The IPC Committee Freestyle Skydiving & Skysurfing had it’s year working on the 2nd WPC in Corowa, Australia. The Committee is in it’s fifth year of existence now. Here under you will find a list of the activities.

Proposed changes to the competition rules 1998 were discussed and accepted at the IPC General Meeting 1999 in Dubrovnik, Croatia. The Committee is still spending a lot of it’s time working on the competition rules. The aim for next years should be stabilising the competition rules and focusing on media attention. This is especially the case considering the 2nd WAG in Spain 2001 and the World Games in Japan 2001. The judging element still needs continuous attention. The input from competitors is high, due to the use of electronic mail. and the FAI discussion board.

The competition rules for 2nd WAG / 3rd WPC freestyle skydiving & skysurfing have to be finalised November 200 latest. This effectively means that the 2000 competition rules can only be altered before the IPC 2001 meeting in San Diego, USA. The Committee is trying to find a solution for this situation.

In may 1999 FAI established an electronic discussion board at the FAI website under board.fai.org. This further enhances communication between the Committee and the competitors.

The 2nd World Parachuting Championships were organised by the Australian NAC (APF) in Corowa, Australia, October 20 through 30. Entries were high: freestyle male with 12, freestyle female with 11, skysurfing male with 19 and skysurfing female with 8 teams. This means that total skysurfing entries (27) were higher than formation skydiving. The organiser worked hard on this competition and should receive credit for this. However, some problem arose during competition because of preparation and communication problems. The media coverage locally was very high and global media coverage of the event is expected because of the TWI contract with FAI.

The Committee, in line with the internal regulations, conducted an open meeting after the competition with competitors and the judges. The Committee discussed several topics. Most suggestions and complaints were judging related. The report with decisions can be found separately in the report of the Open Meeting 1999. I signal a problem with these open meetings however. During the competition this tends to distract competitors from their competition and after the competition competitors tend to drift away from the dropzone. This however can not easily be resolved. In addition to this, an open meeting was held before the competition to present the judging panels, judging procedures and expectations. This helped clarify some points and as such this meetings should be continued in the future.

The Committee at present is aware of bids from Turkey, Brazil, Russia and possibly, USA. All bids will be thoroughly examined by the Committee in order to choose the best bid. Between time of writing and the IPC 2000 meeting the Committee, in conjunction with the formation skydiving Committee shall be in close contact with the four NAC’s in order to get the most information. Recommendations to the next plenary will be made.

The 3rd WPC of Freestyle Skydiving & Skysurfing 1999 will be held in Granada, Spain, during the 2nd WAG. A special web site has been constructed for this WPC and further information is available at FAI website.

My appreciation goes to the members and advisers of the Subcommittee Freestyle Skydiving & Skysurfing for their time and work. Members are Markus Willi (Switzerland), Phillipe Baldewijns (Belgium) and Avi Saba (Israel), advisers are Roger Flinn (UK), Ray Williams (Australia) and Jorge Derviche (Brazil). I hope to continue working in the future.

The Hague, November 4, 1999.
Ronald Overdijk
Chairman IPC Committee Freestyle Skydiving, Skysurfing & Freeflying