The Canopy Piloting World Championships is nearly finished.  But it’s not been without a few issues- most notably the smoke from all the fires in the area.

This hasn’t stopped competitors bonding; Mike Kleist, German swooper and author of The Secret of Male Multiple Orgasms and Other Sex Skills , has been researching his next book on how to pick up girls.  Others have spent time working on their wing loadings, as athletes in this discipline should, and eating pies, or the Russian equivalent.  The mischief has been a little tame so far but if the competition finishes today then perhaps we’re in for a wild night.

So far Speed and Zone Accuracy are finished with PD Factory Team and Flight-1 athlete Jason Moledzki clinching both golds with some awesome performances.  You can see the break down of results here.

Smoke on the ... Everything

Competitors at the Canopy Piloting World Championships are plagued by the dense smoke that has engulfed the area.  So, at breakfast in the hotel, PD Factory Team members and some of the South African delegation decided to bond with the locals with a few vodka toasts to set the morning off.  The smoke is pretty thick outside so our chances of jumping are low.  These guys started the meet roulette game early.

Breakfast of Champions

The PD Factory Team celebrated the end of their recent training camp – and team member Ian Bobo’s birthday! – with some swoops into the Deep Woods Ranch. Photographer Justin Carmody set up to capture the magic and we set up to capture the magic-capturing. Enjoy!

[Warning: extremely cute but annoying dog barks throughout this video. Loudly. Incessantly. Gratingly. You've been warned.]

For more of Justin’s photography, check out his website and the pages of Blue Skies Mag.

From the Dubai Parachuting Championships and Gulf Cup 2010, we got word that Jonathan Tagle has inched ahead of Marat Leiras to claim first place, with Jay Moledzki in third in canopy piloting!

In the 4-way competition, USA’s Arizona Airspeed beat out Belgium and France; the women’s results are France, Germany, Spain. And, in accuracy, it’s Christian Auswoeger, Quargaf El Hassane and Al–Suwaidi Matar.

Congrats to everyone! Full scores here.

Jay celebrates with team mates Ian, Shannon and Jessica

From the PD Blog:

Posted with permission from Performance Designs, Inc.
Photo courtesy of Performance Designs, Inc.

The Canopy Piloting World Cup started in South Africa on Wednesday and is due to conclude on Sunday.  So far 2 rounds of Speed have been completed and, with the exception of 4 re-jumps, 2 rounds of Distance have also been completed.  This included Canadian competitor and PD Factory Team member Jay ‘Sexy Pony Tail’ Moledzki smashing the World Record with an impressive 175.92m on round 2 on his Comp Velo 79.   This currently leaves him in first position with almost a 40 point lead ahead of some strong competition.  The 5,000′ elevation and changing wind conditions have resulted in a large number of zero scores.

For skydivers, weather holds can be the most dangerous time, particularly at a Canopy Piloting World Cup.  For some, there was time to kill, and the Australian delegation challenged some of the other nations to an improvised game of indoor (well, in-tent) cricket.  Others took the time to get some much needed rest, particularly following the early starts we’ve been having with 0530 take-offs.  Here are a few pictures of competitors resting while they wait for the winds to drop.

After a bit of a rough start with challenging conditions and a series of serious injuries, it seems that the World Cup of Canopy Piloting at Johannesburg Skydiving Club is finally on a good roll.

British competitor Alastair Macartney commented in his Facebook status update this morning that Brian Vacher (UK competitor and a member of the PD Factory Team) had just set a National Distance Record – and then as a side note mentioned that Jay Moledzki (Canadian competitor and also a well known member of the PD Factory Team) had gone on to set a new Distance World Record – 175.92 meters (still unofficial, pending FAI approval).
There are still plenty of competition rounds left to go so we might still see some exciting news from JSC.
For those of you that don’t care too much about Canopy Piloting, competition or world records – but do enjoy mischief and prankstery (yup, new word, I just invented it), we got something good coming.  Just waiting on Prankster in Chief to find himself a good solid internet connection to transmit the pixels our way – stay tuned!

Yeah, yeah, we’re late with this. Last Big Splash was September 26-27 at Fantasy of Flight in Florida, but these videos are just as good now as they were then. We asked a random sampling of swoopers canopy pilots dudes people the same four questions. Check it out…

Smile! You're on BlueSkies Camera!

So, for your viewing entertainment, we bring you the first day of Last Big Splash. Let us know what you think (but be kind, it’s our first foray into video-land!) and enjoy!

We’ll also have several sweet photos from photographer Justin Carmody in the November issue of Blue Skies Mag, so keep your eye out for that—and stay tuned for Day Two of Last Big Splash…

Sick wingsuit BASE video from JT. It may not be possible to get any closer to getting out and doing it yourself—which, of course, we highly encourage.