Teams, Medals and Records

Connexion 8-way team (2008)

Team Connexion at the world meet
Photo: Lucy Herrett

Connextion, after a short break, decided in 2008 to reform with a one year project. The team made four changes and brought in former Womens four way World Champion and World Cup winner Sacha Chilton; Mark Whitehead and Andy Scott - both National 8 way Champions previously with VNE and Army 9; and Phil Hartree from the Bodyflight Rage 4-Way team. The Team also changed camera flyer to Dave Butterell from British 4-way Team Fusion.

The Team decided on a 100 jump plan in the form of 4 weekends Training in Skydive Lillo and 3x 100+ jump camps in Perris Valley again under the eye of world renowned coach Dan BC. The Team goal was again to be representing the UK at the 2008 World Championships in France.

The team unfortunately were not able to complete all the planned camps in Perris due to injury and illness. However, with the help of alternates Liz and Ian Matthews and Martin Soulsby on many occasions standing in for training and competitions, the Team went on to win two further National Golds in 2007 and 2008, also representing the UK at the 2008 world Championships and finishing 5th. Whilst never being able to give the total commitment the Team wanted, with the help of alternates the Team felt they did a credable job considering the circumstances. Connextion have now finished and hope others will continue to follow them in the 8 way discipline.

Connexion 8-way team (2005-2006)

Team Connexion 2005-2006 Lineup

Phil Curtis,
Ian (Milko) Hodgkinson,
Andy (Ibbo) Ibbetson,
Marcus Beck,
Andy Pook,
Derek Thomas,
Rob Stevenson,
Dave Ruffell,
Gary (Swoop )Wainwright (video)

We decided to finish our NRG Team after the 2004 Nationals and try something different, so we moved onto 8 way with a serious set of targets. We put together Team Connextion and included Ian (Milko) Hodgkinson, Phil Curtis, Andy (Ibbo) Ibbetson, Marcus Beck, Andy Pook, Derek Thomas, Rob Stevenson, Dave Ruffell and Gary (Swoop) Wainwright (video).

This team qualified at the 2005 British Nationals to represent Great Britain in the 2006 World Championships and then went on to win the 2006 British National Championships.

The Team decided to approach Dan BC - multiple World Champion in both 4 way and 8 way to coach us as we firmly believed he could hold the team together with such strong characters and also allow us to realise our goals.

We decided to do 3x 100 jump training camps in Perris Valley California as this is where Dan is based and also it had the facilities we required.

In total we made 280 jumps over the 3 training camps. We achieved a Silver Medal at the 2005 British Nationals and qualification to represent Great Britain at World Championships 2006. In 2006 we won the British National Championships and came 6th at the World Championships in Germany.

Oh yes, and we had some fun along the way!

Connextion then took a one year break. Read more about the success of the 2008 reformation at the top of this page.

NRG 4-way Team

Phil Curtis,
Megan Curtis,
Ian (Milko) Hodgkinson,
Marcus Beck,
Andy (Ibbo) Ibbetson,
Gary (Swoop) Wainwright (Video)

NRG was formed at the end of 2003. the aim to have some fun and get current at 4-way. The results, and what was achieved was a suprise and sense of achievement by all. The team made just under 200 jumps over 1 year. 100 jumps on training camp in Florida coached by 4-way world champion Gary Smith and a further 100 jumps in the UK coached by John McIver and Steve Hamilton (British national 4-way champions).

After assessing the progress made in Florida, the team decided to compete at the British National Championships (2004). The team went on to take the bronze medal. This was a fantastic achievement without a great deal of training or time together. The team is currently on hold for the moment... to be continued....

The World Team

Brainchild of renowned US skydiver B.J. Worth, the world team brought together some of the World's best skydivers. Their aim was to build the largest formation of falling humanity the world had ever seen. Phil had the pleasure of partaking within this team.

World Team '94

For ten days in the summer of 1994 the world team gathered in Bratislava, Slovakia. Jumping from high altitude using AN-6 and AN-12 aircraft provided by the Slovak military, they built the largest formation ever seen -216 skydivers.

World Team '96

The World Team came together again in September 1996 in Anapa, Russia. B.J. had envisaged a three hundred-way formation, -the logistics of which had previously been thought impossible.

Phil Curtis takes part in the World Team '96 record attempt, building a 297-way formation
Photo taken by Henny Wiggers

On 27 September 1996 with the beautiful Black Sea as a backdrop, the World Team skydivers left the four gigantic Russian MI-26 helicopters at 21,000ft. By the time the ground loomed close and the formation broke up, a new Guinness world record formation of 297 people had been made. Although the 300-way formation did not build, the attempt had given skydiving more media coverage than ever before.

For more information on the World Team visit their web site at: http://www.theworldteam.com/

World record sequential skydives

In 2003 and 2004, renowned american organiser Guy Wright built back-to-back world sequential skydiving records in which Phil took part.

Phil takes part in the world record sequential skydives, 2004.
Photo taken by Tony Hathaway

Another Planet

Another Planet are the UK's premier 16-way formation skydiving team. Phil was a member of this team for 5 years. Since it was recognised by the IPC as an official event, the worldwide standard of 16-way has improved beyond all expectations.

With some of the UK's best formation skydivers on the team, it is no surprise that 'the planeteers' can 'cut the mustard' but our recent performance has overcome all expectations. Already undefeated in the UK, Another Planet set out to take on the best in Europe.

1998 saw the planeteers putting in their best performances to date. At the European Cup in La Ferte Gaucher, France, Another Planet locked horns with twelve other teams from France, Germany, and Belgium for ten rounds of competition over three days from four aircraft. By round five, the competition was as hot as a heat wave in hell. The German team, Fantastic 16 jumped first setting a new German record and equalling the World record set by the Australians earlier that year of 9 points in time. The planeteers had to come up with something special to stay in the running. We did. Our previous best had been 8 points, a blistering performance gave us 13 points, 12 of which were in time. We had not only smahed our own personal best but also the World record in the process! Later on in the year we entered the World Cup. Against the best in the business we managed an awesome Bronze medal.