However, conspiracy, stolen medals, the unfairness and intolerance of a small community with non evolving convictions cannot always be used as excuses by losers. The issue has always been the same for years: the judges in the video truck are often national associations ì^apparatchiks^î, who did not received any advanced specific instruction, who did not train.
They will listen to some, scribble the scores of others, feel the pulse and the mood of the main favourites, with the religion of the last world champion always there. This ends up with a range of scores given in advance during the last training sessions.
I had negative feelings on these competitions that are not real competitions, organised under the aegis of the FAI, this old dinosaur with rules and judgements coming from the protohistory of skydiving, at a time when 2 other organisations for professional competitions appeared, just as for boxing. I changed my mind because a draw between the best skysurfers alive is way to make justice. Thus, the game is always different for each event, according to who you are ì^pal^î with.
The game in Portugal was limited to a banal confrontation between Europeans in the absence of the best skysurfers in the world because of foolish rules: exit Troy Hartman, 25 years old and retired, and, most of all, exit the gifted Sean Mac Cormak, creator of the "freefly the board" concept and representing Perris Valley. Furrer for Eloy, Klaus for Elsinore and several couples for Titusville were present. With the inflation of the financial stakes came a sponsoring era which benefits the best Europeans but which also sometimes infiltrates juries. This suits todayís judges, skysurfing is a kind of game of chance wherein the responsibility of determining who was right or wrong is left to the gods.
If only the FAI skysurfing competitions could only remain a lottery one gets a ticket to, but the point is that one has to be checked into oneís own association in order to be invited. It was all the more a truncated game in Evora that the confrontation between the best skysurfers was tough and nothing really decided between the best 4 technicians of the moment among the 17 competing teams.
Thus the wheel of fortune has turned for Oliver Furrer who tried to get back on his feet, after the glory in Turkey (1997 World Air Games) where he had become world champion with many skysurfers not there. He has neither the class nor the charisma of Rob Harris or Deug who were there before him and whose smashed trajectories have escaped our earthling sights.
As for his ì^free surf^î concept, everything comes from the incomparable Sean Mac Cormak who stirred up the discipline and from the obvious contribution of Knut Krecker. Gold changed into silver for the Swiss, laughs into tears, glory into doubt, he did not lose the gold medal, he won the silver. And he has no congratulations to offer the winner, he does not want to imagine that he has already started to pass the baton.
Valery Rozov, 33, won the bronze. This good climber, who took up skydiving late, has followed an unusual path. The Russian stands for a certain refined beauty of skysurfing, he has a long-limbed, light and powerful body and major artistic gestural qualities. However having no imagination, Valery has always contented himself with the reproduction of what others do. He was for a long time Bob Greinerís ì^clone^î, he does not care for innovation since his style was sufficient to win this yearís X Games, partly thanks to the veteran Clif Burch who had already won everything with Bob.
Without Clif and his famous 720 degrees barrel-rolls and inverted flight,
Valery chose to represent the Moscow club, for ì^political^î reasons, and
to jump with Oleg Kniajev who filmed him in the most academic style which
is restricted but efficient in what one can now call the ì^classic^î way,
that is without incorporating freefly elements to the skysurfing.
Stefan is the youngster climbing up the ladder. He already was a 22
year old vice world champion last year in Turkey where he admitted he had
deceived the judges for his first appearance in an international competition,
his real value at this time being at the fourth or fifth rank. He makes
no mental mistakes, he is very brutal but gives a certain impression of
strength, only Klaus can go so far into such a disorder.
Christian Schmid, his videoman, was not a technical paragon because of a lack of training and competition. Last year, with Oliver, we had got used to his catching everything, he always had the ideal position in the air and this year he made some mistakes, in particular on receptions, giving the impression there had to be a still picture somewhere. It is too bad because, had he been more fluid, he would have channelled Stefanís jumps. Instead he gave the impression that he was sometimes lost in the skies, just because of an imperfect symbiosis. This is the worst feeling one can bring into the images, as if coming out of a spin dryer for sensations!
For this competition, I just got rid as fast as possible of the burden represented by the FAI compulsory rounds, totally outdated and without interest, and this could have cost me the victory. For the free rounds, I wanted to show that I was still to be counted with by making most of my jumps head-down. I also reversed the forecast with style, I believe, putting in my jumps a lot of technical difficulties and combinations aimed at getting esteem from the tribe. An act of bravado to the judges who had never before recognised me with this style, one can also wonder about the seriousness of a discipline in which one can be a champion at 39...! According to me, the best skysurfer in the world was not there, he is American, his name is Sean Mac Cormak and he does not travel for such an... event!!
As for the other two French teams, they were not able to get off their boards. Paul Coque denotes so much, an anti-look being still a kind of look, that he could only lament about his scores! Be that as it may, he was to be credited for coming and finishing before some national teams who would not be selected for a regional championship!
Marc Groleauís scores in the compulsory rounds are in the top teams range. Of course, he was behind the professionals during the free rounds but there is no need to worry about the future of this promising youngster. The same goes for his cameraman, Steeve. This team shows that their respective passions, for the surf and for the video, are not artificial. Just by seeing the spark in their eyes when they talk about it, one understands that this discipline is more than a hobby, more than a passion, a profession of faith.
Ranking 7th is the most French of the Belgians, Cédric Dumont, who has the difficult task of making forget Marc Sluzny. Cédric has improved in every field and he has the delicacy to jump with the best French videoman, who took up the challenge of filming skysurfing at a momentís notice: Sylvain Turina, a former member of the French 8-way team, who can film in every position. As a concrete result, there are only another 6 teams to beat; in the meantime, I recommend the Babylon freefly school for your holidays in Ampuria (Spain)!
Tanya Garcia, ranking second on her broom, only cares for free rounds. From the top of her 5 feet, she is the perfect incarnation of the American system which deserts FAI competitions and her dream is reduced to a silver around her neck. Before that, Tanya had been through her free routines bearing a Hollywood-like smile, long and smooth just like a TV ad. She thought of adjusting the position of her hands for twisted loops and did not forget to put back her tiny body between two moves. Her skysurfing style is totally American.
Judith Graile from Germany is third, partly thanks to Christian Schmid, again, and she achieved a technical transfer from her freestyle abilities which are already high since she finished fourth in the latter discipline.
It seems to me that this podium reflected reality. One should keep in mind Marta Ferreira (4th place), a pure nipper with size 4 shoes on her board, with her reserves, her modesty and her inner grace. Marta, with her flashing smile and a Lolita look in her eyes, a sleeping beauty still a bit indolent, lived a fairy tale for teenagers. She had come as a tourist to the world championships in Turkey last year, her grace was non-existent, her jumps were skimpy and her pirouettes looked like a pocket-size spinning top. She has been transformed by a fairy Carabossa named Bob Greiner who took her to Titusville, it took not only a magic wand stroke but also 300 jumps.
There was nothing certain in this star war between Nico and Omar but Nicolas was such a provocative opponent and had the perfect weapon: the quadruple twist loop. However, technical superiority alone is not enough against a contender as talented and experienced as Omar. Since his first steps in 94, Omar has almost always been on the first step of the podium of the freestyle world championships, he is not only an excellent freeflyer. Omarís mixture of styles is explosive!
The 98 Nicolas added motion and artistic expression to the perilous adventure of the 3 rotations in the loop that he already mastered in 97. Many to celebrated his victory, Omar himself to begin with, good loser despite this crime of lèse-majesté. Playing as usual the card of seduction, of nonconformism, not to mention his attachment to patriotic values with the association with Claude in a totally French team, Nico did not let a deserved medal slip away.
"Omar killed me" and the others with his competence and his coolness: he came with a bit of training and doubled his jumps filming skysurfing in an impressive manner, this man can do everything! Omar showed that he was omnipresent and unavoidable. A prince when winning, he was a king in defeat, this is the true fair-play, sportsmanship is not only for victories. Omar is an artist, we discovered that in space, first in his speed range but also in the explosive side of his moves with always a smooth end, the magic of his jumps and the pleasure illusion.
Co-founder of the ì^free flight^î, Omar showed (if needed) that it has been a long time since he was only Olav Zipserís foil, when one would always try to associate the two. Omarís style longs for purity, there is an obvious will to dazzle, to impress, to accumulate. He would have needed a flawless Greg Gasson who lacked training since his personal technique his good. Last year, Greg had brought out and modernised Dale Stuart, he can nevertheless be proud to be there with the masters of the video, among his kind.
Finishing 4th, Boaz Goren from Israel presents perfect points in the compulsory rounds but lacks variation in the free rounds.
Thus following the example of the team attractively called ì^Inverted^î, the communicative joy of Karin Shwab from Switzerland, beaming in the air and even more when discovering her scores, and the magic of the first place. This will remain as one of the precious moments of the worldcup, moment that she shared with Karsten Dieck, her German partner for 3 years. She has built her world, very close from Lewis Carollís, and after this victory, new for her, she could say: ì^It reminded me of angels, clouds and the feeling of flying^î.
She just had been high with aerial notes: 18/20 for the artistic impression. Surely, some will say that Dale still has not been equalled, that a six team competition is not serious. It lacks credibility but she is the best. She is so relaxed in the air, purity of the moves and harmony of the body, her work is essentially focused on the artistic part, and she knows how to subtly play on the whole seduction scale.
Behind her came a very young and very supple Italian, already a former member of the national gymnastics team: Simona Minardi is one of the products regularly offered only by the country of the reared up horse. She phrases rather than jumps, this is not very fluid, a lack of technique with only 600 jumps, she ì^freestyled^î making us forget that there is an artistic part in freestyle, but also in keeping with a reality called performance, technique, speed, energy, phenomenon...
Warning: the English translations in this text may not all be correct.
Thanks for your comprehension and please address any comment to me Jean-Francois
RIPOCHE.
