posted Jul 3rd, 2011 - The trip to the World Cup 2011 in Saarlouis brings the NSL News to another skydiving center in Germany this year. The FSC Remscheid skydiving club has joined forces with the FSV Merseburg's DZ operation near Halle to host the 1st NSL Remscheid Cup 2011.

FSC Remscheid, with its energetic club president Klaus Mathies, himself a former German national competitor back in the early 70's, has been a strong supporter of German 4-way and 8-way teams in the past. X-Ray Remscheid and Final Four Remscheid in 2010 are the most current team names that have appeared on NSL leaderboards.

Club President Klaus Mathies has kept in touch with the NSL News over the years and continues to follow the activities in the sport this way, as well. This year, he also supports the NSL News trip to cover the World Cup 2011 for the worldwide on-line audience.

The 1st NSL Remscheid Cup 2011 offers an opportunity for the international NSL Network to re-introduce the 4-way league system to the German skydiving community. Dr. Rainer "Exi" Hoenle, president of the German skydiving federation (DFV) since 2003, was running the "Deutsche Sky Liga" in Germany years ago, which was the German extension of the National Skydiving League during the early years of the European Skydiving League.

Exi launched the Deutsche Sky Liga in 2001 and kept it running for several years. He focused more on his job as the DFV President later on, and the league system in Germany eventually faded away. It was somehow replaced by a number of smaller random events that the NSL News has been covering ever since.

The NSL event right before the World Cup is a combination of a casual 4-way competition for the teams that will not compete in Saarlouis and a 4-way Scramble for skydivers who would like to learn more about 4-way. Free engineering and coaching will be provided by the NSL. Competition classes, dive pool and competition draw will be synchronized with the other NSL Network events that weekend.

It is an easy opportunity for the host, FSV Merseburg, who is running the "AN-28 Boogie 2011" on the same weekend. The available aircraft allows both events to run at the same time, as the powerful AN-28 with its tail gate can lift a lot of skydivers. FSV Merseburg's skydiving operation has access to several AN-28, which used to be run by the Russian forces in Germany before the unification in 1990.

Klaus Mathies, who is still passionate about skydiving and Formation Skydiving competition, plans to continue the partnership with FSV Merseburg's skydiving operation, establish this event and possibly add more in the future. The dropzone is coveniently located between Leipzig and Halle, little over an hour driving distance southwest of Berlin, the German capitol city.

The skydiving facilities are located on a large airport with a long runway that can easily accommodate a lot of skydiving traffic. The NSL News will report this event before moving to the location of the World Cup 2011 in Saarlouis.