posted Aug 28th, 2011 - British skydiver Gordon Hodgkinson, who’s resident in Ireland, offers a unique perspective of the two countries National championships which took place just one week apart. At the largest ever UK Nationals (with 55 4-way teams), his team Satori Red clinched a silver medal in AA. 5 days later he was back in the Emerald Isle, competing at the largest ever Irish Nationals.

The Irish Nationals 2011 in 4way Formation Skydiving and Accuracy, held on the August 20/21 weekend at the Irish Parachute Club (IPC), were special in several respects. Firstly, and most importantly, this year saw big support for the meet from club members - with nine trained teams competing. Top that off with guest aircraft, slick organization, band, BBQ, four new records and a lot of new silverware, and this weekend made one of the highlights of the Irish skydiving calendar in 2011.

Fast Air defended their AAA Class crown and set a new 12.7 record average, beating their own record of 11.7 set earlier this year at the Shamrock Showdown 2011. They also set a new record for a single round with the 18-pointer in Round 2 (21-O-B-M).

Irish Nationals 2011		Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Round 5	Round 6	Round 7	Round 8	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	17,K,2	21,O,B,M	E,15,22	P,1,J,8	C,L,9,14	F,18,10	5,N,Q,20	H,11,A,19	Total	Avg
1	Fast Air	12	18	11	13	14	11	11	12	102	12.8
Rank	A Class	L,9	B,7	O,E,4	Q,6	M,2	K,P,19	F,J,H	8,A	Total	Avg
1	Kinetix	12	13	9	4	11	6	19	7	81	10.1
Rank	Rookie	A,L,O	J,M,O	P,G,N	K,D,F	F,C,E	B,L,D	B,Q,C	N,P,K	Total	Avg
1	Noo Your Other Left	5	10	5	5	10	8	9	7	59	7.4
2	Weatherhold	2	6	4	4	4	4	3	4	31	3.9
3	Vikare	2	5	1	4	4	3	5	4	28	3.5
4	Slow Air	1	7	1	2	4	1	4	2	22	2.8
5	Flying Fairies	0	4	2	1	4	1	3	1	16	2.0
6	Gravity Bombs	2	1	0	1	2	2	1	1	10	1.3
7	Jack WIP	1	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	0.4

Fast Air had finished in 11th place with a 19.5 average just three weeks ago at the CISM Military World Games, as the NSL News reported on 24 July 2011. The previous stories of the CISM Coverage explained that the CISM draw is different from the FAI/IPC draw in the AAA/Open Class. Now is eventually the time to compare the two Fast Air results in the AAA Class.

Fast Air Center Outside, Stephen O’Sullivan, commented his team’s performance: “When we returned from CISM it was time to get our minds back in the AAA game, so we travelled to Bodyflight Bedford where Steve Hamilton took us through the entire dive pool again. We also coached some of the Rookie teams in the tunnel. We were happy with our performance.

Our objective set out in Deland in March was to finish the year with a 13-average, and whilst we fell just shy of this, we still have the Gulf Cup to compete in. It is clear to see from both the Irish Nationals and the World Challenge that Irish skydiving teams are becoming a regular sight at competitions, and we hope to continue developing the national team with the ever increasing pool of talented Irish skydivers".

There were no teams in the AA category, and only Kinetix competed in the A Class. Kinetix had won the A Class competition at the World Challenge 2011 with a 15.4 averge and now set a new record average of 10.1 to take KinetiX's 3rd gold medal position of the 2011 season. The Kinetix scores show some ups and downs but the team finished strongly with a new 19-pointer record score in Round 7.

Kinetix Center Outside Gordon Hodgkinson commented for his own team: “We were chuffed to set the two new benchmarks in the A Class, and we loved the buzz with so many people competing and enjoying 4way - several of whom we’d coached in the tunnel. For a bunch of different reasons, we could only add one weekend of outdoor training to last winter’s tunnel training with John McIver, and Round 1 was our first left hand door exit as a team!”

The third Irish team from the World Challenge 2011, Noo Your Other Left (NYOL) won the Rookie Class with a 7.4 average well ahead of the rest of the field and with a clean scoresheet. Whilst NYOL had trained in the tunnel, Round 1 was their first outdoor jump as a team.

However, “the rest of the field” is where another big success of the Irish Nationals 2011 lies. In past years the Irish Nationals typically had just one or two trained teams, plus a one or two scratch teams put together for the meet weekend. This year, six new Rookie Class teams formed with this meet in mind. All had at least some indoor or outdoor training and were resplendent in team t-shirts. The creepers have never been so busy at the IPC...

Meet Director Ronan Whelan, who is also Center Inside for NYOL, was impressed: “When I accepted the offer of becoming PAI Competitions Officer, my plan was to build up the Nationals and raise the overall skill level by giving junior jumpers something to aim for. I never believed in my wildest dreams that it would result in nine teams training and competing in 4way at the Nationals.”

Second place in the Rookie Class went to optimistically named team Weatherhold with a 3.9 average. Vikare, a new military lineup coached by Fast Air, took the bronze medals with a 3.5 average. Just missing out on the bling, and obviously recognizing their differing skills to the national team, were Slow Air who finished 4th with a 2.8 average.

FAI Judge Ruth Cooper who officiated at the Irish Nationals for the 10th consecutive year, noted that this was the biggest and best Irish Nationals so far. Ruth has had a busy schedule recently after judging at the CISM in Brazil, the World Cup in Germany and the UK Nationals back-to-back, before the Irish Nationals completed a sixth consecutive weekend of judging duties. Thanks Ruth – see you again next year.