posted Jan 16th, 2009 - The NSL News date with the French national team in the female category, Aerokart Deep Blue, worked out yesterday, after another 12-jump day in cold weather conditions.

Two of these training jumps have already been uploaded. The video of the live interview can be viewed by clicking here.

Christophe Chekroun is the old and the new videographer for Deep Blue. He explained in the interview that he filmed the team already throughout the 2008 season.

Fabrice Rieu, who is now filming the Open Class team, only took the Deep Blue slot to film the competition jumps at the World Meet 2008. From here on, Christophe Chekroon will also be responsible for Deep Blue's competition jumps.

Fabrice Rieu was actually in a similar situation in 2008. He was already filming France Maubeuge's training jumps and switched to Deep Blue at the world meet. Camera veteran Alexandre Pereira took his slot for the Open Class competition and the team's battle with Airspeed Odyssey. Fabrice Rieu will now be responsible at the meets, as well.

The interview with the Deep Blue members began with a review of the World Meet 2008 in Maubeuge. The French team had the goal to win medals on home turf. The hopes may have been higher after a successful first season for this lineup, and the bronze medals behind UK's Bodyflight Storm and US team Fastrax Blue may have been a little bit disappointing for the Deep Blue members.

That was not the case, as Sophie Deremaux, Bérangère Duplouy, Françoise Simons-Hamouchi and Amélie Tirman explained at the beginning of the interview. In fact, Deep Blue was pleased and more than satisfied with the results in Maubeuge. It was a successful but difficult season for the team, as Deep Blue had to shake off the other French female lineup of White Nice Pujaut just a few weeks before the world meet to qualify as the national team for France.

The goals are set differently for the world meet in 2010. Deep Blue is now already qualified as the official French national 4-way team in the female category and has two years to carefully prepare for the pursuit of the gold medals.

The team members are expecting the winning average in 2010 significantly above the 20.0 average of 2008, and they plan to be ready for it.

The charts of the scores in the female 4-way category since the event was introduced in 1999 show that the French progression has been steeper than the average progression of this event. France entered the female 4-way event for the first time with a national team in 2002 and moved up quickly to the top level.

Deep Blue members Sophie Deremaux and Françoise Simons-Hamouchi were already members of the national lineups in 2005, and Sophie Deremaux has been with the French national teams ever since.

Françoise Simons-Hamouchi took a break to have a baby boy who is now two years old.

Deep Blue will train a lot in the coming two years. The team has planned 600 training jumps for the 2009 season and the same number for 2010, plus plenty of tunnel time. Françoise Simons-Hamouchi has a management position at the Aerokart windtunnel in Paris, which is sponsoring the team and provides the Deep Blue member with the vacation time she needs to win the gold medals.

Amélie Tirman is a school teacher. She has the benefit of support by the French government and can also get the vacation time she needs. She explained that she still has to manage her classes and teachings to prepare for the time when she is gone for training and competition.

Sophie Deremaux is also working for the French government. She has a job in the sports department and just has to manage her vacation time with colleagues and clients. Bérangère Duplouy is a civil servant and is in the same situation as Sophie Deremaux.

Team videographer Christophe Chekroun has a job in the corporate computer technology business. He has 60 days of vacation time available per year, once again with the help of the French government. He said that these 60 work days plus the weekends is enough to cover the annual training with Deep Blue.

This lineup has been together for one year to date, and it seems to be a great mix, as the team members said during the interview. The NSL News was asking where the team has its strength. Each team member confirmed that they get along very well and have no problems with group dynamical issues. In fact, they said that they are laughing a lot together. The NSL-TV video surely shows a lot of smiling and laughing in the NSL office that day.

As with the French Open Class team France Maubeuge, the NSL News will try to arrange another meeting for an update at the end of this training camp.

In the meantime, 4-way coach and former world champion Marin Ferré will also provide his own feedback for the NSL News. He spends both training camps with the French teams in DeLand. The NSL News has an interview with him in the works for next week.

Then both French teams and their coach will come back in March and compete at the FSL Shamrock Showdown 2009. The next 2009 stop for France Maubeuge, Deep Blue and the NSL News after the Shamrock will be the World Challenge 2009 at Bodyflight Bedford.