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World Championships, France
After just 1 week back in the UK, it was time to head across a smaller pond this time i.e. the English
Channel to France for the World Championships in France! Myself (Sparky), Hannah and Sarah picked up Dan BC from Heathrow Terminal
5 (no problems with baggage – phew!) and drove to Dover in time to wave at Kate and Swoop who were sailing off on the
ferry we were supposed to be on!! Anyway we got the next one and after a 2 hour drive we arrived at Val Joly which was to
be our base for the next 2 weeks. We stayed in chalets which were situated next to a lake surrounded by trees. It was a great
place for chilling although 35km away from the DZ at Maubeuge which made for interesting and long journeys. Good old sat nav
had us try and go through fields on a couple of occasions!
It had to be said, the French did a great job turning the drop zone at
Maubeuge into a fantastic World Meet site which could be compared to something out of the Olympics! White team tents, beer
tents, marquees, loads of flags and big screens to watch the skydives being judged were just a few of the features.
We spent the first week in Maubeuge getting used to the new surroundings,
the way the planes were flown (the run in appeared faster than the Porter in Perris!) and really tried to get into a routine
that we would also adopt during the competition. We only did a handful of jumps and on one occasion got to share the Porter
with the notorious Danish team (notorious because they are all above 6 feet making for a very cosy Porter load).
Saturday finally arrived and we got to see the draw. It was fairly slow (again!) with no all random dive which we were
hoping for. We prepped the first 6 dives before heading to one of the coaches which took us into the centre of town for the
opening ceremony. For the next couple of hours we were treated like celebrities as we paraded through the town waving at all
the locals who had come out especially to see us. It was then early to bed (missing the opening ceremony banquet L) as were on an early call the next day.
Over the next few days our ability to stay focussed and ready like a coiled spring was tested as we were subjected
to torrential rain and gales meaning very long days as the organisers wanted to make the most of every weather break.
On round 1 we scored a 24, the same as the USA and 1 point ahead of the French.
After that we gradually pulled away and led the field for the rest of the competition.
Going into round 6 (our last round because of the weather) we had a 3 point lead over the USA.
We didn’t have the best of rounds and it took all our effort not to allow the jump to completely break down. Once we
landed we prepared the next dive anticipating that if the USA
had a good round (and they did), we could be going for a jump off!
Watching the jumps being scored was quite nerve wracking as we were convinced we had lost our lead. The USA did a very clean jump and scored a 19. We knew from Swoops
video that we had probably scored 17 however we didn’t know if the judges would penalise us for any infringements. We
needed 17 to win, 16 for a jump off, or 15 for silver L.
Seeing our worst jump of the meet being scored was painful and as expected we scored 17. However we then had the agonising
wait as the judges watched the jump again checking to see that it was clean. After 2 more viewings, the score was posted,
a 17!!! We had won!! By just 1 point, but still it was good enough to win!! Our average was 20 points, our highest in a skydiving
meet. There were lots of hugs and tears and then the champagne started flowing…it didn’t really stop for a good
couple of weeks!
We then watched the last jump from Arizona Airspeed from the USA being scored. They were the leaders
in the 4-way Open and had a very similar finish to us, going into the last round with a 4 point lead and again finishing with
a 1 point lead. Again it was enough and they too were crowned as World Champions! The French came 2rd and the very
popular Belgium’s came 3rd.
In the 8-way, the French won the gold, the USA came 2nd and then the Italian’s, our Perris training buddies
came 3rd!
Later in the afternoon (luckily we were still standing at that point), we were presented with our medals at the awards
ceremony. It was fantastic to see so many Brit supporters, not just fellow competitors, but friends and family who had made
the trip to France to wave the flag! And it was a great feeling to stand on the podium after
achieving the goal we had set 18 months ago. It made all the sacrifices (giving up jobs and selling everything we owned!)
all worth it….a huge sense of relief!
The celebrations continued at the closing banquet and were still going well into the following morning, Sarah and myself
being the most victorious as we managed to last until 5am….catching the very last bus back to Val Joly!!
So, job done! Well at least in terms of dominating the World. Just 3 days after arriving back in the UK, we were training
again…..this time for the British Nationals where we had an appointment with new up and coming team Satori. Our work
wasn’t finished yet!!
July 08
So it was back to Perris for our final training camp before the World Championships. This was described
by our coach Dan as more of a holiday! We only did around 120 jumps in 3 weeks jumps as now wasn’t the time
to be hammering 20 jumps a day. It was more for consolidation and for putting the pieces of the jig saw puzzle together. Again
we had the pleasure of sharing the Porter with the US Womens team – Fastrax Blue, plus also the British Freefly team
– Volairkix. Plus also the British 8-way team Connexion were also there
for our first 2 weeks which added to the Brits invasion of Perris! (We didn't share the plane with them because they wouldn't
fit!)
Half way through the camp we attended our last competition prior to the World Meet – an SSL meet
at Skydive Elsinore. At every SSL meet this year there was always the standing joke that our coach Dan BC would put together
a team normally including current or ex members of Airspeed to give us some competition! This time he called upon the services
of current 4-way World Champion Natasha Montgomery, however we still as hoped beat him, this time with an average of 19.2
over 6 rounds.
The final week of the camp was run at a much more relaxed pace with no more than 6-8 jumps per day. The
jumps really started coming together and culminated in us doing 47 points in time on a random dive! It was then that Dan said
we were done. That was it, no more training before the World Meet. We were suprised because we still had a day to go! We
didn't take much persuading and we headed to the pool for margaritas!!
June 08:
Still suffering from the post Honda advert Sangria hangovers
as well as lack of sleep, we then jetted back from Spain to London
and then straight onto LA just in time to attend the SSL meet at Perris the following day. Dan’s words prior to the
meet were “you don’t need no stinkin sleep!” and we took him at his word….just added in a hangover
as well! Not the best preparation for a competition, which was reflected in the scores (15.7 average), however it was still
a good experience and good to compete out of the Porter for the first time.
It was then back into training which consisted of a mixture
of low altitude exit training from 5.5K feet and a number of competition draws. We managed 129 jumps in 2 weeks in some extremely
hot temperatures. We also got the chance to train with the US Girls Team – Fastrax Blue which despite making the Porter
feel extremely cramped, it was good preparation for the World Meet where we will be sharing the Porter with another team.
We felt like we had made some good progress during this
camp both in terms of exits and hill work plus on the flat, and with 3 weeks off before the next and final training camp,
we were already looking forward to getting stuck into training again.
Sparky, Sarah and Swoop then made the journey back to the
UK,
whilst Kate and Hannah opted to stay in Perris. Sparky and Sarah spent the first weekend back at the Bodyflight Wind
Tunnel, Bedford to coach both the 2 x 4-way teams plus the 8-way team created from the Storm-Fury coaching project. The aim
of the camp was to consolidate some of the learning’s gained from the recent training camp in Perris as well as to have
a fun weekend. A total of 6.5 hours were flown and everyone went home tired and happy.
Next weekend see’s Sarah and Sparky at the Grand Prix
at Cark where they will be offering free coaching to the teams competiting.
Honda Advert:
At the end of May we took part in the first ever live advert in conjunction
with Channel 4 in which we were part of a 16-way group which performed a series of formations to spell out the word HONDA.
This was achieved from 14,000 feet from a Cessna Caravan and Pilatus Porter at Skydive Lillo in Spain and was transmitted
back to the UK during a commercial break.
We had the opportunity to practice the dive on a few occasions before the live jump, however this still didn’t take
away the pressure of being able to perform in front of a live audience! The advert attracted 1.5 million viewers and gained
press coverage in most national newspapers as well as several TV stations. As well as being fantastic for publicising skydiving,
it was also a notable media achievement and will be talked about for some time.
Click here to see live Honda advert
May 08
So it was back to the UK, this time just for 2 weeks and it
has been pretty much non stop since we got back. We trained in the Bedford
wind tunnel for another 4 hours, working on some of problem blocks as well as doing B-slot training. This is our last tunnel
training before the World Meet and so our last session was pretty emotional!
We also did a tandem jump with presenter Mary Green from Thames Valley News. She saw
some recent coverage of our team about our bid for the World Championships and asked if she could do a story on the team.
We suggested she spiced up the interview by doing a tandem jump, to which she agreed. The interview went out on the Thames
Valley News on ITV and lasted for 6 minutes which was great for gaining some positive coverage for our sport.
Click here to see Thames Valley news interview
| Tandem - Thames Valley News presenter Mary Green |
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| (c) Gary Wainwright |
Fury8Storm Training Camp
After having made 174 training jumps in the last 3 weeks, there was no rest for the
wicked! Two 8-way and two 4-way teams arrived to take part in the Fury8Storm training camp. The two 4-way teams consisting
of a Rookie and single A team were coached by Kate and Hannah whilst Sarah and Sparky acted as player coaches on the two 8-way
teams with the help of Josh and Chris from Perris Fury. Sparky’s team had an international flavour with team mates being
recruited from Canada, Uruguay, Finland and the US and so was training to compete at the US Nationals as a guest team.
The 10 day training camp despite the inclement weather proved to be a big success
with the teams making in the region of 40 – 60 jumps and included an evening at the new bowling alley at Elsinore plus an end of
camp pizza party!
Hannah, Sarah and Sparky decided to take the meaning of living the dream to another
level and moved out of the comfy team house into a hangar on the drop zone. Our excuse was to make space for the 8-way and
4-way teams, not the fact that we were within staggering distance of the Bombshelter bar! On the downside we got to share
our sleeping bags with various creepy crawlies of the multiple leg varieties!
| Fury8Storm Project 2008 |
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| (c) Nik Daniels |
April 08 – Training camp
Fresh from the Bodyflight Challenge, it was back to Perris for another 3 weeks of
training. The objective of this camp was to consolidate our pace and make it consistent, as well as start tackling the exits
from the Porter! During the first week we concentrated on meet style jumps in preparation for the SSL meet at Elsinore the following weekend.
The training jumps went well and we really felt like we were dialling in the correct attitude. We took this to the meet and
scored a 17.7 average over 6 rounds coming 2nd behind our coach Dan BC’s team “Founding Fathers”
which included current and old members of Arizona Airspeed – the fastest team in the world! We were pleased with the
result especially as the draw was considered as very slow, plus we received some nice feedback from the judges in terms of
our accuracy and making the jumps easy to score.
| Drilling block 2 |
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| (c) Gary Wainwright |
The following week was dedicated to jumping the Porter. The Perris mechanic team had
been working hard for the last 5 months to build us a Porter from scratch using the parts from 2 different planes. At last
we received the phone call to say that the new Porter (which we have nick named Pandora!) had taken off and landed 8 times
and that we would be the first skydivers to jump it!
The following morning we arrived early at the drop zone and watched
the Porter do another couple of touch and goes before we got the go ahead to get kitted up ready for the first Porter load.
We all admitted that we were a little nervous about being the 1st guinea pigs to jump the Porter, however all went
well and we made 17 jumps on the 1st day. During the week we made a total of 93 porter jumps, 30 of which were
in one day! All of our work in the gym finally paid off plus we were helped along by the Canadian Special Forces SkyHawks
team who would cheer us on every time we ran past them for the next jump!
| The team getting familiar with the Porter |
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| (c) Gary Wainwright |
However our success rate has improved and the exits are feeling much more familiar. We haven’t yet
got used to the lack of space and were spoilt by being the only team in the plane….that is until Airspeed arrived! Cramming
10 people into the Porter proved to be very cosy and we got to know Airpseed very well!
| Bodyflight Storm at the World Challenge |
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March 08 - Bodyflight World Challenge
We have just completed our
first competition for 2008 and ironically it didn't involve leaping from a perfectly good airplane! Instead we competed
in the Bodyflight World Challenge held at the Bodyflight wind tunnel, our home when we are in the UK.
Teams
from all over the world including the US, France, Russia, Norway, Italy, Sweden and South Africa also made the journey to
Bedford to compete in the popular Bodyflight World Challenge which is now an annual event.
The competition
was run in a similar way to normal skydiving competitions in that teams had just 35 seconds to race through a randomly drawn
sequence of different formations where they are awarded a point for each one. The difference being that instead of the
clock starting when team exits the plane, it started when they entered the tunnel!
| The team in action! |
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| (c) Gary Wainwright |
There were
10 rounds which were completed over 2 days (29th March – 30th March) and as expected there was
a fierce battle for 1st place right up to the final round with Arizona Airspeed winning by just 3 points in round
10!
We came 10th with a 22.6 average and were generally pleased with our performance
having beaten women's teams from Norway and France who will also be contenders for the gold medal at the World Championships
in France. However there is still a lot
more training to go before we face our rivals again, and we are determined to improve on our performance in Bedford.
Competing at the Bodyflight World Challenge gave us a taste of world class competition
as well as an indication of the remaining work we need to do prior to competing in France.
We leave for our next training camp just 1 week after the Challenge.
Feb - March 08
It was home just for 2 weeks before we returned again to Perris for our next training
camp where we managed just over 100 training jumps. This time we were concentrating on meet style jumps and were very lucky
to be able to also work with World Champion Andy Delk from Airspeed! Andy was
one of Dan BC’s original progeny and was invited by Dan to coach us for 3 days to help provide us with some additional
tips as to how the jumps should feel based on his experiences and learning’s with Airspeed (the current US National
4-way team). We were a little worried as to how Andy would react to our British
humour however the time was very well spent and we did our best not shock him too much during the debriefs!
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| (c) Willy Boeykens |
It’s now back to the UK where we will putting in some hours
at the wind tunnel prior to the Bodyflight World Challenge. This will be our first test against some of the teams we will
meet at the World Championships in France later this year with women’s
teams from both France and Norway
attending.
Jan 08:
So it was back to Perris to continue with our training. Unfortunately the weather wasn't particularly
coorporative and so we only managed just under 130 jumps over the 3 weeks. We did however make a lot of ground and have
started to re-enforce the calm factor back into our jumps following the crazy spped drills we had been let loose on at
the end of last year!
The temperatures were still arctic although at least we didn't have to prolong the pain like
the Sky Hawks (Canadian Forces Crew Team) who were hanging about under canopies from 8,000 feet!!
| Coached jump with Andy & Claire from Netheravon |
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| (c) Gary Wainwright |
It wasn't all hard work though. Hannah and Sparky made a 4-way jump with
Andy and Claire from Netheravon, plus we also made a 12-way jump with another Brit team Paradox and Perris Fury. What made
this jump so much fun was the fact that Dan BC thought each of the teams were making a 4-way team training jump as planned.
However unbeknown to him, we dirt-dived the 12-way in secret and then did 5 points by 7,500 feet! Forgoing a training jump
was worth the expression on Dan's face when he went to debrief what he thought was going to be a 4-way jump!!!
| Dan realising that he had been "had"!!! |
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| (c) Gary Wainwright |
| 12-way with Parodox and Perris Fury |
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| (c) Gary Wainwright |
We also had the pleasure of the US Marines company on a number of occasions
on the ride to altitude. They provided some light relief on some of the long jumping days which we used as great distraction
training in preparation for the World Meet!
| Bodyflight Storm posing with the US Marines |
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Dec 07
We
have just completed our first training camp in Perris since winning the British Nationals last August. We managed 120 jumps
from the Twin Otter in what can only be described as arctic conditions!!
During
the camp we were able to put into practice the learning’s gained from our tunnel camp with Fury last November, and a
big portion of the camp concentrated on drilling blocks and applying the same increased speed as adopted recently in the tunnel.
| Canadian Tee |
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| (c) Gary Wainwright |
We also started
training in our mirrored quadrants which is to be the plan for when we train from the Porter (aircraft to be used at the World
championships in France). Traditionally we have always trained from planes with a left hand door
however the Porter has a right hand door.
| Floating the Stardian from the Otter |
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| (c) Gary Wainwright |
After much
discussion with coach Dan BC and other teams who have trained from the Porter, we decided to mirror our skydives so as to
keep everyone in their traditional exit slots. Whilst this was difficult in the beginning to cope with mentally (it’s akin to writing with your
right hand for years and then changing to write with your left hand!), the use of the tunnel has helped to build in the new
muscle memory quickly before our first camp in Perris.
This mirrored continuity
plan has however meant that the exits from the Otter are now very different and more challenging than before. The various
funnels on the hill didn’t come without a lot of laughing and we were pleased to be able to contribute to another Bodyflight
Storm bloopers video!!
It was not all hard work though - we did manage to include some Christmas spirit into one of our last training jumps.
| Team get into the festive spirit! |
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| (c) Gary Wainwright |
We
now have just 3 weeks in the UK where we will be back training in the confinements of the
warm tunnel before we go back out to Perris mid January for our next camp.
Nov 07 - 3 day tunnel camp with Perris Fury!!
We have just completed a very successful 3 day 2on2 tunnel camp with Perris Fury. The aim of the camp was to
take the team to the next level in terms of increased speed and anticipation. We have worked with Perris Fury in the past
in Perris,
California which is where we make most of our training jumps with coach
Dan BC. Perris Fury use the same techniques as coached by Dan plus were able to provide technical expertise appropriate to
each slot.
We started the camp with a number of random dives before moving onto specific block drills. The camp was structured
so that 2 Storm members would fly with 2 Fury members therefore allowing for some very valuable in air coaching. We then had
the opportunity to put into practice what we had learnt by then flying as a complete team. The results were very pleasing!!
We now
have a few more hours in the tunnel together before leaving for our next training camp in Perris in December. It will
also be the first time they will get to jump the Porter which is the plane being used at next years World Championships in
France. This will present us with some
new challenges as the door is on the right hand side unlike the Otters and Dorniers the team usually train from which have
left hand doors! No doubt there will be the opportunity to add to our bloopers footage!!
| Block 11 |
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| (c) Gary Wainwright |
| Unipod |
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| (c) Gary Wainwright |
Oct 07 - Team attend the Safe Flight School canopy piloting course!
We have just returned from a fantastic weekend in Empuribrava where we
attended a canopy piloting course run by Brian Vacher of Safe Flight School, Empuribrava. Based on the fact we will be doing
around 1000 jumps next year, we thought it would be a good idea to invest some time in some quality canopy piloting coaching!
Whilst we can all land our canopies on our feet 99% of the time, we knew that we didn't really understand our canopies properly
and could still get so much more from them!
The experience of the people on our course varied from just post
AFF to an experienced Crew jumper! And it didn't mater how much experience some people had, everyone was so willing to
learn.
As a result of the course we now know about lots of different inputs that we can use on our canopy,
we know how to make a flight plan that will work on any drop zone, we are more confident about landing in cross wind conditions
plus we are getting so much more from our canopies on landing!
Whether you are just post AFF or consider yourself to be an experienced canopy pilot, we would recommend
that you attend this course.
The Safe Flight School, Empuriabrava offers a variety of canopy courses to suit all levels of experience
from AFF graduation through to experienced and competition jumpers with thousands of jumps. The courses are modular and designed
to be related to your experience level. The courses can vary in length from 1, 3 or 5 days, and will provide you with
a huge range of basic skills to the very advanced techniques used in competition depending on the course you attend.
So what happens next??!!
Winning the British Nationals AAA event left us with a bit
of a dilemma i.e. should we compete in the Open or in the Women's Event! After much deliberation and discussion, we have decided
to compete in the Women's event as we felt it would give us the opportunity to push the standard in the Women's Event
to a level never reached before.
We have planned 6 training camps between now and the World
Meet which we think will put us in good shape to go up against the US, French and the Russians.
The team kick off their training with a tunnel camp with
Perris Fury in November before travelling to Perris for their first camp training out of the Porter.
In the meantime the team are still working hard to set up a charity in
the UK which will enable them to work
with a number of women's and children’s charities.
Brit Chicks Part 2!!!
After all the bad luck with the weather back in May, it
was decided to run the event again during the Langar Boogie 2. The first weekend was used as another warm up giving us a chance
to practice taking the grips we would be taking on the record, as well as allowing us to do some 2 aircraft formation loads……a
first for some people on the load. We also had the privilege of getting some fantastic coaching from big way guru and multiple
world record holder Kate
Cooper!
The patience and extra practice paid off and after just
3 attempts at the record the following Saturday, we managed to build a 68-way red cross formation!!! As you can imagine we
partied long and hard on the Saturday night and luckily the wind was blowing a gale the following day allowing the sore heads
to recover!
We have also raised over £40K for the Red Cross during the
year which came from a number of activities including donations to the Justgiving web pages, auctions, sponsored tandems,
jumps and even dates with the Brit Chicks! As Team Storm, we also auctioned a team jump where Stumpy was the proud recipient
after bidding £250!!
| Brit Chick 68-Way Record |
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| (C) Tony Danbury |
| Coached jump over Langar |
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| (C) Gary Wainwright |
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