posted Dec 26th, 2006 - The NSL News story on December 21 included the first part of a new NSL-TV interview. Team Fastrax members John Hart, Niklas Hemlin, Thomas Hughes and Steve Redinbo took some extra time after a training day in DeLand to visit the NSL office.

The first part of the interview covered mostly the position of the new team member, Thomas Hughes, as the Center Inside for Team Fastrax. The interview began with the surprising showing of a Black Magick competition video with Thomas Hughes and Joey Jones flying on their backs.

The first part ended when John Hart mentioned with excitement that he has "the two best natural flyers in the world" in his new line-up, Thomas Hughes and Niklas Hemlin. The second part begins with the discussion of the average age of the new line-up, which changed significantly with Thomas Hughes taking Mark Kirkby's slot.

Thomas Hughes (26) and Niklas Hemlin (29) are two of the youngest top players in the world at the same time. John Hart expects his two "youngsters" to be around for a long time and win many world meets and world cups in the future.

Niklas Hemlin explained that the recruiting of the new member did not only focus on the age. The list of available top players was not really that long. It just happened that Thomas Hughes has this incredible talent and also brings down the team's average age at the same time.

The second part also includes a look to the other side. Steve Redinbo and Thomas Hughes are commenting Airspeed Odyssey's situation after the recent personnel change. The Fastrax members surely know that the Arizona team will be as strong as it has always been, or even stronger with Mark Kirkby and his experience.

Thomas Hughes also counts in the Golden Knights as a top contender. The NSL News story on December 22 provided an update from the Army team's headquarters, provided by Brian Krause, which was posted after the interview with the Fastrax members.

John Hart provides some insights of the training agenda in the second part of the interview. He explains that the current training camp is still covering many of the basics for a new line-up. However, he also mentioned that the exits and the subterminal work is already better than the team expected.

He added that coach Gary Smith's input and Thomas Hughes' energetic style have already had a positive impact on the team's performance. Some block techniques are going better than before, and new best times for exits, subterminal moves and block techniques are already in the books. The two Fastrax videos that came with the story on December 21 are still available for reviews.

The last topic of the interview covers a part of the Fastrax operation that Thomas Hughes has not been familiar with so far. The NSL News story on November 23 explained how much efforts John Hart puts into the business operation that supports Team Fastrax. Team members have to become familiar with Public Relations work and apply certain procedures at events.

One example of the PR efforts and how to work with the general public is the team's ID card that each member hands out to spectators. John Hart brought his own ID card and explained that especially children and teenagers are quite excited to get and collect one of these cards after watching the team land from a training or competition jump.

John Hart added that his team is reaching out to the communities where the events take place. He tries to create as much interaction with the general public as possible, especially with the younger generations, and the ID cards help to leave a message and a memory behind. This interaction offers the opportunity to educate the general public about the sport.

There is more interesting information of the Fastrax PR work in this part of the interview, and Thomas Hughes added his own experiences to John Hart's comments.

He visited Japan with the British national team Sebastian XL for the World Games in 2001. This event was very successful for skydiving as a sport, and Thomas Hughes confirmed John Hart's interaction experiences with the general public.

Team Fastrax will bring many ID cards to the FSL Shamrock Showdown 2007 in March. The event in DeLand reaches out to the general public and the community, as well, and usually attracts many spectators to the competition site. It will also be the first Fastrax competition with the new line-up. Airspeed Odyssey and the Golden Knights will also be in DeLand to challenge each other at the beginning of the 2007 season.