Helmut Cloth in his Airtec office, with photo of his friend Freddy Leising on his desk who died in a skydiving accident in 1986

The Mondial Dubai 2012 is over, and many celebrities of the skydiving world made a trip there, including Felix Baumgartner and Helmut Cloth, inventor of the CYPRES, who worked together for the recent high-altitude record attempt.

Another celebrity was at the competition site, Olaf Zipser, and the NSL News was able to meet with both at the same time and at the same place for a conversation about space travel.

Helmut Cloth goes 26 years back in time with the development of the oldest and most reliable life saver. He is a soft spoken man and prefers to be in the background. Olaf Zipser has been on the forefront and often in the spotlight of the skydiving world. He is one of the inventors of the Freefly and Freestyle events.

Tests for space exploration equipment: Olaf Zipser

Olaf Zipser was also competing at the Mondial Dubai 2012. He was filming the stronger one of the two Freefly teams from Venezuela, and he was on camera for Venezuela’s Freestyle performer, as well.

Helmut Cloth and Olaf Zipser have something in common, besides the CYPRES 2 in their containers. They are both involved in recent space exploration projects. Actually, Felix Baumgartner’s high-altitude jump was mostly a record attempt for an event that is not new. However, Helmut Cloth mentioned that Felix Baumgartner was not that far from possibly needing the CYPRES when he was spinning at a very high speed.

Olaf Zipser goes a step further with his recent project. He will soon shoot himself into the higher atmosphere with a space rocket and then descend under a parachute after leaving the capsule. He and his partners are working on a rescue system for astronauts in their rockets when things go wrong while they are still within the atmosphere. Helmut Cloth will work with Olaf Zipser to support this project just as he supported Felix Baumgartner’s project. The video of the NSL Talk at Skydive Dubai provides more details.

Preparations for the Mondial 2012 in Dubai

The 4way Open Class competition at the Mondial 2012, will wrap up a new record participation at the World Championship of Formation Skydiving if all registered teams make it to Dubai.

4way competition is once again by far the most popular event. 34 national teams from all over the planet (Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Equador, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Netherlands, Portugal, Qatar, Russia, South Africa, Singapore, Slovania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Arabian Emirates, Ukraine, United States) have signed up for the event, while 16 teams compete in 8way and 14 in the female 4way category.

The total number of 64 teams in the three traditional Formation Skydiving events is the best participation in the history of the sport. Additional nine teams are registered for the VFS 4way event.

NSL News live coverage at the Mondial 2003 in Gap, France

The Mondial 2012 will also include the 6th World Championship of Formation Skydiving that the NSL News will bring live from the competition site to the attention of the online audience. The first live coverage came from the Mondial 2003 in Gap, France. Dubai 2012 is the 10-year anniversary of NSL News live coverage.

Dubai seems to become a new center of the skydiving world and has blown a lot of fresh and strong air into the sails of the sport. The first class facilities of Skydive Dubai have hosted three major events, while a brandnew indoor training center offers everything that skydivers need for training.

4way and 8way world champions Craig Girard and Eliana Rodriguez have brought skydiving expertise and a wealth of knowledge and experiences to Dubai and generate new “skydivers with grippers on their jumpsuits” all the time, as Craig Girard put it for the NSL News.

NSL News live coverage at the World Meet 2010 in Menzelinsk, Russia

There was actually one World Championship of Formation Skydiving that attracted an even higher number of 4way and 8way teams. Turkey hosted the World Meet in 1997, and there was no female 4way category by then. 51 teams competed in 4way (38) and 8way (15) in 1997.

38 teams in the 4way Open Class is still the standing record participation, while this year’s 34 teams match the participation number in Spain 2001. The 16 teams competing in 8way in Dubai are a new sole and unique highscore. The same counts for the 14 teams in the female 4way category.

The highest total number of teams since the introduction of the female 4way category in 2001 was recorded the same year in Spain with 54 teams. The 64 teams in Dubai this year leave this number in the dust. All curves are pointing up in the chart, and the hibernation period of the past four years seems to be over…

Article Written by  CYPRES Sponsored Athlete Michael Vaughan, Photos by Ken Stone, Rosy and Dave Noble

Each year for the last bunch of years not only have the NSW State Championships been on on the October long weekend but

2 way novice gold "the flying monkeys" photo Dave Noble

they have been at Sydney Skydivers dropzone. This year was no exception. The Monday is the labour day public holiday in NSW which makes it a good weekend to have a competition. That way we always have a backup day on the Monday if we have some weather delays during the weekend. That is also something I remember happening a lot at the State Championships – weather delays!

Bright and early Saturday morning we had all the teams registered – 3 teams in 2 way VFS, four 4 way Intermediate FS teams, three 4 way open teams and three 2 way novice FS teams. 2 way VFS has a simple pool to allow them greater success rather than jumpers having to make the big leap into 4 way VFS. In 2 way novice FS one of the competitors must have less than

Judges Photo by Dave Noble

150 jumps. It’s a great fun way of introducing lesser experienced skydivers to the joys of competition and going faster than they ever have before by jumping with someone with a lot more jumps than them.

It might have been bright on Saturday morning but the forecast was not so bright. We were expecting a windy day so we got crackin and got a round of each event in before the wind picked up beyond jumpable limits. Time for coffee. Time for stack up and exit practise for the Aussie womens 4 way team Valkyries. Time for a cup of tea. Time for a safety seminar by Michael Vaughan on handling 2 canopies out (thanks to Jim Cowan for your expert information). Time for lunch. Time for more coffee. And that’s it for the day, no point hanging around any longer, the wind is not dying down at all.

Sunday morning, bright, still a little windy but jumpable all day. One of the 2 way VFS teams had withdrawn so the 2

4 way open Gold Valkyries Photo Ken Stone

remaining teams managed to get all their jumps in and were awarded their medals on Sunday evening. Congratulations to “Flying Fish” winning Gold and “TSC” taking out the Silver medal.

It was a really busy day on the dz with the competition happening in conjunction with the normal dropzone activities. By days end most 4 way teams still had a round to do. Those were completed nice and early on Sunday morning and medal presentations were done soon after. The Australian womens 4 way team “Valkyries” took out Gold in 4 way open ahead of “Smash” and “Pong”. Best of luck at the World Championships in Dubai “Valkyries”.

In the 4 way FS Intermediate competition “Rite of Passage” won Gold ahead of “Vertical Challenge” and “Matrix”.

Vertical Challenge Photo Ken Stone

Now it was onto the 2 Way Novice competition. This year I got together with Dawn Tratt with Calder Chernoff on camera, calling ourselves “The Flying Monkeys”. Dawn has about 50 jumps and does manifest and dubbing to help her pay for her new addiction. We had an absolute blast. We came out of the blocks like Usain Bolt posting an 18, “Lingule” posted a 13 and “Burbled a “?????”. We followed that with a couple of slower rounds posting a ? and a ?. In round 4 we left Bolt for dead putting together a 28 point skydive in 35 seconds. Nice work Dawn, never in my wildest dreams could I have done that at 50 jumps. Those smiles were all worth it. And thanks for playing under canopy, I had a ton of fun flying with you. After the 5 rounds “The Flying Monkeys” won Gold with 84 points from Silver medal winning team “Burbled” on 25 points and “Lingula” taking out the Bronze with 24 points.

Another successful State Championships done. Many thanks to Sydney Skydivers for hosting the event, Jon Mc for being meet director, Liz for Dubbing, all the judges, pilots, staff and most of all thankyou to those who participated.

Ladies and gentlemen, that’s a wrap!

The latest edition of the Blue Skies Mag included a new article for the NSL News column. Topic was the UK Nationals 2012, and it was not the athletic part of the event that caught the NSL News attention.

4way Formation Skydiving competition in the United Kingdom has once again come to a new record participation this year. It was interesting to go back in time and give it some thought how the growth of the British 4way and 8way community can be explained.

The Queen does not really have anything to do with that. However, perhaps one day the British government will support skydiving competition in the United Kingdom as well as the French government does. There are other main factors at the moment, and one of them is the Satori Academy. Other skydiving school projects help too.

Big scoreboard at the UK Nationals 2012

72 - That’s the number of 4-way teams that competed at the United Kingdom’s national championships in August this year. 72!!! The UK teams already set a record in participation with 55 teams last year, after 54 in 2010. After the 55, they talked about aiming at the U.S. numbers, thinking that they could get to the same attendance level as the biggest skydiving country in the world. Really…? Maybe a little bit overconfident after getting to host the Olympics…?

The answers are, “Yes they can,” and, “No, they are not overconfident.” The numbers always tell the truth: 65 teams competed at U.S. Nationals in Eloy last year, 57 teams in Ottawa in 2009 and then 59 in 2010, 55 in 2008, 58 in 2007 and 63 in 2006. Seventy-two teams at the UK Nationals 2012… This alone is impressive enough, but there is more behind it.

It is happening at a time when belly flyers are arguably struggling for survival in formation skydiving competition, or in skydiving competition in general. VFS 4-way has been touted as the 4G of skydiving for a while. And it is, athletically, in my eyes. Unfortunately, this new-age discipline faces many serious obstacles, which have not been overcome yet. Four VFS 4-way teams competed at the UK Nationals 2012. In other words, 4-way and 8-way formation skydiving competition is far from going under; it is still the main event at any national or international championship event.

Andy Scott (3rd from right) at the World Meet 2006 in Germany

What happened in the United Kingdom? Andy Scott, British Parachute Association (BPA) manager of formation skydiving competition at that time, renamed BPA’s Grand Prix competition series to the United Kingdom Skydiving League (UKSL) and synchronized the British competition classes fully with the NSL Network in 2006. British skydivers had a fitting arena from then on, and the participation began to grow consistently.

The beauty of this setup is that the UKSL runs under the BPA umbrella. Andy Scott’s 2006 move for the UKSL brought the same four competition classes to the national championships, automatically and at the same time. The teams had the opportunity to attend
monthly UKSL meets, knowing they would find the same format at the UK Nationals. Year by year, teams and competitors moved up from category to category through the whole system, while new skydivers started wherever they wanted to join the 4-way fun. The complete system has been open for everybody, whether pickup teams and scramblers or future world champions, and it was synchronized from bottom to top.

Satori Academy delegation at the UK Nationals 2012

Then there is the Satori factor. The team appeared on the UK 4-way scene for the first time in 2008, with an all-female lineup (Julia Foxwell, Amanda Kemp, Liz Matthews, and Katie Woods). The lineup, scoring level, and purpose have changed over the years. Julia “Jules” Foxwell is the only original member left, and remains the heart and soul of the team. She has now three guys around her—Aaron Faith, John Mclver, and Ian “Milko” Hodgkinson—and they have turned Satori into a team factory. You read that right: not a tandem factory, a team factory. The Satori Academy generates teams.

The Satori Academy generated and took care of five teams in 2011 (Blue, Green, Red, Purple, and Yellow) and has grown to 11 teams in 2012 (Cobalt, Orange, and Purple in the rookie class; Yellow, Turquoise, Magenta, and Green in A Class; Black, Cyan, and White in AA), not counting the Satori national 4-way team itself. Imagine reproducing from 1 to 12 in two years…Satori and 10 of the 11 Academy teams then competed at the UK Nationals. Are you still surprised about the 72-team record participation?

Satori 2012 lineup - Not enough time for training?

The Satori members are not the only UK team who recruit and build new teams and lineups. Other experienced competitors are very proactive in this area, including the Bodyflight Aerodyne and Brit Chicks projects. Another amazing and very special UK factor is the proactive domination by female competitors. The United Kingdom has not only become well-known in the skydiving world by winning several sets of gold medals in the female 4-way category. There is a very large participation of female competitors in all categories, and the British 4-way world champions probably became role models, as they also dominated the open class competition for a while.

There is a downside to all those team-building projects in the United Kingdom, though. The British ladies have lost the number one position in the world to France, as the many former world champions don’t get together much any longer to train and compete. The Deep Blue lineups and Defenders have taken over the female 4-way competition on the very top.

Queen demo into the 2012 Olympics in London

It is similar in the open class; Satori members are so busy running the Academy that there are limited time and resources for team training. However, this will change in the long term. The United Kingdom has turned into a powerhouse in formation skydiving competition, and it is only a matter of time until the British FS community will produce open class lineups in 4-way and 8-way that will win medals again for the country. Watch out, USA, France and Russia…

So, what does the near future bring to formation skydiving competition in the United Kingdom? Just as with the Olympics, the Queen - who is already a parachutist according to the official promotional London 2012 clip - will eventually want to bring the same fun she had to all Englishmen and women. She will support skydiving with just as many resources as she supported the Olympics. The UK government will begin to support skydiving competition the same way France has been doing it for many years. BPA will have national coaches and select the best competitors for the national lineups who will train full time and win the first gold medals for the United Kingdom. The Queen will be happy.

I am moving to England…