posted Apr 23rd, 2010 - It has been a while since the NSL News covered Formation Skydiving competition in Ireland the last time. The FSL Shamrock Showdown gets a lot of attention every year, even though no team from Ireland has ever attended the popular annual event in March. This may change in 2011.

The NSL News now had a good reason to go back to Ireland as a topic since an Irish 4-way team, FastAir, was recently training in DeLand. FastAir was another team that was seriously affected by Eyjafjallajökull, the volcano in Iceland that brought air traffic between Europe and America to a complete halt. The NSL News had reported with the story on 17 April 2010 that Sinapsi's training camp had to be canceled.

It was the opposite situation for the team from Ireland. FastAir was already in DeLand and could not travel back home. They made the best of the situation though and simply added a few training days to the schedule. That's when they connected with Sinapsi member Steve Hamilton.

FastAir had Shannon Pilcher as the team's coach throughout the originally scheduled training camp. He was not available for the additional training days, and Steve Hamilton had just completed his work with Polaris. He was able to fill in for the Irish team as a coach, as he could not train with his own team.

FastAir's connection with Shannon Pilcher originated in 2007 when another team from Ireland came to DeLand for a training camp. Team Spirit was a civilian team with one member of the Irish Army, Stephen "Sully" O'Sullivan. He is also a member of the military FastAir lineup that was now training in DeLand.

The NSL News had covered a very funny event in DeLand in 2007, and Team Spirit was a part of this story (Archives > 2007 > News > Search for "Ireland"). In fact, Steve O'Sullivan was a part of the "Pink House Action" and the battle with the Norwegian team Arcteryx. The eye witness could now reveal some of the details for the NSL News during the latest NSL Talk.

NSL Talk with the Irish team FastAir

Steve O'Sullivan (27) has been a part of the Irish 4-way history since 2005 and is now the Center Outside of the new FastAir lineup that he recently recruited (Dennis Gowran - 23 - Point, Colin Curran - 26 - Center Inside, Graham Nutthall - 41 - Tail, Ruarigh McDermatt - 27 - Camera).

The team members have jump numbers between 600 (Dennis Gowran) and 1800 (Sully) and have set their goals for this year's military CISM Championship and next year's World Cup in Germany.

IPC Vision (David Clark, David Byrnes, Conor King, John King, Eoin Mallin on camera) was the Irish team that posted the highest national average for Ireland at a World Championship of Formation Skydiving (9.8) and finished 18th in Spain 2001. Steven Kerr, John McCourt, Nigel Moore, Evan Simpson and Ronnie Smith competed for Ireland in Germany 2006 and finished in 24th place with a 5.8 average.

Steve O'Sullivan's previous Team Spirit lineup (Jim Gunning, Conor King, Fenton Murphy, Stephen O'Sullivan, Eoin Mallin on camera) set new standards for Ireland with an 11.1 average at the World Cup 2007 in Russia. It was the same year when Shannon Pilcher's house changed it's color and design a few times...

Team Spirit continued in 2008 and attended a meet of the United Kingdom Skydiving League in June (9.7) and then the French Nationals 2008. However, Ireland had no representation at the World Meet 2008 in France, and no Irish teams attended any major events in 2009.

FastAir has no plans for the World Championship of Formation Skydiving 2010. The team is determined to win this year's national championship with a new national record average and has the World Cup 2011 in Germany as the final goal of the 2-year plan. The Shamrock Showdown 2011 will possibly become the season opener for FastAir. It would make a perfect fit.