posted Sep 24th, 2008 - The NSL News recently received a copy of the official French skydiving magazine, published every other month by the French Skydiving Federation (Fédération Française de Parachutisme).

The name of the colorful and high-quality magazine is "Contacts", and the latest September/October issue covers the time period of the World Meet 2008.

Of course, the major part of this issue is all about the competition in Maubeuge. There are several feature stories of the French national teams in all of the skydiving events, and Formation Skydiving takes the largest portion of the complete coverage in France, as well.

The French coverage included a nice surprise for the NSL News. The centerfold pages of the magazine feature the success of the French national 8-way team at the World Meet 2008. The same pages also had an article of the NSL News work in Maubeuge.

The event coverage of the World Meet 2008 by the NSL News was probably more comprehensive than ever before, thanks to the precious technical support by the young Belgian assistant, Nathan Polis. It was also very helpful that the French event management provided a great work environment for the media, which made it much easier to do the job.

The official press room in Maubeuge hosted several media representatives, including IPC webmaster Fay Kimble and a young lady who worked for the French Federation and its magazine "Contacts", Ilioné Schultz.

The atmosphere in the press room was professional and relaxed with great cooperation between the event staff and the media representatives, including the NSL News team, Nathan Polis and Kurt Gaebel. By the end of the event, everybody was quite familiar with the work and positions of the others.

Ilioné Schultz eventually asked NSL News reporter Kurt Gaebel a few additional questions, and she used the information for the article that she placed in the latest issue of the French magazine. The NSL News is now glad to hear that the event coverage was also well received in France and appreciates the kind feedback in the form of this article:

Kurt Gaebel, the Eye of Formation Skydiving

By Ilioné Schultz, for "Contacts" and the Fédération Française de Parachutisme

Need a statistic? A score? Want to know who was the last team in possession of the Fun Flag? Understand all the things on stake in the semi-finals of the female 4-way category? Interested why the coach of the Belgian Open Class team is American?

Alright, ask Kurt. You will find him on all the Formation Skydiving competitions on the planet (or almost).

Originally from Germany, becoming an American by the turns of life, Kurt Gaebel is about the history of a passionate fan of Formation Skydiving competition, as he was a member of the German national teams in 4-way and 8-way between 1985 and 1994.

Kurt, that is then the history of a guy who decided to devote his life to his sport. Moving to the United States in 1993 he founded the Florida Skydiving League in 1998, which would very soon expand into the National Skydiving League, with the goal to develop Formation Skydiving competition in the United States and into a worldwide network.

The project is a success, since at the moment there are 14 different leagues in the US network and 13 other leagues in the world, which are based on the NSL model and follow the same rules, competition classes and principle: "to have fun".

Kurt created the NSL website in 2000, and the NSL work became so plentiful and demanding in 2003 that he had to cease all other professional activities.

He manages the NSL alone and is present at all the Formation Skydiving events by collecting the information and bringing it in a (very) qualified way back to the audience.

He films, he takes photographs, he writes... by always starting with a formula that has become quite popular: "Did you know that...? In short, now you could say that Kurt is the guy impossible to circumvent in Formation Skydiving competition, and you can find the fruits of his work at his website www.skyleague.com.