patworks 5 #1 February 20, 2010 Freestyle in 1963 -- The first non-accuracy + non-style National Competition was in the US at the PCA Nationals in 1963. It was an individual free form event. Competitors wrote out the solo routines they intended to perform. Judging was from the ground. Ground judges used telemeters, powerful tripod mounted binoculars, to rank the performances. Points were deducted for any deviation from the stated routine. A few degrees off-heading, over rotation on front loops or back loops knocked you out of the running. Most parachutists’ complicated recipes cost them dearly. The winner did a very slow, very precise figure-eight. Related to me by my friend Tee Taylor Crump Brydon 1963 USA Women’s Parachute team. Tee and I jumped in Texas and served as editors for the Texas Parachute Council's newsletter WindLine '62-'63. The TPC was the model for what evolved into USPA Conferences.Pat Works nee Madden Travis Works, Jr .B1575, C1798, D1813, Star Crest Solo#1, USPA#189, Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Niki1 1 #2 February 20, 2010 California Relative Workers were doing some kind of "freeform" stuff in the mid '60s. They didn't call it free style. They called it Funnels. Clearly the judges didn't reward difficulty as much as they might have. If they had, the difficult would've gotten more precise pretty quickly. Might have change their future, our history. Most of the things worth doing in the world had been declared impossilbe before they were done. Louis D Brandeis Where are we going and why are we in this basket? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites