June 9, 2008 — Two Days of Tricks Party Planned for Richmond in November
Marc Conklin is planning a TP-only event on November 1 & 2, 2008. The event will be held in the same location as ODSKC: Dorey Park in Richmond, VA. Tentative details are included on the calendar. More to come as it develops!
November 11, 2007 — 2008 TP Calendar Beginning to Shape Up
The St. Augustine Sport Kite Classic (SASKC), to be held this year
in Treasure Island, FL, will be the site of the first Tricks Party event
of the 2008 season. The dates are January 19–20. See the
calendar for details.
Additional potential TP competitions in 2008 include the following:
... 
(* denotes a two-day, multiple-round, TP-only event)
MARCH/APRIL –
Huntsville, AL: TP South*
MAY – Wildwood, NJ
(along with the East Coast Stunt Kite Championship)
JUNE – Richmond, VA
(along with the Old Dominion Sport Kite Championship)
JULY – Jersey City, NJ
(along with the New Jersey Stunt Kite Championship)
SEPTEMBER –
Madison, CT: Bare Bones Tricks Party*
SEPTEMBER –
Narragansett, RI
(along with the Southern New England Kite Championship)
August 2, 2007 — Field Directing and Judging Tips Published
Two new documents — providing tips on field directing TP and on judging TP Ballet — are now available. Especially for new field directors and judges, these resources are an invaluable guide to doing the job right. Check them out on the Documents page.
June 26, 2007 — Slide Definition Revised
The definition of the Slide has been revised to eliminate the reference to a 3-second minimum, which was intended to be a guideline rather than a hard-and-fast requirement but was confusing. The new wording describes the length of an excellent Slide in terms of the wind window instead of a certain amount of time. See the new Trick Definitions document for the revised definition.
May 15, 2007 — TP-USA Opens Online Store
Tricks Party USA has opened a CafePress online store of goods carrying the TP-USA logo. Click on the Buy Stuff button to see what's available!.
February 4, 2007 — Five New Tricks Become Official for TP-USA May 1, 2007
The Cynique, Ladole, Multislot, Taz Machine, and Yo-Fade will be officially recognized in Tricks Party USA competition beginning May 1, 2007. See the Trick Definitions document for definitions and key elements. See the TP-USA Guidelines for the complete list of recognized tricks. Post related questions in the Tricks Party section of the Gone With the Wind forum.
February 3, 2007 — Second Freestyle World Cup Postponed Beyond 2007
Roger Tessa-Gambassi recently reported on the R-Sky Forum that, despite all hopes to the contrary, this year’s French elections have interfered with plans to hold the second Freestyle World Cup in Cap d’Agde, France, so no FWC will be held in 2007. However, the hope is that future editions of the FWC will be possible at least on a biannual basis. Competitors’ rankings in Tricks Party USA will determine eligibility for invitation to any Freestyle World Cup event, as described under Ranking System.
December 20, 2006 — Changes for the 2007 Season
The 2007 TP-USA season will bring with it several changes in recognized tricks.
The competition guidelines and trick definitions
(see the Documents page) have been revised
to reflect these changes.
(The guidelines, in particular, have been significantly overhauled.)
In the next few months we also hope to revamp the website to make it easier
to use. In the meantime, here’s a quick synopsis of the trick changes to come.
...
NEW TRICKS
Five new tricks are slated to be added in 2007:
Taz Machine in Group 4;
Cynique,
Ladole,
Multislot, and
Yo-Fade in Group 5.
HOWEVER, we do not have definitions and key elements for any of these new tricks,
and they will not be officially recognized by Tricks Party USA until that information
has been received. Watch for updates in the coming months.
TRICKS CHANGING GROUPS
Four other tricks are shifting groups. The Backspin,
Dead Launch,
and Double Axel
are all moving to Group 3;
and the Torpille, to Group 4.
OTHER CHANGES
In addition, treatment of the Flic-Flac and the Pancake is being revised to match
the way the French originators of Tricks Party define those tricks. The French
“Pancake” is actually what we call the Flic-Flac, and what the French call the
“Flic-Flac” is a trick that we call the Flip-Flap (also known as a “Reversing
Flic-Flac”). To bring the TP-USA trick definitions up-to-date with the international
Tricks Party community, the Pancake landing that has been in Group 1
is being dropped, the Flic-Flac
is moving to Group 1, and the Flip-Flap is being added to Group 3.
THE NEW GROUPINGS
With all of these changes, the new groupings will look like this
(all tricks that are new or are changing position are highlighted in bold red;
the five tricks in lightface red and enclosed in square brackets are the ones
not yet officially recognized by Tricks Party USA):
GROUP 1:
Axel, Coin Toss, Flic-Flac,
Half Axel, Insane, Turtle, Twist
GROUP 2:
360, Cascade, Fade, Pinwheel, Refueling, Rolling Susan, Rolling-up,
Stall, Two-Point Landing
GROUP 3:
540, Backspin,
Dead Launch,
Double Axel, Flapjack,
Flip-Flap,
Insane, Kombo, Lazy Susan, Slide, Slot Machine, Spike, Yo-Yo
GROUP 4:
Comète, Jacob’s Ladder, K2000, Lewis, Multilazy, Rolling Cascade,
[Taz Machine],
Torpille,
Wap-Doo-Wap, Yo-Yo Takeoff
GROUP 5:
Backspin Cascade, Crazy Copter,
[Cynique], [Ladole],
[Multislot],
[Yo-Fade],
Yo-Yo Multilazy
August 3, 2006 — International Invitation Eligibility Clarified
The "Invitation and Award Eligibility" section of the Ranking System page has been updated to explain what makes competitors eligible for invitation to international competitions.
June 15, 2006 — Web Site Experiencing Problems
The Calendar page, Results & Rankings pages, and Ballet Programs form are currently intermittently unavailable because of a problem with our Internet service provider. For the time being, if you are trying to submit ballet programs for an upcoming Tricks Party event and you cannot access the Ballet Programs form, please follow the instructions described on the Gone With the Wind forum. If you have any problems, please contact us.
June 10, 2006 — Tricks Party Mentoring for Newbies
Need some one-on-one help understanding the Tricks Party rules or putting together a list of tricks for a ballet program? Dave Smith is your man! Dave has volunteered his assistance for all newcomers to Tricks Party, and if he can’t help you, he’ll hook you up with someone who can. Email Dave for more information.
May 24, 2006 — Mock TP to Be Held at Wildwood
Interested in Tricks Party but unsure about jumping in to compete? Join Dave Smith, Stephanie Hiebert, and others Saturday, May 27, at Wildwood (after the sport kite competition has wrapped up for the day) for a mock Tricks Party. Bring along a list of tricks you can do and some music (or we'll provide some music for you), and we'll take you through a quick round of Imposed Tricks and Ballet. No experience necessary! Visit the Gone With the Wind forum for more information.
May 5, 2006 — Tricks Party Staff Responsibilities Defined
If you'll be helping to staff a Tricks Party competition—whether as competition coordinator, field director, judge, line judge, pit boss, announcer, or scorekeeper—be sure to review the "Staff Descriptions" document that is now available on the Documents page.
April 24, 2006 — "Tricks Party for Dummies" Now Available
To learn all about what to expect as a Tricks Party competitor, check out the new comprehensive introduction "Tricks Party for Dummies," which is now available on the Documents page.
April 18, 2006 — The Kite Shoppe Sponsors Tricks Party Prizes!
The Kite Shoppe, a.k.a. TKS (www.thekiteshoppe.com), has offered to sponsor prizes for all U.S. Tricks Party competitions in 2006. Prizes may vary from event to event, but at Old Dominion, for example, 1st place in Tricks Party will get a $300 TKS gift certificate, 2nd place a $200 certificate, and 3rd a $100 certificate. If you're an event organizer planning a Tricks Party event, be sure to contact The Kite Shoppe for more information. Thanks, TKS, for your steadfast and enthusiastic support of the Tricks Party format!
April 1, 2006 — Training Videos, Revised Trick Definitions, and SASKC Videos Now Available
Videos to help train Tricks Party judges have been posted on the Videos page. Each video explores a single trick and gives judges an opportunity to test their skills and competitors an opportunity to find out what makes or breaks a trick score.
In conjunction with the judge training video project, the Trick Definitions document has been completely overhauled to make the descriptions clearer and more consistent. See the Documents page.
Videos of the top eight finishers in Tricks Party at the St. Augustine Sport Kite Classic (SASKC) in January have also been posted on the Videos page. Videos of places 9 through 15 will not be posted, but if you’re one of those competitors and you’d like a video copy of your performance, contact us.
March 19, 2006 — Event Certification and Scheduling Clarified
To clarify the difference between scheduling a Tricks Party event and certifying an event's results, relevant portions of this website have been revised. For details, review the introduction at the top of the Event Certification page, and see the note on the Calendar page.
February 15, 2006 — Definition of Double-Point Events Expanded
Both two-round and three-round competitions will earn competitors double Tricks Party USA ranking points. In addition, at three-round competitions, for each competitor the lowest of the three combined scores from Rounds 1, 2, and 3 will be dropped and the top two scores will be added together to arrive at a final score for the event. See the Ranking System page for details.
December 6, 2005 — Ballet Program Form Operational
The form for submitting ballet programs for U.S. Tricks Party competitions is now available on the Ballet Programs page under “Information and Forms.” Ballet programs are accepted during the period from one month before a scheduled competition to one week before that competition. Competitors must submit their ballet programs to guarantee a competition slot. Slots are reserved on a first come, first served basis.
For each competition, the Calendar page specifies the ballet program submission period, and it indicates the maximum number of competitors allowed (as determined by the individual event organizers), as well as how many of the total allowed slots have already been filled. Details and related discussion can be found under the "Tricks Party" topic of the Gone With the Wind online forum.
November 5, 2005 — Event Certification in Place
An event certification request form that can be submitted online or mailed in for review is now available on the Event Certification page. The calendar will be updated with events as certification requests are submitted and confirmed. Coming soon will be an online form for competitors to submit ballet programs. Stay tuned!
October 24, 2005 — Ranking System Posted
The Tricks Party USA ranking system is now explained in full on the Ranking System page. The certification request form is nearing completion and will follow soon on the Event Certification page.
October 15, 2005 — Tricks Party USA™ Launched
We are pleased to announce that Roger and Sylvie Tessa-Gambassi, originators of the Tricks Party format,
have granted us the rights to manage and promote Tricks Party events and maintain rankings in the United States.
Tricks Party is an exciting form of sport kite competition,
...
and we are eager to see it become a successful competition format in this country.
Our goal is to promote this new style of competition and to ensure that it is being run consistently throughout the country. The intent is to complement traditional forms of sport kite competition by providing — alongside the existing sport kite competition model — a distinctive, structured format that emphasizes trick flying.
To more effectively fulfill our responsibilities to the international Tricks Party organization, we have formed a nonprofit organization, called Tricks Party USATM, which will manage rankings and eligibility for any national championship events. These rankings will also be used by the international organization to determine which competitors are eligible for any future international championships. For U.S. competitors, only results from competitions that have been run or officially certified by Tricks Party USA will be recognized by the international Tricks Party organization.
Many thanks to David Hansen for his help and support in creating the Tricks Party USA website. The website will be expanded with certification details soon, and we will start maintaining cumulative rankings in January 2006.
If you are interested in running a Tricks Party competition in your area, contact us about details. We highly recommend this exciting new competition format and will be glad to help you get started!
Ron Graziano & Stephanie Hiebert
Founders, Tricks Party USA
