Taz

Good questions. I put a little bit of the rationale behind the two rule changes in my presentation to the USPA Comp Committee, which is still online here. There were two substantive and clear criticisms of the judging system the way we were using it. 1. The margin of error is too high 2. The grid has unlimited scalability For #1, this was a simple change of putting into the rulebook what we had tried to practice during our 6 months of implementation; having every flier 100% within their assigned flying space (grid square). The previous rule allowed a flier to have only a part of their body inside the space, which led to a very messy "worst case scenario". For #2, we needed to find a way to put a constraint on the ratio of the flier to the grid square. This problem is mostly found in small formations; i.e. you could have a 4-way where the people were tiny dots in relatively huge grid squares. Height is being used because it is easily measurable (vs. area). Height is defined as "from head to foot". The percentage is of a corner-to-corner measurement of the allowable flying space (the grid is composed of overlapping squares, each of which comprises an allowable flying space). My original proposal was to use 25% as a constraint, which fit the largest record formation (68-way) and was originally suggested by a wingsuit jumper in Georgia. The 27% arose in a negotiation/conversation between Zach Schroedel (Buried), Andreea Olea (SuperGirl), Phil Peggs (Peggs82), and me at the USPA meeting. It tightens up the worst case scenario even more. It is still based on formations we have accomplished in the last year, but also encourages us to get even better. We use the base for scaling because the base sets the correct altitude for the formation. So far, no judging system can account for vertical movement within a formation. A person other than the base could, technically, be high or low on the formation, skewing the perspective of their height from the camera's point of view. Does this mean that it would be beneficial to get a relatively tall person as base vs. a relatively short person? Sure. It's not a perfect system. But hopefully we will keep getting inspired to develop better ways of doing things. Blue Skies, -T It's the Year of the Dragon.

I am tweeting from the meeting at www.twitter.com/tayaweiss Anyone can follow. The presentation I plan to make about wingsuit records is online now: http://post.ly/OhQ1 I'm not the most prolific DZ.com poster, especially in the past few months. But if anyone wants my perspective or has questions about what I believe, anything related to the US National Record, my role as an IPC Wingsuit Working Group adviser, or anything else, send me a PM or email me, taya@raisethesky.org. I'll send you my phone number and we can talk. Blue Skies, -T

For anyone who is interested in wingsuit records, there is now information and an FAQ

Both short (5:42) and long (13:33) event videos from the US National Wingsuit Record are online, both on www.facebook.com/raisethesky and www.raisethesky.org. You can download two versions of the long video here. The shorter video (that has been on the front page of our site) is now here. Thanks to Phil Peggs for the awesome video editing! And thanks to everyone who participated, once again. For anyone who wants to keep up to date on what Raise the Sky is doing, subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on facebook and twitter. Here's a link to the latest 2010 newsletter. It's the Year of the Dragon.

And another... http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2731838/Flys-the-limit-for-daredevil-team.html It's the Year of the Dragon.

Oh yes. Another amazing moment: when Lurch's name got drawn to win a free custom TonySuit. We also gave away two 50% coupons for an Argus, a 25% off coupon from Aerodyne and Scotty Burns, two copies of Matt Hoover's wingsuit photography book, a weekend of FREE jumping at Lodi with Team Ill Vision courtesy of WestCoast Wingsuits, and prints from videographers Scotty Burns, Matt Hoover, Craig O'Brien, and Mark Harris. I'll let someone else tell the story of how the party Thursday ended with a disappearing keg... It's the Year of the Dragon.

Congratulations to a great team for coming together and setting a record - and raising both money and awareness for a good cause. The photo of the completed 68-way record is online at www.raisethesky.org. We're compiling media links to share. Here are a few from the preliminary list: CBS: "Wingsuit Flyers Trying to Break Record" http://cbs2.com/tv/Lake.Elsinore.wingsuit.2.1297594.html CBS embedded video: http://cbs2.com/video/?id=118841@kcbs.dayport.com The Press-Enterprise: "Wingsuit fliers attempting world record in Lake Elsinore" http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_E_wingsuit06.47b3235.html The record holders are: Ralph Armstrong Avery Badenhop Brian Barnhart Riaan Bergh Rolf Brombach Paul Cain Elana Cain Brian Caldwell Scott Callantine Troy Church Damien Dykman Jhonathan Florez Alex Frey Kenneth Gajda David Gershfeld Silvestri Giovanni Robert Gray Steve Harrington Cate Heneghan Jimmy Hopper Sean Horton Richard Hough Shinichi Ito John Kallend Mark Krasinski Mette, Hogaard Kristensen Martin Libelt Benjamin Lowe Ryan Maher Sergey Makeev Marko Makela Dan Mayer Randy McCoy Francis Mobley Michal Motykiewicz Jeff Nebelkopf Sergey Nikulin Andreea Olea Alexander Osipov Justin Pabis Tero Paukku Ed Pawlowski Philip Peggs Craig Poxon Raider Ramstad Simon Repton Joe Rodriguez David Royer Valery Rozov Cliff Ryder Dennis Sattler Patrick Schraufnagel Alexey Shatilov Justin Shorb Irina Sinitsina Benny Skovhede Brian Snarr Kristin Sosso Jochen Stier Stephen Such Michael Swanson Michael Swearingen Jonathan Tagle Andrei Volkov Alexander von Scheidt Taya Weiss Bo Wienberg Duncan Wright Articles about the event will be in January's Parachutist; next issue of the BPA mag; and 90Percent. I can't say enough good things about the people who came out to fly this formation. The people who visited us from City Year had a great time and nothing but positive feedback about the amazing energy. Thanks to all for making this not just a record, but a meaningful event beyond our small community. For anyone who wasn't there, to learn more about it check out the Raise the Sky website. We raised more than $5000 to help underserved kids in Los Angeles stay in school It's the Year of the Dragon.

Hi Kelli, I've sent you a private message with my phone number. Please give me a call. Thanks, -Taya It's the Year of the Dragon.

Steve's memorial service will be held next Saturday, Nov. 21st at 11:00 AM. Wellesley Congregational Church 2 Central St. Wellesley, MA The church is right in the center of town and a reception will follow. Edited to add: Adam is planning an ash dive at Skydive Pepperell in Massachusetts in the spring, when the weather thaws. Everyone will be welcome. It's the Year of the Dragon.

Steve was one of my first wingsuiting friends in the US after I moved back from South Africa. Relentlessly positive, meticulous, smiling, hilarious at times, I was privileged to know him both on and off the dropzone. After meeting his husband Adam, I looked forward not just to many more years of flying with Steve and seeing his grin at the dropzone - but also to sharing more fun times on the ground. Adam is in medical school and was studying for exams this week while we made our Wingsuit Formation record attempts at Lake Elsinore to raise money for City Year. One of our taglines was "If we can fly, you can graduate!" Steve took a photo of the banner and sent it to Adam to make him laugh. At our last team debrief, I announced to the group that Steve's family had made a sizable donation to City Year through Raise the Sky, to support Steve's jumps for charity. Everyone applauded. I had told him many times throughout this year that in starting Raise the Sky and organizing a wingsuit record for a cause, I just wanted to get him to come out and participate. He requested a slot at the front left of the formation, flying behind me. He got it. I will treasure those jumps for the rest of my life. During the week Steve asked me to text Adam and thank him for letting Steve come out and participate in the record. I did. I never thought I would be calling back with such heart wrenching news not long later. Adam has asked that people please email photos of Steve to him at adamawright@gmail.com. Having lost a partner myself, my soul aches for what Adam, and Steve's entire family, is going through now. If those who knew Steve can take the time to write something about him and send their photos, it would mean lot to them. "Blue Skies. This sport glows brightly, and burns incomparably beautiful images into our memories. That brightness comes at a very high cost. It's the lives of our friends, the blood and the bones of our sky family. That's the dark side, the Black Death. There is no one without the other." -Eric "tonto" Stephenson -T A memorial service is being planned for next week in Boston. I will update here when I have the details. It's the Year of the Dragon.

I had one of the most amazing experiences in my skydiving and wingsuiting life yesterday. Some Raise the Sky and Wingsuit Bigway people - me, Phil Peggs, Simon Repton, Eli Bolotin, and Jeff Nebelkopf - went to see a City Year Los Angeles elementary school as part of our awareness raising around the dropout problem in the US. We went to film City Year volunteers tutoring kids, interview people in the program, etc. but ended up talking a lot about wingsuits, why we do what we do, what it feels like to fly, and how we overcome fear to behave like flying squirrels. Kids ask the best questions, and have the biggest dreams. I realized that I had never even imagined what it would feel like to hear a 9 year old say, "I want to fly a wingsuit when I grow up!" It changed my whole perspective, getting to see it all from the point of view of a kid from South LA who lives 2 miles from the beach but has never seen the ocean. We are so lucky. Gotta get some sleep before jumping tomorrow... I think I can manage five hours or so! -T PS There are some photos on our blog. It's the Year of the Dragon.

Things are coming together really well. We have 75 registered participants, all of whom will be given a slot to fly this weekend while we warm up in four individual teams. Everyone has been qualified by a Team Captain according to our skills checklist (if anyone is curious and hasn't seen it, it's available for pdf download at www.raisethesky.org/wingsuit). USPA Judges are lined up for Wednesday and Thursday. We had a great meeting at City Year yesterday, and they are coordinating a national twitter campaign with us at all their offices (will keep you guys posted on this). Some of their volunteers are coming out to be with us next week, and I think at least one is going to do a tandem jump to wish us luck. There has been a good amount of press and TV interest after all of our press releases went out in the last few days, and we are also coordinating with both local and national City Year communication teams. I got a call from NBC yesterday and it seems they might run some of our footage next week. That press release is on the front page of www.raisethesky.org for anyone interested. We'll keep updating everyone on what's up, and our press releases and media alerts will be on the site. Today five of us are going to visit an elementary school in South LA to meet some City Year volunteers and kids and shoot footage to show all the participants and put into our event video. They really loved the idea that "If we can fly, you can graduate", and I think it will be fun. In the meantime, participants are starting to arrive at Elsinore, the weather is beautiful, and I'm getting excited! Free coffee starts Sunday morning It's the Year of the Dragon.

Hi - Mark Harris arrived tonight too, so both Phil and Mark will be on hand for organizing loads. I'll be in and out all week, getting stuff ready for participants' arrival The official event blog launches Friday on www.raisethesky.org and we will be constantly updating our twitter and facebook pages, www.twitter.com/raisethesky and www.facebook.com/raisethesky. We've got lots of press interest in the record, so look out for media at the event, including a Japanese television show filming participant Shinichi Ito throughout the week. Eli Bolotin, a Raise the Sky board member, skydiver, and novice wingsuiter, will be running ground crew, helping out press and spectators, and putting out fires throughout the event. He arrives at Elsinore on Thursday night and will be your best friend if you need anything from Advil to random advice or emergency errands. He also happens to be trained as an EMT (Emergency Medical Technician), which we hope we won't need but doesn't suck to have around just in case. The Casino hotel is now fully booked (a team briefing has gone out to participants with more info) but there are still plenty of places to stay for others who want to come say hi and cheer us on. The USPA judging is lined up and everyone is getting really excited. It's going to be great. On Thursday afternoon some of us are going to an elementary school in South LA to see and film the work that City Year is doing - and meet the kids who will benefit from our charitable donation and the attention we're bringing to City Year's tutoring and mentoring work (www.cityyear.org/losangeles). Our event video will feature footage from the school, and hopefully a message of encouragement from lots of our jumpers. Many kids in the Los Angeles schools are at risk of dropping out and worse. What we're doing seems impossible to most people, just as graduating and succeeding in life seems impossible to some of these kids. We're going to inspire them by setting a record, and that to me is one of the most exciting things about this event

PS - I am cutting and pasting here from my initial posting that started this thread, just so we don't start misinterpreting the rules by page 4 of the thread (emphasis added): *** Proposed amendment to Section 12 of the Skydiver’s Competition Manual 11 July 2009 Taya Weiss USPA Board Meeting, Dallas 12-3.2 General E. Records are categorized as follows: Add: 21. Wingsuit formation skydiving, largest formation a. Definition: A minimum of 4 Wingsuit fliers in proximate formation, without grips b. Completion is judged using a scalable grid of adjacent red and black diamonds. Each diamond has four 90-degree angles. Diamond sides overlap by 13.5% to allow each participant an additional margin of acceptable flying area. The grid is overlaid digitally on a still photograph of the formation to determine relativity of all fliers and completion of the formation c. Judges will place the grid over the formation in a way that attempts to fit all participants within their grid space (“best fit” method) d. The “best fit” indicates that if there is a way all participants can fit within their grid spaces, the grid will be placed in that orientation. e. To be judged successfully within their grid space, some part of the Wingsuit flier must be visible inside a line delineating their space f. The grid line is “out of bounds” 12-3.3 Procedures Add: D. Winguit formation claims shall submit for judging, in addition to the above: a. A diagram showing the intended formation b. One still photograph of the completed formation with all fliers visible c. One video perspective of the jump from exit to breakoff to show continuity d. The grid will be available to download from the USPA website It's the Year of the Dragon.

Actually, it is in the rules. The grid is defined with 90 degree angles, which prevents it from being "squished". Your second point is addressed by requiring video of the jump to be included for judging - which shows continuity of the formation. Furthermore, two judging signatures are required. For a state record, one can be an S&TA and the second must be a qualified USPA judge. For judges who do not have a photo program that can layer the grid like Photoshop, they have accepted a quick training and use of another available laptop computer. They have still done the actual placing of the grid themselves. It's the Year of the Dragon.

Quick point of clarification - the USPA grid can be scaled, but it has fixed aspect ratio. It's the Year of the Dragon.

Ditto that. We are all interested in improvements to the process! It's the Year of the Dragon.

"That 25-way" is a figment of Jarno's imagination, not a standing record. And people both within and outside the discipline have already accepted that objective judging criteria are a great place to start helping people achieve real goals in the sky and grow wingsuiting. I'm out of here to go and organize a national charity wingsuit record that will benefit kids and grow a sponsorship base for wingsuiting. If I spent half as much time defending this stuff as people do criticizing it, I'd never have time to organize anything Blue Skies and happy complaining , -T It's the Year of the Dragon.

Did you ever get certificates for the Summerfest 25-way?*** Yes, the Chicago 25-way is the current Illinois state AND US National record. If you want a paper certificate I believe you can contact HQ and order (they cost money!) The history of all state records is kept online at the USPA website as well. It's the Year of the Dragon.

The grid is actually being "adopted quite active" rather than "pushed". I have never been to Australia and I've never skydived in the UK, but people in those two places are interested of their own accord. Yet another way to look at the situation is that without a recognized standard to start out with, there is no basis for future improvement. This is an evaluative time, but one during which "the community" is actually motivated and allowed to set records and have them judged by a fair system (rather than only the most vocal participants in this forum). locking ourselves down*** There is no "lockdown", and no need for fear-based "what-if" computer illustrations. Life moves forward, not in pause mode. Trade in your disaster-scenario illustrations for a ticket to Elsinore. Come help us build something. Or organize your own and take that risk of being responsible for something progressive. It's more fun than worrying!

Hey Matt, There are no "grid-gods" - only a single judging standard that has already been adopted by the USPA (and PASA, and the APF and BPA are in progress). I'm not a judge, but the formation does fit into the judging grid when I look at your photo.

Breakfast will be served daily, too. I'm not guaranteeing bran muffins, but your selection has been noted It's the Year of the Dragon.

Starbucks just became an official sponsor. Coffee for everyone, every morning starting Sunday! It's the Year of the Dragon.

Nope

Here are some I know are coming... NOT a complete list but it's a start since I believe that's what this thread was originally about I fly to LAX on October 29th. I know some other organizers will be out early too, if anyone wants to jump! EDITED TO ADD: And if you didn't read the Newsletter, all participants are entered into a draw to win a FREE custom TonySuit Wingsuit of your choice and other prizes, including The111's awesome book of Wingsuit Photography It's not too late to register and get there! Seriously, and a free X-Bird wouldn't suck. 1. Lurch 2. Tero Paukku 3. kallend 4. Taya 5. Callantine 6. Jeff Nebelkopf 7. Duncan Wright 8. Mark Harris 9. Giovanni from Italy 10. Ed Pawlowski 11. Phil Peggs 12. Justin Shorb 13. David Royer 14. Mette Kristensen 15. Randy McCoy 16. Kris Sosso 17. Riaan Bergh 18. Dennis Sattler 19. Brian Barnhart 20. Pat Schraufnagel 21. Rick Hough 22. Raider Ramstad 23. Troy Church 24. Purple Mike 25. Scott Gray 26. Scotty Burns 27. Craig O'Brien 28. Matt Hoover 29. Benny Skovhede 30. Brian Drake 31. Robert Gray 32. Cate Heneghan 33. Andreea Olea 34. Simon Repton 35. Dan Mayer 36. Greg Drogaline 37. Kenneth Gajda 38. Michal 39. Avery 40. Ralph Armstrong 41. Jonathan Tagle 42. Paul Cain 43. Elana Cain 44. Bo Wienberg 45. Rolf Brombach 46. Brian Snarr 47. Medusa 48. Tim Hedderich 49. Alex von Scheidt 50. Sean Horton (Monkey) 51. Marko Makela 52. Guy Martin 53. Jochen Stier 54. Francis Mobley 55. Mark Krasinski 56. Ryan Maher 57. Steve Harrington 58. Steve Such 59. Andrei Volkov 60. Valery Rozov 61. Shinichi Ito 62. Sergey Nikulin 63. David Sanders 64. Alexey Shatilov 65. Sergey Makeev 66. Irina Sinitsina 67. Alex Frey 68. Aleksandr Osipov 69. Justin Pabis 70. David Patterson ... 100. (?) It's the Year of the Dragon.