Windoor, Empuriabrava has been selected to host a 2WD and 4WD Dynamic Flying Competition at the imminent Extreme Barcelona sports event on 27 and 28th June 2014. It is a huge honour and responsibility to be chosen to represent the sport and an enormous effort has been underway to create a professional competition that will be exciting for the general public.
Skydiving Non Spectator Friendly
Over the years, various skydiving disciplines have tried and ultimately failed to break into the spectator sport industry. It has been difficult to understand why the public has not embraced skydiving in the same way that it has other, much less visually appealing sports. At the World Meet in Turkey in 1997, Eurosport; a European Sports TV company, made a huge effort to present the sport in a new and exciting format. They used a third camera angle following skydivers from a helicopter to give the speed sensation missing from the normal camera perspective used for judging. They also did daily interviews with key competitors to bring in the human angle. Whilst moderately successful, it didn´t launch the sport and Eurosport did not repeat the exercise.
One of the reasons that TV companies tend to shy away from skydiving is that it is a weather-dependent sport, and that can play havoc with program scheduling which is unattractive to advertisers. A tunnel competition is not bound by weather issues, and is much more appealing to tv networks.
One of the most successful skydiving disciplines for the public was skysurfing, which attracted big company sponsorships and the opportunity to compete on the prestigious XGames circuit, with the accompanying national television coverage. Unfortunately, skysurfing has not been a competitive discipline for several years and skydiving has been out of the limelight for some time.
Enter Dynamic Flying!
On the 27 and 28 June 2014, this event will be premiered in the Forum in Barcelona to 20,000 people at LKXA Extreme Barcelona. It will also be shown on National Television. Last year’s event was known by the more familiar name; The XGames, with the same organizers. (For more information please check out Extreme Barcelona). It will be a fantastic opportunity for Dynamic Flying to be showcased to the general public and for a surge of interest in tunnel flying and skydiving in general. Windoor has worked hard to create the opportunity and the pressure is on to put together an exciting event that will generate positive feedback. Part of the challenge is to present and explain a technically difficult discipline in terms that the average non-skydiver can understand as well as translate that into 3 languages; English, Catalan and Spanish!
Why Windoor?
Partly a case of being in the right place at the right time, and partly due to the fact that at the Wind Games 2WD 2014, Windoor created the first ever successful 2 Way Dynamic event. The images from this event proved so potent that they caught the interest of the Extreme Barcelona organizers. Initially, they only wanted to repeat this competition, but Windoor lobbied hard for a 4WD event to be included. As part of its commitment to promoting the sport, Windoor will be sponsoring all of the registrations for the 4Way Dynamic competition to encourage teams to enter. An event of this stature coming so close on the tail of the Wind Games has been unexpected and has created a huge amount of extra work and unexpected expense, however it is an opportunity that could not be missed. The goal for this year is for the feedback to be so positive that Dynamic Flying will be headlining next years’ event.
At Windoor, the dynamic flying community is very strong and includes a lot of the top flyers in the world, including Rafa Schwaiger, Filip Crnjakovic, Raph Coudray, Cathy Bouette and Gregor Van Den Eynden. Our Windoor home team came second at the Knights of Prague 4Way competition, won the 2WD at the Wind Games, and one of the team members, Windoor instructor, Rafa Schwaiger also placed 1st in the 4WD at CharleWars. We have also been incredibly fortunate to have had the expert advice and input from Adam Mattacola, one of the originators of the routines, rules and competitions of Dynamic flying, and who helped organize the Wind Games 2WD. He will be in charge of the technical side of the Extreme Barcelona event.
Eyes of the World
The eyes of the world will be on Windoor at the end of this month. There is a big responsibility to create the best competition not only for the competitors and our skydiving community, but also for extreme sports fans. For that, Windoor needs the support of the entire dynamic and skydiving community, and we would ask for your best wishes and positive thoughts for a hugely successful event.
Windoor will be sponsoring all of the registrations for the 4Way Dynamic competition to encourage teams to enter.
Watch the Live Stream
If you are a dynamic team, please come and compete and help us to create the most exciting event possible. If you are a skydiver, you can follow us online via our live feed and send us your photos and feedback.
Live Broadcast
Here on skydivemag.com
CEST Local time Fri 27 June, 16:00 – 20.30
Estimated start time of competition: 17:00
EDT Live Stream: 10:00 – 14:30 – comp starts 11:00
PDT Live Stream: 07:00 – 11:30 – comp starts 08:00
CEST Local time Sat 28 June, 15:00 – 20:30
Estimated start times CEST: 15:30 quarter & semi finals,18:30 finals
EDT Live Stream: 09:00 – 14:30 – finals 12:30
PDT Live Stream: 06:00 – 11:30 – finals 09:30
Live International TV will broadcast
Saturday 28 June
CEST 18:30 – 19:15
EDT 12:30 – 13:15
PDT 09:30 – 10:15
All times subject to such last-minute changes as Extreme Barcelona and TV companies may request
2WD & 4WD – For information on rules, regulations and registration plus fantastic videos explaining all the moves go to the Windoor website
For XGames info, see Extreme Barcelona
