#First Blood to Airspeed
Dubai and the world are watching with bated breath to see – not the result but the battle between Airspeed and Hayabusa. Last week they fought indoors for the title of Clash of Champions, where Hayabusa emerged the victors. This time the battleground is the sky, a more comfortable place for Airspeed, who are full time sponsored by Skydive Arizona, and spend most of their training in ‘real’ freefall.
##World Air Games
By now we are used to the familiar site of the curved team tents for the scores of different nations who send teams to compete at the annual DIPC (Dubai International Parachuting Competition) on the Palm dropzone, one of the most scenic in the world, and the only one I know of where the return trip is in a speedboat. This year the game has changed slightly, and skydiving is but one of the sports included in an aerial extravaganza, the World Air Games (WAG), only the fourth time this event has taken place. The first edition was in Turkey in 1997, then Spain (2001) then Italy (2009).
WAG features over 850 athletes from 11 different air sports and 24 disciplines. This is exciting because we get to watch and share in other aviation activities, bringing a new buzz to the Palm. Some of these are truly spectacular!
The downsides are that the skydiving elements have been reduced in size, to a maximum of ten nations in each discipline, and also that more activities have to take place at the inland Racecourse dropzone to keep the air space clear above the Palm. Canopy Piloting, the biggest crowdpleaser and the lowest exit altitude competition in skydiving, is still at the Palm, together with Accuracy. The FS and artistic events are housed at the Racecourse DZ, together with Canopy Formations, which has always used this DZ, though they used to take off from the Palm. Now the take-off area is the Farm, a 20-40 minute bus ride from the racecourse depending on traffic and the efficiency or otherwise of the driver. The view from freefall is still beautiful, you can see the Palm in the distance plus the jaw-dropping skyline of Dubai’s skyscrapers.
The final and perhaps the semi final are to be held over the Palm, this will add some adrenalin to the mix as for many of the people this will be their first jump in this location, which means exiting over the sea and landing on the narrow strip of land forming the circumference of the Palm.
##Competition Begins
###4-way
So, the FS practice jump and the first two competition dives took place on Sunday 6 December. In 4-way, we knew it would be close and the first round confirmed it. With a not-especially fast draw of B, C, 17, 4, both teams scored a clean 29 – wow, this is going to be epic! You can see Airspeed and Hayabusa relish the feeling of competing each other, no-one else in the world is a threat so no other team can push them to exceed their very best. The next round (N, 19, 4) Airspeed drew the first blood, with 27 points to Hayabusa’s 26, no busts to either team.
They are already 10 points clear of Russia, with 46 then France (44), Canada and Qatar (43) and UAE on 41. These teams will battle it out for bronze, although Qatar cannot take a medal, they are competing as a guest team, as they did not qualify in the top ten at the last year’s World Championships in Prostejov. UAE did spectacularly well to score a 21 and a 20, helped no doubt by super-sub Eliana, who replaced team member Abdulrahman, who did the practice jump but was clearly ill with flu so he was sat down. Eliana has not jumped or flown in the tunnel for a year, as she has back issues and is trying to recover. She is now in pain from the jumps but as a fighter she would go into battle for her team regardless – also saying the skydive was fun!
Further down the field Great Britain’s cameraman had a poor exit on round 2 and missed the first few points for Vision, giving a disappointing score.
##4-way Female
There is an upset in the ladies competition, where the Golden Knights 4 were clearly favourite at the starting blocks, having beaten the French female team convincingly the last two times they met, in Prague during September and, more recently, at the Clash of Champions. This looks as though it could be a battle of similar commotion to Airspeed/Hayabusa! they drew on the first round, with 25 points, then the French girls squeezed ahead on round 2, with 22 points to GK4’s 21. The Golden Knights had one bust so they are moving at the same pace. They were close to busting twice in round 1, with 2 out of 5 judges giving infringements for two of the points.
In equal third are Canada and UK, on 35 points. Canada lost a savage 3 points to busts on the first round – ouch! That just have hurt, especially as only 3 judges out of 5 bust them on each occasion. Notably, if there were to be a common competition with no gender division, the French ladies would be in third, with GK4 ladies team tied with Russia in 4th, and the French open team in 6th.
##Grounded
On Monday 7 December, high winds prevented jumping. The management put up a lift of canopy piloting, on fast canopies to test the conditions, which were found turbulent and unfriendly. Skydiving has been called for the day and competitors are finding other amusements to distract them from the tensions of the next round (13, 14, F). There are a couple of fast dives in the meet; round 4, which is 6, E, O, L and round 9, which is 21, K, G, Q. This meet is going to be a crusade, with bloodshed on all sides to decide the final champions!
