posted Jun 27th, 2005 - Aerodyne entered the international competition arena by signing up the Norwegian national 4-way team Arcteryx. The team has received a lot of attention by the company, which even assigned a separate section of its website to promote the cooperation with the team. Arcteryx will soon travel to Russia and compete at the Malevsky Memorial Cup 2005.

Arcteryx already attended two competitions this year, the FSL Shamrock Showdown 2005 in DeLand (16.5 average) and the FSL April meet in Lake Wales (20.7 average). The 10-round meet in Russia will offer an update on the progression of the Norwegian team.

The sponsor offered additional information of the cooperation in a press release:

"Arcteryx had recently taken delivery of their Aerodyne Icon rigs under a sponsorship agreement signed earlier this year between Edward Anderson, President of Aerodyne Research, and team captain Ole Petter Hjelle. Having put already hundreds of jumps on the new equipment in a matter of weeks Ole Petter confirms with enthusiasm that the team is perfectly satisfied with the arrangement:

"There are several reasons why we chose Aerodyne as our main sponsor. The gear, including the Icon rig, Smart reserve and Pilot main canopy, is second-to-none when it comes to safety, performance and innovation. Also, no company in the skydiving industry can match Aerodyne’s personalized service and support. We will proudly wear our Aerodyne gear and are convinced that we will have a mutually beneficial relationship in the years to come."

"Formed in 2004 Arcteryx continues to catch the attention of Formation Skydiving competitors around the world now that they entered the club of 20+ teams during the FSL 2005 April meet in Lake Wales. It is acknowledged that the draw was fast, but their 20.7 average won them a remarkable third place behind top teams Airspeed Velocity and Airspeed Odyssey. Scoring an average of 16.5 in the previous league meet in Deland, last March, the team’s progression is steep and promising. But, as point Ditta Valsdottir commented in an evaluation of the team’s performance, a lot of work still lies ahead and part of it is to ensure that the new and younger line-up of the team get more competition practice.

"The team consists of Ole Petter Hjelle, brothers Øyvind and Tore Buer, Ditta Valsdottir (the only female team member) and videographer Jan Terje Welkom. Edward "Bushman" Anderson explains how this partnership contributes to the progress of the company in the sport parachute market since it formed a new group in 2003:

"Our sponsoring efforts are still very much focused on working with coaches and instructors in the sport. Our Aerodyne Sponsored Instructor Program (ASIP) has started to bear fruit and shortly we will launch a dedicated ASIP section on our website to even better support our sponsored instructors. We have signed with Arcteryx to complement our ASIP program with two major goals. The first one is to secure more exposure in the international competition arena and reinforce our image as an innovative manufacturer. The second one is to have our R&D department benefit from the thousands of jumps the team accumulates each year and so speed up the process from prototype to market launch. We are extremely proud to be Arcteryx’ sponsor and we are dedicated to support them in making their dreams come true."

The next test for Arcteryx in Russia begins on July 4, 2005. The NSL News currently prepares the on-line coverage of the first class event with several of the best teams in the world lined up for the 4-way and 8-way competition.