posted Mar 24th, 2008 - The Australian Nationals 2008 were held last week at at Sydney Skydivers in Picton, New South Wales. Perfect weather saw the 4-way competition completed in two days, with Airtite and C4 battling for the chance to represent Australia at the World Championship of Formation Skydiving this August in Maubeuge, France.

Team Airtite, with Jeremy Langford (Point), Gary Nemirovsky (Outside Center), Rob Tasic (Inside Center), Simon Disciassio (Tail) and Andy Oakley (Camera), has been dominating the 4-way event downunder for several years after winning the national title with this lineup for the first time in 2004. Airtite competed for Australia at the last World Meet in Germany 2006, as well.

However, there was serious competition this year. The main competitor, Team C4, had lifted its scoring average by two points since last year and challenged Airtite for this year's championship title. Airtite knew about the challenge and responded strongly by setting a new Australian record average of 17.0 after ten rounds.

Australia's previous national team in IPC's female category, G-Force, had changed its lineup after a 12.4 average and the 10th place at the World Meet 2006. The new lineup competes with a new name, Snatch Force, and has two new team members. Snatch Force surprised many with a 15.2 average and the bronze medal position in Australia after only two months since the team was formed.

The competition in Australia's Intermediate Class was tight, as well. A 10-point average used to be enough to win in the past. The situation was very different this year, as a total of four teams beat that mark. Fierce Allegiance, fresh from a tunnel camp in Eloy and coached by "Aussie" Todd Hawkins and "SAMF" Gary Beyer, won the gold with a 12.2 average after a high-quality competition with teams Sintered, Downward Trend and Kaos.

Australia has used its own Intermediate Class dive pool for many years. The random formations and 17 blocks are simpler versions of the Open Class dive pool, although there are several slot switchers and mirrors. A competitors' meeting during this year's national championship voted for a change to use the international A Class dive pool with a slight modification.

The sequences of the Australian A Class will consist of four or five points per round. The aim is to encourage newer jumpers with a simpler dive pool. The synchronization with IPC's random formations and blocks in this competition class will also make it easier for international coaches to work with the newer Australian teams. Eventually, the change will also guide the Australian teams into joining the NSL network in different competition classes.

The Australian Intermediate Class was also previously restricted by jump numbers. Intention was to give beginners a better chance in this category. However, the restriction was actually holding back competitors from attending the meets, which was obviously not good for the progression of the sport in Australia.

The same meeting at the national championship last week also decided to change the restrictions for the new A Class. From here on, teams only have to make sure that no more than two members have won the former Intermediate or new A Class at the national championship. A Class competitors are also not allowed to compete if they have attended a national championship in the Open Class in the previous five years.