posted Jul 11th, 2010 - More future Rookie Class competitors got together in Norway at the end of June. Aerodyne sponsored the Norwegian Rookie Cup 2010, which consisted of two events. It is a 2-way Formation Skydiving competition for the lower experience level.

X3M4S member Kjetil "Rookie" Nordin organized the meet and explained the rules: "The competition applies rules like for the world cup of soccer. First there is group jumping, then semi finals and a final. Focus is on happy skydives, participation for all and large glass trophies. Additional random prizes are awarded in the form of chocolate or similar..."

The 2nd annual Aerodyne Rookie Cup was hosted twice this year, one in Jarlsberg on June 23rd, the second one in Voss on June 28th, the opening day of Ekstremsportveko (Extreme Sport Week). As in 2009, the competition whould prove to be very tight among the top teams.

Aerodyne Rookie Cup in Jarlsberg

The first competition in Jarlsberg had only three teams participating, as last year. However, five of the six participants had either been at the Basic Camp, a wind tunnel camp or at the Norwegian FS School before. The three attending teams were Magic & Delirium OFSK (Mario Caprino, Per-Olof Jonas Wallin, Thomas Nerli on camera), Team ADHD TØFSK (Richart Larsen, Lisbet Fredriksen, Morten Kristoffersen on camera), Deiligst.no TØFSK (Frode René Asker, Sebastien Fix, Marius Lundeby on camera).

The meet day in Jarlsberg had the weather on its side. Kjetil "Rookie" Nordin provided a summary of the event:

"We completed all three preliminary rounds, plus the final jump between the two best teams. The whole competition started with Magic & Delirium shattering the previous Rookie Cup record of 14 points, with an 18-pointer already in the first round.

It seemed to be almost a walkover, as Team ADHD got only 5 points for their first jumps. However, after a re-jump due to video issues Team deiligst.no showed that they had planned to defend the home turf when they posetd 15 points.

Round 2 made it even more exciting when deiligst.no went into the lead with 16 points against Magic & Delirium's heavily busted 10-point jump. Team ADHD also came back after scoring 9 points in the second round.

In Round 3, Magic & Delirium and deiligst.no both scored impressive 16 points. But it was by no means enough. Team ADHD had studied their previous rounds intensively and received coaching by the meet director. It paid back thoroughly. ADHD won Round 3 with an impressive 17-pointer. It was not enough to reach the final but enough to prove that Tønsberg has extremely talented rookies.

As last year, Oslo and Tønsberg met in the final. This year, however, Oslo ran off with the most prestigous prize after winning the final 17 - 16. Amazingly, eight of this year's eleven competition jumps beat last year's record number for a single round. This Aerodyne Rookie Cup event sported extremely high levels!

Thanks to all participants, the manifest and staff of Jarlsberg, to Aerodyne for the sponsorship, and of course to Marthe and last year's winner Siri who did a fantastic job as judges. The special Jarlsberg awards went to·deiligst.no (lovliest.no) for the Best Team Name, to Richart (Good Sports Prize) for warning opponents that they crept a jump incorrectly, to Team ADHD for Best Progress, to Thomas Nerli for Worst Video, to Marius Lundeby for Enthusiasm (new on camera), to Magic & Delirium for Best Single Round."

Aerodyne Rookie Cup in Voss

The tournament in Voss ended up quite differently compared to the first meet in Jarlsberg: more teams, more weather problems, less points, less jumping - but again several prizes and great spirits. Kjetil "Rookie" Nordin said that it is always a challenge to host a competition when the weather is unstable: "The teams took the challenge anyway."

The six teams in Voss were Gratis Flåge (Sunniva Vagstad, Lene Sælen, Stine Hegrenes on camera), M.O.I.S.T. Rookies (Mario Caprino, Daniel Eliassen, Tore Granmo on camera), Carlsson på taket (Sturla Carlsson, Jan Vegard Carlsson, Tore Granmo on camera), Formann (Anders Tvedt, Karoline Hegrenes, Lars Erik Sivertsen on camera), Sola Rookies and Out of the Blue.

Kjetil "Rookie" Nordin provided a summary of this event, as well:

"The competition started well, with six teams signed up for the challenge. Gratis Flåge, Sola Rookies and Out of the Blue had done their first round as planned, with respectively 6, 3 and 1 points. The sixth team, Formann (Chairman), praised higher powers that they had signed up too late to be on the second load of the day. All the other five teams jumped through 15,000 feet of heavy hail.

Four of the five teams took advantage of the opportunity to do a rejump after this load. Most of the flyers had chosen to lay on their backs, or hold hands in front of their faces to protect themselves.

One team, however, performed the jump as planned. Gratis Flåge's awesome threesome country landed with necks that looked like they were pulled through a wasp hive, and then through a burning nettle ditch. Two of them also had bleeding noses. The instant rewards were T-shirts and chocolate, not to mention seven scoring points, which turned out to be the competition's highest score. Unfortunately for Gratis Flåge, the team was the only one completing Round 2, so the round was not valid.

The weather kept unstable, but after a lot of waiting and a lot of patience, we managed to get the last three teams up in the air. Carlsson på taket scored 2 points, Formann 1 point, while MOIST Rookies went all the way to the top by matching the Gratis Flåge's second round score of seven points."

Mario Caprino won both of this year's Aerodyne Rookie Cup events with two different partners, and he was rewarded with the title of the "Rookie of the Year 2010". He had only 23 jumps at the beginning of the 2010 season. Kjetil "Rookie" Nordin said that he attended a Basic Camp, one wind tunnel camp, a pair of FS School events, and that he is really eager to learn. The Norwegian Rookie of the Year is now ready to challenge the A Class/Intermediate Class teams at the Norwegian Nationals 2010 with team Golden Lock Pins.

The awards in Voss went to Gratis Flåge for Best Effort (Round 2), to Sola Rookies for Best Effort (first team from their club in a meet since a very long time), to Anders ”Dancer” Tvedt for Best Landing, to Gratis Flåge for Best Team Name (translation is Free Fly, but in the meaning of cost to buy, and the insect), to Carlsson På Taket (Nice Prize), to Formann (Most Rookies), and to·Sturla Carlsson for Best Jump Suit.