posted May 23rd, 2008 - Norway's national 4-way team Arcteryx has been covered by the NSL News many times and comprehensively. The new lineup of 2008, with Center Inside Mathias Nord, gave more than enough reason to watch the progression of the Norwegian team even closer.

The live interview with the NSL News, posted on 11 February 2008, was an introduction of the new lineup and its new plans. Arcteryx 2008 made it no secret that the team still plans to pursue a set of medals at this year's World Championship of Formation Skydiving. The NSL News audience also had the opportunity to watch a few videos of the new lineup's training jumps.

Arcteryx missed the FSL Shamrock Showdown 2008 and competed for the first time with the new lineup at the World Challenge 2008. The performance at Bodyflight Bedford was impressive and ended with a 26.0 average after ten rounds in the windtunnel. Three meet videos from Bedford have already been featured on NSL-TV.

Arcteryx was still training in DeLand when the FSL April meet was held. Once again, the lineup was not complete at meet time. However, Thomas Hughes filled the Tail slot for Ole Petter Hjelle, and Arcteryx posted a 21.3 average after seven rounds. The meet videos of all seven rounds have already been uploaded and are still available at the special NSL-TV page of the event.

The winter and spring training in Florida is now over for the Norwegian team. The NSL News invited the complete lineup for a new update to the NSL office before the departure to Europe. The video of the live interview can be viewed by clicking here.

Arcteryx had planned to attend the May meet of the Florida Skydiving League for the first outdoor competition experience with the new lineup. Unfortunately, Ditta Valsdottir was sick on the meet day, and the team missed this competition, as well.

However, Arcteryx had copied the competition draw of the FSL Shamrock Showdown 2008 during the May training and provided the team's best videos for reviews on NSL-TV. The Norwegian team scored 31 points for Round 3, which was one point short of Airspeed Odyssey's 32-pointer. The 23 points for Round 9 would have been the sole highscore for this round.

The Arcteryx members evaluate their progression with the new lineup in the live interview with the NSL News. The team has no doubt that it is back on track with the pursuit of medals at this year's world meet. The evaluation includes the two meets in Bedford and DeLand.

Ole Petter Hjelle explained a significant difference between previous Arcteryx lineups and the one of 2008. He said that he never had a chance to be close to Airspeed Odyssey, even when Arcteryx had an excellent round.

This has changed now. An excellent round of the 2008 lineup means that the Norwegian team will probably beat the other top teams or score at least close to the highscore. He added that the Airspeed consistency is unique. His team is not even close yet to the point where Arcteryx could keep up with Airspeed over a 10-round meet.

The Norwegian national team will still be able to improve the consistency. Training will continue in Europe. Arcteryx will spend the summer in Fano, Italy, host of this weekend's 4-way competition. The Pilatus Porter is the most popular jump plane in Italy and available for the Arcteryx summer training.

The Norwegian national team plans to attend the June meet of the Italian Skydiving League in Arezzo. This would be the first outdoor competition for the new lineup with Mathias Nord.

It would also be the test for the new showdown with the DeLand Norgies at this year's national championship. This time, the Norwegian bronze medal winners of 1999, 2001 and 2003 are not supposed to be even close to Arcteryx if the current national team wants to have a chance to win the next set of medals for Norway.

The video of the live interview can be viewed by clicking here.