20th August 17:50
It has been decided that each class will wait until - Junior 18:30, A 19:00, AA 19:30, AAA 19:45. After this time, teams are free to leave until next weekend when all the action starts again.

20th August 17:25
With every passing hour, more rounds are being completed for different classes. Some teams from the AAA class have begun their round 4. Most have completed round 3. Sonic V have just posted a fantastic 17 in time for their round 3. In the AA class the scores are so close at the bottom end that its hard to tell what the pecking order is at the moment.
 

20th August 12:40
Round 2 is almost complete now. The A class is the most interesting at the moment with many teams all within a stone's throw of each other. Round 1 was a random dive with round 2 a double-blocker. This shows where each teams strengths lie. So in the lead at the moment are Phobia, but watch out for Sonic V's score which will arrive soon. Baccanalia are doing some great scores also, with the last few weeks training really coming together for them.

In the AAA class predictably Team FlightSchool are leading with a 23 on round 1 and a 22 on round 2. Bare in mind that they have done very little training together, Niklas mentioned that this was not far off the pace from what Fastrax were doing. Behind them are Storm and Elan fighting it out. Round 1 went to Storm scoring 2 more than Elan, although Elan were bust down a point. Round 2 saw some quick work from Elan to pull back a point. They are 1 point behind Storm now.

20th August 10:45
We have had 2 weather holds which were relatively short, and most teams have now completed round 1 with some on round 2. Take a look at the scores here. In the mean time here is a quick interview with Kyle Thomas from Frenzy discussing his round 1.

1. Kyle how would you describe your first round of Nationals today?
Well what can I say….very embarrassing! It all started badly with a 6:00am meet that turned into just dirt diving on a 10 minute call. I signed the manifest and we rushed to the plane, forgetting one very important key member of the team….the camera guy! We only noticed this at around 4000ft. So to sum up round 1, it was ‘an expensive plane ride to a walk of shame’

2. If you had any advice for other teams competing in the 4-way what would it be?
Well I would have to say a couple of things. Never play Met Roulette; you will almost always lose when it really matters! Always stay positive, ignore all the bad opinions you may hear behind your back. At the end of the day if you do your best and you achieve your team goals, it really doesn’t matter what others think! Usually it’s all misinformed information anyway and finally and most importantly, never, ever forget your camera guy when getting on the plane! (Especially after you have signed for him……)
 

20th August 07:50
All three Dorniers took off within minutes of each other just after 7:00. Single A class Team "Frenzy" were happy to find plenty of 'extra' room in the tail of the aircraft, yet were baffled at 4,000ft when they realised their cameraman wasn't on board. A few teams elected too stay inside the aircraft, fearing the patchy clouds might mist up the camera lenses and bust the rounds.

19th August 18:40
Jumping for the day has been called. Wheels off tomorrow at 07:00. Fingers crossed folks. Rich Baldwin a skydiver from Hibaldstow is entertaining everyone with his band Reloaded. There's an adage that whenever skydivers get really inebriated, the weather is always perfect the next day. Lets hope so!

19th August 18:35
Chris Hollis is our FS Rep, a member of AA class 4-way team Wingnuts and the husband of Tarn Hollis from Elan. So with the bad weather we thought it would be nice to hear his perspective on events...

1. Chris, you have just run a meeting about the ESL finals. For those that were not there, tell us about it.
The ESL Finals are in Belgium in September. I’m trying to use the bad weather down-time to inform competitors about the meet and ensure that Team GB goes to Spa with a quality team of UK 4-way talent. So far, I’ve got five teams definite with another scratch team in the making specifically for this event.

2. Some competitors would argue that due to the re-draw which happened yesterday, the credibility of the ESL / NSL coordinated concept has been damaged. What’s your opinion on this?
The re-draw situation has been an extremely unfortunate incident for this nationals and although some competitors may not have the same confidence in the NSL, I still believe the benefits still outweigh the disadvantages. There have been a few issues raised by this whole situation that are being dealt with so I can’t comment directly. What I can say is that within Europe, the UK does pretty well against our European counterparts, it’d be great to see how well we do when directly head-to-head.

3. As FS Rep Chris, you have a lot of responsibility to deal and you are the point of contact for all ‘issues’. Tell me about your job and what it involves.
I still see myself as a competitor to be honest! I also try and do what I can to help things run smoothly. Most queries I deal with come from inexperienced competitors, and most can be answered by pointing them to the other officials or the rule book! My other main role is to encourage and promote the UK FS scene so I like to help out where I can around the drop zone by offering coaching advice when I can and generally being helpful. My most useful asset is being a well known skydiver, I can act as the public face of the BPA and present a more approachable side so that peoples perception of the governing body is a bit better than it might otherwise be! I’m the man on the inside!!

19th August 14:35
The weather sadly has played against us. We are on a weather hold with mixtures of solid overcast cloud and light rain.

19th August 09:20
We are on yet another weather hold. However some competitors have decided that this should not let them have fun.

19th August 08:25
 

18th August 19:25
It has become apparent that the draw was accessible on the internet from Wednesday 15th August (earlier this week). It was decided at a meeting with the Meet Director, Chief Judge, DZ Owner and the team Captains to re-draw the whole competition.

We would like to make it clear that no personnel from the DZ or BPA are placing blame to anyone. The re-draw competition will start at 08:30 Sunday 19th August.

The new draw will be posted here shortly for all classes in the 4-way and the points scrubbed from the Scores page.

18th August 16:50
The dropzone has gone on to a hold until 17:30. Almost everyone has done 1. So far we have Team FlightSchool (guest team) in 1st place with a 28 in the AAA class. In the AA predictably Wingnutz are in 1st with a 21, 5 points ahead of Fend 4 Yourself who have also been training hard this season. In the A class, Sonic V are tied with Monkey Magic on 14 points although Sonic V were bust down a point. In the Junior class, The Loop are leading with a 9 in time however not all the scores are in.

18th August 12:40
The Dorniers have just had a very active spell and canopies have been opening every few minutes. The excitement is filtering down through the skydives as can be seen with Elan scoring a 22 in time and Storm a 21 just behind them. We are still waiting for Team FlightSchool to see who scored the highest round. Round 1 for all teams is nearly completed. However we are now again on a standby.

18th August 11:10
Elan just scored a 22, which is 5 points more than Aardvark Zulu on a 17 with Boogie Pimps on a 16. There are more weather holds and kits up all the time now. So these are the scores in so far.

18th August 10:05
The weather has cleared a bit so we are sending the lifts up again. Its going to be a bit of a stop start situation.

18th August 09:45
The weather is still playing up so we have a team profile posted. Free t-shirts have been handed out to all the teams with this years logo designed by Chris Hollis. In addition to the customary t-shirt, everyone now has the chance to wear some nice dz-branded underpants and thongs!

Team Name: 4-Play - Junior class

How did the team come about? Tell us a bit about your history..
We got to know each other through fun jumping/drinking at Hib, and thought that a 4-way team would be a lot of fun

What are your goals for this year?
a) Learn the principles of 4-way from an experienced coach.
b) For each competition set a hard but achievable average to aim for

Where and how often do you train?
We haven’t done a huge amount of training, by the nationals we will have done three training weekends, 1 hour in the tunnel together and the three GPs. However, at the 1st training weekend we only got 1 jump as it was raining, and only got 5 in on the second!

How do you think the season is going so far?
Really well. Our average has been increasing and we got a team PB at the Hib GP.

What is it about 4-way that makes you compete?
It’s a good thing to focus on to help you improve. It has given us direction this year.

What do you think of the NSL concept of teams all doing the same global draw?
We think its great. Its really nice to be able to compare yourselves with a much wider pool of teams all over the world.

As a team, how do find the 4-way scene in the UK? Is FS still as popular as it has been recently?
Not sure about its popularity, but we have had a great time. Everyone has been really helpful and so many excellent skydivers have given their time to coach us and help us out. Thanks guys!

Any words of advice for 4-way teams starting out or junior to yourselves?
Don’t be afraid to ask for help, most people will be willing to spend a little bit of time with you.

Finally, tell us something not many people know about your team!
We are all actually starting to like our name!

18th August 08:00
We are on a standby as some cloud around 500ft has passed by!. There will be some interviews posted here to keep you interested soon.

18th August 07:10
When the competitors got up this morning at 6 it was raining. Now 1 hour later its stopped raining, its still overcast but the cloud cover is high. The first loads have taken off on time with Raw, Havoc and Damn Zebra on the white Dornier.

Jumpable weather believe it or not.

Fusion

The German national team.

18th August 06:00
The dive draw for the formation skydiving.