3rd Dubai International Parachuting Championship & Gulf Cup 2011 - Daily Diary - 1st December

December 1st - Day 1 of competition.

An early start this morning for the practice rounds of Accuracy, Formation Skydiving and Canopy Formations and towards the end of the morning Canopy Piloting - all the time with the wind threating to increase in strength.  And it did.  By mid afternoon though the competition started.  By the end of the day we had almost completed one round of Accuracy, two rounds of Formation Skydiving and one round of Canopy Formations.  However, technical problems (isn't it always) caused judging delays for both Formation Skydiving and Canopy Formations.  The IT people will be working overnight and at 8.0 tomorrow morning judging will finalise the last round 1 teams to be judged and start on the second round.  Accuracy will continue and Canopy Piloting will commence with a Speed Round mid-morning.

The plan is to complete two further rounds of Formation Skydiving, two Canopy Piloting, two Accuracy and one Canopy Formations.

The smiles tell the story - first competition jump of the day - against this unique backdrop.

This beautiful sunset over the delegations tents heralds a good day tomorrow, the competition will continue as the town and country celebrates their 40th anniversary of independance.