RWjunkee

Sadly I did happen to see this episode that you speak of. I was flipping through channels when I came across it. This show (America's next top model) had the girls in the Perris windtunnel doing a photoshoot for some product. I don't know who the tunnel instructor was but he sure had his hands full! Some of the girls were scary looking in there!

I think it all has to do with funding. From what I understood there are certain point averages that must be met to get BPA funding. Both teams made the 'grade' for female class funding but not quite there in the open class. Because Storm chose to represent Britian in the female class, that left Elan to either fund themselves to reprepsent Britian in the open class or not compete....I think the financial pots have run dry. I agree it's too bad, but as you know skydiving is expensive! Without financial support, it's hard to train like you would want to for a world meet. Good luck to Storm in the female category and best of luck to the Elan team members as they pursue other projects!

Thanks for the clarification, Sparky and a hearty congrats to your team! I think your post made my point even more in that Dan BC is a great coach and took a relatively inexperienced team with great flying potential and made you all a TEAM. That's what it is in the end. Dan BC always said (I think it was him, at least) that there are lots of skydivers out there that have equal or better individual skills than any Airspeed member but what separated Airspeed was that they were a parts of a machine working together seamlessly and without that, chances of realising full potential are limited. Will Elan be going to France in the women's category then? What a great thing for the UK to have two women's teams representing the country in both categories.

AFAIK Storm is a professional team with members being paid salaries of $50,000 each. I heard they did 900 jumps this year while Elan made 350 - isn't it also a numbers game? Good on them and everyone who goes for it with all the resources they can, great results for the ladies. Bodes well for Brit skydiving. Hummm....wasn't aware of that above fact. I'm surprised that Elan didn't have more sponsorship money being that they were the current world and national champions. Weren't they sponsored by the big wind tunnel in the UK? I'm sure they got a good deal on coaching since the coach is married to one of the members. Yes, jump numbers will likely play a role as well as mental preparation. I thought the two teams would have been a little closer in average because of Elan's experience going into the season. I was correct in that Storm edged out Elan, but it may be more than just the coaching but jump numbers too. I still believe that the coaching had a lot to do with it. Where did storm get their sponsorship? That seems like a pretty sweet deal. good for them and congrats to both teams.

Oooohhhhh.....I get it. Thanks so much for the clarification. But, if the weather is still bad next weekend, will the compeition stop at the 3 rounds or is there a third weekend set aside for such things? I guess you didn't want to be overprepared with more than 2 training jumps! Looks like they did indeed pay off! Nice work!

If I understand right, because of bad weather the current scores will be thrown out and there will be a new draw next weekend? What happens if the weather next weekend is still bad? Will they go back to the original 3 rounds that were done or is there yet another weekend set aside? Anyway, looking at least at those scores, Storm is ahead of Elan by 3. Both teams busted (Elan in rd. 1 and Storm in rd.2). Interesting race for sure!

Latest story on skyleague......I guess I'm not the only one curious to see how this plays out. http://www.skyleague.com/pages/news/showArticles.php?story=821 Let the games begin! Will it be Storm/BC or Elan/Beyer?? I know I'll be anxiously awaiting scores. As far as male versus female in 4-way? I'm not sure there is a physical advantage either way (unless you're hauling around a big piece partner or something- then some extra physical strength isn't a bad thing), but I think women (as a general characterization) tend to be less aggressive and might hold back more because they 'might' make a mistake. Men more often have that 'go for it attitude'. Both qualities can offer benefits and detriments I suppose, so maybe having a balance of both is best. I dunno....what the hell do I know anyway? I've never competed at that level. It's all conjecture and good old fashioned BS! I just want to see who is going to win out--Dan or Gary..er, uh, I mean Storm or Elan.

It will be interesting and I also wish both teams the best of luck. I'm going to stick my anonymous neck out and wager that Storm will edge out Elan. My impression, not having had any personal experience with either coach, is that both coaches are equal for preparing a team technically but Dan will better prepare a team mentally for world level skydiving competition. Again, both teams seem to be matched with flying skills, so it's gonna come down to who is better prepared to handle the pressure. I could be completley wrong (it's been know to happen )so it will be fun to see the results. Again, either way it's probably win-win for both teams.

I've been reading on Skyleague that there are two British teams gunning to qualify for the world meet in the open category and they are both all female teams (I guess the second place team will represent Britian in the women's category??). The two teams are first Team Elan (formerly Airkix) who are the current world champions in the women's event and current British national champions, and a second team (Perris Storm) that has a former Airkix member. Elan is being coached by Gary Beyer and Perris Storm is being coached by Dan BC. Which team do you think will win out? It seems as though both teams are equally matched as far as skill (at least from the limited video and scores that have been posted on skyleague) so it will likely come down to the team that has the better mental preparation which is a direct reflection of coaching. Elan has some experience competeing at the world level, but is that enough? Maybe this is more of a poll on coaching, but which coach will better lead their team to win? Dan or Gary? Both are world champions (Dan in 4-way and 8-way and Gary only in 8-way) but as far as I know, Dan is the only one who has led any team to a world championship victory. Just thought it would be curious since the British nationals are just a couple of weeks away. In the end, it's probably a win-win situation as both teams will likely go to the world meet but to have an all women's team represent a country in the open category seems like a pretty big step for the sport. who's it going to be? RWjunkee p.s. Everything that I know has come from skyleague so please correct me if I stated anything that is wrong or misinterpreted anything that was posted on skyleague.