Article of the month:

CANOPY RELATIVE WORK WORLD CUP

Gilete, Wyoming: a sure change of scenery for this CReW world cup organised at the beginning of September in the American wild west.

Gilete, it is not the razor brand but a small town in Wyoming, in the west of the USA, the great west, the real west... Talking of razors, the ones used by the barbers over there are more often short-swords than high-tech... It was the place where the top CReW Teams around the world was to meet. To say the truth, not everybody was present. The opposition was good in 4-way rotation and significant in 8-way but one could not say the same in 4-way sequence. Let's talk about the categories one by one.

The big names were here: Italy, Russia, USA... And what about France!? Of course they are the world champion team but almost all the members have changed, the only " ancient " remaining being C. Balisky who would not jump because he was just getting better after his accident at the beginning of the year. It was a trial run for this team of rookies reinforced for the occasion by V. Ferrer, an experimented competitor. They ended 5th, which surely did not reflect their level. Even if the podium seemed to be out of reach, they could have been 4th. The Italians (vice world champions) won quite easily, establishing a new world record with the new rules (1 minute and a half instead of 2, exit neutralised for 30 seconds). They will be tough to beat next year at the world championships but the Americans and the Russians were not far away behind... The latter seemed to have room left for progress.

Desert, not only as far as the landscape was concerned...The participation was more than weak: among the major teams only the French were there, the Swiss and Canadian teams as well as the best American teams were missing. Yet 2 American teams were competing, the best one was the rotation team which also competed in sequence and ended 19 pts behind the French who were not at their maximum (lack of motivation? nothing at stake?). As in rotation, the event has changed (2 minute and a half instead of 3) which gave the opportunity for France to establish a new world record with 11 pts.

Since France had intentionally chosen to be absent for preparation and money reasons, the competition came down to a USA-Russia match. The Americans, still at a very good level (they were close to the world record on 2 occasions), beat the Russians who are constantly progressing and one will have to reckon with them in the future. The organisation. A small group, competent and friendly, gathered around Bob Suchor (a figure of the American team who also took part in the competition...), his wife and B. Burke (the technical director of Skydive Arizona) had to fight against the elements (very strong winds and turbulence) and the technical problems (1 Porter broken on landing and another with a burnt turbine). They did manage to run the competition to the end, be it at the cost of repeated stand-byes and of jumps at the last hour of the day.

AIR VIDEO JUDGING

This judging mode, never used before for CReW, was tested during this world cup. The French arrived with the intention of opposing it because they thought it would favour approximate work. However, during the meeting of the representatives of all teams (team captains, delegation heads, judges...), the French point of view was isolated to the point where it is likely that this judging mode will be adopted for future competitions, despite the weight of the triple world champion nation in this kind of negotiation. Anyway one will have to wait until after the next world championships (England, 1998) as required by the FAI with its long setting up time. Finally, after overcoming small difficulties such as transcoding PAL to NTSC, this world cup experiment showed that this method forgives some mistakes but in the same way for everybody and that, under other aspects, it is eventually stricter and more penalising. The " clean working " teams should a priori break even. All the more as the adoption of this system should go with some refinements of the rules (validity of the grips...) which will demand better performances of the judging college. More former competitors and more top level technicians (France showed the way in this domain too with P. Castella), who are surely more able to feel the things from a video realised in the air, will have to be among the judges. Most of all, arguments in favour of air video judging were on the practical side: ground videos are costly and not every country has one, spotting problems, operating conditions (winds, distances, focal lengths, contre-jours), weather problems... To be followed then...

Jump over the Devil's Tower, first natural American national monument. It is a very original emergence from volcanic origin which is a world famous geologic curiosity. This spot was about 80 km from the DZ and fun jumps over it were proposed the day after the closing ceremony. Because of the (memerable) party the night before and because of the cost (rather high as the trip was done in a Porter), only 4 Frenchmen were on the trip. Guess who was "fit" enough and/or passionateÉ

On the way back from the Crew world cup, being in New York City, I could not resist visiting one of the biggest dropzones close to the megapolis: the Blue Sky Ranch. It was just as well I did : it was the day of the annual swooping (1) competition, what a pleasure É Despite the small zone, the runway is only a half mile long (but in macadam because of the swamps), planes (2 otters and a Porter) and people to fill and operate them were present, only fair weather was missing. Indeed Americans, often considered as nice crazy people, respect very strictly the regulations, at least here (because of the vicinity of NY City and its three international airports?) : as soon as the low cloud cover really began to close, the 4000 meters jumps are stopped. 1200 static line, round parachute and swoop jumps took their place. I sat by the pound to watch what one has to call a treat for the eyes. Indeed what some people call a useless and dangerous exercise can be interesting in many ways. On the thirty something participating skydivers (some of them far from mastering the swoop), many got wet but none was even lightly hurt. I think one can even tell that this kind of event has educational virtues. Some "Fortunately he was on water.." or " It makes one think" were heard from the observing skydiving crowd.

So that I wonder if what we have there is not a stupid and risky exercise but a helpful tool against hecatomb due to landing accidents. It could be a lead at the moment when solutions seem so hard to figure. Of course, it would have to be the result of a reflection and will need DZ staffs to be involved. For instance, during the first round at the Ranch, spectators (skydivers or not) were free to go anywhere around the pound. It was obviously a mistake as it was both potentially hazardous for the spectators and bothering the competitors on approach. For the following rounds, the whole audience (whuffo or not..) and even photographers were to stay on a delimited area. Another example : is it safe for a competitor to go for another round when his whole gear (harness and reserve ) has been submerged during the previous jump ! Not to mention this other skydiver (an instructor moreover) who gave a bath to every piece of his equipement, cypres included ! Maybe he did not consider this possibility ? An event to think about anyway, with all the aspects (especially the bad ones) in mind. Anyway, I can tell you that beside the technical and pedagogic interest, everyone remained lucid. The atmosphere was friendly from the beginning of the event to the awards ceremony in the evening. Indeed, there was a fair number of varied trophies for : the winner of course, but also for the author of the best joke, the most original jump (a naked skydiver with a cloak and Satan mask), the most unlucky swooper (he had to use his reserve after a cut-away) and so on. The atmosphere was hot if not torrid and the whole ceremony was punctuated with vociferations, hollerings anf other shouts well known to Americans.

(1) If you want to know what swoop is, watch Antigravity part with Rickster Powell. (2) An old rig, probably form Russia, was used by everybody who wanted to jump it.

Retour au sommaire