posted Aug 30th, 2011 - The UK Nationals 2011 left a lasting impression on many participants and observers. It was a new record breaking event, and the aftermath is not over yet, as a lot of feedback and stories are still waiting to be published.

Kate Charters, Chief Judge of the 4way competition at Hibaldstow and Judges Co-ordinator for the British Parachute Association (BPA), provided a meet report from her perspective. Kaizen and Brit Chicks member Jo Hawley had provided her summary of the 4way competition on 17 August 2011. Kate Charters is now looking back at all events that took place on the two weekends in August.

UK Nationals 2011

Our 4way and 8way Formation Skydiving, Artistic, Speed and VFS Nationals took place at Target Skysports over two weekends, the first weekend being 13-15th August and on 20-22 August. Every year we wait with anticipation to see how many teams register for all of these events and every year they just get bigger and bigger. We had 55 4way teams and 3 VFS, our biggest Nationals to date.

4way FS

Competition briefing and draw took place at 8pm on the Friday evening, so teams could practice the first round ready for a 9 am start on Saturday morning. We had two panels of three judges and expected to be extremely busy all day. Unfortunately the morning weather stopped plans to get started at 9 am. Still despite this the atmosphere on the DZ was electric, some teams dirt dived, others sat and chatted, but I never saw one person looking miserable because they were not jumping.

Well, we finally started the competition, it was all systems go, planes going up and down, buses going to and from enplaning point, judges eagerly awaiting first jumps to be downloaded in Cametrix.

Hannah Swallow, who had a dual role of Meet Director and Manifester, along with the very capable Becky, worked hard keeping all teams jumping and making sure the right teams got on the right bus and plane. It all started to click and everyone did what they had to do to help get this competition gong. By close of play Sunday we had completed all rounds in the Rookie, A, AA and AAA, with only AAA to complete rounds 9,10 on Monday morning.

I have to say that this competition was one of the best I have ever been involved in. There were 17 teams in the AAA event, and this made for a very good meet. All teams performed to the best of their ability, but I must say that Satori were outstanding and all their jumps just seemed to flow so well, nice exits, clean points and fantastic camera work made them worthy winners of the AAA. Sonic Nutz finished in silver medal position, and well deserved. I could go on and praise all teams as they all did well in whatever category they were in.

4way VFS

Three teams took part in this event with the Bad Lieutenants putting some good scores on the board and again taking the National Champions medals. This is a great event and may appear to be really strange as it is artistic with an FS style draw, fun to judge and really gets you thinking. Well done to all three teams.

8way FS

We had 11 teams enter this event, 8 senior and 3 inter and that is the most senior teams we have had in a while. The team now named Microclim8, national winners over many years, were given a run for their money by the Brit Chicks who proved they were not going to make it easy for the national team. Every round they piled on the pressure, but, alas they did it again. Microclim8 took the national title once more. But, like they say, you cannot beat experience, and they have lots of that. The friendly rivalry between these two teams was fun to watch and very sporting. The girls were happy to be in silver medal position as they had a great time and upped their average. So maybe next time.

The inter event although small was a well fought event and some very interesting launches were made. So thanks to them to for giving it their best shot. And thank you to Tom and his team for travelling all the way from Texas just for the weekend to have some fun and compete in the open event.

Artistic

New rules, new scoring, made this event very interesting, some really nice stuff coming out, and once again Al and Pixie performed to a very high standard, so praise to them too for grasping new changes and for executing each jump with such expertise and proving once again they are worthy champions.

Speed

A much smaller event this year, with a special mention to Simon Brentford for making five new personal bests to pick up the gold medal, and proving he is the fastest man in the air in the United Kingdom.

I could go on and on picking out teams who deserve to have a mention, but in my book they all did good and I am sure learnt a lot. Our thanks must of course go to Target Skysports, who once again excelled themselves on the organisational side, great food, great parties, faultless admin, outstanding manifesting, great pilots and ground staff. So on behalf of all competitors and judges a great big thank you.

Lastly, I took myself back from the competition for a few moments and just sat back and watched everything going on. It is truly amazing, the DZ was just buzzing and there was loads of laughter and excitement and everything just clicked into place. For a small country I think we do amazingly well and have some of the best jumpers in the world here who are never too busy to pass on tips to newer teams and spend lots of their own time between jumps coaching. To the judging team, you are the best, you never complain about the long hours you spend in the judging room and you always do your best to make sure the teams get the right score and the right medals go to the rightful winners. Finally, to all who took part and made it one of the best Nationals ever THANK YOU to Targetsky, the same to you.