posted Dec 3rd, 2004 - The NSL website usually covers only the Formation Skydiving competition events. However, the Fantasy Swoop at SkyQuest Florida has always been a high-caliber competition and happens right next to, or better below, the 4-way event of the NSL Championship at Fantasy of Flight. The swooping competition also has an interesting Formation Skydiving aspect with former Genesis/PD Blue members Shannon Pilcher and Ian Bobo participating on the very top level of the field.

Event manager Chris Hayes provided the meet story and the scores. The information will also be posted and available at the SkyQuest Florida website later on.

Fantasy Swoop at SkyQuest 2004 - by Chris Hayes

Perfect weather and winds made for one of the best Fantasy Swoop competitions yet at the 2004 annual Skyquest Florida skydiving festival. This is the fourth year for the event with some of the past years dealing with high winds and bad weather. Ideal temperatures and a 3 mph downwind made for some very long and exciting swoops. The Fantasy of Flight location with it’s 300x90 ft pond is also an ideal and very fun place to swoop, only allowing skydiving at the location once a year. The facility is an aviation museum for the rest of the year. Competitors looked forward to this year’s event and were not let down.

This years event except for the freestyle rounds, was not modeled or structured from a strict set of rules or guidelines. The event consisted of ten competition jumps, two 24 inch lane, two S carve, two long jump, two freestyle and two team distance rounds. Noodles were laid out on the water to create the courses with the 24 inch lane running the entire length of the 300 ft pond. The S Carve course proved to be very challenging as well with only one competitor scoring a perfect score of 100 (Moledski). The long jump event required a competitor to fly down touch the water and then fly back up over a set of five foot gates before flying as far as she/he could for distance. Not touching the water or not getting over the gates gave the competitor a zero for the run. The freestyle rounds followed PST format and rules with chief judge, Karine Leblond, graciously making the trip from California to judge the event. Competitors declared both of their freestyle rounds with no draw involved.

Competitors showed up Thursday for a day of practice jumps with six competition jumps on Friday and four on Saturday. Competitors were allowed to practice their freestyle rounds on Saturday morning before doing their actual competition jumps with the team distance finishing up the event on Saturday evening. Everything seemed to happen right on schedule.

An outstanding team of judges made all the difference in the world. They made their jobs look effortless and did an excellent job of judging, manifesting and making everything go smoothly. Karine Leblond and Danielle Ford headed up the team both working long before the event and long days and into the competition nights creating their scoring spreadsheets so that competitors did not have to wait to see their scores. Friday’s scores were available on Saturday morning and the final standings were done on Saturday not long after the last competition jump was made. Jennifer Laras and Dorice Grove also made sure that everyone got the points that they deserved and didn’t get points if they missed their zones. David Andreaux and Robin Miller rounded out the team doing the crucial video that the judges sometimes depend on for accurate scoring.

Performance Designs had a great showing with the top three spots going to the PD Factory team. For the overall individual class, Jay Moledski finished in first and collected $1,150. Team mates Shannon Pilcher and Ian Bobo took second and third and collected $600 and $350 for their efforts. JC Colclasure finished fourth with Danny Koon finishing out the top five. For the freestyle rounds which were included in overall standings and prize winnings, Shannon Pilcher and Jay Moledski tied for the first position. Second place went to Danny Koon with Francisco Neri and JC Colclasure finishing out the top five. PD also did well in the team events with the team of Moldski and Neri finishing first and collecting $500. Second place went to the Icarus Team extreme guys, JC Colclasure and Luigi Cani. The third place finishers were Kaz Sheeky and Scott Roberts.