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Did You Know...

... that Sven Ibens has plenty of time for more 4-way and 8-way fun?

Sven Ibens with NMP PCH HayaBusa at the World Meet 2006
posted Apr 25th, 2016 - The Sun Path Products NSL News features a new NSL Profile, and it's not one of the several current or former 4-way and 8-way world champions who is being introduced to the SKYLEAGUE.COM audience "Up Close & Personal".

However, Sven Ibens would probably be a 4-way world champion by now had he continued with Roy Janssen, David and Andy Grauwels and the HayaBusa project. He decided in 2006 to give priority to his job and family and continued as a recreational 4-way competitor.

His career story includes the funniest moment, which happened for him at the World Cup 2012. The same event was also one of his favorite competitions in his 29-year skydiving career. Sven Ibens is not planning to give up his 4-way and 8-way passion any time soon, and he has plenty of time: "I don't know why, but I sincerely believe that I will reach the age of 100..."

Favorite meet: World Cup 2012
Sven Ibens' recent career since forming Thunder ISR has been well documented by the Sun Path Products NSL News. The career story for his NSL Profile will now rather pick up one of the Up Close & Personal topics that cannot be found anywhere in the news updates: "Funniest Moment in Skydiving".

Sven Ibens has plenty of funny stories, which 29 years in the sport easily provide. However, there is one story that sticks out, and it shows how humble this perfect team mate with a quiet authority really is, as Sven Ibens himself was in the center of the mishap...

He will never forget Round 9 at the World Cup in Prostejov 2012, where he had some problems with the exit procedure: "The jump plane is a Turbolet, flying fast. We are in the plane with HayaBusa and the Norwegian girls. We're first out and we had to launch Block 12 (Bundy - Bundy)."

World Cup 2012
12345678910TotalAvg
RankAAA Class1,19,214,18,15N,16,20E,6,J,AC,K,9,13F,8,11Q,22,L,21B,17,H,P12,D,0,4G,10,7TotalAvg
1NMP-PCH HayabusaBE2119223331222340242626126.1
2ThunderBE2017202427202031201921821.8
3SportLotoRU1617212920192031192021221.2
4SatoriUK1615172823192025192020220.2
5Deep Blue DefendersFR1615172721172031191619919.9
6Ex3mo 4IT1712172820151928171518818.8
7Magic 4LT129111615131120101413113.1
8May TeamUA1188161211111713-10711.9
9QuagisUK666987884-626.9
10TurkeyTR566787795-606.7
11CyprusCY245837686-495.4
Jump plane in Prostejov 2012: Turbolet
Nothing unusual happened on the ride to altitude, and the Thunder members were preparing themselves for this meet round as for any other one, completely focused. Then the real story began: "Red light - door open. Final visualization before the jump. Green light..."

Thunder climbed out, and the team members took their positions in the door. Sven Ibens was the last one to take his place as the Inside Center, and things began to get out of control then: "I see everyone more or less comfortable in the door and I take my grips. Wesley is head-jamming in the door and needs to have my leg grip."

The Turbolet has a slightly higher door compared to a Twin Otter or a Cessna Caravan, which makes head-jamming and reaching grips more difficult for the Outside Center: "Wesley has a hard time getting my grip and I decide to help him by lifting my leg. As I do, I feel that I am completely out of balance, but I cannot put my foot back on the floor, because Wesley already has my grip..."

Sven Ibens with NMP PCH HayaBusa in 2005
Funniest moment: World Cup 2012
Sven Ibens finally lost balance completely, and disaster struck Thunder: "Before I can give the count, I am falling back into the plane, and I am literally lying on the ground." He thought that this was not really a good time to exit, and he called the team back in the plane to request a go-around: "Wesley and Paul crawl back inside, and I am helping Tail Jacco back in by pulling his chest strap, making sure he is not falling off."

Four members of the team were safe by then, however, when Jacco Van Eerden looked back to check on videographer Grim Swinnen he saw him floating with one hand, no feet on the step anymore, with a large smile on his face: "Jacco starts signaling us that we really need to go before we lose our video. In the meantime I see HayaBusa and the girls looking at us with eyes wide open, trying to figure out what we are trying to prove..."

The story still came to a happy end with a perfect Thunder exit: "We all realized very quickly that we couldn't go around, took our positions and launched a perfect 12. It surely was not funny at the very moment, but afterwards we had some good laughs about it..."

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