posted Nov 28th, 2007 - Great Britain is taking its 4-way competition series to the next level. Chris Hollis, Formation Skydiving representative of the British Parachute Association (BPA), recently informed the NSL News that he has new plans for the future of Formation Skydiving competition in his country.

The British "Grand Prix" event series of 4-way and 8-way competitions has already been around for a while. The first registered events and scores go back to the 2003 season. The NSL News mentioned the Grand Prix for the first time with a story on 15 July 2004, which explained the format of the events and the competition classes.

Andrew Scott, current member of the British 8-way team Connextion, was the BPA representative for Formation Skydiving competition by then. He was interested in a closer cooperation with the NSL and the European Skydiving League and prepared the synchronization of the dive pools and schedules for the 2005 season.

The next British move still did not include the synchronization of dive pools and competition classes yet. Only the AAA/Open/Senior Class was identical between NSL/ESL and UK's Grand Prix events and the British Nationals throughout the 2005 season. However, several British teams competed once again at the ESL Championship 2005.

Andy Scott continued to work on the complete synchronization, which was finally confirmed by BPA for the 2006 season. It turned out to be a successful step for 4-way competition in Great Britain. The first meet of the 2006 season brought already a new record participation for a Grand Prix event, as the NSL News reported on 13 June 2006.

The whole 2006 season was a great success for Formation Skydiving competition in Great Britain. The British 4-way community had begun to build a very solid foundation for a consistent presence on the international top level in the future. Andy Scott retired from his BPA position at the end of the 2006 season after guiding the British FS community into a new age.

Chris Hollis, a passionate 4-way competitor, took Andy Scott's BPA position and continued the great work with the same energy and efforts. The work of both BPA representatives for Formation Skydiving competition showed obvious results, as the NSL News reported on 9 June 2007.

Chris Hollis' plans for the 2008 season begin with a name change. The British event series gets a new name and will be called the United Kingdom Skydiving League (UKSL). Hollis confirmed that he will be co-ordinating the competition draw once again with other NSL/ESL meets being held at the same time. He hopes that the new name will especially generate more interest in the AAA Class competition and push UK skydiving standards even further.

Hollis also wants to make the events more attractive by approaching potential sponsors who are willing to donate prizes for the meets: "Anything from pull-ups, money-off vouchers or anything free will be helpful."

He is also very keen to have guest teams from outside the United Kingdom come over and compete at the UKSL events: "I realise that the UK may not be the first choice as a destination for skydiving meets, but maybe quality teams from accross Europe and further could tie in tunnel training camps at Bodyflight Bedford with one of our meets. That would be really cool. I'm sure it would encourage more local teams to come and enter if they had the chance to watch and compete against the likes of Perris Fury, HayaBusa, Norgies etc."

Three competitions are scheduled for the regular season (17 - 18 May, 7 - 8 June, 28 - 29 June) and need to be confirmed by BPA next week. Chris Hollis added that other NSL/ESL leagues can already begin to schedule competitions on the same weekends.

BPA's annual general meeting will be held in January 2008. Chris Hollis will be holding a presentation about his plans at this meeting: "This is a good chance for all UK skydivers to get together for a huge party!" He also invites visitors to come over and listen or join the launch of the United Kingdom Skydiving League.