2009 Ballunar Festival at NASA JSC

Cool Pics from Nationals

First Point: Results

The last week has been all over the place. I pretty much have spent every day at the DZ for one reason or another, but what an experience it has been. I have tons of pics to share from Nationals, I will post those soon.

The past week has been all about the weather here. Saturday and Sunday were totally weathered out and we got no practice jumps in. Those practice jumps would have been critical for us because we had never jumped before as a group. Monday through Wednesday were completely hit or miss with weather. Monday only saw one round completed. Tuesday we got four rounds. Wednesday we finally finished the last five rounds. All said, the team did really well and totally exceeded my expectations. We averaged just under five points per round and if we were not a guest team with international members, we would have been about twenty second out of thirty some teams. Not bad in my book. I learned a lot and will be able to take a lot of experience away from the event.

This is a pretty unique sport and I suppose that you have to be around it to understand. This event brings the best of the best and everybody is part of the same community. Golfers don't have access to Tiger Woods. Tennis players can't roll up to Pete Sampras. This week I got to meet and hang out with the best of the best including meeting Cheryl Stearns. Awesome.

First Point!

So a bit of a break from the norm for me. A much needed break actually from applications. The USPA Nationals (US Parachute Association) will be at my dropzone this year and I will be competing with a team. It's kinda hard to describe the event but this is where all of the different disciplines in skydiving come together and compete. There is a whole lot more that you can do in the sport than fall and all of the different disciplines are here. I will be competing at the intermediate level in 4 Way formation skydiving. The scale of the event is huge. Teams come from all over the world to compete for fun as well as teams representing their country, The Army Golden Knights for example will compete in 8 Way.

Maybe the best analogy I could give to describe the competition might be comparing the event to a site or event where a single Olympic sport might be held. There are a hundreds of competitors alone as well as judges, planes, the whole nine. From what I have heard, there are over 70 Four Way teams registered and each of those teams makes ten competition jumps. To make that happen, planes will be taking off about every 5 minutes. The whole event to complete all of the disciplines will take two weeks. You do the math.

If anybody out there wants to follow along, you can check out:

Spaceland Blog

USPA Competition Page

My team name is First Point in the Intermediate 4 Way Discipline. There are links for video and scores on the USPA page. We will be practicing Saturday and Sunday and compete Monday and Tuesday. By no means will we be a top team, this is just for fun. Most of the teams train for months and months where we will only have two days. Wish us luck!

Our Own Preening Regard

"What all these angry moments seem to share in common is that 21st-century sense of our aggrieved American entitlement, the bone-deep conviction that every event and circumstance must conform to our individual needs and wants and appetites. That the cockeyed birthright of every generation is now a star-spangled universe bending only in the direction of our personal gratification. That there is no higher calling than our own self-esteem, no greater cause than our own preening regard. That there is nothing we can't say or do in service of our own selfishness and vanity and enrichment, and that the very turning of the Earth is the promise and guarantee of our success."

Jeff MacGregor