Overall winner: Nathan Gilbert
2nd: Vladi Pesa
3rd: Joe Bennet
4th: Jimmy Tranter

Winner: accuracy: Nathan Gilbert
Winner: Cones: Vladi Pesa
Winner: Distance: Joe Bennet
Winner: Time in water: Scott Miller

The swoop meet at Skyquest had the luck to be using the finest ponds that I have ever seen for swooping, an L shaped 260' pond, 8' deep in the middle rising evenly to the bank. The courses proved to be challenging, made even more interesting by the cross/down wind set up on the Saturday and for most of Sunday. Sunday evening gave us the best conditions, virtually no wind, a glassy pond to make the last rounds even more pleasing to the eye!

We started with the accuracy round on Saturday, competitors had to touch the water prior to a set of gates and then come to a complete stop in the target area, the 'complete stop' proved to be the challenging aspect of this round. The round was won by Nathan Gilbert, our overall champion.

Round 2 was the carving cones event, again competitors had to touch the water prior to the gates and then chose a set of cones to touch and score as many points as possible. The cones were set up in a left and right carve as well as a straight line. This round added a few grass stains to most competitors clothing. Most people took it slightly downwind to get more speed through the cones , this was definately the more exciting option.... Vladi won this round.

Round 3 was distance, again competitors had to touch water prior to the gates to start scoring and get their 5 points, the distance was measured from the gates to the first point of contact. Although Vladi and Scot had some very impressive swoops it was Joe Bennet who won with consistency over both jumps.

Round 4 was only one jump, all the other rounds were held over 2 jumps. This round featured the best conditions... The objective was 'Time in the water', the stopwatch was started as competitors made contact with the water and was stopped as they broke contact. Two judges were used to make sure that we got an average time. The winner was Scott Miller with a beautifully controlled swoop from virtually one end of the pond to the other and a 3.8 second time. Other competitors went from 0.1 up to 3.6.

Some 4 way competitors chose to compete in the swoop event, this made their life pretty exciting if their spots were a bit long!

The prize giving was held on the Sunday evening, with Nathan Gilbert walking away with 2 huge checks from PD and Sun Path. Vladi in 2nd and Joe in 4th also walked away with cash. Scott won the 50% off a Birdman suit. All the winners walked away with more prizes from Nature Coast EyeCare Institute, Universal Studios, Atair canopies, Jumpshack, SSK and medals were supplied by the Relative Workshop.

The event was fun and challenging, made easy to judge and set up thanks to the help from: Anne Maxwell, Alicia (from Z-Hills), Kaz Morley, Harry Parker and Vladi. I can't wait to compete in the next event at Fantasy of Flight!

by Pete Allum