Home14th Dec 2011 - Brit Bronze at ESL
The plan was to get as many rounds completed on the Friday, leaving Saturday to mop up any remaining rounds if weather permitted. With the draw in hand, dirt diving commenced in earnest. Texel had a great set-up with a large creeper area, plenty of room for packing and kit storage, and several team rooms that the 15 teams were able to share.
Friday morning brought some great weather: blue skies and a light breeze – awesome, we were going jumping! Dirt diving complete, the two Cessna Caravans fired up their engines and the competition got underway – it soon became apparent that Texel ran a pretty slick operation. We were pretty much going all day long with no more than an hour between jumps. As always there were plenty of people around offering support and guidance and the atmosphere was superb. With some previous ‘form’ for seat belt restraint malfunctions, Tony managed once again to maintain his reputation, much to the joy of the team who roared with laughter at the top when he tried to stand up.
The DZ worked very hard and managed to get 15 teams through eight rounds of the competition at the end of the first day, with Team Gringo sitting comfortably in thrid place, with some of the best averages we’d achieved to date. Conditions deteriorated through the day and the DZ managed this well, staying safe but allowing the competition to unfold. Unbelievably one of the competitors had two consecutive ‘mals’. Definitely not his day and it is believed he opted for pack jobs after that!
All teams got through the two rounds by lunchtime on Saturday and judging of the last round was saved until we had all finished. This created an exciting climax with all the teams gathered in the hangar as they watched the judging of the final round. Loads of support was shown to all the teams and in the Rookie category Hvezdy achieved an impressive 27 points, with Team Gringo managing 13 – our best ever in a competition, and helping to achieve third place in the Rookie category.
With the competition over and the weather well and truly in for the day we headed off to prepare for the prize giving and party BBQ. We were extremely proud to wear our Team GB T-shirts as Team Gringo picked up its first medal, and a fitting end to a fantastic first year competing. Many, many beers were then drunk, and Netherlands won the Spirit award.
Before the prize giving, team captains were summoned by the ESL organisers to discuss how to encourage more teams to the Finals next year. It was generally agreed that the location needs to be easier for teams to get to – ideally in central Europe. Watch this space as those teams that have competed in the past will have been asked to vote on the location for next year’s competition by the time you read this Mag. This is a great competition and we urge other teams to consider getting this booked in the diary for next year.
Jason Fox, Team Gringo