The California Regional Canopy Piloting League kicked off its 2013 season on Saturday April 20th with 21 competitors. Skydive Sacramento in Lincoln, CA hosted the very successful event, which saw all 6 rounds completed by the end of the day. Although the competitors had two days of near ideal conditions for practice, Saturday morning came with 10 – 14 mph head winds for both the speed and distance rounds. This same head wind turned into a downwind for the first Zone accuracy round – which made for a nail biting and exhilarating experience for the competitors, judges, and spectators.

The competition went on a 2 hour wind hold, and as the sun started to set, the winds died down to almost nothing allowing for the final Zone Accuracy run of the competition.

In the pro group, 11 competitors registered for the meet and battled hard for the top three positions despite the very challenging winds. 3rd place finish went to Paul Rodriguez, 2nd place to Scott Harper, and 1st place was won by Albert Berchtold. Entire results and individual run scores can be seen on the results page.

In a sign of the continued growth of the CRCPL, 10 competitors registered for the Advanced group. The league is now giving overall medals for the advanced group as well, which was very well received by the competitors. Dave Hawley took home 3rd place, while Alex Cashman took home a 2nd place medal, and Max Bond from San Diego took home the 1st place medal. The difference between 3rd place and fourth place finisher Will Whittenburg was 12 points. It was a very tight competition, very technical, and extremely challenging conditions. All of the competitors did a fantastic job.

We would like to thank all of our judges and organizers who volunteered their time to score and run this meet. Thanks to Pat Garcia, DZO of Skydive Sacramento, for allowing us the opportunity to promote the discipline of Canopy Piloting in Northern California and special recognition to our sponsors. Adrenaline Obsession, Sierra Nevada, Go Fast, Blue Skies Magazine, PD, and all of our photographers..thank you! The league is continuing to grow and you still have time to join the league for the final three meets. Our next competition is on June 29th. See you all at Nationals!

Photos of the competition by Steven Hudoba.

Video – Round 2 of Zone Accuracy by Steven Hudoba.