posted Dec 22nd, 2009 - The NSL News goes back to the Kaleidoscope Dives at SkyQuest 2009. Several videos of four more jumps have been uploaded, two of the Falcon Team and two of the Eagle Team. The lineups of the two 100-way teams can still be found at the roster page. Links to the videos from all different angles and planes are set up at the Kaleidoscope home page.

The videos of the two new jumps document the first action on Saturday morning (jumps seven and eight). Both events, 100-way and 4-way competition, were now in full action. Teiwaz Eagle member Mario Mauro and Perris Jimani member Janna Wynne, who jumped both for the Eagle Team 100-way lineup, were now running back and forth for back to back loads when the weather allowed both events to take place. They would get a break once in a while when the weather conditions were not good enough for the 100-ways.

Kaleidoscope Dives and World Team creator BJ Worth recently sent his last message of 2009 to the participants of SkyQuest 2009 and wrapped up this year's event with the summary below.

Kaleidoscope Dives 2009 – It’s a Wrap

Greetings Kaleidoscope Divers,

This is our final opportunity to touch base with you before putting the 2009 Kaleidoscope Dives to bed. We sincerely thank you for coming to Skydive DeLand, putting in the long hours, and sharing in the Kaleidoscope fun.

We appreciate how responsible everyone was when it was time to dirt dive, time to lay it down, and time to meet the aircraft. Making ten 100-way dives in one day was very impressive, especially when there were so few hours of sunlight each day. It was obvious that you all came with your A-game – ready to skydive hard.

Safety: Collectively, we made 2600+ skydives in four days with 100 skydivers in the air on every jump, and we did not have any serious injuries in the air or on the ground. Thank you for respecting our number one priority!

Format: Most everyone seemed to enjoy having the 100-way Falcon and Eagle teams skydiving back to back. The whispered rivalry that took place was done in the friendly and respectful manner that was envisioned. The biggest down-side to this format was that so many of us from different teams didn’t get to skydive together.

Performance: We didn’t complete any three-point dives this year, so it’s fair to say that our performance was not quite up to the typical Kaleidoscope level of excellence. However, we did make lots of 100-ways, and we got to the point that we were transitioning to point two on most jumps. I wish we had the opportunity to make a couple more attempts at the World Team “bow-tie” dive. We were steadily improving and that dive was there to be made.

Camera Team: With only five camera-flyers on the Camera Team, Andrey, Craig, Willy, Henny, and George were forced to make every jump. The result was a great collection of video clips that we could use for our video reviews. Thanks to the World Team’s digital media players brought by Henny and thanks to the HD TVs provided by SkyQuest, this was some of the sharpest and most useful video that has been used for video reviews.

Publications and Prints: Soon, several skydiving publications will feature stories and photos of our fun event. In addition, Andrey Veselov and George Katsoulis have captured some great stills that can be seen on (and purchased from) their websites: Andrey Veselov, George Katsoulis. Please keep an eye on the other websites as well: http://www.parashoot.nl/htm/content2.htm; http://www.craigob.com; http://www.skycam.be.

Future: We would appreciate hearing input and critiques about this event from the participants. Any input would be appreciated, but we are particularly interested in knowing your thoughts about the event format. What format would you prefer for future Kaleidoscope Dives? What about the variety and degree of difficulty of the dives?

DNA Profiling: We sincerely thank 23andMe and Gulcin for using the Kaleidoscope Divers as test subjects in the search for a flying gene. They need to wrap-up their test right away, so if you haven’t claimed your results yet, you are cordially invited to go to: https://www.23andme.com/user/claim and submit your claim code. If you have lost your code, please email Marisa and she will send it to you. Thank you for participating!

T-shirts: Unfortunately, many participants, staff members, and sponsors did not get a shirt when they were distributed. We should have announced more clearly that there was one T-shirt for every registered participant. The process will be better controlled in the future. If you did not receive a shirt but want one, can you please email your shirt size and mailing address to BJ? If you want an extra T-shirt for a spouse, friend, etc. the cost is $12 per shirt ($18 for a long-sleeved shirt). And, yes, Kaleidoscope will be spelled correctly on these second-run shirts.

Thank you Falcons and Eagles for taking part in the 2009 Kaleidoscope Dives!!

Larry, Kate, Ponce, Mike, Solly, Tom, Lou, Pål, Patrick, Victor, BJ