posted Nov 1st, 2009 - The Scandinavian fans have spoken, Denmark's national 4-way team Voluntas is considered the strongest Scandinavian team of the 2009 season.

The NSL News story on 30 October 2009 had offered a poll, which turned out as a race between Voluntas and Finland's Pro Team. The 2010 season will bring the World Championship of Formation Skydiving in Russia, and the same teams with the same lineups will most likely battle it out again for the unofficial Scandinavian championship, this time hopefully all four teams at the same time and at the same place.

Only Norway will have a new national 4-way lineup, as the NSL News story on 20 October 2009 explained.

In the meantime, the competition videos of the third guest team at the 2009 USPA National Skydiving Championships have been uploaded and feature Black from Australia.

The Black lineup (George Attard, Simon Di Sciascio, Jeremy Langford, Craig Vaughan) was not new on the NSL leaderboard. Black scores were already posted after the Australian Nationals 2009 in March and at the Paraclete XP Indoor Skydiving Championship 2009. Coach Solly Williams has been working with the Aussies this year, and he was also filming the team at the USPA Nationals 2009.

A closer look at the Black lineup brings to light a very interesting team history, which promises great competition for the upcoming season in Australia and the national championship of 2010.

The Black members said in Texas that they are aiming at the Australian 4-way title, which would qualify Black as the national team for the World Meet 2010 in Russia.

Two of the Black members, Jeremy Langford and Simon Di Sciascio, are used to winning the Australian 4-way gold medals. They trained and competed with Airtite, the national team that dominated the 4-way event downunder for several years after winning the national title for the first time in 2004. Airtite competed for Australia at the World Meet in Germany 2006 and last year in Maubeuge, as well.

However, Airtite disbanded after the 16.3 average at the World Meet 2008. Jeremy Langford and Simon Di Sciascio moved on with Black, while another former Airtite member, Gary Nemirovsky, joined a new lineup for the Australian Nationals 2009, Rotor Out. This team made 42 training jumps and won the championship far ahead (16.2 - 13.4) of the new Black lineup. The NSL News story on 23 March 2009 had provided the details.

The other two Black members, George Attard and Craig Vaughan, have been chasing their new team mates in the past three years. Their former team C4 was Airtite's strongest challenger in 2008. C4 was still far behind Airtite in 2007, but then seriously threatened the national team at the Australian Nationals in 2008. Airtite, with Jeremy Langford and Simon Di Sciascio, won with a 17.0 average. C4, with George Attard and Craig Vaughan, placed 2nd with a 16.3 average.

The new Black lineup, with the joined C4 and Airtite forces, has not come even close to the same scoring level so far. However, each team member has already scored above the 16-average level, and it is probably only a matter of time when Black will get there as a whole.

The open question is what the reigning 4-way champion, Rotor Out, with the third former Airtite member Gary Nemirovsky and German 4-way and 8-way veteran Jens Goennemann, is planning to do from here on. The 16.2 average at the Australian Nationals 2009 is obviously a good foundation. The team did not have any serious plans for the future when the NSL News posted the story in March this year.

Rotor Out did not attend any other meets after the championship, while Black traveled to the USA in June and in October. It seems as if Black is more eager to win the next national championship and compete for Australia in Russia than the reigning 4-way champions. The Australian Nationals 2010 are scheduled to begin on March 15 in 4-way. The teams have little over four months to get ready.

By the way: nice videos, Solly...