The PD Blog

FAI/IPC Canopy Formation Web Challenge

FAI/IPC is proud to partner with PD as the 2nd Annual CF web challenge is launched!
The FAI/IPC Canopy Formation Web Challenge is designed to enable interested teams of competitors and a camera-flyer to perform a series of formations as if in live competition. The formations in the 2 and 4-way sequential event have been drawn by the challenge organizers and published on the FAI website.
The competition consists of three rounds, each of which may be practiced as often as desired. The teams' best performance is then up-loaded for evaluation by the judges. The competition will run from May 1st 2008 until July 31st 2008. Please visit the FAI /IPC Web Challenge website for more information.

As a proud partner in the Web Challenge Performance Designs would like to see the discipline of Canopy Formation grow. This year the winners of the FAI/IPC Canopy Formation Web Challenge will be announced during the WPC in September, to be held at Teuge in the Netherlands. During the awards ceremony there will be a special drawing which will include all participants from the Web Challenge. ONE lucky CF enthusiast's name will be drawn and given the opportunity to select a FREE sport parachute of his/her choice from the Performance Designs product line (excluding the Velocity). This means whether you place first, third, or last, you have a chance to win the grand prize just by entering the competition.
The web challenge offers the opportunity for the seasoned world champions the opportunity to compete, as well as those just beginning to experiment with the exciting discipline of Canopy Formation Skydiving. Come Get Some!!!!!

CRW 100-way - they did it!!!

Well, it seems that our friends at the CRW World Record Attempts in Lake Wales are experiencing some internet issues, so Keith has not been able to get online to post his daily updates. 

But - the good news is that we just heard from Rusty Vest (our Customer Service Manager here at PD and a participant in the record attempts) that they did it - built a 100 way!
Judges are still deliberating so nothing is official yet, but it looks like they pulled it off, what amazing team.  Congratulations everyone!

The picture that goes with this blog was taken by Tuesday evening by Rusty.  PD Blogging headquarters are still trying to determine if the slant is an artistic impression or if this is simply how CRW dogs take photos. 

CRW World Record Attemtpts - Nov 17th

The CRW record attempts in Lake Wales are now in full swing and as promised, here is an update from Keith McBeth, written on Saturday November 17th.

Hello all,

So it's been an exciting few days preparing for the 100-way Record Attempts. After today we have all the people registered and ready to go. This is not only a record event, but is also a skydiving event for CRW dawgs, or people who like to fly their parachutes together to build beautiful diamond formations. There are roughly 140 skydivers here from 15 different countries! Many people have been preparing for this event for 2 years now, some will make the cut and some will learn new things for future formations.
They have been putting together groups of 9, 16, 20 and 25-ways to get everyone in the air. So tomorrow shall be exciting as well. They will be putting together the base 36-way, and maybe even a 49-way, which will require 2 aircrafts. In the first airplane will be the base 9-way, all of whom will have personal oxygen bottles on them. Air gets thinner as you get higher, and the planned altitude necessary for a formation this big means the airplanes have to fly into air with little oxygen.
For the world record attempt, the 9-way formation base will be exiting the airplane from 20,000 feet above the ground (nearly 4 miles!) The next airplane will have 27 people in it exiting at 18,000 feet. The lower altitude in the plane and under canopy means each jumper doesn't need their own personal supply, so they use the system in the airplane instead.

Friday was an exciting day, especially for one participant from Australia! What was supposed to be a 36-way got messy after the first 4 skydivers made a diamond. The fifth jumper joined the formation too hard, and wrapped his canopy around the Ozzie's leg and shoulder. The Australian tried to clear the mess, and reserve parachute started to come out after the entangled mess dislodged it.
Jumper 5 cut-away his main canopy after seeing the reserve canopy start to come out through his parachute lines. At this point, the Ozzie's pretty red reserve parachute came out and pulled him away from the formation, which is the picture you see below. The Australian didn't give up, though, and freed himself from the other jumper's canopy, then cutaway his main canopy and landed without incident. The 5th jumper opened his reserve and landed fine, as well. Wow, what a ride!   There were a few minor injuries from other canopy entanglements,but nothing that a bag of ice won't cure :)

Click here to visit Keith's MySpace page to see more pictures from the event.

CRW World Record Attempt: 100!

As you might have heard, CRW dogs from around the world are gathering in Lake Wales as we type this, to prepare for yet another world record attempt. 
Keith McBeth is one of the participants, and he plans on sending out daily blogs via his MySpace page.  He has graciously allowed us to pass on his posts and pictures for the readers of the PD Blog to enjoy (especially those that are not a part of the MySpace craze).   
Here comes the first one - enjoy the read :)

Hello all!

November 17th, 2007 at Lake Wales, Florida will be the first day of an 8 day event where CRW Dogs from all over the world will attempt to break a current World Record!  In 1996,  a canopy world record formation was completed in Germany. Which was a 53way!  In 2002 we set an official USA record of 49 people , then we went bigger and set an unofficial world record of 56 people!  The formation was not official because we were not attempting to break a world record, so we did not have the official judges to make it a world record. Once we built the 56 way, there was no question we could go bigger!!

  In 2003, we went for a world record!  Sucessfully we completed a 64way, 65 way and on the final day, we wanted to see if we could go bigger, so we added a few more, and the record stood high with 70 people!!

After a few years of training and selecting, in 2005 the CRW committe wanted to go bigger and attempt an 81 way formation.  We completed the 81 way at sunset!  The next morning they wanted to see if they could add row 10? Row 10 would be 10 people across from left to right, which would make the formation an 85 way!  They completed it on the first jump!  From that formation, they new we could go bigger!

So November 17th to 25th 2007 CRW Dogs from all over the world will gather in Lake Wales in attempt to make a 100way formation!!   This will surely be one of the last big way camps the world will see for a while if the formation is built successfully. The action and tension is going to be non-stop and you wont have to miss one heart beat of it!!

Keith is also an amazing photographer and will have pictures of the event available for sale after the event - please let us know if you need his contact details.