posted Jul 4th, 2015 - Several national championships in Europe are scheduled for the month of July, as the summer months offer the best opportunity to complete the events due to the weather patterns.

Denmark is one of the countries with an earlier date, as the summer is shorter in the northern parts of Europe.

The Sun Path Products NSL News reported a more competitive situation in Denmark this year, with updates from different perspectives on May 5th and on May 20th.

Both stories explained that there are two teams, Prime Pickles and Pangaea, who are planning to challenge the reigning champions and national team of the past years, VAF Warriors, at the national championships.

World Challenge 2015			Rd. 1	Rd. 2	Rd. 3	Rd. 4	Rd. 5	Rd. 6	Rd. 7	Rd. 8	Rd. 9	Rd. 10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		15,K,E,F	11,22,A	16,H,M,19	3,10,D	17,18,P	4,12,O	5,N,L,G	14,B,C,20	2,1,21	J,Q,6,13	Total	Avg
16	Pangaea	DK	24	15	16	16	18	17	23	18	17	21	185	18.5
22	Prime Pickles	DK	24	16	20	14	18	16	21	17	13	18	177	17.7

VAF Warriors member Anne Mine Møller Petersen told the Sun Path Products NSL News that her team recently completed the last training camp before the championships:

"It was a bit of a gamble to plan a 4-day camp in Denmark in June, due to the changing weather conditions. Fortunately we had almost perfect weather all four days, and we did a total of 30 jumps from the Skyvan, which is also the jump plane for the nationals."

Coach Roy Janssen, reigning 4-way world champion as a NMP-PCH Hayabusa member of 2014, was in his Tail slot for the first 15 training jumps.

John Petersen did not get the time off work as it was planned. Mine Petersen said that the VAF Warriors made the best of the situation:

"It proved to be valuable for both the team and for Roy, as he got a better insight of our flying and was able to push us to fly faster."

DFU Cup 2015				Round 1	Round 2	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class			5,8,1	7,C,21	Total	Avg
1	VAF Warriors	DK	INT	13(-1)	15(-2)	28	14.0
2	Pangaea	DK	INT	10(-3)	9(-5)	19	9.5

It was unusual for the team to train as much from the Skyvan. The VAF Warriors use Twin Otters for team training, as jump planes with a tail gate are not being used much at international events:

"Usually we only get 5-10 pre competition jumps just before the nationals, depending on the weather. So this was a nice change. We tried different exits and struggled a bit to get them right, but we got a lot of notes to use in the upcoming competition."

The VAF Warriors are now looking forward to meeting the challengers at the national championships:

"With the last preparations at the pre-training before the competition, we hope to be ready to defend our title as national champions. Roy has been working very hard to get us to this point, and now we're just eager to show him and everybody else what we can do."

One of the opposing teams, Pangaea, was training at the same time in Teuge, Netherlands, and the Prime Pickles recently completed a 100-jump training camp in Perris, California.

The Prime Pickles had very bad luck, as the team's Tail, Kate Cooper-Jensen, broke an arm in Perris, and the team has to find a substitute very quickly.

Mine Petersen said that the Warriors will attend the Danish 60-way record attempt after the nationals and then compete at the World Cup in September. The Danish tunnel competition in Bedford and the 1st FAI/IPC Indoor Skydiving World Championships at the Hurricane Factory in Prague are on the team schedule after the outdoor events.