I'm a winner!

My home dz is Skydive Dallas (if you've never been, I HIGHLY recommend it). They hosted the 20th Annual Stefan Banic 4-Way Speed Star competition. I participated last year, but as a videographer. I haven't started flying video since I returned to skydiving, so I decided to be a participant.

The way this competition works is a little different than your traditional speed star. There is a diagonal line in the door of the Otter and all of the jumpers have to remain behind that line. Once the count is given, all of the jumpers dive out and have 45 seconds to make a pre-determined formation. The dive was a total of three formations. For each point they form after that, 1 second is deducted from their time. As soon as the line is crossed, even if it's during the count, time starts! The fastest time wins.

The competition was originally four rounds, but then it was shortened to only having the first two rounds count. The winds were gusty throughout the day, and there were varying levels of experience. Some jumpers were even on rental gear, which made it tough. The team were chosen at random and teams stayed together throughout the competition.

I was made a captain of a team, which I was both surprised and flattered by! My team members included an older lady who had 2700 jumps, a Texas record holder, and a young jumper with 100 jumps. The older lady was on the winning team last year, so I took some of her advice on how to line up in the door and how to give the count. I made the young jumper the base. One first jump we got together quickly and cranked out a lot of points! Our total time: 3 seconds!! After that round, no one could touch us. We won!

It feels great to see that other jumpers have confidence in me. It was a big victory for me after going through knee surgery. Smiles all around! :)