posted Jan 6th, 2008 - Guy Manos is mostly known as a moviemaker and stuntman these days. Not many current competitors know that he is actually a former 4-way world champion. His DeLand Air Bears (Guy Manos, Tom Piras, Joe Nepute, John Robbins) won the first World Championship of Formation Skydiving after the current format with a mixture of blocks and random formations was introduced by the International Parachute Commission (IPC).

The DeLand Air Bears with Guy Manos won the gold medals in 1985. The event was held in the former Yugoslavia, very close to the location of the World Meet in Croatia 2004 where DeLand Majik won the 4-way Excalibur sword and brought it back to the same home of the Air Bears in 1985.

Guy Manos then created the Dream Team, which made beautiful and challenging big-way formation jumps. The flights of the Dream Team are still available on different DVDs. Dream Team members also provided the foundation for the demonstration jump into the Olympic stadium of Seoul, as a part of the opening ceremony of the 1988 Olympic Games.

The focus on the movie business and the Hollywood career came early for Guy Manos. He was still very much involved in skydiving events after winning the 4-way world championship title in 1985. However, he had already realized that skydiving could be the stuff that movies are made of.

The next step for him was the contact to Hollywood, and very soon he performed aerial stunts, including some in Sylvester Stallone's "Cliffhanger" and a stunt double for Arnold Schwarzenegger in "Eraser". Along the stunt way, Guy Manos learned how to write, stage and direct aerial scenes.

In 1995, he won a movie award for the best commercials with the "Sony Armchair" ad. Eventually, he began to write his own movie scripts and finally succeeded with his efforts in 2000 as the writer and director of "Cutaway", which featured Tom Berenger, Stephen Baldwin and NBA celebrity Dennis Rodman. He wrote the story and was the Skydiving Supervisor for "Dropzone" in 1994. His most recent engagement in Hollywood was as the aerial stunt coordinator for the movie "Get Smart", which was completed last year.

Guy Manos co-owns Skydive Miami in Homestead, Florida, as well. His wife Pam Manos helps to run the dropzone and supports his film career quite often with her own movie experiences. She is also greatly involved in the 4-way community in South Florida and recruits new 4-way line-ups every year that compete in the Florida Skydiving League.

The Manos family's skydiving business operation runs very well, and Guy Manos' creative mind continues to produce stories for Hollywood. He has a new film project in the works, and it includes windtunnel flying for the first time. He is recently gathering a group of skydiving veterans and high-profile competitors for a windtunnel competition at Paraclete XP in Raeford, North Carolina.

Owner Tim D'Annunzio and Manager Kirk Verner support Guy Manos with his efforts to run an unusual event in the world's largest flying chamber. The event is scheduled for next weekend (January 12 - 13), and it features a 6-way competition with a very different dive pool and special rules.

The dive pool is taylored to make for some interesting footage that might be used in the new movie project. The participants will be challenged by a "no-show" entry into the flying chamber and certain maneuvers that are surely not in the current repertoire of 4-way competitors.

The field of 6-way competitors next weekend is a roster of current and former world champions and VIP's of the skydiving world, including reigning 4-way world champion Natasha Montgomery, Airspeed Odyssey's Craig Girard and Andy Delk, Kirk Verner, Chris Talbert, Scott Rhodes, Chris Wagner, Mark Harrington, Guy and Pam Manos, Bill Legard, Jerry Murdock, Richard "Rambo" Calledare, Kris and Bob Byrne, Tim D'Annunzio, Mike Raible, Tom Finnegan, Mario Mauro, current members of Fastrax Blue and several other Golden Knights.

The 6-way line-ups will be formed on site, and the teams will have a very busy schedule. Guy Manos plans to complete three 12-round competitions at the 1-day event. The working time is 60 seconds for each flying session.

Paraclete XP owner Tim D'Annunzio and Manager Kirk Verner already hosted the Paraclete XP Money Meet 2007 in Raeford that the NSL News covered live from the competition site. The SkyVenture windtunnel was still under construction when this competition was held in July 2007. The NSL News followed Tim D'Annunzio only on a sightseeing tour by then.

The 16-foot windtunnel is now in full operation, and many 4-way and even 8-way teams have already completed many hours of tunnel training in Raeford.

Guy Manos' event comes at a time when the tunnel operation in Raeford guarantees the environment that he needs for his latest project. The NSL News will follow up with more information soon.