posted May 31st, 2019 - The new French national 8-way outdoor team has started the first year of training and competition and resumes the country's long and successful tradition in this event.

By coincidence, it happens at a time when 8-way competition has been picking up the momentum in Formation Skydiving competition. Especially Paraclete XP and Weembi Lille have been offering 8-way opportunities in the past years, which even resulted in the integration of 8-way competition at the recent FAI Indoor World Meet.

The momentum began with indoor opportunities at the two wind tunnels that had enough flying space available in their 16-foot chambers. Frenchman Martial Ferre, former 4-way and 8-way outdoor world champion, began organizing trips for French and international 8-way fans to the annual Paraclete XP Indoor Championships, together with his former team mate and friend Damien Sorlin.

They worked together with Paraclete's John D'Annunzio, Kirk Verner and Brian Krause who welcomed the 8-way teams and supported the French efforts with their own player-coaching and management. Martial Ferre and Julien Degen, himself former French 4-way and 8-way outdoor world champion, then copied the 8-way efforts at Weembi Lille as soon as the new wind tunnel was open.

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Paraclete XP Indoor 2019			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open		O,4,B,10	17,6,15	19,9,7	L,K,G,18	21,J,12	M,E,P,D,22	3,1,H	Q,A,16,N	11,2,C	13,5,F	Total	Avg
1	Paraclete XP8	US	28	29	22	30	26	30	43	35	27	26	296	29.6
2	Qatar Falcons	QA	28	27	19	29	22	31	36	35	24	22	273	27.3
3	Veloce QRF 1	INT	23	23	18	24	20	22	32	31	21	19	233	23.3
4	Golden Knights	US	22	21	17	23	19	23	27	24	17	20	213	21.3
5	Veloce QRF 2	FR	18	18	13	19	13	15	23	23	15	16	173	17.3
6	LJ's Angels	US	17	15	14	20	15	18	22	19	13	17	170	17.0
7	Blocksmiths XP	US	17	15	13	19	13	15	21	19	9	14	155	15.5
8	Veloce QRF 3	FR	16	12	13	19	12	16	19	21	11	15	154	15.4
9	Spaceland Lite	US	16	14	11	17	14	15	20	19	11	12	149	14.9

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The 8-way efforts began with the indoor opportunities at the larger wind tunnels. However, all of the initial players (John D'Annunzio, Kirk Verner, Brian Krause - Martial Ferre, Damien Sorlin, Julien Degen) have their roots in outdoor competition, long before the first wind tunnels were built.

Naturally, they were not only focused on their indoor projects, even though they have been heavily involved with indoor training and competition in the past years. In fact, all of them are currently offering bridges between indoor and outdoor training and competition, as they see the benefits of connecting both environments carefully.

In the United States John D'Annunzio, Kirk Verner and Brian Krause are jumping from planes with Paraclete XP8 and plan to win first the USPA Nationals 2019 and then the FAI World Meet 2020. In France, Martial Ferre is operating his skydiving business at the training center in Gap, and Julien Degen is supporting the new French national 8-way outdoor team.

The U.S./French combination of 8-way indoor and outdoor events had even created a large group of mostly French Formation Skydiving fans who traveled to the Chicagoland Skydiving Center for the USPA Nationals last year and enjoyed the variety of different events.

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USPA Nationals 2018			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Intermediate		F,H,A,19	B,P,16	J,C,L,N	K,E,O,18	G,4,13	6,M,14	Q,10,17	1,7	8,5	D,3,21	Total	Avg
1	Ding Dong	FR	7	8	6	7	8	7	4	9	6	7	69	6.9
2	Dong Ding	FR	8	6	8	7	7	7	5	6	6	5	65	6.5
3	Shapeshifters	US	6	8	5	6	8	7	6	8	5	4	63	6.3
4	AF Afterthought	US	3	7	7	6	5	7	6	8	5	7	61	6.1
5	Perris Funky Nuggets	US	6	7	6	6	8	6	5	6	4	5	59	5.9
6	Connextion XP	US	5	6	2	6	8	6	4	7	3	3	50	5.0
6	Blocksmiths XPress	US	4	8	4	6	5	5	5	6	4	3	50	5.0
8	SDMW Cheese Gr8ers	US	5	8	4	3	7	3	3	5	5	3	46	4.6
9	Infinite 8	US	3	4	5	5	4	5	4	7	4	2	43	4.3
10	Category 8	US	1	4	2	4	4	4	4	4	2	0	29	2.9

French guest teams in 8-way - 16-way - 10-way at the USPA Nationals 2018

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Manu Sarrazin, one of the most experienced French 8-way competitors in history, was guiding two French 8-way teams through the USPA Nationals 2018. He was player-coaching one of the two teams (Ding Dong), and Aurélien Lemaire was the leader of the second team (Dong Ding).

Aurélien Lemaire was a new member of the French national 8-way indoor team with Martial Ferre who placed 2nd behind Paraclete XP8 at the FAI Indoor World Meet. He now continues with the new French outdoor team that just launched their 2019 training and competition season.

The two 8-way teams with their French 8-way experts then joined forces at the USPA Nationals for a 16-way lineup (ConneXion), and ten 8-way and 16-way members followed up with the 10-way Speed competition.

Martial Ferre was back again with three Veloce 8-way teams at the Paraclete XP Indoor Championship in February, while he trained together with Aurélien Lemaire for the indoor world meet in April. He documented the French 8-way experience at Weembi Lille with the featured video. Aurélien Lemaire is now in full swing with his 8-way outdoor training.