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Satori just completed a 9-day training camp at Hibaldstow in the United Kingdom before the meet. Satori's Center Inside Liz Matthews said that it is rare for a team to do more than weekend jumping in the UK:
"The UK hasn't really been considered a good place to train in earlier years, and of course everyone worries about the weather."
Coach Gary Smith came over from Holland to work with Satori, and the training began on a Tuesday, which is normally the day off in Hibaldstow. Liz Matthews added that the DZ wanted to accomodate the teams:
"Things are looking good for team training there. The wind tunnels have changed the face of British skydiving in the last few years, and it seems like we might find we can do our team training here too."
Satori plans to complete two more 9-day camps at the same place in June and July.
Meet Director Jerry Denning welcomed team captains early on Saturday morning and making the most of the fine weather, the teams got cracking using the two Cessna Caravans to get to altitude.
This was the first time Netheravon hosted a UKSL meet, and lots of effort had been put in to making the meet run as smoothly as possible. The DZ has a new computerised manifest system, so it was easy to see exactly what call your team was on, this undoubtedly helped ensure all the right people were getting on the bus to the enplaning point at the same time.
Experienced BPA judging team, Kate Charters and Liz Warner, were soon locked away reviewing the dives via CamScore, and as the scores began to filter through it became obvious that many teams were suffering from camera busts. One of the Caravans lacks a camera-step, which made it tricky for the team videographer to get the correct distance from the team on exit. Some camera flyers expressed some concern about this, but all were trying their best with what we had.
The spirit of the UKSL is all about sharing knowledge and encouraging people to compete. Chris Hollis himself was on hand to give some handy tips to any teams that needed it, plus many of the more experienced jumpers were also passing down their skills to the other teams.
Chris Hollis explained why the regular attendance of meets is so important: "This is why meets are great for training – you can't replicate this sort of thing just doing training jumps!"
As the evening drew in on the long June day, it was clear that - due to the smooth DZ management and all the teams putting in a great effort - all six rounds would be completed on Saturday. Chris Hollis provided the commentary of the competition in all four different categories:
The AA Class glory went once again to Phantom. This time with alternate Martin Soulsby, Phantom had a great meet with the highlight of the 20-pointer in Round 4 (E-9-N). The AA Class offers a tight race with arguably three or four teams all fairly close to one another. Second place team Phobia was pushing hard, even outscoring Phantom twice, but just lost out by two points, holding off the late charge by Kaizen who managed to outscore all other AA Class teams in the last two rounds.
To complete the pattern, Rookie Class team Zero Degrees, who already won at Langar, also won at Netheravon with some smooth and solid flying. The Rookie Class podium was a carbon copy of Langar, as silver went to Weston team Burble and bronze to Innuendo who suffered from the body blow of all those busts."
Chris Hollis said that the United Kingdom Skydiving League would like to thank the team at Netheravon for organising and holding such a successful and smooth meet: "Sandy on manifest was efficient and calm all day. One competitor joked that the manifestor had been hard at work for 12 hours and was still smiling."
He added that special thanks must also go to Kate Charters for all her hard work helping out the teams and telling them top tips from the judges perspective: "As we all heard so often that day: If we can't see it – we can't score it!"
The UKSL now moves north to the picturesque North West Parachute Centre at Cark in Cumbria for the meet weekend of June 28, and Chris Hollis expects another great event: "The guys up in the lakes are really keen, so we look forward to another great event and some more 4-way fun from the most competitive and well attended league in Europe..."