101 teams are now registered for the World Challenge and there are literally 4 slots left as places have been capped at 105. This is the first time they have had to limit places. Paul Mayer kicked off the concept of big money tunnel meets when he ran the first World Challenge. Prize purse competitions are now held at wind tunnels around the globe but none attracts as many as the World Challenge.

Competitors universally agree the World Challenge has a unique, special atmosphere. It’s the only competition to include a meet for rookie, A and AA 4-way alongside the AAA class. It could even be argued that Bodyflight Bedford put the UK on the world’s skydiving calendar, giving a reason for international travelers to sample the delights of England, with no fear of shoddy weather ruining the fun.

The total prize purse is £20,000 across the various events, that’s well over $30,000 !

International Line-up

101 teams have signed up from more than 25 different countries, including USA, Canada, France, Dubai, Russia, Belgium, Singapore, Czech Republic, Poland, Estonia, Germany, Greece, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Israel, Lithuania, Qatar, Bahrain, and more.

AAA 4-way is the most popular event, with 48 teams registered, including 11 in the female category. 37 more 4-way teams are spread across the more junior categories, with a healthy complement of overseas flyers in all events. There are at least 2 back-flying teams; Back Chatt in Rookie and Bodyflight Black Magic in A class.

Freefly

There are 2 freefly events; classic Artistic and the relatively new Dynamic event, which is purely scored on speed, taking away any possible subjectivity. 10 teams from 7 nations are entering the 2-way Freefly, which will be judged on artistic merit, difficulty, creativity and wow factor. Teams are encouraged to enter more than one routine, as they will score higher than teams with a single routine. There are also some compulsory rounds.

A new event takes place at the World Challenge this year, 2-way Dynamic. D2W has been developed as an entry level for the 4way event (D4W), as it’s easy to put a 2-way team together; you only need to find one like-minded soul. Adam Mattacola, many times World Challenge champion, has dedicated his time in 2013 to developing Dynamic as a discipline. Adam will be a judge this year. He tells us more…

Dynamic Freefly 2WD

Dynamic freefly is now being held at the Bodyflight Bedford World Challenge and will continue to do so yearly. Dynamic is a new discipline and is still evolving. We are taking a different approach to this discipline at the World Challenge, with only compulsory rounds being flown so there will be no opinionated results. This has been the main discussion in the past with freefly competitions, so we thought we would change it a little and now have found a way to do freefly and make the results clear to competitors and spectators.

We will be running an Artistic freefly competition side by side with Dynamic so we keep the creativity in freefly but now competitors have the choice of which route they want to take. We have introduced some new moves to dynamic and the World Challenge will see the first time they are flown in competition. The format is the same as all the other dynamic competitions that have been held but just with a few extra moves to give more variety in speed, movement, difficulty and visual effects.

This discipline is guaranteed to entertain you and keep you on the edge of your seat!

Adam Mattacola

Bodyflight World Challenge 2014 – 4WD Dive Pool Examples

Check the video of the new moves being flown in a dive pool. Note: This was originally intended to be a dynamic 4way event but was recently changed to dynamic 2-way to encourage more teams to enter. So, when watching the video, look at flyers 1 & 2 to see the 2way version.

World Challenge TV

Bodyflight’s managing director, Paul Mayer has revealed ambitious plans to bring competition news to the rest of the globe via ‘World Challenge TV’. Live streaming of wind tunnel competitions is not new but Paul has added another dimension. World Challenge TV will include live commentary, roaming reporters soaking up the action, live footage of the best rounds as they are being flown, and interviews with teams, judges, staff, and more.

World Challenge TV will be exclusively broadcast via SkydiveMag.com

InTime

Scoring will be with the InTime system, and live scores will be shown throughout the 2-day competition on the World Challenge website. This scoreboard will include the facility for visitors to view the tunnel footage for any round, as desired. This is a new feature for InTime, added just for the World Challenge.

It’s a Date

Practice rounds for the World Challenge begin on the evening of Thursday 3 April, when World Challenge TV, starts live broadcasting. The competition is all day Friday and Saturday, culminating in prize-giving and a phenomenal party. At this point the Live Stream will be firmly switched off! 😉

Like the World Challenge Facebook Page and ‘Get Notification’ to keep up to date

Check World Challenge Website for competition scores and on-demand video of competition rounds during the event – or to grab one of the last 4 places!

Check SkydiveMag.com soon for the Live Stream