On June 11-13th, 2015 FlyStation windtunnel in St Petersburg, Russia, turned the wind up for the most passionate flyers from all over the world. Seven 4-way teams and fourteen 2-ways came to the northern capital of Russia to compete in White Nights Dynamic wind tunnel tournament.
Following a creative burst, sparked by a group of flying individuals around the world, D4W organization was born to develop and promote the D4W and D2W disciplines, best described as a competition where flyers express themselves creatively and artistically. The first competition organized by D4W.net, the Battle of Bottrop, was held in Bottrop, Germany in December 2012. White Nights was the 6th tournament of this concept.
In the White Nights tournament in FlyStation, the teams competed in Speed rounds where speed and precision of flying in predetermined moves and lines are judged, and Free rounds, where the participants demonstrated their flying skills and creativity in performing choreographic routines of the own design. The competition is set up in a battle format where the winning team moves forward to fight for the podium.
#Competition
For three summer days FlyStation windtunnel was turned into the glowing arena, beautifully decorated to celebrate the art of body flying. Following the first official training day, when all the teams were awarded extra tunnel time from FlyStation, the “pools” part of the game was held on 12th of June: all the teams competed within their randomly drawn groups, determining the battling pairs for the first round of the tournament. On 13th of June – the day of the tournament – the competition video was streamed live, offering bi-lingual broadcast featuring athlete profiles, event analysis and competition highlights. The English-speaking commentary team included the D4W.net crew lead figure Domi Kiger (JoyRiders) and British comedienne Amy Howerska. Two flyers from Moscow, Aleksii Chechetkin (Paradise freefly) and radio presenter Vladimir Nabokoff, were commenting for the Russian-speaking audience.
#Judging
Thomas Vitureau and David Petracco (member of the winning team of Charlewars competition in 2014) presented the newest version of the electronic judging system for the event. The panel of judges included flyers with considerable competition experience: Fabian Ramseyer (member of the winning teams of Battle of Bottrop (2012), WWXP (2014)), Keith Grealy (SouthernFly), Dave Reader (Skywalkers) and Joel Strickland (Varial FreeFly).
#D2W Results
Team “Bottrop” — Filip Crnjakovic (32, RS/CH) and Martin Kristensen (38, DK/viking) representing Indoor Skydiving Bottrop tunnel and supported by Boogieman, Skyhelmetsand One Call won the Dynamic 2-way discipline and flew the fastest speed round. Their flawlessly executed winning free routine featured “Crossing Front Layout 360 to Pentacross” entrance sequence, “flying as one” part, ultra-close full speed passes and elements such as Triple Cross with Half Breaker, Head Up Crossing FilipFlip to Crossing Real Breaker, crossing window washers, crossing 360’s. The Hurricane Factory 2Way took the second place. Team Dynamight has won the battle for the third step of the podium, taking over team Aerokart Paris in the exciting tiebreaker round.
#D4W Results
The D4W winner trophy was taken home by the Mad Ravens: Martin Dedek (24, CZ), Vaclav Dedek (25, CZ), Radek Meduna (32, CZ) and Ivan Farbak (27, SK). Flying together since 2012 and supported by Boogieman, Hurricane Factory, L&B, Tunneltime, the team entered the competition for the first time, winning the first place over the competitions veteran team Hurricane Factory 4-way. The winners say they tried three different routines during their training, before creating the one presented. The routine included various elements such as Skywalkers inspired head up candle into the half back flip, an “oversynchronized” breaker, window washer passing and a move called “69” by Radek, that, as the team admits, did not have a full appreciation by the members of the team in the beginning, but they all “smashed it” in the competition. Inflight Dubai Skynamic, who presented a piece, with many choreographed visual effects, super-synchronized moves, and multileveled shufflers took the third place in the D4W battle.
#White Nights
The competition name ”White Nights” comes from the endless nights of the northern hemisphere’s summer. St. Petersburg has received a very poetic and literary acclaim about it, as no other major European city can rival the experience nor the atmosphere of the on the streets, canals and riverbanks during the summer months – lively, friendly, romantic and bustling with people throughout the night as well as the day! After the competition FlyStation
windtunnel hosted a celebration party on a boat for all the participants and guests to enjoy the views of historical downtown, cruising down the Neva river.
#Commentary
Domi Kiger, commentator and energetic organiser/coodinator of the competition had this to say, “Wow. What a competition! It’s been a really cool experience for me to be commentating, and The D4W crew is insanely stoked about the past few days. We hope you enjoyed the show!
“This year’s next competitions will be the first FAI indoor world championships in Prague in October, and Inflight Dubai’s Clash of Champions in November. And we might already have some insane plan for next year… Stay tuned!!
“This year is also gonna see the reunification of all dynamic concept and pools, so we can move into the future together and stronger. The future of dynamic is looking bright guys :)”
#More info
The livestream videos, photos and the full ranking chart for all the teams of White Nights tournament as well as the info about the upcoming events in FlyStation can be found on the Flystation website
The D4W crew is working on the next competitions, follow D4W on Facebook and check the D4W website to find out about the upcoming events.
