Jersey's formation skydiving team strikes gold in first competition

Tuesday 15 May 2018

Celebrations are in order for the Jersey Beans, a team of four islanders who recently formed Jersey's first four-way formation skydiving team: the quartet struck gold in the first leg of the UK Skydiving league in Dunkeswell, their first ever competition.

Claire Allen, Liam Hardman, Hedi Green and Michael Stocks had only 35 seconds to complete a series of formations after leaving their plane.

Despite being 'newbies' to the competition, the group scored the most points with a total of 44, while the team who came second scored only 17. The "convincing lead" will no doubt come in handy for the next two events, at Langar Airfield in June and Cark Airfield in July. "It was absolutely fantastic," says Hedi Green. "We put the hours in and it paid off, it was really amazing. It gave us all a confidence and moral boost. 

"Our coach, Debbie Lamsley, was there, which was fantastic. All teams learn the formations they have to do the night before the competition. There were six rounds and different formations in each one. We had to figure out our transitions and our exit for each round. We had to be really focused on our concentration. You have to visualise the round over and over again and when it's done you move to the next one. It was quite intense."

Pictured: The Jersey Beans started training last Summer after a meeting at the Trinity Arms. (Luke Gale)

Intense is the word. On top of the pressure of the competition itself, Hedi also had to deal with her first malfunction ever in 16 years of skydiving. Due to a packing error, one of the break lines on her parachute was not secured properly leading the canopy to spin. Hedi says: "I wasn't able to fix it. In those situations, you have to cut away the main canopy, which then flies off and you are back in free fall. You then have to pull your reserve parachute and land it.

"It just shows how much the emergency drills are drilled into you from the moment you start training. You always check your gear and go through everything a thousand times just so you are ready when the situation occurs. It gave me a lot more confidence. You always fear what you don't know and I never knew how I would react. I was very calm about it. It shows how safe the sport is, you always have a Plan B."

Pictured: Claire Allen, Liam Hardman, Hedi Green and Michael Stocks during their first competition in the UK Skydiving league. (Luke Gale)

While a Gold medal is always an achievement in itself, but it is even more so for a team formed just last Summer who have to travel for most of their training. In March, Claire, Liam, Hedi and Michael went all the way to South California, in Lake Elsidore, for a week of training. "We couldn't take the risk of jumping in Europe where we could have been looking at grey skies," explains Hedi. "We did 40 jumps in a week with our coach, it was very intense." The quartet also traveled to Portugal and France and made several trips to Basingstoke to train in a wind tunnel.  

"We have a lot of extra hurdles to overcome compared to UK teams who can just look at the weather and decide to do a jump," says Hedi. "We have to plan our trips, we can't just go an jump. We all work full time so it's a bit of a juggling act. But we all agreed that it would be a commitment and sacrifice, financially and in our time. Luckily we all sing off the same song sheet. You can't train unless everyone is there, we are all acutely aware that we have a responsibility to ourselves and to all three."

With an hour in the wind tunnel costing £600 plus the services of a coach, the quartet, who have so far self-funded their training, are looking for sponsors. After the UK Skydiving League, they will take part in the UK National Championships, "one of the biggest ones in the world," says Hedi, along with hundreds of teams. "We want to put Jersey on the map and help get skydiving flagged as a serious sport. People think it's a hobby but it's serious competition." 

Lead picture: The Jersey Beans jumping out of the plane. In inset, Michael, Claire, Hedi and Liam receiving their gold medal with team coach Debbie Lamsley and camera flyer Luke Gale.