the gaggle of girlish crumbs that follow SkyGod around we have become enamoured, doting fans of these three amazing characters whose home drop zone is the Ranch where they run the Scarecrow School of Bodyflight and are busy training in the Sky Venture New Hampshire Wind Tunnel. We are so certain that you too are going to love these boys that we are giving you a formal introduction.

Name

Justin Tucker

Age
30

Birthplace
Newburgh, NY

# JUMP
2000-ish

Year of first jump
Did some tandems in 2000, but started jumping in 2004

Hobbies and interests
Playing/writing/recording music, collecting vinyl records, skateboarding,
snowboarding

Nicknames

Tuck Pendelton in the movie “Innerspace”.

I'm also a Reverend (Yes, a real deal non-denominational Revered. I have
officiated many weddings, including my teammate Dave's this past May) so my
stage name for music purposes became Reverend Tuck Pendelton.

Goals, dreams and aspirations in skydiving

learning and pushing myself to do new things in bodyflight, but

most importantly always staying humble, would really like to take home a Gold in Pro Freefly and get to the World
Meet.

A random thought or phrase 
The dude abides.

If you could be any fictitious character who would it be? Why?

a Wizard Viking Elf. I mean, who

doesn't want wizard powers? And Vikings get to ride around in rad ships and
probably never pay for a drink in their entire life. Plus, both
aforementioned professions have pretty sweet hair and beard set ups.Add the Elf into the
equation and you live forever without getting older. Sign me up.

Name
Rob Antalocy

Age
30

Birthplace
Nyack,NY

JUMP #
1700 jumps(or whatever you put)

First Jump
2000

Hobbies and interests
SCUBA,Dogs,Outdoors

Nicknames

“The Rob & Tuck Show”

(However Tuck says that Rob has also been called Rob The Heart Throb, Heart
Throb Rob and/or Heart ThROB, but he is way to humble to ever admit that
anyone calls him that)

Goals, dreams and aspirations in skydiving
Win a gold at nationals. Perhaps a world meet medal(any color will do).

A random thought or phrase
Beetlejuice,Beetlejuice,
Beetlejuice

If you could be any fictitious character who would it be? Why?
Special Agent Johnny Utah

Name
Dave Colucci

Age
39

Birthplace
Passaic, NJ

JUMP #
About 5200 now.

Year of first jump
1997

Hobbies and interests
I'm really into my dog Drexel. A lot of people around the DZ's know him.
He was found in Zhills and can spot me setting up my canopy at about 750
feet.

Nickname

Then there’s me, known to my friends

as "Hooch" (derived from sound of my last name "Co-looch-ee").

Goals, dreams and aspirations in skydiving
 Really, I just keeping waiting for the next jump when we all get down and
say to one another, "That was a really good skydive."

A random thought or phrase

If you’re reading this article, then there is a strong likelyhood

that you've experienced the good of our sport. And it is very good;
however, with the good comes the bad too. Please just be aware of it.

If you could be any fictitious character who would it be? Why?
 I always wanted to be Cap'n Crunch. Everyone just seemed so happy to hang
out with him.

Lara is on site with the Big Kids at the PD Big Boy Pants at Mile Hi in Colorado, living it up and loving the lack of humidity. Even if today is only the first day of competition, we are already seeing records fall and some amazing moves on the pond.  Keep in mind that this is an invitational event so attending are some of the best canopy pilots in the solar system.

Below are a few facts and photos that Lara has shared through our Twitter account today – hit us up as @blueskiesmag on there to get her insights and fun facts for the rest of the event.
Organizer Albert Berchtold of the FLCPA is also broadcasting live via USTREAM (FLCPA Channel) – awesome opportunity to watch the pond and hear some of the commentary going on.

• In the competition are 16 Velocities/Comp Velocities, 3 JVX, 1 Petra JVX, 1 Scirroco and 1 unknown entity being flown by Jay Moledzki.
• Current World Record in Speed stands at 2.093 seconds and was set on December 5th, 2009 by Golden Knight Greg Windmiller (USA). Both Jonathan Tagle and Nick Batch both came oh-so-close to the current record with runs of 2.096 seconds and 2.095 seconds respectively.
•  A couple of new National records:
  - New German speed record – 2.421 seconds by Morris Friess
  - New Brazilian speed record – 2.412 seconds by Edson Pacheco
• A couple of averages from the speed round:
  - Canopy size: 84 square feet
  - Exit Weight: 225 lbs
  - Wingloading: 2.69 lbs/square ft
  Remember that all of the above falls strictly into the “do not try this at home, kids” category.
• PD Factory Team member Jonathan Tagle had a small run-in with the planet, causing judges to close the course for a short period.  JT shook it off like a champ, got up, brushed off his big boy pants and is doing fine. Judges and spectators may have needed a fresh round of Huggies.

This wraps up the Speed portion for the day  - the crew is busy setting up the distance course and anticipates that the first Distance round will take off at 2:00 PM Mile-Hi time.

Swooper psyched for the Big Boy Pants Swoop Record-palooza at Mile-Hi Skydiving next weekend – I’m going to soak up the dry air, visit some old haunts and of course have a blast watching the big boys and girls go for new big records. That link has the full list of big boys who have been invited and will be there, along with profiles for most of them, so be sure to clicky click it.

But now for the important stuff (vote in the distance poll over there to the right, too >>>>):
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