Collegiate parachutists from around the nation started the New Year with a bang, setting an astonishing 23 U.S. national and Arizona state collegiate records at the 2011 USPA National Collegiate Parachute Championships. The annual competition enjoyed glorious weather, a string of five perfect skydiving days with light winds, sunny skies and mid-70s temperatures, allowing the meet to finish on New Year’s Day, one day ahead of schedule.

Perhaps inspired by the weather, competitors from 16 universities broke or tied every record on the collegiate books. In team accuracy, Air Force Academy’s Lawn Darts set a new collegiate record of 0.65m, breaking the old standard by four centimeters—despite landing on the newly adopted, smaller 2cm dead-center target. In individual accuracy, Kurt Yeager of West Point and Shawn Johnson from the Air Force Academy scored a 0.17m four-round total to set new Arizona and U.S. National collegiate competition records. In sport accuracy, Sam Prescott from Annapolis smashed the previous best mark of 7.89m with a perfect score of 0.00 for four rounds—another collegiate record.

In 4-way formation skydiving, Air Force Legacy twice came tantalizingly close to breaking the collegiate record of 34 points (set by Virginia Tech at the 2009 Collegiates in Texas) but never could quite get that 35th point in time, settling for the new Arizona state collegiate 4-way record. Meanwhile in the 2-way FS event, two teams—Brandon Devereaux and Robin Marshall from Georgia Tech, and brothers Andre and Joseph Gerner from UCLA and Embry-Riddle—scored 16 points on a single round to set new collegiate and Arizona state 2-way FS records. In 2-way vertical formation skydiving, Air Force Inception, fresh off a gold-medal performance at the open national championships, blasted the existing 18-point mark with a fabulous 27-point single-round performance to set state and national records in 2-way VFS.

Competition concluded on Sunday, New Year’s Day, with the always-popular (nine teams entered) FS 6-way speed event, and once again the standing mark of 11.8 seconds went down, this time to Air Force Be With You, who put together a 6-way formation in 9.62 seconds—another Arizona state and national collegiate record. Not to be outdone on the record front, Sandusky’s Future Leaders of Tomorrow asked the judges if they could forgo the speed star on their final round and attempt to break the current 3-way VFS largest formation collegiate record. The judges assented, and the team—Kevin Drivas, Nathaniel Olson, Matthew Leonard, Daniel Schiermeyer, Cameron Haley and Thomas Eucker—built a solid 6-way head-down formation to set the new collegiate VFS large-formation record.

And so concluded what will go down in history as one of the most successful championships in over a half century of NCPC competition. But it wasn’t quite over yet: with a free day and another perfect forecast, on Monday a group of 40 collegiate skydivers went after the collegiate large-formation sequential record, and eventually put together a 3-point 32-way to set one final state and national collegiate record—a fitting capstone to the greatest record bonanza in NCPC history.

For complete final 2011 NCPC, scores go to OmniSkore! or check out the files below:

2-way FS
4-way FS Advanced
4-way FS Open
6-way FS Speed
2-way VFS
Classic Accuracy Intermediate
Classic Accuracy Masters
Classic Accuracy Team
Sport Accuracy Novice
Sport Accuracy Intermediate
Sport Accuracy Masters

Eighty-eight collegians from 16 universities converged on Skydive Arizona to launch an assault on the collegiate record book while enjoying a respite from the grind of studies and the icy grip of winter. The collegiate competitors were rewarded on all counts: enjoying sunny skies and afternoon temperatures in the low-70s while they steamrollered the record book, setting five new state and national accuracy records—and that was only in the first event of the meet, classic accuracy.

In classic team accuracy, Air Force Lawn Darts (jumping on the new 2 cm dead-center electronic score pad) bested the old record, 0.69 m for three rounds (set on a 3 cm pad) with a 0.65 m total, setting new Arizona state and national collegiate records while winning the event over a field of five teams. Two competitors—Kurt Yeager in intermediate and Shawn Johnson in masters class—had identical 0.17 m for four-round totals to share new Arizona and national collegiate competition (best score for four rounds) records while winning their respective classes. In addition, Yeager briefly held a new performance record with a (now rare) dead-center followed by a 7 cm mark, only to see intermediate competitor Andrew Lopez score a dead-center in his fourth round, and follow it with a 5 cm strike to capture the collegiate performance record, state and national.

In sport accuracy, with three out of four rounds complete, three competitors—Sam Prescott in the intermediate class, Brett Jack and Ryan Schorer in the masters class—have scored an amazing three consecutive dead-centers, breaking the previous performance record of two consecutive dead-centers and threatening to smash the current sport accuracy competition mark of 7.89 m for four jumps.

Today’s competition begins with the final round of sport accuracy (plus possible jump-offs), followed by the start of 2- and 4-way sequential formation skydiving (FS). Six teams are registered in the 2-way event, and 10 teams will compete in the 4-way advanced and open events. Meet Director Bryan Burke expects to finish the sport accuracy and all six rounds of FS today, and tomorrow begin the 2-way VFS and 6-way speed competition. A superb weather forecast that extends into the New Year promises an early finish to the meet, scheduled to run through Monday.

Update: Sam Prescott, a prior service enlisted Marine now enrolled a third-year cadet at the US Naval Academy, scored his fourth consecutive dead center this morning to set two national collegiate records, one a national collegiate performance record of four consecutive dead-centers, the second a national collegiate competition record, a perfect 0.00m total for four rounds of sport accuracy.

For complete final scores and round-by-round results of today’s action, go to OmniSkore!

USAFA cadet Shawn Johnson and USMA cadet Skyler MacKay landing on the accuracy tuffet. Photos by Mike McGowan.

 

The 3rd Dubai International Parachuting Championships and Gulf Cup, arguably now the most glamorous international skydiving competition in the world and without question boasting the most lucrative cash prizes in skydiving history, is officially a wrap. The last morning of competition provided excitement in men’s individual accuracy with a five-way tie for first place with 0.07m after 10 rounds. In the jump-off, the local favorite, UAE’s Rashed Ahmed Al Gaith suffered a heartbreaking 0.16m landing, leaving him in fifth place. Just out of the money in fourth place was Jie Feng of China. Taking the bronze and $4,000 was Jindrick Vedmock of the Czech Republic. Also of the Czech Republic, Tabor Hynek took the silver and $6,000. Winning the jump-off and taking home the gold and $10,000 was Dmitry Maximov of Russia.

In women’s action, with the same prize money, Yan Cao finished 10 rounds of accuracy with 0.10m to win the gold. Just behind her and tied with 0.11m were Ning Wei of China and Olga Lepezina of Russia. Lepezina won the jump-off to take the silver, and Wei took home the bronze. In a hard charge in the last rounds was Cheryl Stearns, who ended up just out of the money in fifth place with a fine 0.13m total.

In open (mixed male/female teams allowed) team accuracy competition, it was a nail-biting close finish, with the Czech Republic team taking home the gold medal and $40,000 with a 0.24m total after eight rounds of team competition, just one tiny centimeter better than China and Italy, who tied with 0.25m. China won the silver by tie-break rules to take home $30,000, Italy the bronze and $20,000. Forty teams competed in open accuracy. In women’s team accuracy, eight teams vied for the same cash prizes. China took home the gold and $40,000 with a 0.29m finish, ahead of China’s second team with 0.35m and Belarus with 0.44m.

In canopy piloting, high winds foiled any hopes of completing the final rounds of speed and distance, leaving the standings where they had been for several days. In distance, Canada’s Jason Moledzki won the gold medal and $10,000. USA’s Jonathan Tagle took the silver and $6,000, and jumping for UAE, Marat Leiras took the bronze medal and $4,000. With similar prize money, the USA’s Thomas Dellibac won the gold in speed, ahead of teammate Greg Windmiller who took the silver medal. Moledzki won the bronze. The only CP event with all three rounds completed was zone accuracy. As reported earlier, the USA had a clean sweep in the event, with Curt Bartholomew in first, Nick Batsch in second, and Ian Bobo in third. There was no prize money awarded in CP overall, but most competitors consider those rankings the true measure of excellence. Placing first overall was Bartholomew, ahead of Batsch in second, Moledzki third, Bobo fourth and the UAE’s Billy Sharman fifth.

Medals and prizes for the formation skydiving and canopy formation events, previously reported, were also handed out at the awards ceremony Friday evening, capped by the now-traditional gala banquet that is a feast for both the eyes and stomach. With the meet over, already skydivers around the world are thinking about next year, when Dubai will host the all-events “Mondial” World Championships, which promises to be the grandest skydiving competition in history.

Check out skydivedubai.ae for full scores.

Video below courtesy of The PD Blog

The canopy piloting zone accuracy event finished Thursday afternoon at the 3rd Dubai International Parachuting Championship, with members of the U.S. Team sweeping the medals. Curt Bartholomew (who led from start to finish) took the gold, while Nick Batsch and Ian Bobo moved up in the final round to take the silver and bronze.

In addition, the last rounds of the canopy formation events completed Thursday, as well. Russian teams took first in 2-way sequential and 4-way rotation, while France took first in 4-way sequential. The U.S. teams tied for fifth in 2-way sequential and won the bronze in 4-way rotation.

In classic accuracy action, American Jimmy Drummond advanced into the semi-final rounds of open accuracy but dropped 5 centimeters, ending any chance of making it into the finals.

Click here for complete results. Two rounds of canopy piloting (one each of speed and distance) and the final rounds of team and individual accuracy remain for Friday. An awards ceremony for completed events will be held Thursday evening (Dubai time), around noon Eastern Standard Time. Check back later for pictures from the awards ceremony.*

*The awards ceremony scheduled for today has been cancelled in favor of a combined ceremony tomorrow.

	Country	Name	Total Points
1	USA	Curtis Bartholomew	271.824
2	USA	Nicholas Batsch	259.801
3	USA	Ian Bobo	250.318

Formation Skydiving wrapped up yesterday with the USA’s teams placing third and fourth:

	Country	Team	Total Points
1	FRA	419 FRA National	205
2	BEL	417 Hayabusa	197
3	USA	410 USA II	174
4	USA	418 USA National	165

In CP action, with 6 of 9 rounds complete, the US held top spots in most events. Curtis Bartholomew, Nick Batsch, Jonathan Tagle and Greg Windmiller hold first, third, fourth and fifth overall, with Canada’s Jason Moledzki in second. Bartholomew is standing first in zone accuracy, Jonathan Tagle second in CP distance, and Thomas Delibac holds the lead in speed. New results after today’s action should be posted soon.

In classic accuracy, the US Team is hanging in there against a very strong field, 15th out of 40 teams after 7 of 8 rounds. Jimmy Drummond leads US competitors individually with a fine 0.08m total after seven rounds, putting him 19th out of 195 competitors. Rick Kuhns is the next best US competitor, with a 0.13m total, putting him 54th. Mounting a charge with dead-centers in round six and seventh, Cheryl Stearns has 0.11m, moving her up to 11th among the ladies.

For detailed results, click here.