Dave Herbert shows off his best Lazyboy.

Yes, the Princess of the Pond is back. A total of 44 skydivers registered for this year's Pond Swooping Meet at the Ranch Parachute Club in Gardiner, New York, August 20-22.

The meet included two rounds of carving, two of in-lane swooping, one freestyle, one round of kicking targets placed across the water, a free-expression round and, finally, the infamous raft round, where swoopers try to land on a raft floating in the middle of the pond. Getting a chance to swoop the Ranch's pond for a shot at $10,000 in cash prizes kept a big toothy grin on every competitor's face.

Jeff Provenzano performs a Blindman on his way to first place.

During the freestyle round, Jason Eames surprised everyone by completing the Wingover Ghostrider. Andy Farrington of Team Xaos expressed himself by releasing his controls, drawing toy revolvers from his pockets and shooting other competitors during his swoop. Shannon Pilcher executed the first quadruple move ever seen in competition. He performed a Lazyboy, Ghostrider, Superman and Switchblade in that order, leaving the audience in awe. Mr. "That's Impossible," Clint Clawson, performed a Blindman (rotating 180 degrees in the harness) and landed it—backward!

The raft round served as the finale of the meet. Jonathan Tagle edged past Farrington into second, thanks to the 30 points he earned on the raft. Dave Hebert, Peter Biro and Cliff Harris also scored 30 out of 50 points on the raft. Patrick Heaney managed an impressively dry landing on the raft, netting himself the highest score for that round—40 points.

Finally came time to hand out the money. Farrington took third and $2,000. Tagle finished in second, pocketing $3,000 in cash. And Jeff Provenzano earned first place and $5,000. And competitors walked away already planning next year's attacks on the Princess of the Pond.

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