posted Aug 18th, 2010 - The NSL News published a preview of the UK Nationals 2010 with the story on 12 August 2010. The story focused mostly on the re-match between Satori and Team Bodyflight after the World Championship of Formation Skydiving 2010.

Satori won the national 4-way title with a significantly larger difference to Team Bodyflight in 2nd place. Only one single point had separated both teams at the World Meet 2010 in Menzelinsk, Satori was now 19 points ahead after last weekend's ten rounds.

However, much more was going on in Hibaldstow, and Kaizen member Jo Hawley was an eye witness at the competition site. She provided once again a more detailed meet story. NSL-TV is still working on video footage of the competition. The quality is not satisfactory so far, as the video of Team Bodyflight's Round 1 shows. More and better videos will hopefully follow soon.

Team Bodyflight's Round 1 at the UK Nationals 2010

UK Nationals 2010

Written by Jo Hawley

Last weekend Hibaldstow airfield saw the largest skydiving event ever staged in the United Kingdom as 57 teams competed at the British national championships. With 54 FS team in 4-way, three VFS teams and a terrible weather forecast, the dropzone pulled off a spectacular feat of organisation, with all jumps done in a day and a half. Could this now be the biggest nationals in the World? We’ll see in Chicago in three weeks.

Friday’s training day didn’t go well with only two lifts jumping due to severe weather conditions. As the rain poured, the teams registered, collected their funky nationals t-shirts and Escondido browsed sewing websites to learn how to stitch on their new patches. (Those guys are so rock and roll.)

Saturday morning dawned to more grey skies, but after only a few hours on a weather hold, jumping began. The three Dorniers flew until it was getting dark, leaving most teams with only two rounds to complete on Sunday.

UK Nationals 2010		Round1	Round2	Round3	Round4	Round5	Round6	Round7	Round8	Round9	Round10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	9,20,K	12,10,1	3,14,21	B,18,H,22	A,17,F,16	P,O,N,D,E	7,6,J	15,G,11	13,5,M	4,C,8	Total	Avg
1	Satori	20	15	17	20	19	37	23	18	20	18	207	20.7
2	Team Bodyflight	18	14	17	17	23	32	21	14	13	19	188	18.8
3	Sonicnutz	15	12	13	14	19	27	18	14	17	16	165	16.5
4	Vision	18	9	11	15	18	28	18	14	15	16	162	16.2
5	Voodoo	15	12	13	12	16	26	18	13	17	13	155	15.5
6	Kaizen	13	9	11	14	14	26	14	11	12	11	135	13.5
7	Escondido	13	8	9	11	16	22	15	10	14	12	130	13.0
8	Phobia	14	10	9	12	10	20	16	11	9	10	121	12.1
9	TLD	11	9	9	11	12	21	11	9	12	12	117	11.7
10	Cookie Monsters	10	7	9	11	12	19	13	9	10	9	109	10.9
11	Reverse Cereberus	12	9	8	7	11	19	13	9	8	10	106	10.6
12	Wingin It	9	7	8	10	9	16	13	9	10	7	98	9.8

The battle between Satori and Team Bodyflight (the UK’s representatives at the recent World Meet) was dominated by Satori with the ladies’ team only beating last year’s winners in two rounds. Sonicnutz finished in 3rd place for a second year running with an impressive 16.5 average holding back guest teams Vision (16.2) and Voodoo Exile (15.5). Kaizen finished the “best of the rest” beating long term rivals Escondido and Phobia back into 5th and 6th positions.

UK Nationals 2010		Round1	Round2	Round3	Round4	Round5	Round6	Round7	Round8	Round9	Round10	Total	Avg
Rank	AA Class	P,14,15	13,N,7	1,11	9,B,6	22,21	20,A,J	F,8,19	C,18,G			Total	Avg
1	Unagi	11	13	10	13	7	13	10	13	-	-	90	11.3
2	RAFSPA Firefly	10	10	10	14	8	13	13	8	-	-	86	10.8
3	Sirius	9	7	8	13	9	9	8	10	-	-	73	9.1
4	Slot Machines	7	9	8	11	8	10	10	9	-	-	72	9.0
5	Kinetic4	7	7	6	12	7	9	7	8	-	-	63	7.9
6	Old Skool	7	8	6	8	8	8	7	10	-	-	62	7.8

Although the smallest category in the meet, the AA Class was the most hotly contended. Unagi were given a run for their money by RAFSPA Firefly. Unagi snatch victory from the jaws of defeat only in the final round when RAFSPA managed only 8- to Unagi’s 13-pointer, handing them the lead and the gold medal.

Sirius and Slot Machines were neck and neck going into Round 8, but it was Sirius who held their nerve and took the bronze by only one point.

UK Nationals 2010		Round1	Round2	Round3	Round4	Round5	Round6	Round7	Round8	Round9	Round10	Total	Avg
Rank	A Class	A,21	N,P,J	2,B	4,E	F,6	O,D,M	8,9	C,7			Total	Avg
1	Full Stop	13	19	12	13	15	25	11	15	-	-	123	15.4
2	Eclipse	12	15	12	11	12	19	9	14	-	-	104	13.0
3	Tetris	7	16	12	10	12	21	9	13	-	-	100	12.5
4	Gr4vity	11	11	14	11	10	19	10	12	-	-	98	12.3
5	Fuegos	8	10	9	8	11	17	9	6	-	-	78	9.8
6	RAFSPA Phoenix	8	10	7	8	10	11	8	10	-	-	72	9.0

Last year’s Rookie Class champions, Full Stop, won the A Class with an impressive 15.4 average. Although well trained in the tunnel, they team had only done three jumps together since nationals last year and still took the gold by a massive 19-point margin over their nearest rivals.

Eclipse got silver but also the only injury of the meet with tail Jonny Flowers breaking his arm on the final jump. He at least managed it back from the hospital, arm in plaster, for the prize giving and party.

Tetris took bronze with a disappointed Gr4vity lagging behind in 4th.

UK Nationals 2010		Round1	Round2	Round3	Round4	Round5	Round6	Round7	Round8	Round9	Round10	Total	Avg
Rank	Rookie	N,J,K	F,O,C	E,A,H	B,H,L	P,Q,M	G,Q,L	A,E,K	P,D,F			Total	Avg
1	Ch4os	10	16	16	12	21	8	12	16	-	-	111	13.9
2	Raykipo	9	14	13	9	15	8	15	17	-	-	100	12.5
3	High Altitude Heroes	11	11	14	11	16	6	12	16	-	-	97	12.1
4	Enigma Fource	8	12	12	10	15	7	11	10	-	-	85	10.6
5	Information Overload	6	13	5	9	10	7	9	13	-	-	72	9.0
6	Wedoanyshapesdotcom	7	8	7	7	9	6	9	10	-	-	63	7.9
6	Silver Fox	7	8	10	8	9	6	7	8	-	-	63	7.9
6	RAFSPA Typhoon	6	9	8	2	10	7	9	12	-	-	63	7.9

The Rookie Class was by far the largest category with an incredible 25 teams competing. A new Langar team, Ch4os, appeared for their first competition and won with a strong 13.9 average. Raykipo and High Altitude Heroes were left to fight it out for second and third with the former pulling away in the final two rounds to take the silver.

Within hours of the competition finishing, the dropzone was already buzzing with speculation about which teams would continue next year. Will the Big 2 carry on? Sonicnutz have already decided to go for a big commitment next year and Vision are hoping to keep jumping with Pete Allum to build on their fantastic progress this year. Kaizen will continue and is hoping for an injury free season having suffered broken bones in two out of the last three seasons.

Noone can imagine a 4-way scene without Phobia, though they’ll have to find a permanent Tail next season having struggled to fill that slot this year. Unagi has World Cup ambitions and will make the step up into the AAA Class competition, as Slot Machines will do.

As for the rest, Gr4vity will move up into the AA Class, but will Full Stop try to make it three gold medals in a row? Most of the Rookie Class teams had at least a couple of members who had been bitten by the 4-way bug. My advice: warn your bank managers now... So the UK scene looks set to go from strength to strength despite the economic downturn and the variable British climate!

In the meantime, our thoughts are turning to the ESL Championship at the beginning of September. Several British teams are hoping to bring home some European silverware back from Texel - and maybe even a sword. See you there?