Performance Designs will be closing at noon on
Wednesday, December 22 and will not be open
for business until Monday January 3, 2011. We
hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday season
and wonderful new year.
After days of waiting in the smoke filled skies of Kolomna, Russia, the wind has finally changed in our favour and the Canopy Piloting World Meet is in to its second day of competition!
Jumping started on Monday with most competitors getting between one and three practice jumps before they were engulfed by the smoke, making its way from the many fires that are currently plaguing Russia due to temperatures soaring into the high thirties.
An early start on Tuesday looked unlikely to begin with but again the skies cleared around ten o'clock and the competition started with two rounds of distance. With a gusting tail wind, competitors were able to make impressive distances including Christian 'Wuzi' Wagner, Jonathan Tagle and, with a leading 159.77 metres, Greg Windmiller from USA- all were flying Competition Velocities.
After lunch and two re-jump loads, the course was set for speed with crosswind to downwind. Greg put in another good round, trailing a split second behind USA's Curtis Bartholomew with 2.582 seconds. With a few re-jumps and an impending storm, at about 1900 the meet finished for the day.
The only event yet to be run was Zone Accuracy and so that was first up this morning. The loads planned to take off at 0800 but this slipped to about 0830 although we're not sure why. With the lack of training jumps some of the top competitors took some poor scores. The scores show jumpers tied on 84 points for first place in this event.
As the last jumpers were making their turns the thick smoke was rolling back in at a fast pace and we're back on a hold. Competitors are now seeking shelter and walking around with their face masks on. Check out the results here.
Considering the extreme weather conditions here in Kolomna, spirits are high amongst the competitors and everyone is enjoying the sights of scantily clad Russian women!
Reported by: Alastair Macartney & Ceri Lewis
World Meet 2010 is ON!! This year's World Championships of Formation Skydiving, Canopy Formation, and the artistic events are being held in Menzelinsk Russia.
In the 4-way open event, They've finished up 4 round with the USA and French tied for first with 119 points, and Russia and Belgium only 2 points behind at 117. Round 5 is currently underway. Talk about a close competition!!
In 8-way FS, France is leading with two points over the USA after 4 rounds. The Womens 4-way event has finished up three rounds with the French leading the pack with the UK, Germany, and USA chasing.
Vertical Formation Skydiving has finished three rounds and the French are six points ahead of the last years World Cup champions from the USA. These two teams have broken away from the pack with averages of 26 and 24 points in time. Freefly and Freestyle have yet to begin competing.
CF Rotations(4-way)has completed 4 of their 8 rounds. The Russians and the Egyptian team are currently only separated by two points! The two way CF has also completed four rounds. The US team is in the lead with 75 points followed closely by the Australians with 70 and the French rounding out the top three with 63.
Heres a picture Nik Danielcaptured of USA Spaceland Blue during an exit from the LET.
Here's a shot of Denmark's team Voluntas as they pose in front of the PD windblade set up by the main landing area.
There's lots of good competition going on in Russia this week. Good Luck to all those competing from around the world! Score updates can be found here at Omniskore.
The realm of parachute accuracy is one of the oldest and largest skydiving disciplines in the world. Most of the jumpers in this part of our sport are still jumping designs that were created more than 30 years ago, none of which are Performance Designs products.
About three years ago PD began pursuing a new challenge; the traditional accuracy canopy with its very different aerodynamics. We forged into what would be, for us, previously uncharted territory with the assistance of national champion Jimmy Hayhurst, a well known coach and accuracy canopy expert. We also enlisted the assistance of Cheryl Sterns, a world renowned competitor and multiple world champion.
After many different prototypes, numerous test jumps, and countless design improvements we are delighted to introduce the Zero, an innovative and highly capable canopy for the traditional accuracy competitor. The Zero is designed primarily for precision accuracy competition and also accuracy type demonstration jumps.
A few highlights of the Zero:
Links:
Thank you for your continued support,
Performance Designs Inc.
We are pleased to announce the FAA has granted TSO approval for the Optimum reserve parachutes in the larger sizes 160, 176, 193, 218, 235, and 253!
For those customers who have placed orders for these size Optimums, we will begin shipping these existing orders starting Friday May 21, 2010. For those who have been holding off placing their order with their local dealer until this announcement, your time has come! We have all Optimum sizes in stock with lots more being built and placed on our stock shelves each week.
With this news comes the benefit of the Optimum Reserve for heavier and/or more conservative jumpers: the added safety of lower opening forces, more powerful landing flare with greater forgiveness to errors, and the capability of fitting a larger sized reserve in your customer’s container.
You can find more details on the large Optimum on our website. You can also hear John LeBlanc speak about the long awaited release of this canopy here.
We hope you will enjoy this innovative new product as much as we’ve enjoyed bringing it to you. As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact your local authorized PD dealer.
Fay continues to linger. According to CNN Florida is no longer the Sunshine State but the Soggy State. We can't argue that one, CNN speaks the truth.
The weather remains rainy but at least the good news is that Fay is on the move, albeit very slowly. She is making her way across the state and is off to pester our friends in Palatka and the Gainesville area - and we just hope that the damn thing doesn't change it's mind and come back for another round.
The picture is taken a little bit up the road from PD yesterday around noon. It still looks exactly the same.
But on a lighter note, the theme song for today will be Hoppípolla - a great song by Sigur Rós (an Icelandic band). The title of the song literally means "jumping in puddles" which is something Icelandic kids, and now Floridians of all ages, get to do a lot of.
We are back at work!
Young miss Fay can't seem to make up her mind as if to weather she's coming or going. She is taking her sweet time with the state of Florida, traveling slower than a blue-haired grandma going up I-95 during rush hour. We have had plenty of rain and right now seem to be sitting pretty much in the eye of the storm. The afternoon could get interesting.
Freshly back home from World Meet in Maubeuge, just in time for Tropical Storm Fay to drop by Florida. It's still a bit early to say what it will bring to us in central Florida, but hopefully it won't be too bad.
As of now, it is likely that PD will be closed tomorrow (Tuesday August 19th) and possibly the following day as well. That will allow us to hunker down and weather the storm. Thankfully it looks like Fay won't be a very strong storm - the worst part will probably be the copious amounts of rain likely to drench Florida from top to bottom. Please send some dry thoughts our way for the next 48 hrs or so, we will need them!
