2nd Worldcup / 1st European Championships Freestyle Skydiving & Skysurfing 1998 Portugal
This competition was held in Évora, Portugal, September 19 through 27.
Aircraft were two Twin Otters. Registration was as follows:
| Worldcup | EC |
|---|
| Freestyle Skydiving, male | 7 teams | 6 countries | 7 teams | 4 teams |
| Freestyle Skydiving, female | 7 teams | 6 countries | 7 teams | 7 teams |
total
| 14 teams | 9 countries | |
|---|
| Skysurfing, male | 17 teams | 13 countries | 17 teams | 16 teams |
| Skysurfing, female | 7 teams | 7 countries | 7 teams | 5 teams |
| total | 24 teams | 14 countries | |
|---|
* note: the countries in the international teams are included in the totals.
These countries were (with number of teams in brackets): Austria (5), Belgium (1), Denmark (1), France (4), Germany (2), Hungary (1), Israel (3), Italy (1), Lithuania (1), Netherlands (2), Portugal (2), Russia (4), Sweden (1), Switzerland (4), Sweden (1), USA (4). There was one international team.
Unfortunately, the weather ranged from sunny to partially cloudy to very
bad with rain. Two full days were lost due to showers or heave clouds,
especially in the afternoon. Temperatures ranged between 25-30 C on sunny
days and between 15-20 degrees on rainy days. Due to the bad weather the
events could only be completed to round 8 in the female events and to round
9 in the male events.
The facilities for teams to train on site before the competition proved to
be sufficient. All teams could make all the training jumps they wanted.
Jumping took place at a large dropzone on a small regional airport. There
were two landing sites. In between there were tents, one tent per nation.
Each tent was provided with power supply. A large hangar had been erected in
1998 and contained the following rooms: judging room. (with printer),
training judging room, dubbing room, jury room, FAI control room,
Registration / FFPq room., (finances / photocopies / computer / printers) A
storage room was provided by the organiser for competitors to leave
parachuting equipment. TV viewing: three monitors were placed in a separate
hanger and during competition one large screen was added. Later a monitor
was placed near the dubbing station in order to show dubbed jumps to
interested people. Freestyle/skysurf and formation skydiving jumps were
shown together after some infrastructure problems: Ted Wagners DZ TV system
could only handle one signal from the (formation skydiving) judging panel; a
separate direct signal from the Pegasus system was established to show jumps
to competitors.
Staff and judges were lodged in one hotel. Competitors were spread over four
other hotels with most concentrated in one hotel. Quality of the hotels was
two stars or more. Initial problems with lodging for some teams. Double
occupancy was reached for all competitors. Some countries had to move to
another hotel for one night during the competition.
A large tent was erected for lunch catering for competitors and staff. The
quality of the food (lunch boxes) was very good. Bottled water was
distributed to the competitors and staff every day free of charge A small
bar was present for coffee and snacks which was very good. Dinner was served
at the respective hotels. The food was adequate but in one hotel monotonous.
Dubbing facilities: one BETACAM system was available. All competition jumps
were dubbed on separate BETACAM tapes for the different events. Only one
BETACAM system on site proved to result in very long waiting times for
freefall videographers. Organisers in the future need to have at least two
dubbing stations. This is especially true when running the formation
skydiving events in conjunction with freestyle skydiving and skysurfing.
No live judging was utilised based on a decision between the organiser and
the Subcommittee during the 1998 IPC meeting.
Judging was done by the "Pegasus" electronic scoring system provided by Ted
Wagner. This system which was first used in World Games 1997 in Finland,
worked excellent and is a great help speeding up the collation process. If
possible, there should be one system for each judging panel. One judging
room equipped with monitors, VCR and computer, was available for the
training judge course.
Copies of the competition jumps were made available to competitors for 4.500
or 5.300 escudos per cassette.
In general the competitors and staff were happy with the competition and I
express my thanks to the Portuguese organisers on behalf of them all.
Proposals for changes to competition rules 1999
The Committee is currently reviewing input from competitors and judges of
proposals for changes to the competition rules. This proposals should reach
the Committee (see below) by november 1st, 1998. After reviewing the
proposals the Committee will send its final proposals to the FAI/IPC for
distribution. Proposals will be dealt with at the IPC plenary in Dubrovnik,
Croatia, February 10-14, 1999.
Report Open Meeting Committee 1998, Évora, Portugal
IPC Future
This subject was addressed by IPC president Claude Gillard. He stated that
FAI and IPC needs media coverage in order to reach Olympic status and public
acceptance. He expressed that parachuting in general and freestyle skydiving
& skysurfing in particular are already in the forefront of the media
attention. Skydiving should have competition rules which accommodate media
attraction, ease judging and stimulate innovation.
Format
Some discussion about the present format. The number of rounds could be
reduced from the year 2000 onwards. A suggestion was made to raise the
minimum program from 5 to 6 jumps.
The balance between difficulty/execution (sport) and artistic/camerawork
(media) in the present rules is 50-50. The question was if this should be
shifted to a higher ratio for media in order to comply with IPC policy. No
agreement was reached however.
One competitor suggested more viewings per jump as there are four difficult
criteria to be judged. This would however slow down judging considerably.
Discussion if freestyle skydiving and skysurfing should have the same format
of rules. This needs not be the case but is not likely to happen before
2000.
Difficulty
Discussion point with many competitors and judges contributing. Competitors
expressed dissatisfaction about the very late distribution of the addendum
C, difficulty. The Committee excused itself for this. Further
dissatisfaction with the system itself not giving the credit it should give.
Decision was made to change it for difficulty accounting during all jump,
not just the 5 most difficult moves. Also, consensus was reached to
discontinue a difficulty table with moves but work with general guidelines.
These guidelines could include groups of moves. The guidelines should be put
up by the Committee with the help of as much competitors as possible with
the help of electronic media. A deadline for input was set at October 15,
1998. After this, a judging session should take place with the new changes
implemented to find out weather they are workable. After this, guidelines
should be open to change during the calender year in order to implement
changes deemed necessary because of new freestyle/skysurf moves. Finally, a
general meeting will be held before the start of the judges meeting for the
1999 WPC in Australia between judges and competitors for the rating of
difficulty of new moves.
Judging
Concern was expressed by competitors that judges were not qualified enough
to judge their performance adequately. They also expressed that scores were
compressed following the initial difficulty score per jump. This issue can
only be solved by more judge training.
The organiser (FPPq) expressed concern on the number of judges because of
the cost constraints.
Practical issues
- DZ TV of Ted Wagner could only handle one signal and in the beginning
preference was given to FS jumps. A direct link between Pegasus electronic
scoring system and the monitor in the hangar showed only the judged jumps.
Competitors want to see jumps continuously. This can be arranged with a loop
video tape. A possible solution with two DZ TV systems is unlikely because
of costs.
- Dubbing resulted in long waiting times. This must be solved having two or
more dubbing stations. The quality of the present dubbing however is
excellent.
- FAI should establish a web site for forum discussion on development of the
disciplines.
Ronald Overdijk
Other members/advisers Subcommittee :
Phillipe Baldewijns (Belgium)
Avi Saba (Israel)
Roger Flinn (UK)
Markus Willi (Switzerland)
Ray Williams (Australia)
Jorge Derviche (Brasil)
