posted Apr 23rd, 2008 - The NSL News continues with the same topics of the last two days and adds some. The Airspeed Odyssey Bloopers were well received and entertained the audience, thanks to Andy Delk. In fact, it was obviously so inspiring that Bodyflight Storm's videographer Gary Wainwright was encouraged by his team to create a similar clip. The funnels are very similar to Airspeed's and can be viewed by clicking here.

The next topic is a more serious one and goes back once again to the World Challenge 2008. Several British teams attended the competition on their home turf in the United Kingdom and competed on all levels and in both competition classes, including the British top contenders and national teams.

XL in 2nd place does not count as a British team any longer, even though three of the players in Bedford (Thomas Hughes, Pete Allum, Steve Hamilton) were born and raised in the United Kingdom. The other real British teams offered enough additional great competition and were also observed carefully by UK's skydiving community.

Fusion is the official British national 4-way team in the Open Class for this year's World Championship of Formation Skydiving in France. Simon Cathrine, Henry Chow, Laura McLelland and Lynne Murray qualified for the event as the team in 4th place at last year's national championship (Archives > 2007 > Leagues > International > Meet 33 Results). Winner Bodyflight Storm decided to compete in the female category. Team Elan in 2nd place stepped back due to a lack of funding. Aardvark Zulu in 3rd place discontinued, and the slot went to Fusion.

Fusion competed at the World Challenge 2008 and finished with a 17.1 average. Three other UK teams scored higher, including South Park with an 18.5 average, Bodyflight Storm with a 22.6 average and Satori with a 22.9 average.

The new team Satori was introduced by the NSL News with the story on 9 January 2008. Satori's performance at the World Challenge 2008 surprised and impressed quite a few people in the United Kingdom and raised questions about the status of the top teams.

British skydivers have been discussing the situation after the windtunnel competition, and some were even wondering if Satori would now represent the UK at this year's World Meet in France. Satori is being considered an inexperienced team that beat both the two official British national teams at its first competition.

NSL-TV uploaded a few new videos that feature Bodyflight Storm and Satori at the World Challenge 2008 and provide an idea of how these two teams were performing at Bodyflight Bedford's windtunnel competition. The new videos also offer another opportunity to compare Bodyflight Storm's performance in Round 10 from two different camera views. The NSL-TV video filmed from inside the flying chamber on level can be viewed by clicking here.

The NSL News also asked the teams for feedback regarding the discussed matters in the United Kingdom. The status of the British national teams has already been explained. Bodyflight Storm provided additional and new insights from the team's perspective, which explain more of the outcome at the World Challenge 2008.

Bodyflight Storm, with Hannah Betts (Center Inside), Claire Scott (Center Outside), Sarah Smith (Point), Kate Stephens (Tail) and Gary Wainwright Camera) in the lineup, completed 981 team jumps between February 2007 and March 2008. Two of the team members, Hannah Betts and Sarah Smith were new to the AAA Class dive pool after competing in the AA Class (11.2 - 12.8 - 13.3) throughout the 2006 season. The team still feels somehow new in the AAA Class after competing at three AAA Class meets prior to the World Challenge 2008 (SCSL meets in Elsinore and Perris, plus the UK Nationals 2007).

UK's national team in the female category began to mirror-image the team's whole continuity plan after winning the UK Nationals 2007 to prepare for jumping from the Pilatus Porter. This plan includes to dive the exits instead of shifting the exit formations across and float them.

Team member Claire "Sparky" Scott explained the difficulty of this strategy: "It is like writing with your right hand for years and then having to switch to using your left hand. It has taken a lot of hard work in terms of tunnel time, jumps and visualisation to get the team to the same place and beyond where we were with our original left-hand continuity."

Bodyflight Storm planned the team training to specifically tie into the timing of this year's World Meet. Other competitions, such as the World Challenge 2008 and the Southern California Skydiving League meets, are only a part of the long journey, not the pinnacle, as Claire Scott added.

The team did not train specifically for the windtunnel competition. The training prior to the event in March was more geared towards preparing for the next training camp and SCSL competition in April. The World Challenge 2008 was more a fun competition and a chance to watch and learn from other top teams, such as Airspeed Odyssey and Perris Fury. Claire Scott said that it was also the first tunnel competition for this lineup and presented different challenges compared to outdoor competitions.

Satori's high performance level at the World Challenge 2008 did not surprise the Bodyflight Storm members, as Claire Scott explained:

"We expected nothing less from them, as they are all experienced skydivers. Center Outside Julia Foxwell is a reigning Airkix 4-way world champion of 2006 in the female category coming from a 19-point average. Center Inside Liz Matthews was a V-Max member between 2000 and 2003 and won the gold medal at the World Meet 2003 with a 16.5 average. Tail Aaron Faith represented the United Kingdom at the World Meet 2006 in the 4-way Open Class. Katie Woods is a tunnel instructor at Bodyflight Bedford and originally wanted by Hayabusa Defence."

Bodyflight Storm obviously did not see the competition with Satori as a main objective and continues to prepare for the World Meet 2008. The team is training a lot and is so fortunate to have enough resources for training and competition. Storm exceeded the required average at the UK Nationals 2007 and qualified for the BPA funding (British Parachute Association).

Claire Scott said that this is still a small drop in the ocean to what we need to be competitive at this year's World Championships from the Porter: "Last year, the team members took the risk of giving up their jobs to ensure that they could train enough and secure themselves a place to represent their country at this year's world meet."

The 2008 season is financially more challenging for the team members: "The team has found it difficult to secure sponsorship for this year's plan. We have had to make the most of coaching projects, as well as resorting to the usual credit card methods..."

Bodyflight Bedford supports the team, and Storm feels extremely lucky to be sponsored by the host of the World Challenge:

"It is obvious that windtunnels have helped contribute to both the growth of competitive teams in the UK and to the continuing high standard. However, we are also aware that we cannot prepare for the World Meet just by using the windtunnel. Exits and hill work are obviously vitally important. That was mainly the reason for doing just under 100 Porter exits in four days last week."

The Bodyflight Storm members understand the competition with Satori as a friendly rivalry, as it used to be between Bodyflight Storm and Team Elan in 2007. Both teams, and also the British skydiving community, follow each other's progress with great interest this year, even though the World Meet 2008 is the primary goal for Bodyflight Storm.

The BPA Championship 2008 will finally be the national showdown for Storm and Satori. It will be another big challenge for the Storm members. They have to peak perform at the World Meet in August to defend the British gold medals in the female category. Then the UK Nationals follow one week later - from a left-hand door.

Storm's Center Outside takes it easy, as she explains how her team feels about the situation at the national championship this year:

"We will still look forward to travelling to the British Nationals and defend our British title, just one week after the Word Championships. Despite the fact that we will not have had time to prepare well for the left-hand door exits, the team will relish this as another great challenge in 2008. We know that Satori will have trained hard for the Nationals. We expect them to put on a very strong performance, which will no doubt make for a very exciting competition. We can't wait!"