posted Apr 25th, 2007 - The NSL News is now going back to the World Challenge 2007 at Bodyflight Bedford. XL member Pete Allum visited the NSL office on Tuesday this week and took the time for a live interview with the NSL News.

The British/American team XL had surprised the top teams in Bedford and the world-wide audience with top scores throughout the first five rounds on the first day of the competition. In fact, XL was in first place after five rounds, two points ahead of Team Fastrax and three points ahead of Airspeed Odyssey.

Pete Allum explained in the interview that Steve Hamilton came up with the idea of an XL reunion with the last line-up of 2003. Steve Hamilton works at Bodyflight Bedford as a coach and instructor and contacted the other three former XL members, Pete Allum, John McIver and Thomas Hughes.

The same line-up trained and competed together as Sebastian XL in 2002 and 2003. Pete Allum, John McIver and Steve Hamilton had already competed with Toby Stafford in the line-up at the World Meet 2001. Thomas Hughes joined XL for the 2002 season.

The last competition for the last XL line-up was the World Meet 2003 in France where the British team ended up once again in 4th place behind Norway.

Steve Hamilton and John McIver eventually moved back from Florida to Great Britain and found their new home at Bodyflight Bedford. Thomas Hughes trained and competed with US teams from then on (Arizona Blade, DeLand Fire, Arizona Airspeed) and replaced Mark Kirkby in the Fastrax line-up this year.

Pete Allum joined the Italian national 4-way team Sinapsi PD in 2005 and won the bronze medals with his new team at the World Meet 2006 in Germany. He explained in the interview that Steve Hamilton's idea of the original 2003 line-up did not materialize since Thomas Hughes would compete with Team Fastrax at the World Challenge 2007.

XL found an adequate alternate with Pete Allum's Italian teammate Livio Piccolo. Unfortunately, Sinapsi PD's Point got sick weeks before the competition, and he had to cancel his participation. The three 2003 XL members did not give up and found a new alternate with former Airspeed member Brian Johnson.

The new XL line-up for the World Challenge 2007 met at Bodyflight Bedford a few days prior to the event and was even able to complete approx. two hours of tunnel training. The rest of the story was reported by the NSL News live from Bedford. In the interview, Pete Allum explained the XL miracle of the first day with the "old XL magic".

He provided a lot of interesting feedback and insights of the tunnel competition in Bedford. His thoughts included the reasons for the different situation on the second day of the competition. The XL line-up now felt more pressure after the underdog situation the day before, and the sequences became more technical, as well.

An additional point of the NSL-TV conversation was the fact that the judging of performances on a 28-point average level is very challenging for the officials. Pete Allum comments that half-speed judging has already been overdue. There are no reasons why the available technical options are not already being used. He also explained that half-speed judging would not be more time-consuming as the current judging procedures.

Pete Allum confirmed that his own competition career is not at an end yet, even though Sinapsi PD is currently taking a break. He uses the off time to take care of his family and do different things in skydiving, as he has been competing in the Canopy Piloting circuit this year.

Pete Allum lives in DeLand, Florida. He will move his coaching activities to Ampuriabrava in Spain this summer. Many European teams, mostly from Italy and Great Britain, travel to Spain for their summer training camps. He currently prepares a 4-way coaching camp, together with the PD Factory Team members Shannon Pilcher and Ian Bobo, at his new summer headquarters in Ampuriabrava. Performance Designs sponsors "The Project" with free coaching, and the NSL News will follow up with more information.

The British world-class coach and competitor will return to Florida with his family at the end of the summer season in Spain and resume his activities in DeLand. The video of the whole interview with Pete Allum can be viewed by clicking here.