posted Nov 22nd, 2011 - SkyQuest 2011, with the Kaleidoscope Dives and the NSL Championship, concluded the NSL 2011 season and was the last outdoor meet of the year in the USA. The worldwide competition season is not over yet, as the 3rd Dubai Championship 2011 is the next upcoming event. Then the USPA Collegiates 2011 will really be the last competition this year or the first one next year.

The ESL Championship 2011 was the last international competition in Europe, with 15 teams from seven different countries. Only Belgium, Germany and Denmark had additional national meets scheduled after the ESL Championship in September.

The ESL organizers have created a very interesting event with a new format that pitches the whole delegations of the participating country against each other. It is a regular 4way competition with winners in all four categories. In addition, the cumulative scores of a certain number of teams per nation determines the winner of the overall event who takes home the popular trophy, the ESL Spirit sword.

ESL Championship 2011		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	6,Q,B,A	22,1,10	15,17,16	C,12,7	20,E,3	18,M,K,J	13,N,P,9	L,19,21	D,14,5	11,8,4	Total	Avg
1	Thunder	27	15	17	20	19	26	20	19	19	16	198	19.8
2	NL Whooops	19	12	13	13	13	16	13	13	14	12	138	13.8
3	NL Ignition	16	11	11	13	11	15	12	12	12	11	124	12.4
4	NL Turbulence Unloaded	15	8	8	10	10	14	10	11	9	8	103	10.3
Rank	AA Class	9,O,19	18,H,21	L,J,2	D,8,4	Q,P,F,6	22,E,7	G,14,1	11,A,K	20,N,13	B,M,C,15	Total	Avg
1	NL Cool Runnings	10	11	12	9	10	9	8	10	9	14	102	10.2
2	NL Murphy Mania	12	11	12	7	12	10	6	10	6	13	99	9.9
3	NL Meo	12	8	10	8	11	7	6	8	8	10	88	8.8
Rank	A Class	H,G,8	19,L	4,P	K,O,A	E,7	N,6	9,J	M,F,Q	2,B	C,D,21	Total	Avg
1	Italy Nytro Team Casale	10	9	10	12	12	12	14	24	10	11	124	12.4
2	Greece Blue Rebels	6	7	7	15	11	9	8	21	8	4	96	9.6
3	NL MACH4	7	8	8	13	11	7	9	15	7	9	94	9.4
4	NL Pari-Passu	8	6	8	12	9	7	8	14	7	6	85	8.5
Rank	Rookie	Q,H,K	P,N,E	C,L,B	J,A,O	G,D,M	F,H,N	P,E,C	L,A,D	Q,G,J	F,O,M	Total	Avg
1	CZ Hvězdy	7	11	13	14	10	14	11	10	10	26	126	12.6
2	Greece Blue Rebels Family	5	8	9	10	8	11	9	8	6	23	97	9.7
3	UK Gringo	5	5	4	9	6	9	8	3	4	13	66	6.6
4	NL Last Minute	2	3	1	0	3	7	3	2	4	10	35	3.5

The ESL organizers are now trying to attract more teams and new countries to the event. Two of the European Formation skydiving powerhouses, France and Germany, have not sent any teams to the ESL Championship in the history of the event. French national manager Jeremie Rollett, reigning 4way world champion of 2010, plans to synchronize dive pools and competition classes next year and then have some of his teams compete at the ESL Championship. The Netherlands, consecutive winner of the ESL Spirit in 2009, 2010 and 2011, will instantly have a very strong contender as soon as France joins the ESL community.

The host of the ESL Championship has traditionally been the winner of the ESL Spirit, which brought the event three times to the Texel Skydiving Center on the island of Texel in the Netherlands. This will most likely change in 2012 since the ESL organizers decided to open a bidding procedure for the hosting of the event, which is open for any skydiving center in Europe.

Teams and competitors in Europe are currently in the last phase of a voting procedure that will determine where the ESL Championship 2012 will be held. The ESL organizers have set up an online voting option where teams and competitors can choose between six different options.

The NSL News met with Thunder member Sven Ibens when the Kaleidoscope Divers were on a long weather hold on Saturday and discussed several topics. His international lineup will compete at the Shamrock Showdown 2012 to meet the best teams in the world since Thunder does not meet the IPC requirements to compete at a World Championship or World Cup of Formation Skydiving.

Sven Ibens is also the Belgian IPC delegate and a regular member of the IPC Subcommission for Formation Skydiving competition. He was on a bigway vacation at SkyQuest 2011 and will now go back to 4way training and competition. The format and extension of the ESL Championship was one of the NSL Talk topics last Saturday.

Hosts of six different European countries have sent in their bids for the ESL Championship 2012, and most of them are experienced hosts of international events.

Texel is well known as the most frequent host of the ESL Championship since the Netherlands have been the 5-time winner in the 8-year history of the event. The skydiving club in Prostejov delivered a smooth operation of the World Cup 2009 that the NSL News covered live from the event site.

Belgium's skydiving center in Moorsele is the third candidate and has hosted several national championships. Hibaldstow is the host of the UK Nationals and famous for the national championship of 2010, where 57 teams completed all rounds in a day and a half. The skydiving center in Sevilla, Spain, is hosting training camps for many European teams, even though Spain does not have many competitive teams herself.

Last not least, France would probably join the European Skydiving League with several teams and a whole delegation if Maubeuge wins the bidding. The name itself brings world class atmosphere into the ESL game plan, as almost each French national team and many world champions call Maubeuge their home dropzone. Maubeuge also hosted the World Championship of Formation Skydiving 2008 that the NSL News covered live from the event site. Arizona Airspeed won the gold medals in the 4way Open Class. It will be a tough call, and the NSL News will follow up with the results of the vote.