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British Skydiving Team |
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World Champions 2008 British National Champions 2007 British National
Champions 2008
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TUNNEL CAMPS - WINTER 2010 Storm will be coaching at Bodyflight Bedford throughout the winter. Contact us for details about dates and prices. You are welcome to book your own time and then contact the team for coaching. * 4 way geeks! Come and join in on one evening
a month over the winter at the Bedford tunnel with other like-minded individuals who truly love 4 way. You will be teamed
up with people of a similar skill level and will have the chance to fly in any slot, try new block techniques, slot swapping,
mirrored continuity plans... Perfect for people not currently on a team, or who want to stay current and increase their 4
way knowledge and flying skills over the winter. You may meet you future team mates at the same time! All levels welcome. Contact Sarah to book your place (sarahjcannon@hotmail.co.uk).
XStormin8 have completed their first training camp! If you are interested in learning 8 way, are putting together an 8 way team for 2010 and need more team members or
advice, or If you would like to rotate with XStormin8 at the tunnel, please email Smithy. COACHING FOR 2011
SEASON If your team would like to be coached
by a member of Storm in the 2011 season, please contact us now. The team's schedules are already filling up fast. WHO ARE BODYFLIGHT STORM? Bodyflight Storm are the current 4 way formation skydiving World Champions
and won the British Nationals in 2007 and 2008. Check out www.airsports.tv (Parachuting,
World Formation Skydiving) to see Bodyflight Storm in action.
THE BODYFLIGHT STORM SQUAD Bodyflight Storm began in 2006 and competed in the AA category at the British Nationals, taking the gold by a 19 point margin. The squad has seen various lineups since it began, most notably winning the British Nationals AAA category in 2007 and 2008 and winning the World Championships female category in 2008. The lineup for 2007 and 2008 was Kate Stephens, Claire "Sparky" Scott, Sarah Smith (now Cannon), Hannah Betts and Gary "Swoop" Wainwright. Smithy, Hannah and Sparky are now all coaching full time, Kate has gone back to work in the real world - all can be contacted on bodyflightstorm@hotmail.com. Swoop is still filming at Langar and can be contacted by email for any camera tips, filming tandems, 4 and 8 way etc. The competition team line up for 2009 was Smithy, Laura McLelland, Lynne Murray and Julie Woodrow. The team had an outstanding list of camera flyers for the year, including Ben Cannon, Adele Marshall, John Baggaley (2009 Nationals camera man with only 2 days notice, thank you John!), Dorz Harwood, Scott McKenzie, Hannah Betts, Sparky Scott, Craig O'Brian, Terry at Perris... All team members are available for coaching at the Bedford wind tunnel and at the DZ of your choice in the country of your choice. For UK jumping we recommend Weston on the Green for team training and fun jumping, the DZ is most supportive of teams who want to get their training jumps in the UK. The new Storm line up of 2009 completed over 150 training jumps at Weston in 2009! Hannah is permanently based at Perris, so if you would like to train there with her please contact her at hannah_betts@hotmail.com. If you fancy jumping somewhere new, why not fly to Sweden's Vasteras. It takes 2 hours from Stansted, you fly pretty much into the DZ too! There is excellent accommodation on the DZ, they have a Caravan to jump from, a sauna on site and beautiful views from 12,000 feet. With the current exchange rate a jump ticket only costs £11. See the coaching page for details on coaching for 4 way and 8 way teams, individuals and tunnel coaching. UK SKYDIVING ADVENTURES Fancy trying skydiving? Click here for info on skydiving courses in the UK including free charity skydives.
COMPETITION UPDATE The squad competition 4 way line up for 2009 achieved 4th place at the 2009
British Nationals after 6 months of training together, almost 300 jumps and 3 hours of tunnel time. Sparky joined forces with
Amanda Kemp, Liz Matthews and Tarn Hollis and won the silver medal! The team had a great time, not doing a huge amount of
preparation at the meet but figuring out the dives (very effectively!) on the way down. Smithy has now joined the team in the Outside Centre slot and they are training through 2010 to represent
the UK at the World Championships in Russia. Alan Thompson (previously on Fusion) is flying camera. The 4 way Nationals in 2009 was completed in only one day! 49 teams, 3 aircraft and some very good weather made for
an exciting day. The Hibaldstow staff did an amazing job, as always. The judges were awesome, scoring all of the rounds with
no delay, displaying their usual talent and fair judgement. It was great to see Judy back from the USA again, and we hope
she will make it a habit to come to the British Nationals. The 8 way Nationals was completed in two days. There were four teams in the
Open category and two in the Intermediate. Lesley Gale put together a Brit Chicks team for the Open category, Laura, Lynne
and Julie had great fun taking part. The team scored a very impressive 85 points, leaving with the silver medal. XStormin8
came in at 3rd place, taking home the bronze. The team went on to represent the UK at the World Cup in the Czech Republic.  Bodyflight Storm The AAA category all female 4
way team Bodyflight Storm, was formed early in 2007 with the aim of competing at the British National Skydiving Championships
that year to gain selection to represent Great Britain at the 2008 World Championships in France. The original competitive
team members were Kate Stephens, Claire "Sparky" Scott, Hannah Betts, Sarah Smith and Gary "Swoop" Wainwright.
All members now form the Bodyflight Squad; continuing in various roles as coaches, aerial photographers, and as members of
competitive 4 way and 8 way teams. The
Bodyflight Storm Story: "We
spent months planning and trying to find financial backing, and in January 2007 had signed up our dream team mates and had
also secured some financial support - enough to leave our full time jobs and train full time - a situation that was so far
unheard of in UK skydiving. We 'lived the dream' through 2007, training in California with a world class coach. Our dedication that year was enough to win the Open
category at the British Nationals, beating the current World Champions, and thus secure our slot at the World Championships
in 2008. We sadly lost our financial backing late in 2007, so had to continue unsupported throughout 2008 but managed to pay
for our substantial training fees, mostly on credit cards and loans, and won the World Championships in France, in August
2008. We went on to win the British Nationals again in 2008, defending our title from the previous year. The last two years have been an incredible journey,
we became the closest friends - spending all of our time together and trusting each other with our lives. Winning the World
championships was of course fantastic, but really the two year journey working towards the competition is what we will always
remember and the story that we will always tell." Formation skydiving 4 way formation skydiving is one of the most popular forms of competition within the skydiving world: it is
about speed, accuracy, determination and strength, with the single goal of building as many formations as possible. The discipline
is practiced in freefall at speeds reaching 120 mph, and consists of four people performing a series of several formations
repeatedly within 35 seconds. The fifth team member, the camera person, films the jump and the footage is then watched
by the judges to score the team's performance. It's not about looking pretty in the air or looking good when you
land; in the same way as a football team wins a match by scoring the most goals, a 4 way team will win a competition if they
correctly build more formations and thus score more points than the other teams.  |
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