posted May 17th, 2013 - The next international meet weekend is coming up, with teams competing in France, the Czech Republic and the USA. Last weekend's leaderboard was dominated by UK teams, and the NSL News week was busy with updates from the United Kingdom accordingly.

The attention to the UK teams guided the NSL News to a related topic and a team that did not compete last weekend. It's a team that has not caught much attention despite the fact that it is actually the longest standing one in the United Kingdom. The NSL News is now catching up with AAA Class team Escondido.

Escondido was started by a group of friends who decided to join and form a team during a spring vacation to Lake Elsinore in 2004. Abi van Hoorebeek, Brian Cumming, Guy Martin and Oli Pitchers were in the first Escondido lineup, with Rob Gray on camera. Brian Cumming and Guy Martin are still competing for Escondido, last time at the World Challenge 2013.

ESL Championship 2005		Rd. 1	Rd. 2	Rd. 3	Rd. 4	Rd. 5	Rd. 6	Rd. 7	Rd. 8	Rd. 9	Rd. 10	Total	Avg
Ranking	Rookie	B F K	E J H	M P C	O L G	B D A	E Q N	M K H	O C G	B A N	E K J	Total	Avg
1	Escondido (UK)	11	14	9	8	9	8	12	6	13	11	101	10.1
2	D4 (UK)	11	10	7	8	10	9	11	10	9	10	95	9.5
3	Whooops (NL)	9	7	7	4	8	6	4	8	5	1	59	5.9
4	Bijna (NL)	7	3	7	3	5	4	2	3	2	1	37	3.7
5	BBQ (CH)	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	2	2	7	0.7

The 2005 season was the first serious competition year for Escondido, and it ended with gold medals at the ESL Championship. No other team on any of the UK 2005 leaderboards is still around, while Escondido launched the team project just when the United Kingdom Skydiving League joined the international NSL 4way Network, and the current lineup (Brian Cumming, Guy Martin, Jon Dundee, Derrick Kent) still competes regularly. The 2013 season is the 9th year for Escondido.

Escondido went through the Rookie Class and the A Class quickly and spent only one year in each category. Both were strong years, with the Rookie Class gold medals at the ESL Championship 2005 and bronze medals at the UK Nationals 2006 in the A Class after a jumpoff for the 2nd place.

The original lineup moved up into the AA Class in 2007 and staid their for a second year to improve the average from 8.6 at the UK Nationals 2007 to 12.4 a year later.

World Cup 2009		Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Round 5	Round 6	Round 7	Round 8	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	8,19,A	7,L,12	10,14,9	22,N,J,G	C,6,5	D,O,4,Q	15,13,18	21,2,20	Total	Avg
22	Escondido (UK)	11	10	10	12	13	17	10	10	93	11.6
23	Atmosfera G4 (PT)	13	10	10	11	9	13	8	10	84	10.5

Escondido had a new lineup in 2008 for the last year in the AA Class. Brian Cumming, Guy Martin, Oliver Pitchers and George Impey were in the active lineup, and Rob Gray continued on camera. It was an exciting year for the team, as the British Parachute Association sanctioned Escondido to compete for the United Kingdom at the World Cup 2009 in Prostejov, together with three other AAA Class teams in the UK delegation. It was the first international competition for Escondido, and it would not be the last one.

Only the national teams competed at the World Meet 2010 in Menzelinsk, and Escondido had to wait a year for the next World Cup where the British delegation would once again enjoy the next battle for points and also for the Fun Flag.

The 2011 lineup experienced the international atmosphere as a part of the UK delegation once again at the World Cup 2011 in Germany, which was scheduled after the national championships where Escondido had finished with the team's best outdoor average of 14.1 with a new lineup. Brian Cumming and Guy Martin competed with Derrick Kent and Jason Kierman, Rob Gray was still on camera.

Escondido	Atmosfera G4

World Challenge 2013		Rd. 1	Rd. 2	Rd. 3	Rd. 4	Rd. 5	Rd. 6	Rd. 7	Rd. 8	Rd. 9	Rd. 10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	O,E,J,K,3	M,Q,A,14	4,6,16	8,18,N	H,19,12	2,7,13	11,C,P,9	15,D,10	L,F,17,G	20,1,22	Total	Avg
18	Atmosfera G4 (PT)	23	23	13	16	13	16	20	15	20	15	174	17.4
19	Escondido (UK)	22	24	14	15	17	16	16	13	21	13	171	17.1

The 2012 season was the 4th year in the AAA Class (Brian Cumming, Guy Martin, Jason Kierman, Derrick Kent, Rob Gray on camera), and Escondido improved the team's best average to 14.3 at the July meet of the United Kingdom Skydiving League. The 14.1 average at the UK Nationals 2012 confirmed once again a position (7th place) that might qualify Escondido for the World Cup 2013.

The 10th year for the team and the 5th year in the AAA Class began for Escondido with a new lineup and a 17.1 average at the World Challenge 2013. Jon Dundee is the new team member, who is replacing Jason Kierman.

It's the highest indoor average for Escondido's new lineup and a promising start into the 2013 season. It was also a good battle in Bedford with old friends from Portugal. Atmosfera G4 was right behind Escondido at the World Cup 2009 and then right ahead of Escondido two years later in Germany. Escondido won the World Challenge 2012, and Atmosfera G4 had the upper hand this year in Bedford. Both teams may have the next internal showdown at the World Cup 2013...