posted Dec 17th, 2008 - The Christmas holidays are right around the corner, and Santa Claus has already been greeting the NSL News audience on the front page and a few subsequent pages for a few days. It is the time of the year when the National Skydiving League is grateful to still be in business.

It is also the time to express appreciation for the help and support by many passionate 4-way fans: league and meet directors, judges, supportive skydiving centers and the skydiving industry.

Parachute manufacturer Performance Designs has provided ongoing support over many years ever since the National Skydiving League was launched in 1998. Other consistent sponsors, as currently Airtec with its Cypres 2 and soon again Bodyflight Bedford, plus several event sponsors have helped to bring scores, news, videos and other information to the audience. There would be no NSL network and NSL website without this support.

In addition, there are also several 4-way fans who help the NSL here and there with donations. Former 4-way world champion of 2006 with DeLand Fire, Natasha Montgomery, is still on top of the list of donors. She decided out of the blue after winning the gold medal in Germany that she would like to give back to the sport by helping the NSL with several donations, which amounted to the total of $2,500 to date.

It was surely a nice surprise for NSL founder Kurt Gaebel when she called one day and asked for a meeting. It was not a new topic for the NSL News that she had in mind - as she never thought of PR while she was competing. She simply wanted to write a check and say thank you for the NSL work. It wasn't Christmas time when she made the first donation. However, this time of the year brings back memories like that.

There are also several other donors who have expressed their appreciation with financial support once in while, and they all deserve great appreciation not only by the NSL. The whole audience benefits from this support, as it helps the NSL to continue run a very small business full time operation in the DeLand office.

Most of the donors are active 4-way competitors, and several are from other parts of the world. One of the longest standing supporters and donors is from Italy. Igor Galvan is a true 4-way fan and a daily visitor of the NSL website.

He followed the NSL News already at the time before Craig Buxton created the data base operation of the current website and participated in the NSL activities. Igor Galvan caught the NSL News attention for the first time when he won the popular "NSL Micron Search" on-line game. The NSL News reported in June 2002:

Did you know... that the winner of the last NSL Micron Search game is from Italy?

Before the NSL News continues with the story covering the U.S. top teams and their perspectives, it is time to introduce the winner of the last NSL Micron Search game. The game was completed last Friday at 6:00 p.m. aastern time after some players had asked to run some games also at a later time of the day.

This time, the winner came from Italy. The NSL Search games have always been attended by players from other countries. In February 2002, Conor King from Ireland was the first international player who won the NSL Search game and a new PD parachute. It took a while until another game prize will now travel to another country. A brandnew custom-built Vector 3 Micron of the Relative Workshop (now: UPT United Parachute Technology) will soon be in the Italian skies.

As most of the previous winners, Igor Galvan is committed to 4-way competition. He began skydiving in 1992 and focused on Formation Skydiving in 1994 when the Italian skydiving veterans Angela and Marco Carrara offered basic training jumps in 2-ways and 4-ways to interested skydivers. Galvan had been facing a problem until then. He was tall and had a fast fall rate. Other fellow skydivers did not want to wear weights. He was glad that the Carraras and their following did not care about wearing weights or not. However, he still did not get in touch with many of the other more experienced skydivers due to his fall rate issue.

Galvan had the chance to go to the Italian National Championship for the first time in 1996. He had been asked two weeks prior to the meet to take the slot of an injured team member. He had a great time and the team placed in the middle of the field. After years on the bottom of the field, it was the best placement for this team and everybody was pleased and happy.

However, for Igor Galvan it was only "a light in the dark", as he remembers these days. "After this great experience I returned back to the ground and ended up in the same situation as before." He had to deal with his fall rate issue again and with the fact that other skydivers were still opposed to jumping with weights.

Igor Galvan still wanted to keep in touch with the competitive skydiving community in Italy and decided to spend 1998 on the ground as a packer for the Italian national 4-way team. One year later, he became the new team videographer when the original videographer could not attend the World Championship in Australia. As the videographer of the national team, he was finally as close as never before to the "real" 4-way business.

All of a sudden, he found himself at the official practice jump of the world meet filming the Italian team after only 80 camera jumps. Galvan remembers that "....it was a great experience to be at a World Championship." It still did not get him much further after the meet was over. The Italian team and delegation may have missed the harmony Galvan was looking for.

He felt burned out and tired to do "....what other people thought I should do". And he was also tired of doing things in skydiving that he did not really want to do. Before leaving the sport for good, Galvan decided to find out about his own individual skills first and signed up for a SkyVenture tunnel camp in Orlando.

This decision was a turning point in his skydiving career, if not in his life. Galvan spent precious time at SkyVenture with other skydivers who had great skills and the same desire and motivation as he had. He gained back a lot of confidence. And he also realized that he had wasted some of his time following patterns that did not get him anywhere. Now he prefers to invest in training camps with professional coaching to improve his individual skills and have fun, even if it does not get him straight to his goal of 4-way competition. He met many of the top competitors and top coaches in the world and appreciates the encouragement he received. "All the pros I met - Airspeed members, Joey Jones, Ian Bobo, Lise Aune, Pal Kolbenstvedt - were so great because they gave me the passion for what we love - and the will power to pursue dreams."

Igor Galvan has not yet given up on his main goal at all. "I still believe in my dreams to become a professional 4-way competitor, even if it is abroad Italy." He is happy to see one of his smaller dreams already become true: making the NSL News after winning the NSL Micron Search game. Next time, it will hopefully be for another reason. Like winning a 4-way competition...

In the meantime, the Italian 4-way fan has become an extremely well skilled tunnel flyer, as a video of a tunnel session shows. He is currently trying to put together a high-profile lineup for the World Challenge 2009 at Bodyflight Bedford.

He is still as passionate about 4-way competition as he has ever been, even though his life has now really changed. His first child, daughter Anja, was born in May 2006 and gave him new and additional joy and passion in his life.

Igor and Anja Galvan are already training together at home. It will probably not take too long until the youngest Italian 4-way fan will also fly in the wind tunnel for the first time. Happy Holidays to the Galvan family in Italy, and thanks for the ongoing support.