The Beach Becomes a Drop Zone

Welcome to Dubai's worst-publicized sporting event! While ESPN 8 (the Ocho) might have been carrying it, we were surprised to take a nice weekend walk on the beach and come across the Dubai Parachute and Skydive World Championships. I can somewhat understand - the title didn't fit on any sign at the event, so how would it fit in a newspaper? Smooth move, promoters - but it was cool event nonetheless:
It was a pretty nice event, though - we walked in and ended up in the practice/launch area with all of the international teams. Now that it's over, I don't think we supposed to be back there, but the promoters we probably also in charge of the crack security. We even got a behind-the-scenes sneak at the early scores. Who was in 1st and 2nd place with 100 and 99 points, respectively? That's right, good old USA (sorry Russia) - you heard it here first! Here's a shot of the formation teams practicing:
Aside from crazy people jumping out of perfectly good airplanes, there were also crazy people who stayed inside their airplanes. Just check out Peter Besenyei (of Red Bull Air Race fame) doing a sideways pass feet from our heads and feet from the ground - THROUGH A GRANDSTAND:

There were also hot air balloons, and other airshows - check it out below:
Inverted Fly-By at 100 feet:

And another knife-edge pass with a vertical corkscrew: