The PD Blog

Prize Purse Doubled for 3rd DIPC & Gulf Cup

We've returned to PD headquarters in Deland after an amazing USPA Nationals and no sooner do we have our bags unpacked... but we're packing up again for the next trip! Later this month we'll be on site at the 3rd Dubai International Parachuting Championships & Gulf Cup bringing you all the inside info, scores, video and photo's from the UAE.

The glitz and glamour of this year’s competition will bring out over 650 participants from 46 different countries next month to this event being held at Skydive Dubai. But on top of the amazing hospitality that Dubai shows, and the challenge of going heads up with top international competition in each respective field, the prize purse this time around is nothing to shake a stick at. The DIPC announced this week that they would be doubling the prize purse.  A whopping $775,00 will be divided up between the top spots in each category. That makes this the largest skydiving prize purse that we’ve ever seen.

Competition begins on December 1st and continues through December 9th. Keep your eyes on the PD Blog , Facebook, Vimeo, and Youtube pages for all the up to date info as the excitement unfolds.  

If you want to get ready for what's in store, feel free to check out some of the footage from the  2nd Dubai Championships on our Youtube page.

 

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

Nationals Are Heating Up!

This year's US Nationals has proven to be a very exciting event, as expected. After the Classic Accuracy event concluded with a team victory by Skydive Ricks and their PD Zeros along with new national records in individual men's and women's accuracy by Jimmy Hayhurst and Cheryl Sterns (Jimmy scored a total of 12 centimeters and Cheryl scored 16 centimeters over 10 rounds on their Zeros), it was time for the 4-way FS competition to begin. 

65 teams in total entered the competition - 30 Intermediate, 19 Advanced, and 16 Open. First takeoff was Monday morning at 7am and the planes didn't stop until all 65 teams had completed 7 rounds of competition in the Arizona sun. 

The Intermediate class ended the day with close scores at the top. T-Minus:01 currently leads the pack with an average of 12.29 followed closely by Fo' Shizzle with a 12.00 and Dallas Khaos XP one point behind them with an average of 11.86. Tomorrow we'll get to see if Khaos can close the gap for 2nd and if T-Minus:01 can hold onto their top spot.

The Advanced division also has a tight battle taking place leading into the last three rounds. Qatar Tigers, a guest team, are currently in the lead with a 13.17 average whle Perris Air Rush follow a mere two points behind with a 12.83 average after round 7. Third place has a tie at the moment between Spaceland Lite and Fallout, both with an average of 12.33. With scores that close, Tuesday is bound to be an exciting day.

The Open class also saw its fair share of close scores today as all eyes were on Arizona Airspeed, SDC Rhythm XP, Perris Fury, and the Golden Knights Gold going into round 7. So far, Airspeed has tied or beaten every team in every round and currently sits on top of the leaderboard with a 22.29 average! After round 6, Rhythm and Fury were tied for 2nd place but then in round 7, Rhythm came out on top with a 19 to Fury's 15 to give them a bit of breathing room. Unfortunately for them, the Golden Knights Gold team also rocked a 19 in round 7 and put themselves just one point off the silver medal spot going into round 8. The Golden Knights F4 team also posted up some high scores today with an average of 16.57 after round 7, making them the top female 4-way team in this event. Being an 'On-Year' for the US Team selection, the pressure is on for Tuesday's three remaining rounds and we'll be sure to post updates as soon as we can.

Check back soon for updates and scores and be sure to check the PD Facebook page for quick updates on the fly. Updated scores can also be found at Omniskore's website.

USPA Nationals 2011

USPA Nationals 2011 hosted by Skydive Arizona

PD has been busy setting up and gearing up for all the competitors to arrive and get settled in. So far the top VFS teams are in the house, and Arizona Airspeed is taking a few days off before their final training camp, the French CRW team are filling the skies with their PD Storm canopies.

Jumpers participating in the first part of the USPA Nationals have been seeing how many pennies they are losing and how well their tucks and turns are the day before Classic Style and Accuracy Landing kicks off at 6:45am tomorrow.

This year marks an "on year" for all competitors looking to represent the US in the World Meet to be held in Dubai in 2012.

As always Performance Designs attends the USPA Nationals to support those who come out and compete, be it the top-level teams and individuals or the fun pick up teams looking to put their best up against the rest. This year is no different, PD has set up a video debrief room next to the gear store with 4 TV's and a charging station so teams can relax in the AC, watch their dives and get ready for the next round. We look forward to seeing you all in there.

Keep up to date on daily "tid bits" via our PD Facebook page, and don't forget to check out the awesome photo gallery with pics by our PD Reps and none other than PD Sponsored Athlete Niklas Daniel. Scores and more can be found on the OmniSkore website.

2011 USPA Canopy Piloting Nationals Scores

 

We'll do our best to keep you all up to date on all the scores from this years CP Nationals.  All scores listed are unofficial.

Final scores:

Download OPEN_RESULTS

Download OPEN_Summary

Download ADV_RESULTS

Download ADV_SUMMARY

2011 USPA World and US National Records 

 

2011 Canadian Nationals Score Page

Scores listed below are from the 2011 CSPA Nationals at Edmonton Skydive Centre July 16-24.  We'll do our best to update these at least once per day. All scores are unofficial

Canopy Piloting (final)

Classic Accuracy(final)

Formation Skydiving OPEN(final)

Formation Skydiving SENIOR(final)

Formation Skydiving FEMALE(final)

Style(final)

Vertical Formation Skydiving(final)

Canopy Formation(final)

Team Accuracy(final)

Sport Accuracy(final)

Freefly(final)

8-Way(final)

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. 

 

 

PD's Big Boy Pants 2011: World record breaking event

 
 
 This year the Florida Canopy Pilots Association(FLCPA) has put together a pretty interesting event, and much to our surprise, it won't be held Florida.  The top pilots from around the world have been invited to gather at Mile-Hi Skydiving Center in Longmont, CO during the last few days in July.  Their goal is breaking the established World, European, and National records of as many countries as are in attendance.  These swoopers are putting on their Big Boy Pants and swinging for the fences...so here at PD we've put on our Big Boy Pants as well.  We're coughing up $4,000 in prize $$.  If you want some of our loot, get out there and lets see what you've got! 

Can you speed through 70 meters in less than 2.093 seconds?

Can you and your canopy cover 181.70 meters in distance?

You can find more info on the event here.

 

 

Arizona Skyhawks night & swoop demo

Earlier this month the Arizona Skyhawks  performed an evening demo jump and hosted a small swoop exibition at the Salt River Field Sports Complex in Scottsdale Arizona.  The Skyhawks canopy of choice for their challenging night jumps is the Spectre 230.  The skydiving demonstration showed our sport to those in attendance for the baloon glow, kids games, and vendors who were open through the afternoon into the evenings.  Here's a few photo's captured during the afternoon's events.

Jim Cowan shows off his swooping skills with his Velocity 103: 

Kiki Leblond Delk sets up the course for the swoop demo: 

 

Nik Daniel show off his canopy piloting skills:

 
Photo's courteys of Frank Burch

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...