posted Jul 31st, 2011 - The NSL News has finally moved to the competition site of the World Cup 2011. It is time for the live coverage, and the first video has been uploaded.

The clip begins with the most important person of the event. Helmut Bastuck, Managing Director of the German skydiving federation, is also the Chief of the Organizing Committee, and he has been a very busy man. The competition site is in great shape, and he is not responsible for the weather...

He just came back from a live sports show on German television, which announced the event to the general public. His wife Franziska, also involved in managing the event, told the NSL News that there were approx. 2,000 - 3,000 spectators on the Saarlouis-Duren Airport today. Most of them were dressed in winter clothes though... By the way, their son Markus also runs the place and competes with the German national 4-way team, Paratec-Saar, at the same time. It's a very busy family this week.

The same video clip shows how members of the Dutch delegation, 8way team M8Trix and 4way team Whooops, are cheering for the NSL News audience. They were done for the day and enjoyed the German beer. Yes, teams made quite a few training jumps today, even though the cloud cover was not much diffent than it was in Merseburg.

Then the NSL News reconnected with coach Gary Smith who has not been on the NSL News for quite a while. He has moved from Florida to Texel in the Netherlands and is taking care of most of the Dutch teams.

Of course, the weather situation reminded him on the last time he won a gold medal at a World Championship of Formation Skydiving. He did this two times, once with DeLand Majik in Croatia 2004 and then again with DeLand Fire in 2006. That was the year when the competition in Germany was over after five rounds in the 4way event and six rounds in 8way. Gary Smith promised that it will be different this time...

Tomorrow is the official training day, and the judges will have the opportunity to test the equipment. Round 1 ist still scheduled for Tuesday morning, the opening ceremony will take place at the end of the first meet day.