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:
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
