posted Apr 26th, 2008 - New scores have been added to the leaderboard of the April 19 meet weekend. The Czech Republic held its first national indoor championship at Bodyflight Bedford, host of the World Challenge 2008. Three teams competed in the AAA Class, additional three teams in the Rookie Class competition.

It is the first time that outdoor and indoor scores appear on the same leaderboard, as the Florida Skydiving League held its second meet of the 2008 season in DeLand the same weekend.

Teiwaz member Robert Chromy could not join the last lineup for the April meet since he was invited to Bedford for a coaching and flying job on a very short notice. He reported that the event used the same competition draw and provided the scores of the indoor competition.

The Czech AAA Class competition, with two jump-off rounds, was the most exciting part of the event at Bodyflight Bedford. The Bad Boys were showing that they could keep up with the pace of the Czech national team Sky Service.

Event coach Robert Chromy commented that Sky Service looked very good, with improved communication and generally better flying skills compared to last year. He said that it shows that the team has been flying at Bodyflight Bedford under Steve Hamiltons's coaching.

The Sky Service members told Robert Chromy about this year's plans, which do not include the World Championship of Formation Skydiving. Participation at this year's world meet is financially not possible for the Czech national team. However, Sky Service plans for a busy year in 2009 when the FAI World Cup will be held in Prostejov, Czech Republic.

Jan Klapka, founder of the Czech Skydiving League and Bad Boys member, was sick and could not compete with his team in Bedford. He had put a lot of energy into organizing the event and then missed it. Steve Hamilton, Bad Boys' coach as well, filled the Center Inside slot for Jan Klapka.

Robert Chromy commented that a team member of Steve Hamilton's caliber is a big advantage. However, he added that there still is the other side of the coin: "The rest of the team members need to keep up with the pace of a strong team member, and this is exactly what the rest of the Bad Boys did."

The Bad Boys gave Sky Servive a great horse race through the ten rounds of the meet, which ended in a tie. Robert Chromy reported that it was an exciting moment to watch the teams going into Round 11:

"The Bad Boys flew Round 11 first, setting a fast pace, but they had one bust on a Block 14 build. Sky Service showed a great performance with a little more conservative pace and finished with a nice clean 14-pointer, as well."

He knows Sky Service from his ealier coaching jobs with the team as a player coach: "They show great discipline and experience under pressure. They kept the pace and the points clean for the judges. The Bad Boys, of course, found themselves surprisingly in a jump off with the current national team and fired all their guns in Round 11, had a fast pace but paid for it with one bust."

After the tie in the jump-off round, the rules would usually determine the winner by the highest score of the meet. However, both teams rather wanted to fly against each other to break the tie and discussed the matter with the Czech Event Judge, Eva Rozsypalkova, and the other competitors.

Finally, a second jump off round was drawn (7 - 18 - 2). Robert Chromy reported that both teams had a fantastic performance in the second jump-off round: "The Bad Boys were just a little bit quicker catching their Block 18's which scored them a 17 over Sky Service's 16-pointer."

Three Rookie Class teams competed for the first Czech indoor championship title, as well. The Fast Arrows were missing Center Inside Jirina Klapkova who stayed at home with her sick husband Jan Klapka. Tanya Hollis, former Team Elan member, was coaching the team and filled the slot for Jirina Klapkova. The Fast Arrows had a great performance in the windtunnel. They are last year's Czech Rookie Class champion and are moving up into the AA Class later this year.

Robert Chromy said that the two runner up teams in the Rookie Class were formed of exactly the type of skydivers that the Rookie Class is designed for: people with very few jumps who want to check out 4-way skydiving. Both Kolin and HH had a mixture of experienced and new skydivers. Robert Chromy himself filled the Center Outside slot for Team HH team on a short notice since one of the team members found it more useful to train the basic skills in the windtunnel. He left his Czech friends with a greeting: "To je dobri".

The first outdoor competition of the Czeck Skydiving League is scheduled for May 24.