posted Dec 16th, 2013 - The Sun Path Products NSL News has followed the career of the British 4way team Raykipo since the team was formed for the Rookie Class competition of 2010 in the United Kingdom Skydiving League. Ever since, Raykipo has demonstrated the perfect progression by moving up into the next category year by year. The latest Raykipo update was posted on 14 May 2013.

The 2013 season was the first one in the AAA Class, which opened up the opportunity for Raykipo to attend international FAI/IPC events where only the AAA Class competition rules and dive pool are being applied. The annual World Challenge offers international competition for all teams in all four NSL categories. However, only the AAA Class leaderboard includes teams from all over the planet, even in Bedford.

Raykipo had once again finished off the AA Class phase with the 1st place at the World Challenge 2013 and then competed in the AAA Class for the remainder of the year. The new AAA Class team competed in the highest and ultimate category at all six outdoor meets that Raykipo attended this year.

The 7-meet season made Raykipo one of the busiest competition teams in 2013. In fact, there are only two teams of the Florida Skydiving League (Zunday, Pyro4ic) who attended seven outdoor meets this year. However, Raykipo still completed more outdoor rounds (50) than the Florida teams.

Raykipo took full advantage of the first AAA Class season and the opportunity of attending international FAI/IPC events and collecting highly valuable competition experiences. Raykipo first traveled to Banja Luka in August for the World Cup 2013 and then followed up at the 4th Dubai International Parachuting Championship 2013.

The combination of those two events alone provided Raykipo with international competition experiences that are extremely helpful in forming teams. Raykipo went through everything a team needs to learn, from the 14.1 average in Banja Luka to the impressive 16.3 career record average at the UK Nationals 2013 to the lowest meet average of the year (12.6) in Dubai.

4way Open

4way Women

4way VFS

8way Open

4th DIPC 2013		Rd. 1	Rd. 2	Rd. 3	Rd. 4	Rd. 5	Rd. 6	Rd. 7	Rd. 8	Rd. 9	Total	Avg
Rank	4way Open Class	11,H,12	F,15,10	A,N,E,Q,8	K,4,L,6	M,C,20,5	13,O,16	3,17,18	21,7,1	G,22,14	Total	Avg
7	Monaco Vitalsea (MC)	12(-2)	14	17	17	12(-3)	10(-1)	11(-1)	16	12(-1)	121(-8)	13.4
8	Raykipo (UK)	14	13(-1)	18(-4)	11(-4)	13(-5)	13	8(-3)	15(-3)	8	113(-20)	12.6
9	Torque (CA)	10	13(-1)	17	14	13(-1)	9(-1)	11	12(-1)	12	111(-4)	12.3
10	Hungary (HU)	5	7	11	8	9	7	6	8	3	64	7.1
11	Ecuador (EC)	2	4	6	4	2	1	4	3	0	26	2.9

NSL Talk	Raykipo (UK)

Raykipo was once again done after Round 9 in Dubai, as it was the case in Banja Luka, where cuts eliminated teams for semifinals and finals, according to the FAI/IPC rules. Raykipo had made the first cut at the World Cup and missed the cut for the finals in Dubai.

The British team would probably have made the finals and Round 10 in Dubai without the severe damage due to infringements and a lot of video trouble. Raykipo lost a total of 20 points, which was the main reason for the low meet average. Team member Hari Ganapathy explained that his team had never jumped from a Twin Otter before competing in Dubai:

"We did two training jumps before the competition, which was definitely not enough. Although the team was exiting well, our cameraman was peeling instead of leading on the exits - a hard learned lesson to take away from the competition."

UK Nationals 2013		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	19,4,1	15,J,7	C,Q,17,12	L,13,10	9,G,20	H,11,2	K,8,21	P,6,M,14	N,E,5,16	O,F,A,22	Total	Avg
1	Satori (UK)	18	23	21	17	20	19	16	24	22	25	205	20.5
2	Voodoo (ZA)	16	20	20	15	19	17	17	21	20	24	189	18.9
3	Kaizen (UK)	15	20	18	12	19	17	17	20	19	22	179	17.9
4	Bodyflight Isis (UK)	14	19	14	14	19	17	15	20	17	25	174	17.4
5	Ultrasonic (UK)	14	19	17	13	18	16	15	16	16	23	167	16.7
6	Raykipo (UK)	15	16	16	14	16	17	14	18	17	20	163	16.3

He said that Raykipo have never had any video busts with videographer Grant Richards before. The planes that Raykipo jumped from prior to Dubai (Cessna Caravan, G92 Dornier, Turbo Let) have all been conducive with peeling video exits. The same technique did not work well from the Twin Otters in Dubai.

The outcome in Dubai after the placement in Banja Luka makes it easy for Raykipo to set the goal for the next international FAI/IPC competition. The finals and completing Round 10 for the first time could become the target for the next AAA Class season with an international competition.

Raykipo will probably launch the 2014 season for the first time in the same category that the team finished off the previous year, the AAA Class. It will be very difficult this time though to continue with the Raykipo winning streak at the World Challenge 2014...