posted Sep 2nd, 2004 - The hurricane season causes more trouble for skydiving this year than ususal. Florida still recovers from hurricane Charley who recently devastated the Florida Skydiving Center in Lake Wales and did not allow the last meet of the Florida Skydiving League to take place under normal conditions.

The new hurricane Frances, who approaches Florida on a much too consistent path, is even stronger and bigger than Charley. There is no meet scheduled in Florida for the upcoming weekend. The only NSL competition will take place in the Northern Plains. That is far enough and out of reach for Frances.

However, the NSL Playoffs 2004 are scheduled for the next weekend, November 11-12. Playoff meets will be held at 12 different locations all over the country. Even though the hurricane will be gone by then, the potential damage and aftermath could make it difficult for the hosts of these events. Several playoff locations might be in Frances' path after the hurricane makes landfall. Hopefully, it will weaken quickly or even stay away from the continent.

In the meantime, the European Skydiving League prepares for the second ESL Championship without the threat of a hurricane or other inclement weather at this point. The event will take place this weekend in Spa, Belgium, and promises to become a first-class event, the peak of the great league progression in Europe.

ESL Director and founder, Willy Boeykens, has made great efforts to make the event one of the major competitions in the world and offer a different approach to international 4-way competition. As the NSL in the USA, the European Skydiving League requires qualification throughout the regular season in one of the affiliated leagues to be eligible for ESL medals and prizes at the ESL Championship 2004. Guest teams are still welcome.

Boeykens has created a unique award for the second championship event. A new ESL trophy, a sword called "The Spirit", will be presented at this year's event. It will be handed out to the country that scores the highest point total accumulated by the three best teams in each competition class. The ESL uses the AAA Class and the A Class for its events, which adds the goal to all teams to become one of the six scoring teams.

Boeykens' goal is to create and encourage the team spirit between teams of the same country. The Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany currently seem to have the best chances to become the top contenders for "The Spirit" since they have several good teams participating in the leagues.

Boeykens reported in August that 22 tams from six different nations had already signed up for the event. He expected this number to go up to 30 teams. Three Cessna Caravan jump planes will be available in Spa and give the teams one-hour rotations between the competition rounds. Omniskore on DZ-TV will be provided by the host. Dr. Rainer "Exi" Hoenle, Deputy Chairman of the IPC Formation Skydiving Committee and Meet Director of the World Championship of Formation Skydiving in 2006, is also the ESL Meet Director in Spa. The judges come from the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Austria.

The field of teams includes Hayabusa, the defending ESL Champion and Belgium's national 4-way team. The strongest German team is Suedwest. Austria's team Fila is one of the favorites for AAA Class medal positions, as well. The NSL News will follow up with the scores and the meet story. Boeykens plans to upload the scores already during the event at the ESL website.