posted Feb 2nd, 2009 - The NSL News has covered the changes of the dive pool over the years several times. The last stories related to the topic were posted on December 11 and 16 of 2008 (Archives > 2008 > News > Search for "dive pool") and mentioned that the dive pool for the 2009 season would be set at the IPC Meeting in February. The meeting in Sweden was concluded last weekend, and the details will be published soon.

Attendants of the IPC Meeting kindly informed the NSL News already that the dive pool once again remains unchanged. Teams and competitors who have already begun with their winter training and prepare for the 2009 season have been eager to find out whether there would be any changes or not. The training plans don't have to be changed or adjusted, at least not in the technical area of the dive pool.

This means at the same time that the dive pools and according rules for the four different competition classes of the national and international NSL/ESL Network will remain untouched, as well.

Three other topics have been covered by the NSL News throughout the 2008 season, and they were also discussed and decided upon at the IPC Meeting last week: event duration at the international IPC events (World Cup, World Championship), the freeze frame issue, and slower review speed for judging.

The unofficial results of the meeting bring no changes for the event duration and for the judging speed. Despite the fact that the last three world meets have not been completed after ten rounds in either or all of the three Formation Skydiving events, the majority of the IPC delegates decided to continue with 5-day events. The majority also voted for the same rules for judging and viewing speed and disregarded the request for slower speed by many teams, competitors and coaches.

The only change in these three relevant areas of the competition rules brought the freeze frame situation back to where it was a year ago. Judges will once again have the freedom to decide subjectively whether any formation in the freeze frame image is complete or incomplete. The IPC had tried to neutralize the judgement of the freeze frame image with an addition to the according rule at the last IPC Meeting, which was not well accepted by teams and judges throughout the 2008 season.

The IPC delegates also selected the competition site for the next World Championship of Formation Skydiving in 2010. Yesterday's NSL News story mentioned that the host of the Russian Nationals 2009 was also bidding to become the host for the next world meet. The Russian bid was successful and beat another bid by Perris Valley Skydiving in California. The skydiving center in Menzelinsk is the official host of the World Meet 2010.

The NSL News will follow up with more details of the IPC Meeting as soon as the official documentation will be available. In the meantime, teams can continue to train with the same dive pool and competition classes, while the coaches can make their plans based on judging in full speed. This year's national teams can prepare for a 5-day event at the World Cup 2009 in the Czech Republic and begin learning the Russian language if they plan to qualify for the next world meet.