posted Jan 19th, 2021 - NSL News updates have covered the gradual comeback of Airspeed XP8 member Matt Davidson regularly. There is one special reason why his comeback deserves more attention than others. The NSL News had explained on 3 December 2019 that only Matt Davidson could complete his own Decade of 8-way Excellence by winning his 5th consecutive FAI gold medal at the next world meet.

Other updates continued with the same topic regularly, before and after his hip surgery. He joined XP8 indoor training not too long after the hip surgery and scheduled his outdoor comeback for December, with the XP8 training camp at Skydive Arizona in Eloy.

Matt Davidson recently completed his second outdoor training camp with 70 jumps at the same place and was available to share his comeback experiences with the NSL News audience.

His memories of the first outdoor training in Arizona were literally painful, as he explained in today's NSL Live Talk conversation. He was mentally and physically very well prepared as a top athlete. However, he did not expect that the first outdoor training in December would be physically as challenging as it turned out to be. Matt Davidson said in the interview that he came to his own limits with the level of pain and discomfort.

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NSL Live Talk with Matt Davidson

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His training of many years with the Golden Knights was probably very helpful to master the level of pain and the challenging situation. His wife Jennifer Davidson, who is a current Golden Knights 4-way and 8-way member herself, supported his recovery efforts, as an earlier video of their home training was showing.

Matt Davidson was committed to be back with the team in December, and he eventually completed his first outdoor training camp despite the circumstances.

He said that his team mates accommodated his special situation as good as they could, and the complete lineup jumped from the Twin Otter in Eloy for the first time in December last year. SDC Rhythm XP's Andrew Happick is the official alternate for Airspeed XP8 and had filled the slot for Matt Davidson at the earlier outdoor and indoor camps.

Andrew Happick was in the point slot when he was training with the 8-way team. He is also the 4-way point for SDC Rhythm XP. Matt Davidson has been working in the center for the Golden Knights, and he was supposed to continue in the same slot with Airspeed XP8. Niklas Hemlin moved to point when Andrew Happick made room for Matt Davidson's comeback in December.

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Airspeed XP8 January Training with Matt Davidson - Day 1 and Day 7

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Airspeed XP8 followed up with the next outdoor training camp last week, once again at Skydive Arizona, and the team allowed videographer Elliott Byrd to share the training videos with the NSL News. The first video clip features the U.S. 8-way team on the first day of the January camp, and the videos of the last day include a 40+ performance for a hand-picked sequence (1,4,F) that would be a new 8-way world record.

Matt Davidson owns the 33-pointer world record that the Golden Knights posted at the World Air Games 2015. Jump plan was a Twin Otter in Dubai, while the 8-way teams will exit from a Let-410 in Russia, the same jump plane that was used at the FAI World Meet 2014 in Prostejov, Czech Republic.

The Golden Knights had no serious competition in Prostejov and won easily by 45 points, despite a bad exit in Round 4, which had the potential for a world record (M,4,1) with almost exactly the same sequence as the 40+ performance in Eloy last week.

The next XP8 camp is scheduled for February, and it seems like the world meet in Tanay, Russia, will be confirmed by FAI/ISC at the end of this week. The road to the most exciting 8-way competition in history would be open again...