posted Jan 19th, 2009 - The recent updates of the French national 4-way teams, France Maubeuge and Deep Blue, brought the NSL News back to the World Meet 2008 quite a few times. The situation in the female category was the topic of the last story on 12 January 2009 after a visit of the Deep Blue members in the NSL office.

The French team surely has the gold medals at the world meet in 2010 in mind. However, teams from the United Kingdom and the USA have dominated the female 4-way category ever since it was launched in 1999, and UK's team Bodyflight Storm is the reigning world champion.

The NSL News met with the Storm members after the end of the competition in Maubeuge for a live interview in a very lively atmosphere on site. Even the Fun Flag had its short appearance during the interview. It has been suspiciously quiet on the British end ever since, and the NSL News asked Claire "Sparky" Scott for an update. She has won more gold medals in this event at world meets than any other female 4-way competitor.

She told the NSL News that the current world champion lineup (Claire Scott, Hannah Betts, Sarah Smith, Kate Stephens and Gary Wainwright on camera) have decided to take a "...well earned break":

"It has been a hectic 18 months since leaving our jobs in May 2007 in pursuit of our goal of winning the World Championships in the Women's category in 2008. After some 1,500 jumps, numerous tunnel hours and too many credit cards, we achieved our goal with a 20-point average. We would have loved to have continued, especially after having been knocking on the 20-point average door for some time. It would have been exiting to take it to the next level.

However, we are all totally spent out after our major sponsorship ended at the start of 2008, and we have pretty much already sold everything we own, making continuing at the same level of commitment virtually impossible. It was still a difficult decision to make."

After winning her fourth world meet gold medal in 2008, she still looks back at the time with Bodyflight Storm as one of the greatest achievements in her career. She remembered where the Storm lineup came from and how the team made it to the very top position in a rush:

"We are pleased with what we have achieved. Bodyflight Storm went from being a 13-point average AA Class team in 2007 to beating current world champion Team Elan (previously Airkix) by 16 points at the British Nationals in 2007 with an 18.1 average, earning a place at the World Championships in France. After deciding to mirror our continuity plan to aid training from the Porter, we are really pleased to have been able to push the average further in Maubeuge in a nail biting finish with Fastrax Blue.

The final icing on the cake was then to be able switch back to left hand door still with our mirrored continuity and retain our British Championship title just one week later, beating Satori by 12 points with an 18.8 average on a particularly slow draw. The UK Nationals was a better competition for us helped by the fact that we got to complete the rounds in just two days. We also didn’t care so much as we did in France, making the skydives much more fun and carefree. It’s just a shame that Round 11 was an all-random jump!"

Claire Scott then went back to the time she spent with Dan BC who was coaching her successful lineups over the past years and contributed all his experiences as a competitor and coach to the success of the British female teams. She thinks that Dan BC deserves a big share of the credit for her own and the team's gold medals:

"None of these achievements, of course, would have been possible without the guidance of Dan BC – the 6th key member of the team! His mechanical, stop drill approach coupled with his meticulous planning, so we always knew where we were on our journey, helped keep us on the straight and narrow path. We were very appreciative to him making a 2nd trip across the Atlantic in a month to be with us at the British Nationals, as well.

Despite the UK Nationals not being our main competition for the year, it wouldn’t have been the same without him. Plus it allowed the celebrations from France - just one week prior - to continue! The Dan BC way has worked in the past for so many teams and should be a lesson to all up and coming teams i.e. anything is possible if you have the passion, the drive and are willing to accept that Dan is always right!"

Claire Scott was not able to provide any information of future plans for herself or a British female lineup. Her insights sounded almost like a farewell. However, she finished her update in a way that may indicate plans still to be made later on:

"This won’t be the last you will hear from Bodyflight Storm. Team members will be running Bodyflight Storm tunnel camps over the coming months (see team website for details), with Hannah, Sarah and myself all trying to continue living the dream by working in skydiving full time.

Hannah and I have already run tryouts for a series of Rookie, A and AA Class 4-way teams at the Bodyflight Bedford wind tunnel. Hannah is now based in Perris, as soon will be Kate, although she returns to working with her old company."

The NSL News audience will soon again see Bodyflight Storm members in action. Claire Scott added that "...there are also rumours that a Storm/Airkix/Elan hybrid mix will be putting in a fun team for the World Challenge 2009!"

Claire "Sparky" Scott is still facing a new situation. She has been competing seriously ever since the female category was introduced in 1999. She has always had team plans reaching from one world meet to the next one. There is nothing in the works for a UK team with her in the lineup at the moment, while Deep Blue from France and the US team Fastrax Blue have already begun with their training for 2010.

Hard to imagine that Sparky would just watch this and not even try to defend the UK gold medals that she seems to own...