The PD Blog

Big Way CReW Camp concludes at SD Arizona

This past weekend Skydive Arizona hosted the first(beer) big way CReW camp of the 2012 season.  Brian Pangburn and Kirk VanZandt organized the event which officially began on Friday, but that didn't stop the CReW dogs  from hooking up canopies throughout the days leading up to the camp.  

The canopy of choice was the PD Lightning with wingloadings ranging from 1.3-1.4 and sizes from the 113-193 sq. ft.  The skill level at the camp ranged from the newest PUPS to the seasoned CReW DOGS.  Formations ranged from the more technical "thread the needle" to the 34 way diamond attempt.    The event certainly had its share of "YAHOO" moments with wraps, entanglements, cutaways and reserve rides.  

Laszlo Andacs was on hand to capture the event with his amazing photography skills.  For more pictures check out Laszlo's website.

 

 

2011 3rd DIPC Day 7- FS 4 way concludes!

The 4 way Formation Skydiving event here in Dubai concluded today with the 8th and final round.  The final standings:

Open:

Gold-France

Silver-Belgium Hayabusa

Bronze-USA SDC Rhythm XP

4th-USA Perris Fury

Gulf Cup:

Gold-Qatar Tigers

Silver-UAE Red

Bronze-UAE Gold

4th-Oman National Team

The CF 2way and 4way  portion of the meet is scheduled to complete their 8th and final round tomorrow.  Classic Accuracy finished up the 6th round of competition this morning and was released for the day.  Tomorrow they'll head into the 7th round.  The German team is holding onto the top spot with 18cents, followed closely by Russia with 19, and China with 20.

In the CP event 2 rounds have been completed in each event, with 1 round of speed, distance, and accuracy left to go

3rd DIPC 2011-Day 4- blazing distances in CP and battling CF!

Just when it didn't seem to be able to get any more amazing here in Dubai, the competition continues!!  2Way CF continues to be a tight race between the Russians, French and Aussies.  With only one round left to go in the 4-way FS the French are in first, Belgians in second, and the USA holding third and fourth.  With three rounds left to go in Accuracy, the Germans are in the lead with 12 cents followed closely by China and Slovenia at 13 cents, Its still anyone's game there!

There were a few tough landings in the Distance runs of CP today with over many competitors visiting the medical tent to have their bumps and bruises attended to.  Our good friend and PD rep Dedric also had a hard landing at the end of his distance round and was taken to the hospital to get checked out.  Luckily nothing broken, just very sore! 

Without further delay, Here's todays video!

 

 

The Grand folks at Skydive Dubai are also putting together daily video blogs which can be found here.

3rd DIPC 2011-Day 3-wet swoopers!!!

It was another amazing day here in Dubai.  In the Female Classic Accuracy, China and Russia are in a tight race for the gold, only 2 centimeters separate the teams.  In the Open Classic Accuracy, Russia leads with 16 cents after 4 rounds. France, UAE, and Oman are right on their heels with 18 cents.

In the 2 way CF, the Russians, French, and Aussies are all within 2 points after 2 rounds fighting it out for the top spots.  The 4 way Female category is a tight race after 6 rounds with the UK Team Blue leading the French National team by only 2 points.  Enjoy today's video for some more detail!

 

 

2011 3rd DIPC-Day 2 Competition continues!

The weather today was wonderful here in Dubai. It was the National Day here celebrating 40 years of the UAE. The folks here have a great sense of pride in their country hanging UAE flags on the roof of their cars, sides of buildings, and wherever you can think of. The competition continued throughout the day halting only temporarily for a brief airshow in the middle of the day which featured a 40 way making a giant "40" in freefall, a spectacular 16 way diamond by the CF competitors, and the amazing flying of Zoltan Veres. You can check out the most up to date scores here.

The 4 way FS competition has completed 4 rounds and its fierce competition for the top spot with Belgium trailing the French by only 3 points. For the 3rd place position, the two teams from the USA are only a few points apart.

The CF 2 way portion of the meet has the Aussie's battling with the French in a tight race for the gold. And if you enjoy watching classic accuracy, It's amazing to watch the China female team getting one zero after the next. But consistency is what pays off so they'll have to keep up performances if they want to hold on to the top seats in the female category.

3rd DIPC 2011- Day one of competition 12.1.11

It's Day 1 of competition here in Dubai.  The day started with the finish of the Accuracy practice round that started yesterday.  With the winds picking up and Accuracy put on a hold, the CP competitors were given the opportunity to put down the practice round that they missed yesterday.  Most competitors ran the speed course with a few taking a crack at the distance course.  With a few marker strikes and one heart wrenching canopy collapse(3:20), these disciplines ended without injury.  The competition in FS and CF began today and ran clear through sunset.  Scores for those two disciplines can be found here. Here's some footage for the day from Dubai...Enjoy...

 

3rd DIPC 2011- Practice Day

The Opening Ceremonies just came to a finish here in Dubai. Skateboarders, flaming horses, children with numerous countries flags, Zoltan, and a night swoop by Marat and Billy Sharman from Fazza Sky were some of the attractions.  What an amazing opening to a funfilled week.  This morning brought high winds which cleared for some practice jumps for FS and Accuracy in the afternoon.  Tomorrow begins with the completion of the practice round for Classic Accuracy.  CP is scheduled to begin a bit later in the morning and FS will begin around 10am.

 

Dubai International Parachuting Championships and Gulf Cup less than one week away!

We're less than one week out from the beginning of the Dubai International Parachuting Championships (DIPC) and Gulf Cup.

For those who have attended or watched this event in past years, you know it’s a long event, with nonstop activity. Depending on the discipline, some competitors will only do one or two competition jumps per day. This makes the mental challenges of this event much different than a meet that is completed in a day or two. Lets have a look at some of the events and the teams/countries in attendance….

4-Way (Open & Female)

38 teams from 23 countries. In the open class, the French, Belgians, Russians and USA will all be presenting teams that will be pushing for top spots on the podium. Qatar and UAE were both present as guest teams last month at the US Nationals and put up some impressive scores. Both countries have up’d their averages since last years Gulf Cup and will be competing for the top spot this year as well.

 

Classic Accuracy (Team, Male, Female)

45 teams +23 individuals from 31 countries. In the Female category the Russians are expected to bring a strong team again and will surely be the team to beat. In the mens field it will surely be a fight to the finish. Italy, Czech, France, Slovenia, Russia have all been known to bring strong contenders to such an event.

 

Canopy Formation (4-Way & 2-Way)

13 teams from 9 countries. This will be the first year that CF will be included at the DIPC. The French & Aussie teams have been looking very strong recently with their Storms. But the Russian teams are known to be strong in the CF events and are planned to have a full line-up in Dubai.

 

Canopy Piloting

120 competitors from 28 countries. The who’s who of the swooping community is planned to be out in full force. There was some talk about some changes to the events this year but after further review the DIPC has decided to keep the traditional speed, distance, zone accuracy, and freestyle events.

 

We'll be keep you updated daily via our Facebook with tib bits and more, and daily scores and video updates on The PD Blog

Prize Purse Doubled for 3rd DIPC & Gulf Cup

We've returned to PD headquarters in Deland after an amazing USPA Nationals and no sooner do we have our bags unpacked... but we're packing up again for the next trip! Later this month we'll be on site at the 3rd Dubai International Parachuting Championships & Gulf Cup bringing you all the inside info, scores, video and photo's from the UAE.

The glitz and glamour of this year’s competition will bring out over 650 participants from 46 different countries next month to this event being held at Skydive Dubai. But on top of the amazing hospitality that Dubai shows, and the challenge of going heads up with top international competition in each respective field, the prize purse this time around is nothing to shake a stick at. The DIPC announced this week that they would be doubling the prize purse.  A whopping $775,00 will be divided up between the top spots in each category. That makes this the largest skydiving prize purse that we’ve ever seen.

Competition begins on December 1st and continues through December 9th. Keep your eyes on the PD Blog , Facebook, Vimeo, and Youtube pages for all the up to date info as the excitement unfolds.  

If you want to get ready for what's in store, feel free to check out some of the footage from the  2nd Dubai Championships on our Youtube page.

 

USPA Nationals 2011 Wrap Up

As the sun set in the Eloy desert this past Saturday, it marked the end of an amazing 2011 USPA Nationals hosted by Skydive Arizona, with just over 500 competitors participating in 19 various disciplines, and countless staff and volunteers working in the shadows to make it all happen. And let's not forget out our beloved judges and judging panel who worked around the clock to keep the scores current and the intensity of the competiton going.

For those wondering what it takes to host a USPA Nationals, just think about the 114 competition and 17 training loads that Skydive Arizona flew on the first day of the Formation Skydiving Competition.

If you've ever been to a USPA Nationals, the one thing you will see is that the average teams and competitors are not the world class, 20+ average teams, they are the day-to-day jumpers who have a passion and drive for competition. It's so rewarding seeing the up-and-coming teams fighting it out in the Intermediate divisions, the newbies to nationals going all out and having fun while fostering their competitive nature and the life long friendships that are built.

What's a Nationals without a jump off ...

In the 4-Way Advanced meet, there was a tie after 10 rounds for 2nd place between Start 4 from OH and Fallout from PA, with Start 4 coming out on top and taking the Silver, Fallout settling for the Bronze. 4-Way Intermediate saw the same deal in round 10, however this was a tie for Gold. Teams T-Minus:01 & Dallas Khaos XP  went into the jump-off with T-Minus:01 coming out on top winning Gold, 1 point ahead of Dallas Khaos XP who took silver.

Worth throwing some names around ...

Performance Designs has long supported teams and individuals both in and out of the competitive environment, and it would be rude not to show some love and thanks to those who have excelled at the USPA Nationals 2011.

Arizona Airspeed - 4-Way Open Gold Medal

Golden Knights Gold - 4-Way Open Silver Medal

Perris Fury - 4-Way Open Bronze Medal

SDC Rhythm XP - 4-Way Open, 4th Place

XP4 - 4-Way Open, 5th Place

Golden Knights F4 - 4-Way Open Womens, 1st Place

SDC Furies XP - 4-Way Open, 12th Place

Golden Knights - 8-Way Open, Gold Medal

Arizona Airspeed - 8-Way Open, Silver Medal

XP - 8-Way Open, Bronze Medal

Amphibious Attack Tigers - 8-Way Open, 5th place

One Knight Standard - 8-Way Open, 7th Place

Golden Knights - 10-Way, Gold Medal

Arizona Airspeed - 10-Way, Silver Medal

*@#!? - 10-Way, Bronze Medal

GKXP - 16-Way, Gold Medal

Arizona Airspeed - 16-Way, Silver Medal

Clean Air - CF Sequential, Gold Medal

Clean Air - CF Rotation, Gold Medal

Scarecrow - Freefly Open, Bronze Medal

Skydive Ricks - Classic Accuracy Team, Gold Medal

Cheryl Stearns - Classic Accuracy Female, Gold Medal 

James Hayhurst - Classic Accuracy Mens, Gold Medal

Jimmy Drummond - Classic Accuracy Mens, Silver Medal

Mark Jones- Classic Accuracy Mens, Bronze Medal

Marius Ivascu - Classic Accuracy Mens, 4th Place

Dennis Murphy - Classic Accuracy Mens, 5th Place

Cheryl Stearns - Style Female, Gold Medal

James Hayhurst - Style Male, Gold Medal

Marty Jones - Style Male, Silver Medal

Jimmy Drummond - Style Male, Bronze Medal

Way to represent ...

This years USPA Nationals marked an "on year" where the USPA selects teams and individuals to represent the US at the next World Meet, being hosted by Skydive Dubai, December 2012 in the UAE. These teams and individuals will go head-to-head against the world's best to try and bring back Gold, Silver or Bronze from the world stage. Performance Designs would like to congratulate everyone on their outstanding performance, and wish them the best of luck in this years training and the up coming World Meet.

Men's Style and Accuracy Team*

• Mark Jones
• Marius Ivascu
• William Beaudreau
• Jimmy Drummond
• James Hayhurst
• Dennis Murphy – Alternate

 Women's Style and Accuracy Team*

• Elisa Tennyson
• Mery Rose
• Cheryl Stearns

 VFS Team - SDC Standard XP*

• Jason Peters
• Matt Nelson
• Mickey Nuttall
• Will Pesek
• Dalton Samuelson
• Marci Ross - Alternate

 Men’s FS 4-way Team - Arizona Airspeed*

• Thomas Hughes - Captain
• Mark Kirkby
• Joshua Hall
• Niklas Hemin
• William Schmitz
• Brian Johnson - Alternate

 Women’s FS 4-way Team - Golden Knights – GKF4*

• Angela Nichols - Captain
• Laura Dickmeyer
• Dannielle Woosley
• Jennifer Schaben
• Scott Janise

 FS 8-way Team - Golden Knights*

• Brian Krause - Captain
• Kurt Isenbarger
• Matthew Davidson
• Sean Sweeney
• Justin Blewitt
• Joshua Coleman
• Michael LaRoche
• Lawrence Miller
• Andrew Starr
• Angela Nichols - Alternate

 CF 4-way Rotation Team - Elsinore Too Wrapped Up*

• Eric Gallan - Captain
• Sean Jones
• Taylor Cole
• Will Kitto
• Glen Fafard
• Bart Stonestreet – Alternate

 CF 4-way Sequential Team - Clean Air*

• Michael Paolin – Captain
• Mark Gregory
• Brian Pangburn
• Chris Gay
• Eli Godwin
• Yuliya Korkh - Alternate

 CF 2-way Sequential Team - Clean Air*

• Chris Gay – Captain
• Brian Pangburn
• Eli Godwin
• Yuliya Korkh - Alternate

 Freestyle Team - Dragons*

• Tiffany Lamb – Captain
• Travis Mills – Video

 Freefly Team - NorCal Alliance*

• Anthony Landgren – Captain
• Aaron Johnson
• Michael Knight – Video

* Pending approval by the USPA Competition Committee

Worth 1000 words ...

Check out the PD Facebook page for photos from the USPA Nationals:

Nationals Album 1

Nationals Album 2

Podium Photos

Photos by PD and Niklas Daniel

Keeping it in the family ...

This year saw PD staff members competing at the USPA Nationals, and we even got a few medals for some bragging rights.

• Amanda Mandrafino (Engineering) - Bronze Medal in Freestyle
• Gilles Dutrisac (Engineering) - Silver Medal in 4-Way Advanced
• Albert Berchtold (Dealer Relations) - Silver Medal in 4-Way Advanced & 5th in ProAm 2-Way Sequential CF
• Alex Bittner (Marketing) - 5th Place in Freestyle
• Karl Meyer (Marketing) - 4-Way Advanced (Lost to a team called Monkey Business)

PD Sponsored Jumper Laszlo Andacs, spent a few days at Skydive Arizona and took some amazing photos, check them out here: www.laszloimage.com