This is the first entry since the last Nationals for Artistics and FS ended back in August. A wide range of events are planned for this weekend including CF and 8-way Speed Formation Skydiving. As of time of writing, the weather is windy at Hibaldstow, although there is expected to be a good turn out of teams for the various events.

We will keep you posted as people arrive and of the draws for the CF.

24th August 13:50

It's a brilliant day, with sunshine, low winds and almost no cloud at all, plenty of people are out in t-shirt and shorts, it is finally feeling like summer. The forecast is fantastic for the weekend, so fingers crossed that we can finish the event in time for Sunday night, and open the bar for the end of nationals party!

8 Way team 'ConneXtion' are training, as are several freefly teams, speed and style teams.

16 lifts so far and the 'Bad Lieutenants', 'Hysteria' and 'Tumbleweed' are just a few of the teams making the most of it!

23rd August 13:50

ConneXtion (8-Way FS) and Outbreak (Freefly A) teams are training for the nationals.

As you can see.... they are taking training very seriously.

22nd August 13:00

A reminder for all competitors in the 4 way FS events that "Wheels Off" is at 7:00am Saturday morning.

22nd August 12:00  ROLLOVER RULES

Below is an extract from the formation skydiving rules and regulations concerning the FS events and rollover weekends.

"
4. ENTRY FORMS AND FEES

d) Entries will only be accepted up to Friday 17th August - 4 Way and Friday 24th August - 8 Way. Note that late entry will be permitted for the 8 way in the event of 4-way rolling over to the second weekend. Registration will be allowed up to one hour before the first 8 way team boarding the aircraft.

17. CONDITIONS APPLIED TO FOLLOW ON WEEKEND

WEEKEND 2 ONLY - FORMAT

Should weekend one, 4 way FS not be complete, all incomplete rounds will be completed on weekend two. Weekend two will start with rounds of 4 way FS until 8 rounds have been completed to allow a meet to be called if needed. During "On Year" selection, after the 6th round is complete the Open and or Female teams in first place in their category will continue to jump 4 FS 4 way rounds as a priority over junior / A / AA and all FS 8 way in order to achieve completion of as many rounds as possible up to ten rounds for funding criteria scoring. Once 8 rounds of FS 4 way are complete in all categories, 8 way FS will start. The semi-finals and finals of the 4 way will then be completed once judging, manifest and meet director see fit. FS 4 and FS 8 will not run together in order to avoid catch up scenarios arising. However if none of the team members conflict this may occur. During periods of non event activity, teams will be stood down for the duration of the other event rounds and be subject to a 1 hour notice of change in the event between jumps. 1 hour notice of event change can occur an hour prior to the end of the other event but must allow competitors entered in both categories to have 1 hour on the ground at the DZ between events. At the end of weekend 2, the FS 4 way meet will be called with results based on the completed rounds.

Teams who are not present for any round will be called as scheduled for that round and failure to attend will result in a nil score for that round only.
"

Added extra information:

"Due to the fact we run the artistic and speed events in conjunction with the 8 way we will be applying all the same rules and start times to the artistic and speed as we are with the 8 way event."

"
WEEKEND 3 FORMAT

Should weekend two FS 8 way not be complete, all incomplete rounds will be completed on weekend 3. At the end of weekend 3, the FS 8 way meet will be called with the results based upon the completed rounds. Teams who are not present for any round will be called as scheduled for that round, and failure to attend will result in a nil score for that round only.

INCOMPLETE COMPLETION ROUNDS RE-DRAW

In the event of the competition event not being completed, a re-draw will be carried out on the Friday evening (date time as per the admin instruction) on that next weekend as follows;

FS Senior - unused formations only will be used for a re-draw to generate the number of rounds required.
"

17th August 21:30

The draw is out and 47 teams are prepping their first rounds. Last year we had 54 teams register but with bad weather this materialised to 47 teams actually competing, so another good turnout. Wheels off tomorrow is at 7:00am.

Re-drawn formations as of evening 18th August.

This concludes the coverage from this page. Tomorrow you can find the news here and the scores here. To finish, some last photos from the day:

Competitors brief with H and John Hitchen.

Team Qi.

Storm with Dan BC.

Kate Charter and the competition brief.

17th August 16:50

Most teams have finished their 'feel good' skydives and are relaxing to an early dinner. Noel is preparing a BBQ to feed the masses.

John McIver and Steve Hamilton had planned a surprise team for Nationals this year and true to form Niklas and Thomas Hughes from Fastrax have flown in. The German team Stratos4 with Pete Allum as a player coach have also arrived. The international flavour continues with Dan BC and Gary Beyer at the dropzone to support their teams.

VRW dirt diving.

Strangers in the Night give us a J.

H our CCI giving a DZ brief to competitors who have never been to Target Skysports.

Bonobo with their full line-up in the door.

17th August 13:40

The dropzone is getting really busy now. Escondido, Phobia, Paradigm, Slightly Odd, Storm and Elan have now arrived. Unfortunately the weather has become a bit cloudy so we are on a weather hold. Phobia have decided to start a game of poker hopefully to pay for some of the competition bill!

17th August 12:25

Photos of teams training and the build up to Nationals.

Jo Bell and Andy Mansfield from Cametrix setting up the competition.

There's not much space left in the campground.

Our new school bus escorting competitors to the emplaning point. You can see Inferno in the background.

Two of the promised 3 Dorniers waiting to go.

Team Bonobo creeping.

17th August 10:20

Members: Monkey Magic: Rai Ahmed, Viki Bingham, Jo Hawley, and Zuz Tillner. On Camera Billy Payne and Yo Lee. Class - 4-way A.

How did the team come about? Tell us a bit about your history..
Monkey Magic came together in April 2007. Myself, outside centre, and Jo, point, were part of a rookie team last year (Aether). Unfortunately the team decided to go separate ways (finances and injuries). However myself and Jo decided that we wanted to plod on and be on a girlie team. Zuz flew camera for us last year in the 8-way and 16 way comps that we did in 2006 and wanted to concentrate on her 4-way after having done rookies too and joined us as our inside centre.

Viki had just got back from Thailand late last year and felt like taking part in a team if we shared the same goals, thankfully she did and is our tail. As a team I think we've got nearly 1700 jumps between us.

What are your goals for this year?
To beat our rookie average of 10 points from last year.

Where and how often do you train?
Monkey Magic are vagrants! Geographically we are from all over the country, so we have tried to choose drop zones round the country that will ease the journey for one or other team member. Langar, Sibson, Weston are our UK drop zones. As a team we formed quite late so training wise we have had to accommodate on dates that we could train, we chose 7 weekends for training and tried to fit our tunnel time around the back of the weekends or during the week. We've also had a training week away in Seville with Pete Allum, who helped enormously with our technique and approach to 4-way generally. We've been very lucky this year to have so many people coach us...sometimes inadvertently! Milko, the Wingnutz boys including Chris Hollis to name a few!

How do you think the season is going so far?
It's been an interesting season, after competing at the Langar GP we realised we had some potential. Following that we had the Hibaldstow GP, we realised that we still had the technique but were not the most synchronous of teams. We've been working on this so that we can realise our full potential this at nationals...fingers (and toes) crossed;-) The Single A Category is the most contested category this season, with some very good teams that are all very close points wise, makes for a very interesting competition!

What is it about 4-way that makes you compete?
4-way is great. It leaves room for individual skills to grow in a team environment. It's also working within that team as well and understanding those limitations. We've all competed in other areas of relative work, such as 8-way or 16 way and have done big way with varying degrees of success.

Jo's even a bit of a crew dog! And then there's Zuz with her love of camera work... however 4-way is where it's at for us at the moment!

What do you think of the NSL concept of teams all doing the same global draw?
The NSL concept is a fantastic idea, it gives you a good idea of how good you are relative to those around the world...getting the highest score for a last round in a comp in the UK is great, but to beat the rest of Europe too, now that's fab!

As a team, how do find the 4-way scene in the UK? Is FS still as popular as it has been recently?
We've only really been in the sport for a max of 5 years and only been competing for 2 years. The 4-way scene in the UK is even more popular now than it was. We believe that the advent of the tunnel brought on a lot of teams last year, but this has now evened itself out this season.

Relative work in general is still as popular, you just have to look at the rookie teams that have competed so far this season, most are competing for a laugh and realising that that the have the ability to medal!

What do you think the future holds for your team?
The monkies will be around next year in some shape or other...world domination?! On a serious note we will move onto AA learn some more blocks, fling each other around the sky and hopefully have a few laughs while doing it!

Any words of advice for 4-way teams starting out or junior to yourselves?
Individual skills are important and shouldn't be forgotten. Have fun with it, but make sure you're all on the same page and are all prepared to make the same level of commitment whatever that maybe.

Finally, tell us something not many people know about your team!
We all own matching jumpsuits but refuse to wear them!
 

17th August 10:00

Good morning campers! The weather at Hibaldstow is not bad considering the weather forecast. Teams who are at the dropzone are doing their final training jumps. Amongst them we have Binary (previously known as Cup Size with Stu Ferguson from ukskydiver.co.uk), Sonic V, Fusion, Synergy, Raw and Inferno. Members from Wingnutz, Qi and Boogie Pimps are arriving in addition.

The VRW team are also doing some training. They are Dan Parker, Mikey Carpenter, Jim Harris and Andy Ford. During the course of this weekend they will be doing a demonstration event which will be judged.

16th August 16:10
Team Name: Escondido - AAA Class

How did the team come about? Tell us a bit about your history..
Despite being a British team, we all met in Californai (Elsinore)  on a collegiate trip.

What are your goals for this year?
Have fun and to dabble with some 8way.

Where and how often do you train?
We've done all our training at Target Skysports owned dropzones, namely Hibaldstow in the UK and Skydive Spain (Seville) but seeing as Abi gave birth in May, we're taking things less seriously this year with her temporary replacement Mike.

How do you think the season is going so far?
4way - Well both our training jumps went well and we scraped Silver at the Hib GP so we're pretty impressed. 8way - We're not training for 8way cause it's funnier when things go wrong...

What is it about 4-way that makes you compete?
It's such a sweet feeling when you open to know that you had a plan, you worked to that plan and it all came off.  And when the plan is for the whole season the feeling is magnified.

What do you think of the NSL concept of teams all doing the same global
draw?
It's an excellent idea, we'd like to buy whoever thought of it a beer.

As a team, how do find the 4-way scene in the UK? Is FS still as popular
as it has been recently?
There was a massive spike in interest when the wind tunnels opened which has inevitably faded a little.  I think last years rookie average score of 19.9 scared a few people off entering this year but when they see that the scores have levelled off again then they will return. Attendance has been pretty steady at the competitions so far this year, 26 teams at the last event so it bodes well for the Nationals and the future.

What do you think the future holds for your team?
A slightly more serious year of AA when our IC returns and then AAA, Escondido 4way World Cup Winners 2013!!! Hahaha

Any words of advice for 4-way teams starting out or junior to
yourselves?
Just do it and don't be afraid to ask for advice.  Feel free to approach any of Escondido if we're about, we may not be World Champions but we have been coached people who are.

Finally, tell us something not many people know about your team!
We chose our team name after it was seen on a road sign in California and everyone thought it sounded like a cool sounding word.  We were trying to think of a decent replacement name but it seems to have stuck now.

16th August 10:00
Cametrix Systems is a new company we will be seeing a lot of at Nationals this year. Andrew Mansfield is the British developer of the new scoring system. Read his interview here.

1. For those who don’t know anything about Cametrix, please tell me about you and your new system.

Cametrix Systems is a small organisation set up to produce Video based tools to help with team and individual sports performance.

CamScore comprises three main elements: Video downloading (CamCord), Judging of skydiving videos (CamScore), and the displaying of videos, photos and information to the public (CamCast). Only the scoring part of the system is specific to Skydiving the other parts are used in other application as well.

CamScore has been in development for the last two years and in fulltime development since December 2006. It has now been piloted at a number of Skydiving and Tunnel competitions and I believe it is now the premier skydiving scoring system bar none.

2. Omniskore has been to standard for judging FS for many years. How do you see yourselves as competitors to their system and what has been the response so far from the judges?

We do not really consider Omniskore a competitor rather a great system that has now had its day. The recent responses we have received from the judges have been overwhelmingly positive. In deed we would not be using the system at the Nationals if it had not been so.

However, we were not aiming to please the judges! Our goal is to improve the competition experience for the competitors and spectators. From the feedback we have received from competitors and especially the camera men we know they love it!

3. Arizona Airspeed have the record for the highest average (26 point average in time). Isn’t it arguable that making a judging system which can be accurate is becoming harder and harder? What have you done to try and help them?

CamScore has a number of features available now that will improve the accuracy of judging. They include slow playback and blanking rather than pausing at the end of the skydive. These features are most likely to be used in NSL competitions next year. The speed and ease of use of CamScore for the judges makes judging more pleasurable and in so doing also helps to increase accuracy.

4. So what preparations have you made for this years Nationals and what support will you offer during the competition?

CamScore is really quick and easy to setup. So short of any disasters I hope that support won’t be required! However, both myself and Jo Bell will be available at all the Nationals weekends just in case…

5. Any good software developer will always make improvements and fix bugs to their systems. What plans do you have for the future?

We have a number of new products that we will be launching in the coming months; they include a cut-down version of CamScore for judging small single judge competitions. A team training version of CamScore that allows teams to download, and score their skydive and then to view, annotate and review all there skydives along with relevant performance statistics.

Probably our most exciting new product is CamVideoProducer. This is a system aimed at Dropzones and Tandem/AFF Cameramen. With CamVideoProducer the cameraman shoots his video, plugs his camera in for down load, presses go on the download station and walks away. CamVideoProducer then creates a professional quality movie from the scenes on the camera. This includes mixing in a musical backing track, ordering or reordering the scenes adding both video and audio fades, effects and titles.. As all this is happening the customer is watching his movie on CamCast. As soon as the movie has finished playing on CamCast the newly created DVD is ready to hand to the customer.

15th August 17:15

Team Name: The Loop - Rookie Class

Members: Angie King (Inside Centre) Mark Harrington (Outside Centre), Vicky Tuck (Point), Oli Van Bilsen (Tail)

How did the team come about? Tell us a bit about your history…
We all began skydiving when we were at university and met through our club; SkydiveUWE. This year the four of us decided it would be fun to make a 4-way team and to have a go at Nationals!

What are your goals for this year?
Our goals for this year are to improve our FS skills, learn more about the competing world of skydiving and most importantly have fun together.

Where and how often do you train?
Due to the dismal weather over the last few months we have not actually been able to do many jumps together but when the weather has been good, we train at Weston. We also have done 2 hours of tunnel time at Airkix.

How do you think the season is going so far?
We are really happy with our season so far as we can see ourselves continuously improving, despite our limited training time.

What is it about 4-way that makes you compete?
We like competing because it is a great way to have fun skydiving together and because we feel it is good to have an aim in skydiving. Working towards an end goal makes spending all that money far easier.

What do you think of the NSL concept of teams all doing the same global draw?
We think it is really beneficial that all teams have the same draw as it makes it easy to compare yourself with teams around the world and it puts every one at the same level.

As a team, how do find the 4-way scene in the UK? Is FS still as popular as it has been recently?
We think the 4-way scene is constantly growing in popularity and the tunnels have helped greatly in teams’ progression.

What do you think the future holds for your team?
More fun and who knows maybe some medals one day!

Any words of advice for 4-way teams starting out?
Well we are only 4-way beginners ourselves, but for us it really helped to set goals and make sure we were all in it for the same reasons. For our first year it is all about having fun and learning as you progress. Oh and eye contact-learn to love staring into the eyes of your clone!

Finally, tell us something not many people know about your team!
Despite popular opinion, none of us are actually students anymore!

15th August 12:30
Teams RAW and Phobia have turned up at the dropzone to do some last minute training. Unfortunately the weather at Hibaldstow this afternoon is unjumpable.
 

15th August 11:40

Members of Team Raw: Maxine Tate (Inside Centre), Caroline Guest (Outside Centre), Luci Boella (Tail) and Dave Head (Point) filmed by John Williamson.

How did the team come about? Tell us a bit about your history..
Maxine, Luci and Caroline were all in AA teams last year, whilst Dave has taken time out from being in the 4-way to filming it for the last two years. Maxine and Luci have been piece partners in the same team for the last two years, albeit in the front piece. The team won Rookie Gold in 2005. Caroline was OC with Bodyflight Storm last year who won gold in AA. None of us were able to commit to a full training schedule this year but all had a desire to compete in the AAA category.

What are your goals for this year?
Our goals are to have a very positive introduction to AAA, to take on the new blocks in the dive pool for AAA, start to accumulate experience with slot switching and to learn as much as we can from each other and our competitors.

Where and how often do you train?
We haven’t trained much! We have three people in new slots and three who haven’t competed in AAA before so we are taking on quite a challenge. We started in June with two trips to the tunnel, once to cover randoms and the other to cover blocks. So far we have managed 26 jumps, and we’ll do a full competition draw before the Nationals, weather permitting. We have trained at Weston and Hibaldstow.

How do you think the season is going so far?
Well the AAA category is going to be quite a battle. There are a good number of teams that have trained hard for this year, there’s a lot at stake for the top teams. We’re very excited to be competing with them – it’ll be great experience.

What is it about 4-way that makes you compete?
Challenge, learning, improving and having fun!! And being part of a close knit team that are all striving to achieve the same goal.

What do you think of the NSL concept of teams all doing the same global draw?
It’s an excellent concept. A lot of the teams know each other from sharing the same coaches, or from competing together, and we all like to know how we compare with our peers. Some of us competed in ESL last year and it was a fantastic experience. Wouldn’t it be great if all areas of skydiving accepted a global concept?

14th August 17:00

How did the team come about? Tell us a bit about your history..
Amanda: Team Elan has three members from Team Airkix; Emma, Jules and myself. After Airkix won the World Championships and British Nationals we decided to have some time off. In this time two of us decided that they probably couldn’t continue for a further two years at the level of commitment that Airkix had; it really depended on what sponsorship we could achieve. At this point it was a casual decision that we may do something in 2007. Sparky (Airkix member Claire Scott) was offered an opportunity on a fully-sponsored team in the meantime; she was keen to take it as Airkix did not have any firm plans at that stage. However the competitive spirit was still there in all of us and gradually we started talking more about funding further training and finding a 4th member. We asked Tarn Hollis from Bodyflight Rage to join us and were very pleased when she accepted. Getting Rob Stevenson (ex Sebastian XL) on camera was an added bonus.

What are your goals for this year?
Emma: On Airkix and now on Elan our focus has always been on doing our team best and our individual best, whilst also having a good time together. We hope that as a result of that we achieve selection at Nationals to represent the UK at the next World Meet in 2008. Outside of that, we want to spend some time this season coaching up-and-coming teams, and achieving positive exposure for the sport in the media.

Where and how often do you train?
Julia: This year we chose Skydive Spain and Hibaldstow as our dropzones and Bodyflight for our tunnel training. We love that we can keep all our UK training so close to home, with such great jumping and tunnel facilities - they are world class. We've done two 2-week camps in Spain with a few long weekends at Hib, and as much tunnel time around that as we could manage with one team member living in Arizona. We also visualise and watch video daily in between camps to stay current.

How do you think the season is going so far?
Rob: We kicked off our training season at Skydive Spain, the training was intense and the team made 160 skydives in just 10 days. One day the team made 20 jumps and the day after it was topped with 21 jumps, a record for all team members. The next training camp started at Target Skysports, even thought the weather was not working with us we still managed to make 40 jumps in 3 days, then Spain again where we saw our overall performance increase. With the team training prior to the Nationals, I would say our season so far is right on schedule.

What is it about 4-way that makes you compete?
Tarn: I love 4-way because it’s all about speed, doing your sport as hard and fast as you can. It’s very ordered which appeals to my O.C.D! ;-) I also love the people you meet. I don't know any other sport where they all look out for each other the way we do in this sport. Skydiving seems to attract a certain type of person, fun-loving, party animals!

What do you think of the NSL concept of teams all doing the same global draw?
Amanda: I think it is fantastic for all levels of teams. For the AAA class, focusing on their country's Nationals is a great way of making mock meets during training more real when there is a score board up with other teams on it, or during a meet when maybe only a handful of teams attend. For the more junior teams how cool is it to say they have beaten a team from another country and to encourage them to continue training in the world of competitive 4-way

As a team, how do you find the 4-way scene in the UK? Is FS still as popular as it has been recently?
Emma: I think the UK FS scene is stronger than it's ever been. There are some fantastic teams coming through the system in all classes and I think with wind tunnels the performance levels have been pushed up dramatically in the last two years. Once the current Rookies, As and AAs start getting up into AAA I think we'll start to see even more world class teams emerging here like they have in the States.

What do you think the future holds for your team?
Julia: We are currently training hard for this year's British Nationals with the aim to get selection for next year's World Championships. We plan to review our training plan after the Nationals for 2008 - so we will soon see!

Any words of advice for 4-way teams starting out or junior to yourselves?
Tarn: Get coaching from an early stage....and keep getting it.

Finally, tell us something not many people know about your team!
Rob: They know all the words to the movie Tombstone.

14th August 14:00

Another new section to the website this year is the Team Profile section. Chris Hollis is FS reprehensive for the BPA and he has been collating a series of profiles from competing teams. Take a look at the first one to be posted today:

Team Name: Synergy

Members: Jo Burns (Inside Centre), Laura Hillas (Outside Centre), Geetha Narayanan (Tail) and Clara Melia (Point).
 

How did the team come about? Tell us a bit about your history..
Formed Autumn 2006. Simon Cathrine envisaged coaching a 'girly' team..... hmmmm.... how out of character for him!! If you were around a size 10 with long hair then basically you were in. Cup size was not specified.

What are your goals for this year?
Consistency and doing it properly. We have spent a lot of time on the ground learning the builds and pictures through the stages of the blocks. We aim for our builds to be correct and efficient and have also done a lot of stop drills. As a number, our points average is not as important as for it to be consistent throughout a training weekend or complementation.

Where and how often do you train?
We train at Hib and at Bodyflight. Our schedule has been dictated by budget and life commitments. It has been a busy year for some of the team, with final exams, house buying and coaching commitments. We are happy with our progress despite limited time, budget and weather.

How do you think the season is going so far?
We are pleased with our achievements to date and feel we are getting a solid grounding and good discipline that will take us forward into the future, be it as a team or in our future contribution to other teams.

What is it about 4-way that makes you compete?
It is a good way of benchmarking progress and driving the team on. This year the competition is very close in Single A.

What do you think of the NSL concept of teams all doing the same global draw?
It's great to be able to compare your own progress to teams on a global scale.

As a team, how do find the 4-way scene in the UK? Is FS still as popular as it has been recently? Looking at the entries for Nationals and GP's over the last couple of years I feel it is a very strong area of the sport. 4 way is a great way to instil skills and discipline required for all areas of the sport.

What do you think the future holds for your team?
Getting a bit tipsy at the Nationals party.... then who knows. We're not on any sort of plan, so not sure yet!!

Any words of advice for 4-way teams starting out or junior to yourselves?
Get good coaching from day one. Try not to get into bad habits and give it your all. What we do is hard. If it was easy, anyone could do it. Spend time on the ground and visualise. Even if you find visualisation difficult to begin with, or you feel silly, keep at it as it will get easier and it's an free, valuable tool.

Finally, tell us something not many people know about your team!
Despite many attempts by our coach, Simon is still waiting for the team shower.... and will be waiting long after Nationals. It is not a coaches right or privilege!!!

14th August 10:00

In true spirit of the Pre-Nationals mini-site. This is the first of quite a few Voicebox interviews we will have for the website.
 

Amanda Kemp is Tail on Team Elan sponsored by Target Skysports and Skydive Spain. She is also involved in the coaching road shows and therefore has a good perspective of competing and coaching.

1. Amanda, you might say that this is your best year so far. Your average is up, you are training harder than ever. How do you cope with the level of commitment required?

The team has had a good year training and we are all looking forward to competing at the Nationals. We are all used to juggling work, relationships and training after the last 2 years and luckily everyone is very supportive of us which makes it easier.

2. There are 2 new members on the team this year, Rob Stevenson on camera and Tarn Hollis in the Outside Centre slot. How are they getting on in Team Elan?

Both of them have fitted in fantastically. They are both awesome flyers and we have a great team vibe.

3. This year, it is possible that the top 3 scoring teams will be made up of professional skydivers many of whom have already represented their country at world level. How does this make you feel about the health of UK formation skydiving?

I would love to call myself a professional skydiver but at the moment I’m just skiving off work for the summer. The level of skydiving that several teams are achieving is fantastic.

I hope it inspires more junior skydivers to take an interest in 4way and we continue to see the averages pushed in the UK.

4. Team Elan has done up to 21 jumps in a day before now during training. How do you get the best out of your briefs and debriefs to make it worthwhile doing that intensity of jumping?

It depends on where we are in our training whether we do this number of jumps in a day. It is only possible because we all visualise and train hard in the gym before the training camp to be mentally and physically fit.  We know the block techniques and want to get as many repetitions in as possible. Our coach Gary Beyer will watch the footage from Rob’s camera while we change rigs and then we watch it in the plane.

5. Lastly, some competitors would argue that it’s all about how much money you have. Do you think this is true?

Money is obviously needed but more important is the desire to do it. It is about doing whatever you can to achieve your dreams. There are many sacrifices that can be made to find extra money. We have all done it to get where we are now.

We have great sponsors which include Skydive Spain, Bodyflight, the BPA and many of our equipment manufacturers. This makes a huge difference to the amount we can train now but we only have these sponsors because we have shown how hard we work and how much we are prepared to do to achieve our goals.

A huge amount of our training doesn’t cost anything. We visualise and do physical training every day. This is free for everyone and valuable to all levels of skydivers.

23rd July

Last weekend's CF Grand Prix was well attended at Target Skysports. In the senior 2-way sequential event 5 teams fought it out with Los Diablos eventually winning with a 9-point average.

20th July

Welcome to the first pre-nationals write-up. So what can you expect from this part of the Nationals mini-site? We have planned lots of exciting interviews in the lead up to Nationals including discussions with teams preparing to go to Russia to represent our country and news on the new formation skydiving judging system.

But all that is to come. To keep you interested for the time being here are a few video links to the best of the best in each discipline:

Team Elan 4-way

Golden Knights 8-way

Arizona Airspeed 8-way

Outbreak Freefly

Nils Predstrup Freestyle

Dale Stuart (7 times world champion in the 1990's)

Sky Surfing with Babylon

Russian CRW Team Wolfs

Speed Skydiving documentary about Mark Calland

4-way VRW competition at Chicago 2006