posted Oct 12th, 2007 - The last NSL News 8-way update on October 8 mentioned that the Italian national 8-way team Ex3mo had hired coach Dan BC for a few training camps next year.

Dan BC is also working with Bodyflight Storm on the team's road to defend Great Britain's gold medals in IPC's female 4-way category next year in France. There is more 8-way work to come for the professional coach from Perris. The British 8-way team Connextion continues to work with Dan BC, as well.

Dan BC explained earlier to the NSL News how he understands his own position with all these teams he is working with:

"Teams in the competitive world of skydiving are a relatively small family. When we first formed Airspeed in 1994, we knew we would be achieving performance levels that had never been seen before. It was our intent to raise the bar for all FS athletes and to do whatever we could to help other teams, even our competitors, reach this new level.

We openly sent out videos to any teams that wanted them, and we frequently offered training and technical ideas to teams we knew we would have to face in competition later.

In the spirit of training and competition that we initially established, and which still exists on Airpseed, I will be doing a couple of camps with the Italian 8-way team next year. However, I will not be Ex3mo's "Head Coach", which implies that I will be working with them during training and all the way through to the World Meet. You can offer coaching to many teams during the training year, but you can only be one team's "Head Coach" when the meet is on."

Dan BC is actually the "Head Coach" for the British 8-Way team Connextion: "I was part of the British 8-way team when it was initially formed two years ago, and I will be a part of Connextion to and through the World Meet 2008. I will be there to cheer on many of the teams because so many of them are my friends. But at the World Meet I am only the coach of one team - Connextion."

The Connextion line-up from 2006 has changed a little in 2007. Ian "Milko" Hodgkinson, Phil Curtis, Dave Ruffel and Andy Pook continue with the team. They are joined by former VNE competitors Andy Scott and Mark Whitehead, along with former V-Max member Sacha Chilton and Phil Hartree from Bodyflight Rage. Team Fusion's videographer Dave Butteril completes the line-up.

"Most of the team members are reasonably seasoned 8-way competitors", team member Andy Scott said. "Only Sacha Chilton and Phil Hartree train and compete in 8-way for the first time."

Connextion had a pre-training tunnel camp this year where the team flew some hours before a training camp with Dan BC in Perris, California. Connextion completed 150 training jumps in the 2-week training camp and the day immediately prior to the UK Nationals 2007. The team won with a 12.1 average. The British Parachute Association (BPA) already confirmed that Connextion will be the British 8-way team once more.

Connextion looked at 2008 plans after the UK Nationals and discussed with Dan BC the way the team must train. Coach and team are both excited to be working together again and make the best possible use of the time over the next ten months before the World Meet 2008 in France.

The winter training will see the team head out to Lillo where Connextion wants to start getting familiar with the Pilatus Porter exit. The VNE veterans have already experienced 8-way exits from the right-hand door at the World Meet 2003 in Gap and have a good record from this aircraft. They look forward to renewing the old aquaintance.

The British 8-way team will follow up with training camps in Perris and more work with Dan BC through a series of camps over the spring and summer. Andy Scott said that the team is very motivated to move forward:

"We are looking forward to getting to grips with Dan BC's training ethos and put in the best possible performance in Maubeuge next year. We want to make the best of having the world's best coach working with us."