The PD Blog

USPA Nationals 2011 Wrap Up

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:

Nationals Album 1

Nationals Album 2

Podium Photos

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

AXIS goes to M.O.A.B.

Brianne Thompson and Niklas Daniel of AXIS Flight School arrived with the Skydive Arizona otter in MOAB to help organize during the 8th annual Mother Of All Boogies. Over the course of four days, jumpers from all over flocked to the beautiful dropzone to enjoy the great scenery, friendly people, and make some awesome jumps. We had an awesome time jumping and organizing at this boogie and would like to thank everyone who attended!

 

 

In addition, AXIS was able to take part in some of the off-site jumps, such as MOAB Airpark and  Castle Valley in order to take pictures. Please visit Nik's Blog to view more images.

And for all you freeflyers out there, here is some GoPro footage from an interesting jump we did with some tunnel instructors from SVCO (Skyventure Colorado).

 

AXIS would like to thank Skydive Moab for hosting this great event, and is looking forward to attening next year!

CarolinaFest 2011

During the first weekend of June in Chester, SC, Skydive Carolina held their annual CarolinaFest Boogie.  Over the past several years it's been building as one of the best boogies on the East Coast.  This year did not disappoint.  With more organizers than ever, Team's Turbo XP, Scarecrow and individual organizers, Amy Chmelecki, Melanie Curtis, Melissa Nelson, Pepe Rodrigues, Ryan Risberg, Simon Bones and Joe Freeman, everyone always had someone to jump with and a fun jump at that!  I had my work cut out for me to try and cover all of the event.

During my jumps there, I was asked by Greg at UPT to come up and film an intentional cutaway on a SkyHook equiped Vector!  I had never seen one up close and personal before.  It was amazing how quick that beautiful PD Reserve inflated to full flight!  If you haven't seen one or tried it yet, I highly advise giving it a shot the next time you're at a boogie and UPT is there.  I was also lucky enough to witness an actual cutaway and see the beautiful Optimum Reserve show it's true colors!

Overall the Boogie was a blast!  If you'd like to see the Entire Gallery of my work from the event please click the link.  Looking forward to next year and more PD Reserves and Optimums in action doing what they were designed to do!

-Brian Buckland

Arizona Vertical Challenge

 

Photographer Niklas Daniel captured these images during the Arizona Vertical Challenge.

This annual invitational event is led by VFS team AZ Arsenal and brings some of the most talented freeflyers from around the world to Skydive Arizona. Participants built large and complex formations with multiple points. 

 

 

March Madness Freefly Sequentials

Luis Prinetto and Scott (Plamer) Palmer hosted a weekend of Head Up / Head Down freefly formations during Skydive Sebastian's March Madness week in mid March, 2011.  Over 30 freefliers showed up to fill the planes and attempt to build some challenging formations.   

Over the weekend the group flew multiple twin otter formaion loads.  The largest built was a mixed Head Up / Head Down formation with 29 freefliers.  

PD Photographer Brian Buckland captured these shots and more over the course of the weekend.  If you'd like to see the entire gallery, please visit his events website.

Arizona Airspeed 2011 Valentines Meet Video

For all you four way enthusiast out there, here's some footage of Arizona Airspeed ripping through the points at this years Valentines meet at Skydive Arizona. Enjoy, if your eyes can keep up...

 

Whats going on at PIA 2011

We know you been waiting to see what PD has been up to at PIA 2011. This year we headed out to Reno with something new and something orange, the PD booth was filled with education videos, Q&A and the newly launched PD Zero Accuracy Canopy along with the PD Optimum Reserve.

VASST has been hitting up all the vendors at PIA 2011 and getting the scoop on what is new, interesting and fun. Here is the interview they did with PD Vice President John Le Blanc 

 

   

 

More VASST video can be seen here

Third Annual Mountain State Boogie

The Third Annual Mountain State Boogie hosted by SkyVenture Colorado went off without a hitch! PD was there supporting, educating and enjoying a great time! Nick Grillet held a seminar on canopy flight and Sponsored Atheletes Brian Buckland held a photography seminar while Melanie Curtis shut the tunnel down so everyone could attend her life coaching talk.  FREE tunnel time was handed out and even more cheap time was sold to all who attended. Looking forward to next year!

Best of all was Russell Moran.  He was the lucky winner of a FREE PD Canopy of his choice!  Congrats Russell!

For a Full Gallery of shots by Brian Buckland please take a peak here!  Enjoy!

New Arizona Women's State Record

by Brianne Thompson

Set back in 1978, the previous record was a 20-way. It may not sound like much, however, when you consider the fact that several of the ladies had less than 300 jumps, and a large number have never done anything bigger than a 4 way- 27 seems quiet impressive. Eliana Rodriguez (Arizona Airspeed), Sara Curtis (Arizona Arsenal) and Brianne Thompson (AXIS Flight School/ AZTC) organized the Women’s Arizona State Record. 

 

It was such a fun record because of the varying levels of experience. Besides the organizers, there were seasoned big-way jumpers and even a few Women’s Headdown Record holders!  It was a great mix of belly flyers and freefliers that made this record attempt happen. It was only going to be a 22 way. After a practice day of successful 15-way skydives, the organizers thought they would have to scramble to fill all the slots. But when registration was over on day 2, it turned out to be a 27-way! Bring it!

Day 2

Jump 1: This first attempt was so close. The closing grip happened as the first person began to track off. It was so close to building; everyone figured the champagne would pour by the next jump.

Jump 2: The ladies had slight fall rate issues. The types of issues that happen when the participants want something so badly, that they try to do dramatic changes in order to make the formation work. At around seven thousand feet, there was a slight funnel from just outside the base.

Jump 3: The jumpers refused to have their confidence or their spirits dampened. While taxiing, the ladies in the lead Skyvan performed their own rendition of “We Will Rock You” and the ever-popular crowd-pleasing Wave. This time, most of the formation built, but unfortunately, some of the divers just simply failed to put the breaks on soon enough and went a little low- unable to get back in the formation before break off.

Jump 4: Using minor slot changes on the outside of the formation, the formation went up for jump 4. The last attempt at the record- the sunset load, so to speak. The formation exited and it didn’t just build- they owned that formation! The 27 way held for 15 seconds before break off. Even in the air, all the women knew the record was built! Smiles could be seen across the entire formation, as the women knew they set a new state record!

After the judging to make sure it was official, the women came together to watch their jump on the big screen, where shortly after, the Champagne was popped and the celebration began. But, what made it so awesome were the attitudes and the mix of experience levels and disciplines. This record happened because of the teamwork and enthusiasm from the all of the participants.

Congratulations to all the awesome ladies that contributed to the new Arizona State Record! Let’s try to shatter it again next year!

 

 

All images and video by Niklas Daniel.

 

PD Winter Tour Stops

Your season may be winding down up north….but our season down here in Florida is just beginning!  Old Man Winter may be bringing your local northern DZ snow and freezing temperatures, but the winter season is the boogie season down here where the oranges grow and the alligators out number the local residents.

Don’t store away your gear just yet…. there are plenty of exciting boogies down here in Florida this winter with turbine aircraft, after hours parties and most importantly (from our perspective!) plenty of Performance Designs canopies for you to demo during the events.  The PD Tour is in full swing this winter, and not just here in Florida, we are attending events across the southern U.S. states from December 2010 through March 2011 to give winter boogie attendees the chance to fly the latest and greatest from our product line.  Have you seen the new 7 cell Storm or the new low bulk 9 cell Pulse out there in the field yet?  Now’s your chance to not only see these canopies and ask questions about them, but fly them too.  Have you flown the Optimum reserve yet?  It opens and flies so great that people actually want to jump it as their main!  The entire PD product line will be available at our winter tour stop events.  Whether you want to demo a Sabre 2 or a Velocity, we’ve got you covered.

Click here for the US Tour Calendar. 

A sample of the US events we are planning to attend this winter season are:

12/16/10 - 12/21/10
The Annual Christmas Boogie at ZHills

12/26/10 - 1/1/11
Skydive Sebastian’s Annual Invasion 2010-2011

12/27/10 - 1/3/11
Skydive Arizona’s Holiday Boogie

12/28/10 – 1/1/11
Collegiate National Skydiving Championships at Skydive Arizona

1/20/11 – 1/23/11
The Great White North Boogie at ZHills

1/27/11 – 1/30/11
The Evereglades Boogie at Air Adventures Clewiston

If you don’t get what you want for the holidays, stop by the Performance Designs demo canopy tent at one of our events.  Even if it’s only for the day, at least you can pretend you got what you wanted for the holidays by flying your favorite PD canopy at your boogie.