We hope you enjoy the post of our 10 4-way rounds at Nationals.

Labels: Competitions

The 2009 season culminated with USPA Nationals at Skydive Spaceland the week of October 12th. What a great experience that was! The team ended up in 6th place with an 18.1 average, and we were all proud of a performance that included 10 strong rounds with some specific moves that demonstrated the team at its best. The entire 4way competition was challenged with weather holds that extended the competition by an extra day. Fortunately for us, our training prepared us for that!

We were also proud of the Furies, who won the Advanced class. It was great to see them represent and watch as they beat out the competition.

After 4way, we joined up with Sebastian Tempest in 8way, and that was great fun as well. While Laurent had to get home, Tempest's videographer Pat joined us as Kevin filmed the team. This was the last season of the Tempest-Rhythm 8way team, as next year each Rhythm member will be leading his own 8way in a player-coach 8way project. Contact janette@rhythmskydiving.com for details.

While the 8way competition was going, 4way VRW proved to be an extremely exciting competition that pitted Arizona Arsenal vs our own SDC Standard XP. In truth, we were more enthralled with 4way VRW than our own 8way. Standard performed excellently, keeping the competition close up until the last round, where unfortunately they were not able to keep up with Arsenal. Standard has come so far this year, and we're looking forward to watching them grow and to growing alongside them as both teams push each other in 2010.

Finally, Steve had a lot of fun in 16 way, and thoughts of putting together a 16way team to represent SDC in 2010 quickly began to brew...Contact steve@rhythmskydiving.com for details.

Throughout the entire competition, Kevin Kanaski's awesomely consistent pack jobs kept us jumping confidently without the slightest worry about our openings.

Thanks to everyone who supported the team this year. SDC, Manifest, our packers, all those who participated in our events, and friends and family who supported us with wellwishes.

This weekend, October 31 and November 1, we have our last Team for a Day of the season. There's still room both days. Contact janette@rhythmskydiving.com.

Labels: Competitions, Miscellaneous

From 2009 MWSL Meet 2 at CSC

Last weekend we had the second meet of the MWSL season at CSC.

From 2009 MWSL Meet 2 at CSC

Four teams competed, and every team showed great improvements from the first meet.

From 2009 MWSL Meet 2 at CSC

Unfortunately, we were only able to complete three rounds, but still there were a number of very noteworthy accomplishments: 1. CSC Pareto Optimal had a 13 point round, that team's highest single round score! 2. SDC Flying Fish scored a 10, blowing away their previous single round record! 3. Jetstream Tango more than doubled it's previous meet average! 4. Every team did a meet Personal Record!

From 2009 MWSL Meet 2 at CSC

Thanks to Amy and Gary for coming with us and supporting us with packing, to CSC (Doug, manifest, and all the staff) for hosting a great meet, and to Alan for running the show. Also, thanks to Andy Cam for donning the camera for us on Sunday and helping us to get 18 more jumps in when the weather cleared up! Read more about MWSL Meet 2 on the NSL website

Labels: Competitions

Check out our 10 rounds at the Paraclete XP Meet on YouTube:

Labels: Competitions, Tunnel Trips

Over the Thanksgiving holiday, JaNette and Steve traveled to Florida under the guise of visiting family. While there, we joined up with Rodney Cruce and our player coach from 2007, Chromy for the NSL championships to compete as Teiwaz Red (AKA Teiwaz Rhythm). Click here for the NSL Article. It felt like a mini-reunion jumping with Chromy, and both he and Rodney were awesome to fly with. We had a very fun time. It was also fun competing against Teiwaz Bu, and against Tempest again, who asserted their dominance over ten rounds. We'll be coming after them next year! Besides the meet, we had a lot of fun jumping at Deland with JaNette's "uncousin" Hal, Slim Jim, Gilles and Kris, and a bunch of other people. Oh yeah, it was great to see family too...

Labels: Competitions, Miscellaneous

We hope you enjoy this video of our 4-way jumps at Nationals. Please also check out the link to the pictures we added. 8-way video is on its way too!

Nationals 08

Labels: Competitions

After a fun, rewarding, and challenging season, the team was eager to compete at the USPA nationals in Eloy. We arrived late Friday night and met up with Gosia and Karyn from the SDC Furies. Saturday and Sunday we got settled in and made a few practice jumps.
The 4-way competition ran Monday and Tuesday, and the meet ran without a hitch. The weather was perfect, spots were great, and judging was quick and fair. After ten rounds, CSC Rhythm XP finished with a 16.9, reaching our goal to win the advanced category with the highest average in that division ever. We were proud of the jumps we did and the energy we kept throughout the meet. Like always, Kevin did an awesome job as the team did not receive a single camera bust. We appreciated all the support, cheers and congratulations we received from our friends and family in emails, text messages, and phone calls throughout the week.

Tuesday night was the medals ceremony. Standing on the podium and getting our gold medals was a great reward for all the hard work we put in. On Wednesday and Thursday we competed in 8 way with Sebastian Tempest, as Tempest 1X2. During the 4 way competition, we made a bet with Tempest that the team that scored the highest in 4 way would get to name the 8 way team. Throughout the 4 way event, the lead passed back and forth between our two teams, and that was very exciting. In the end, as the 8 way name indicates, Tempest, who was competing in the open class, won by two points.

For many of us, the two practice jumps we did Tuesday afternoon was our first experience with the 8 way draw. After funneling both jumps Tuesday evening, we had the kinks ironed out and stuck the exits from round 1 on. We finished in 6th place in Open with a 9.4 average after ten rounds. We learned a lot on every jump and had a ton of fun. Thanks to Tempest and to Bu for filling in for Thiago. Thanks also to Todd Hawkins and Andy Honigbaum for popping in while we crept to give us much appreciated advice. Thursday night was the 8 way awards ceremony. It was great to watch Carolina Ice get the gold in Intermediate after seeing them work so hard at the tunnel. Also, we were proud of our friends from the SDC Furies and Spaceland, who took the bronze in that division.

With 4 way and 8 way done, we celebrated on Thursday and Friday. The Bent Prop is a great place to party after competition! We also got to watch Doug, Matty and Nathan compete in freeflying and the VFS competition. Tiffany and Travis Mills also represented CSC in Freestyle, and it was exciting to see how great they did. All the competitions were great to watch, and the DS project, Mayhem, and the CSC Dragons performed very well.

What a great year! Now it's time to get ready for next nationals.

Labels: Competitions

The team held its 7th jump camp this weekend, and participated in the final MWSL meet of 2008 at SDC, posting a 16.3.

After getting in the 4 rounds at SDC, we rushed over to CSC to chase the good weather. Our home DZ helped us crank through the loads and we were able to get 3 more jumps that evening. On Sunday, we followed it up with 9 team jumps before 2:30. Sunday turned out to be a beautiful day, and Laurent, JaNette and Steve continued jumping until sunset with whoever would join us. Among other jumps, Kevin joined us for a memorable four-way after Brian left - memorable because it was the first jump with Kevin where he wasn't hovering above us! Turns out he's an awesome 4-way skydiver!
Thanks to Alan Butt for putting together a great MWSL meet series, to Buzz and Henrik for filling in on video Sunday morning with no more than a 5 minute call, and to Kevin for joining us as we drove from DZ to DZ.

Labels: Competitions, Training

Labels: Competitions, Training

Click here to read the article on www.skyleague.com (NSL): Did you know that CSC Rhythm XP set new MWSL records last weekend?

Labels: Articles, Competitions

Click here to read the article on www.skyleague.com (NSL): Did you know that the Midwest is producing a new top team?

Labels: Articles, Competitions

What a fun weekend. We were at the Paraclete XP wind tunnel in Raeford, NC this weekend and had a full schedule. Butch, Eric, Helen and Andy joined us on Saturday and Sunday for some tunnel coaching. Thanks for joining us -- we had a great time. All were looking pretty sharp in the tunnel by Sunday afternoon.

On Saturday we also did some 8 way training with fellow PD sponosored team, Sebastian Tempest, in the tunnel. Kris from Tempest lead us through 45 minutes of tunnel training. For many of us, it was our first experience with 8 way. We're really looking forward to training with Tempest again in September and competing at Nationals.

On Saturday and Sunday we competed in the Paraclete XP tunnel meet. It was a lot of fun to see all of the teams there, and compete. We entered the chamber and did two rounds at a time. We finished the meet with a team best score (in the tunnel) of 222 points over 10 rounds, finishing tied for 6th place overall. Round five was a highlight, with another team best of 42 points in one round.

In addition to coaching and 8 way and the meet, we also were able to do almost 2 hours of 4 way training. On Saturday we did some b-slot speed drills. On Sunday, we trained in the tunnel with rigs on. Using rig covers and handle covers we were able to fly with our own Infinity containers to make for a very realistic experience. It was quite a workout, but a great learning experience for us.

On top of all of that, JaNette and Steve stayed Monday for some solo work and 2on2 with Kirk and John, and Laurent, Steve & JaNette tried out some back-flying, with expert coaching from Mick at the tunnel. What a blast! Thanks Kirk, John and Mick.

All in all, a pretty awesome weekend. Looking forward to the upcoming 3 day training weekend at CSC, including MWSL meet #2 down at SDC on Saturday. By the way, CSC will be open on Friday morning with loads flying from 9am all day as we train. Come on out and join us!

Labels: Competitions, Events, Training, Tunnel Trips

Click here to read the article on www.skyleague.com (NSL): Did you know that the new CSC Rhythm XP lineup started with team record scores?

Labels: Articles, Competitions

We put together our 10 jumps from MWSL Meet 1 at CSC last weekend, and posted to youtube. Here it is. Enjoy the star wipes!

Labels: Competitions

The MWSL held its first meet of the season this Saturday, May 31, coinciding with the team's second 3-day jump camp. Three teams attended: SDC On The Fly, CSC Victory Hop, and CSC Rhythm XP. With Kirk Verner providing meet coaching, Alan Butt running the meet, and CSC working with the teams to make sure everything went smoothly, the competition was a lot of fun for everyone. On the Fly and Victory Hop had some close competition for the first few rounds, but On the Fly was able to pull away in round 4. Unfortunately, due to winds, the official meet ended with 4 rounds. Still, Sunday was a beautiful day, and those who stuck around got to get a lot more jumps in. We finished the meet with a 15.6 ave over 10 rounds - a team best and personal best for everyone. We are really excited to see our work at the Paraclete XP tunnel and CSC paying off, and looking forward to learning and growing more. We are also psyched to see the other Chicago area teams making good progress and enjoying 4-way like we do.

Labels: Competitions, Training

Nationals were great fun. The pride and excitement we felt coming together and all doing our best when it counted was awesome. We scored a 14.5, which was our highest average ever. Most importantly, we were really enjoying ourselves. You can see it in our faces in all the pictures, and see it in the jumps. While we did not get the bronze medal because we were a guest team, that took nothing away from the experience.
Sunday night, Laurent honored all on-lookers at the Tiki Hut by leading the team in a no-holds-barred Superman-Banana demonstration. Surely, the likes of this have not been seen at the Tiki Hut, or at least not since the previous weekend. What better way for Chromy to ring in his birthday?

Source: www.omniskore.com
This was the perfect ending of our constent progression throughout the season. Below we plot our weekly points average over time. There is definitely some fluctuation as we focused more on blocks or randoms, but the trend is in the right direction!

Labels: Competitions

On August 11th, Tom Bohm, a seasoned competitor from the Midwest skydiving league, subbed in for Chromy, who was in the Czech Republic coaching teams there. Tom is awesome and a lot of fun. We asked him to work with our continuity plan, and as a result he was trying some moves for the first time right in the meet. His experience and skills stood the test though, and we were very happy with how the meet went.
It was a close one, and no one knew how the final results played out until the scores for the last round were announced. The SDC Furies were great competitors, but we were able to hold on to a 2 point lead for the win.

Labels: Competitions

The team was very proud of how we did in the first MWSL meet. This was Rhythm's first meet in AAA. We knew we had been improving all season, but we also knew that the only scores that count are the ones you can post in a meet.

Labels: Competitions

The team kicked off the jumping season in Deland, FL at the Shamrock Showdown in March. Those were the first jumps CSC Rhythm made as a full team, and it was a lot of fun. It was especially exciting to watch the competition at the top between Airspeed, Fastrax and the Golden Knights.

Labels: Competitions