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August 2007

Well, it had to happen,..., all good things come to an end and Team Spirit have reached the end of our World Cup 2007 campaign. Our final score at the World Cup was an 11.1 average. We are proud to say this score is a new Irish 4-way record beating the previous Irish record of 9.8 set by "IPC Vision" at the World Air Games in Granada in 2001.

It says a lot for the considerable progress the team has made, that we were actually a little unhappy with the final result, especially considering we were starting from a 4+ average just 10 months ago! However we believe we are capable of scoring higher and were consistently flying much better during training... but that’s the beauty (or horror) of competition - all that matters is how you score on the day. The competition draw itself did not help anyone’s cause, no fast 4- or 5-point random dives, and most teams scored lower than they expected as a result. Regardless we thoroughly enjoyed the competition itself and learnt critical lessons from competing at international level which no amount of training can substitute.

So all in all, it’s been an absolutely great year for us and we have a lot of people to thank for that: First and foremost, a huge thank-you to all our girlfriends, wife (the one and only Hil), families, and friends who gave us that most precious commodity - time! Training this year consisted of every 2nd weekend, mostly at the IPC, some at the Tunnel in Bedford. As well as every second weekend, we also spent a huge chunk of our annual leave (5 weeks in total) skydiving this year, so thanks again to our family and friends for letting us off to pursue the dream :-)

Secondly, we would like to thank the Irish Parachute Club (especially Manifest) for all their support in the last 12 months. Without the jumps - a team simply cannot compete... so many many thanks to the IPC for helping us get as many training jumps as possible during our training weekends there.

We would like to thank the PAI for the funding they have given us. Competitive skydiving is expensive - full stop. Flights and entrance fees to the world cup were in the region of €1,500 per person and this is small fry compared to the costs associated with training camps. Funding from the PAI has helped ease some of the financial burden, so thanks a million folks!

We would like to especially thank our team rigger, Rodger Killeen, for all the rigging work he has carried out on our behalf, at short notice, and mostly at his own expense. Rodger has assembled our rigs (twice!), packed reserves and installed AAD’s all usually at short notice and has never let us down. Rodger also helped us out financially with a substantial discount on our team containers and canopies when we approached him... and he even went as far as to drive our new rigs down to us in Deland from Z’Hills, at 11pm one night, a 3-4 hour road trip, just so we would not miss out on training jumps during our camp there. Rog, you’re a star man and thanks for everything.

We would like to thank our other sponsors; Doyle Interior Systems for their donation and Flamegreen, who host our web-site free of charge, thank to Chris Thompson, fellow skydiver! We would like to thank the skydiving equipment manufactures who sponsored us, namely Tonysuits and Skysystems USA who gave us the best of equipment at a great price. Links to their websites can be found on our sponsors' page and of course don’t hesitate to contact us in relation to any of the gear we jump.

We would like to thank Dave Clarke who stepped in on a number of occasions to do video when a team member was not available and Eoin was flying. Cheers for that Dave.

We would like to thank the Irish Skydivers, Angela Burke, David Murphy, David Hardel and Emmet Byrnes who gave us the loan of their AAD’s when we realised Kolomna would not let us jumps rigs without them. We would also like to thank all of you who offered AAD’s in response to our cry for help. We got a huge response and it was heart-warming to see that level of support.

This brings us nicely to the last group of people we have to thank. You! The Irish Skydiving community. We are well aware our team training weekends can take up a substantial chunk of the precious lift capacity at the club and we can only thank you for your patience and understanding. To compete at 4-way you need the jumps and we hope our performance at the World Cup shows the jumps were not wasted on us. The level of support shown to us over the last 12 months has been simply amazing and we feel very proud to be a part of this community. So thank you for buying our T-shirts, the numerous emails wishing us well, and the support you show us when we’re down at the club. As a team, we feel privileged to have had the opportunity to represent this community abroad.

So what's next for Team Spirit? First, a well deserved rest and time off to catch up with family and friends, then we will be down to the IPC for the IPC Challenge weekend being organised by Gordon. We intend sitting down after that to discuss the possibility of continuing this magical journey for another year ... and the possibility of going to France for the 2008 World Championships ... watch this space!

July 2007

Spirit recently spent the day at the Irish Parachute Club with the crew from RTE Nationwide. The team made a number of jumps for the cameras and the members were each interviewed discussing various aspects of their training and the upcoming World Cup. The programme will be aired in early August (while we are at the competition). We’ll keep you posted of the exact date as soon as we find out. We would like to thank the IPC for opening mid-week especially for us and Kevin Brereton who took a day off work to fly for us.

June 2007

Spirit has now completed the last of its wind tunnel training in preparation for the World Cup in August. We spent 1.5 hours in the Bodyflight Bedford wind tunnel. Steve O'Sullivan almost missed the camp when Ryanair refused to let him board the plane at the last minute due to a technicality with his ticket. He managed to find a lengthy (and costly) alternative route and eventually turned up at the tunnel right before our first session. We finished off the camp by completing 7 selected rounds from the recent World Challenge Wind Tunnel competition and managed an average score of 11.3 points which we were delighted with. [The individual round scores were R1 - 11, R2 - 16, R4 - 13, R6 - 11, R7 - 11, R8 - 11, R9 - 6.] At this stage, we would like to acknowledge the superb coaching we received from Steve Hamilton during our tunnel camps. He has proven to be the consummate professional. He has a very easy manner and his well-trained eye and ability to convey information meant he spotted and fixed many of our flying problems. We strongly recommend him as a coach to anyone looking for individual one-on-one instruction or for any team looking for 4-way coaching. Although be prepared, he always insisted on ending the camp with a game of gay chicken, which made us a bit uneasy at times - but we soon came to look forward to that part of the debrief!!

June 2007

The PAI Irish National Championships of Formation Skydiving 2007 took place at the IPC on 16/17 of June. A total of 5 teams turned out for the event (2 senior teams and 3 junior teams). The junior event passed off without a hitch and Spirit would like to extend their congratulations to Team Piranha who took gold. Unfortunately, Practical Magic (the other team in the senior event) were forced to go home early so the senior event was postponed. Spirit did manage to complete 4 rounds from the event and were pleased when they scored a 9.8 average (12, 6, 12, 9).

June 2007

If you’ve been reading our news section, you’ll have gathered that we like to do something special when a team-mate makes their 1000th jump. Well Spirit point flyer Steve “The Sullinator” O’Sullivan thought he’d sneak by without telling anyone he was making this milestone jump. He was right, he did sneak by without telling us, but at the next available opportunity, we got him back. We took his beloved “Velo” pocket-rocket out of his rig, and replaced it with a big slow clunky Sabre 150! His reaction after he deployed and landed was priceless!

May 2007

Well done to team cameraman and alternate Eoin Mallin who just made his 1000th jump. To mark the occasion, Eoin cast off his camera and took a slot in the 4-way, with Fenton as videographer for this special jump. Eoin managed to punch out 15 points before his team mates jumped on him and swung him around for the remainder of the skydive!

April 2007

Jim Gunning served as guest organiser at the IPC while Gordon Hodgkinson was tied up with the AFF Instructor course. Jim made a number of challenging and successful non-contact dives and the participants seemed to enjoy them.

April 2007

We've just launched our range of long-sleeve and short-sleeve t-shirts. Check out the cool designs in our shop section and place your order fast before stocks run out!

April 2007

Spirit just completed the first of its major training camps. The team spent over two weeks at Skydive DeLand in Florida and made over 120 jumps under the careful guidance of coach and current World Champion, Shannon Pilcher. In addition, they spent a further two hours in the Skyventure Orlando wind tunnel. Apart from a few wet days, the weather was perfect and the efficient operation of the dropzone allowed the team to make on average 12 jumps before 2.30pm every day. During the camp, the team worked on all the blocks and randoms of the open dive pool and fleshed out their continuity plan and training priorities for the run up to the World Cup in August 2007. The camp was a huge success and the team was pleased when, in the final few days, they completed a mock competition set (the Shamrock Showdown 2007 draw) and scored a 10.5 average with plenty of scope for improvement. While in Florida, the team also took delivery of their new matching team rigs and canopies (thanks to the special efforts of team rigger and friend Rodger Killeen) and team helmets. Now we look like a proper team too! In the final few days, we were treated to a great bbq at Shannon's house and we repaid him by kindly [repainting some of his house]. We'd like to extend our appreciation to Shannon (and Thomas Hughes) for the excellent coaching, and of course to Emma, Ron and the rest of the packers who packed over 600 times, with tight turnarounds, and without any problems. We look forwards to seeing you guys again.

March 2007

Conor hosted another Essential Skills Canopy Control course at the IPC. The course took place over two days and was well attended. Unfortunately, due to the poor weather, the group only got to make one jump but everybody took away some valuable lessons and is keen to get back in the air to put their new found canopy skills to the test.

March 2007

Spirit just hosted a very successful Bodyflying workshop at the IPC. The team passed on the information they learned in their recent tunnel camps regarding body position and the latest techniques for performing various moves. The event was well attended and the team hopes to host similar workshops in future for those that could not make it this time.

February 2007

Spirit completed another 2 hour tunnel camp at Bodyflight Bedford with Steve Hamilton. The team polished up on some blocks that needed work and are now comfortable with all of the dive pool. During the last session in the tunnel, we made 5 competition style "jumps" and scored a 9.8 average. We were pretty pleased with that given that we never creeped any of the dives and some of the blocks don't lend themselves too kindly to the tunnel walls! Angela Burke and David Murphy also spent an hour in the tunnel with coaching with Eoin Mallin.

January 2007

Spirit just completed two hours training in the Bodyflight Bedford Wind Tunnel with coaching by Steve Hamilton (formerly of the British National Team XL). We worked on a number of individual drills and also performed all the blocks in the tunnel (many of which we saw for the first time in our current slots). Overall we were very impressed with the progress made on the camp and look forward to the next one in February. Eoin Mallin was also on site offering free coaching to Angela Burke, Johannes Fleck and Brian Farnan who all had a blast.

December 2006

We just took delivery of our new team Tony Suits (all black with just a purple pin-stripe on the grips). Many thanks to Dave Clarke who brought them home for us!

December 2006

Congratulations to old man Jim Gunning who just completed his 1,000th jump. His team mates had a plan to celebrate which Jim wasn’t aware of…half way through the dive, they abandoned the dive and all jumped on top of him!

October 2006

We just made our first jumps as a team (F-E-B-H-M). Unfortunately, the camera failed on our first jump but on our second jump we scored 12 points in time. We plan to use this dive as a benchmark for our progress over the next year.

October 2006

Before we made any actual skydives together as a team, we completed a four-hour tunnel camp in Bodyflight Bedford in the UK with coaching by Sergey Romanyuk (Russian 8-way team).