posted Aug 9th, 2019 - Norway used to be a powerhouse in Formation Skydiving competition, especially in the 4-way Open Class event. The Scandinavian country did not miss any of the FAI World Championships of Formation Skydiving between 1985 and 2010, and the legendary national team in 4-way Open, the DeLand Norgies (Lise Aune, Pal Kolbenstvedt, Torstein Valen, Carl-Erik Tuv) won three consecutive FAI bronze medals in 1999, 2001 and 2003.

Norway had strong 8-way teams at the world meets between 1989 and 1995, as well, which faded when the DeLand Norgies began to focus on 4-way competition.

Arcteryx continued the strong international 4-way presence until 2008 and still owns the highest outdoor average in Norwegian history, with the 22.5 average in Maubeuge 2008. Government funding and focus then shifted slowly to 4-way Women after the event was added to the FAI world meet agenda in 2001.

The FAI World Meet 2010 in Menzelinsk would turn out as the last time that a 4-way Open Class team from Norway represented the country in this event. The 4-way Women effort lasted only two years longer. Polaris won FAI bronze medals in Dubai 2012 and was the last Norwegian Formation Skydiving competition team at a world meet.

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4-way Open Class teams from Norway at FAI World Championships of Formation Skydiving since 1985

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This year's national championships connected different generations of Norway's Formation Skydiving history. DeLand Norgies member Pal Kolbenstvedt was in the All Star Team that won the 4-way Open Class competition. He has now collected more national medals than his actual age, after adding another 8-way gold medal, as well.

He had Kjetil Nordin in his 4-way and 8-way lineups, who was in Norway's last 4-way Open Class team at a world championship, in Menzelinsk 2010. He has also been competing for Denmark (Pangaea) ever since and still goes back to the Norwegian national championships on a regular basis. His main focus has recently been on 8-way competition with Martial Ferre's Veloce QRF indoor team.

Another DeLand Norgies member has created the newest generation of 4-way competitors in Norway. Carl-Erik Tuv was in the tail slot for the FAI bronze medalists of 1999, 2001 and 2003. He did not compete at the national championships this time. However, his daughter Christiane Sørfjord Tuv won the A Class gold medals with FS2020 Volare, and she is in the same slot.

Her team and FS 2020 Agera, silver medalist in the AAA Class, are planning to bring 4-way teams from Norway back into the international community.

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Norwegian Nationals 2019		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	H,13,O,22	B,17,L,M	19,K,10	4,6,D	N,C,9,16	5,F,21	3,Q,J,E	1,7,15	Total	Avg
1	All Star Team	10	16	12	13	17	14	17	13	112	14.0
2	FS 2020 Agera	11	15	10	8	12	14	12	11	93	11.6
3	Humleswing	11	12	9	10	11	7	8	8	76	9.5
4	Veteranene	4	3	3	5	3	3	4	4	29	3.6
Rank	A Class	D,F,9	C,L,4	P,A,E	19,21	TBD	TBD	TBD		Total	Avg
1	FS2020 Volare	10	7	15	0	9	10	11	-	62	8.9
2	A Team Has No Name	11	5	9	4	5	6	5	-	45	6.4
3	Nivå 3	4	5	8	4	7	6	5	-	39	5.6
4	Bad Ass NoPro	4	5	5	4	6	5	6	-	35	5.0
5	Butelysium	5	3	6	4	3	3	2	-	26	3.7
6	Flying Chicks ?	0	0	2	2	2	2	2	-	10	1.4

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Kjetil Nordin reported from Norway that Christiane Sørfjord Tuv's team had an unlucky Round 4: "They tumbled their exit, and subsequently skipped the second point of the first Block 19. They ended up learning about omissions the hard way, and their three awarded points were canceled out by the -3 omission. Still, the team did excellent in the competition as a whole, and was clearly the best prepared team, and went home with a gold medal after a convincing victory."

The new AAA Class team, FS2020 Agera, finished with an 11.6 average at the team's first competition. Kjetil Nordin said that this year was also the first AAA Class training for half of the team: "They want to try to become Norway's first national team in the open category since 2010. Their performance in Round 6 shows that they are already capable of great jumps. They also beat their project organizers and coaches from Humleswing."

The competition event was not shortened due to bad weather. Kjetil Nordin explained why the teams completed only seven/eight rounds: "The national championship had the best weather I have ever experienced. We finished a whole day early. The number of rounds in each discipline count as a completed competition in Norway."

"This system has been practiced for a long time, due to many jumpers having double or triple duties, or more. You give up your right to scheduled breaks between rounds, if you choose to participate in different events (FS/artistic/wingsuit)."

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Norwegian Nationals 2019		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	Total	Avg
Rank	AA Class	F,P,G,A	B,K,1	E,M,4	6,3	L,O,H,C	N,10,D	J,19,Q	Total	Avg
1	All Star Squad	3	5	4	5	5	4	4	30	4.3
2	Hero to Zero	0	2	2	3	0	2	0	9	1.3
3	Funjumpers Come to Manifest	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	0.1

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Kjetil Nordin shared a few more interesting observations from Østre Æra in Norway: "In 8-way only one team was originally signed up for the competition. Tonje Culbertson managed to build a team around her intermediate team A Team Has No Name, and upon their entry, Humleswing also scrambled some friends. Funjumpers Come to Manifest scored a whole mountain of karma points, but struggled to get actual points on the scoreboard. But then, in the second last round, they managed to build a Zipper Flake (N), which is by no means the easiest formation to build for beginners. Everyone was impressed and happy."

"Hero to Zero was another amazing team. They had everything from wing suit world champion Espen Fadnes to two guys who started their first jump course in May this year, Elias Borøchstein Syslak and Tommy Christensen. I have never seen a team so fun as this. I did my 1000th jump at the world meet, and was tackled in freefall before the freeze frame in judging, but this was another fun level. Here we had canopy openings before freeze frame, carefully planned by the world champion. And when Tommy did his jump number 100 in the competition, he did a naked skydive. They claimed that they had a camera malfunction. They still managed to score a few points in most rounds, and grabbed the silver medals."

Kjetil Nordin's 8-way team All Star Squad (ASS) had Øivind Godager in the lineup, who won his first national title as the oldest team member at the age of 64. He was the person who told Kjetil Nordin that Formation Skydiving competitions existed and that he should go to wind tunnel camps if he wanted to advance in the sport.

The FAI Outdoor World Cup 2021 will take place in Voss, Norway. Kjetil Nordin said that "we hope to mobilize in all disciplines"...