"Hold still, I can't get it in."

"Hold still, I can't get it in." Overheard in the plane as one of the
members of Carolina Ice was helping a teamate do up their seatbelt. What did
you think it meant?

At a quarter to 1 it was still solid overcast with rain clouds approaching
so I made a quick trip to the bathroom and when I came back out the clouds
had opened up with blue sky coming through and no rain to be seen. All I
could think was "How long was I in there?" Suddenly all the people who had
been lying around had come into motion, pulling out gear, checking
equipment, and getting their suits on. It took another hour before the skies
cleared enough for manifest to start putting teams on a call, so in the
meantime they sent up a load of tandems as a wind drift load. The same
weather front that took the clouds away left strong winds behind that seemed
to be getting stronger by the minute. The tandems were able to move forward
in the wind but not by much. We went out to watch them land and an ambulance
and fire department truck with paramedics on it showed up. I was looking
around thinking "how the hell could anybody be hurt?They're still a thousand
feet in the air!" But instead of running into the landing area they ran into
the spectator area and scooped up some poor old guy who had collapsed,
proving once again that the most dangerous place to be on a drop zone is on
the ground.

And then we were off. Manifest started calling out the loads, putting 4
teams on a plane and spacing the planes 5 minutes apart. Almost before I
knew it we were on our way to a plane. I found myself wishing I had smuggled
Richard - our secret weapon - along. He was our coach last year and by the
time we got to Burnaby I was dead certain everybody knew exactly what they
needed to do. As I walked over to the loading area today I could barely
remember my name let alone what the hell I was supposed to do once I got
there.

I was feeling just a little stressed to begin with, an entire spring and
summers preparation and effort coming down to NOW!? Then we got to the
loading area and found out were going up with Arizona Airspeed and the
Golden Knights, 2 of the top teams in the world. Why couldn't we have been
put on with a couple of thrown together teams made up of morons and misfits
who would be doing well if they remembered to deploy their parachutes let
alone remembered their skydive? I don't mind making a fool out of myself,
and I do so on a frequent basis and regular basis, but does it have to be
in front of my idols? 59 Teams entered here and we wind up on a plane with
the senior class. Back home we're the Bronze medal team from the 2009
Nationals, Gold at provincials. In some circles we're considered "Hot Shit".

Around here we're not even Fart The Messenger.

It turned out that one of the 3 exits I was most concerned about came off
that plane rock solid and unfolded like a hinged sheet of plywood. And it
just got better. We were solid, smooth, clean, and turned the blocks just
like we actually knew what we were doing. Yeehaaaaa! 8 points! Not bad for a
team that barely qualifies as weekend warriors. Perhaps not all is lost.

They put the Intermediate category on a wind hold just after we got down,
and after our second jump they put everybody on a wind hold after a couple
of guys from the Air Force demo team wound up hanging in trees over by the
trailer park. Serves them right, jumping huge accuracy canopies in these
winds.

The day ended with us having completed 3 jumps, with a total score of 22.
Not as good as we'd hoped, but we had busts on every load that cost us
points.

Sunday, Day 2
Stephane showed his team spirit today by shaving 4D into his hair. His hair
was only stubble to begin so it doesn't stand out as well as it might so I'm
thinkin' when the competition is over I'll get a couple of the bigger guys
from the Golden Knights to hold him down so I can improve upon it with a
magic marker.

My packer has been doing an awesome job with my new Stiletto. Every time I
pack the damn thing it either opens with a bang, giving me whiplash, or
makes so many changes in direction while opening and immediately afterward
that on break off the wiser people didn't track away from the center, they
all tracked away from ME! The first one this girl packed for me came out so
soft smooth and on heading that I thought I was finally having my first
malfunction and I had my hands on my cutaway handle before I realized I was
slowing down, and looking straight ahead in the same direction I was when I
threw the pilot chute. This girls a keeper! On the first jump this morning I
was suddenly turned around 180 degrees, and thought the friggin thing was
back to it's old tricks, but before I could finish the thought it turned
back, nice and politely.