The 3rd annual Australian Indoor Skydive Championships was held on the 18/19 August at iFLY Downunder; Sydney. With competition fiercely fought over 2 days, it was non-stop action incl. 172 competitors running in 86 different teams over 13 categories!
Competitors came from all corners of Australia, as well as 15 from New Zealand and 8 Singaporean athletes showcasing their talents and raking in some well-deserved medals.
Kyra Poh, a stellar flyer from Singapore, proving why she is one of the worlds best flyers; entered 4 categories and took out 4 Gold medals!
This year we also introduced the new FAI dive pool for Open VFS and extended the competition to 10 rounds for both Open VFS and Open FS (AAA).
FS being the largest discipline represented overall was split into 4 categories, Rookie, A, AA and Open (AAA). The Open division was one of the tightest fought battles we’ve seen, with team “ITCHY SCRATCHY” edging out “MAHONEY MAHONEY MAHONEY” by just 1 point after 10 rounds!
The other categories of FS were also hard fought with lots of highs (and lows) for each of the teams competing. Excluding the less PC team names we may have seen, the best name would have to be Silver Medallist team (Rookie Category) “4 WINDOW LICKERS IN A BLENDER”… also seemed appropriate, complete with team t-shirts made just for the occasion… Nice one!
Open VFS was taken out for the third year in a row by Australia’s premier team “FOCUS”, who also set an indoor competition record of 38 points in round 3. The two remaining team FOCUS flyers also managed to pull together a second scratch team just before rego closed, and scored a respectable 9.6pt average with no training at all.
2-way VFS featured 20 teams across intermediate and open categories and everyone charged hard with the Perth (Brazilian) connection medalling in both categories. It will be great to see these flyers develop even further towards 4-way VFS for next years Champs.
Dynamic flying was just awe inspiring, to watch the precision and speed at which this discipline runs. It was a solid competition with multiple teams in both 2-way and 4-way, with the Singaporean girls of team ‘Firefly’ taking Gold and showing total professionalism for their age. They joined forces with our own team ‘iFLY Downunder’ to take the 4-way Gold. Every team in these disciplines were exceptional to watch, including the iFLY CEO Wayne Jones himself, showing us how the “OLD DOGS” run.
Freestyle was great to see some more of the lower speed flowing style of all round flying mixed in with spectacular tricks and individual expression, as well as our beloved Johnny Townsager competing again in his favourite discipline for the first time since an accident that kept him out of the wind for a long time. So happy to have you back Johnny!
But the one that never fails to put smiles on the entire crowd was, of course, the kids. Growing in numbers again from last year, due primarily to the graduates of our Junior iFLYER kids club, we had a total of 17 kids over 2 Freestyle categories. Not a single person in the crowd, including the judges, were immune to the cuteness of some of the smallest and youngest flyers we have. Seeing their faces when they nail that double barrel roll that they had been training so hard to achieve.
Their own iFLY Coaches found it very difficult to hide their smiles seeing their young proteges take everything they had learnt into practice and make them proud. Awesome work guys!
RED BULL was a major supporter of the event this year, again providing the DJ and free cans of Red Bull over both days, as well as one of the major prizes that money can’t buy – a flight in the Red Bull Air Race stunt plane!!!
Aussie Red Bull Pro-Skater, Mikey Mendosa, also came through on Saturday to watch the action and being a tunnel flyer himself, looks forward to getting into a team and competing next year.
Saturday progressed into the afternoon when 1000 KRISPY CRÈME DOUGHNUTS arrived to keep the energy levels high for the tail end of the comp, and people were kept suitably limber with regular trips to the SPINAL & SPORTS CARE massage team on site providing a choice of pleasure or pain for a gold coin donation.
As the final rounds of comp were winding up on Saturday, the place became a sea of pizza before the presentations and awards ceremonies and last live broadcast. Then the doors were locked for the private huck-jam and party.
From all the comments and feedback that we have received is summed up in these words: Well done iFLY, well done!
Check out some of the photos we uploaded onto Facebook right on the night of the Champs here.
Download all the results here.
And stay tuned for the FULL video of all the action (COMING SOON) – Here is the teaser to keep satisfied for now!