posted Dec 31st, 2008 - The year 2008 is in its final hours, and a brief review of the 2008 skydiving season shows that Formation Skydiving competition had another great year in the history of the sport.

The NSL News story on 9 December 2008 already provided information and data of the progression in the past years. The 2008 season continued with the posititve trend.

The consistency of the progression was not even much affected by the economic downturn, first in the USA and then in many other countries. The end of the rope is probably not even reached so far, even though the whole world seems to have a lot of hope that the new US President might bring a much anticipated change in January. However, the passion for the sport seems to outweigh the more challenging financial situation for the skydiving community.

Number of successful events, participation and scores show no indication that teams and competitors have problems handling these challenges. In fact, participation still grows at the grassroot level and brings new committed and addicted Formation Skydiving competitors into the game. It is probably the competitive attitude and the motivation to face challenges that doesn't let any obstacles get in the way of the teams and competitors.

There was a downside this year that forced the NSL News to post a few sad stories. The 4-way community lost two highly valued members within a week, who have been dearly missed at this year's events.

Fastrax Blue member Kelley Frederickson passed away on May 20. She died in her sleep at night in the middle of a training camp in Perris, as the NSL News reported on 21 May 2008. Fastrax Blue sponsor John Hart posted his personal tribute to her with the story.

Dr. Joel Shugar died in a skydiving accident in Eloy on May 26, 2008, as the NSL News reported on 28 May 2008. The career story of the passionate 4-way competitor shows much much he has been involved in the sport over all these years.

These were the only sad news that the NSL News can recall of the 2008 season. Other than that, the events of the international NSL Network and several other major events produced endless material for stories, pictures and videos. The scores of 111 events in 2008 can be found on numerous event pages. This is a new record number for the NSL News books. 2195 old and new teams are currently registered in the database. The NSL News posted 343 stories between 2 January and 31 December 2008. Hundreds of competition jumps can be viewed on NSL-TV, including many of the best teams in the world.

One team name came up over and over again and has become the synonym for unlimited success: Airspeed Odyssey. The NSL News story on 21 October 2008 reported the 4-way world champion's last victory at the USPA Nationals 2008, which made it a 15 - 0 run over Airspeed's 2-year Odyssey from competition to competition.

The NSL News was live on site on most of these events and missed Airspeed only at the Valentine's Meet 2008 in February. However, Airspeed Odyssey showed up in DeLand in March and won the FSL Shamrock Showdown 2008, which grows in popularity every year. NSL News and Airspeed Odyssey both made the trip to Bodyflight Bedford two weeks later, where the Arizona team had the next showdown with the best teams in the world at the World Challenge 2008.

The live coverage of the Paraclete XP Money Meet 2008 followed in July in North Carolina, then the World Meet 2008 in August in France. The last NSL News trip was to Airspeed's home turf in Eloy where the USPA Nationals 2008 were on the agenda. The live coverage included the new NSL/PD News Show, which became very popular and will most likely be continued in 2009.

In the meantime, other events from several different countries were also covered comprehensively, mostly with the help of local correspondents, teams, coaches, participants and 4-way fans. Scores and information of national championships from ten other countries were brought to the attention of the NSL News audience and the Formation Skydiving community. Many of these events were qualifyers for the world meet and offered exciting competition.

Other 4-way competitions received additional attention, while the number of international leagues and events kept growing. The European Skydiving League concluded its 2008 season with the championship event in Texel, Netherlands, where the UK delegation captured the ESL Spirit for the first time. Formation Skydiving competition in the United Kingdom has probably shown the most impressive growth in the past years and peaked in 2008, not only with another gold medal for a UK team in the female category at the world meet, Bodyflight Storm.

Other very special teams received extra attention, as well.

The Canadian family team Evolution has become one of the best 4-way teams in the world.

Team Future with the young Tinucci siblings competed at the World Challenge 2008 and engaged in additional indoor events, as wind tunnel competition have become more popular every year. Team Aeon's Ellie McCoy is already a world class tunnel flyer.

It is now time to look forward to the 2009 season. The NSL News and the international NSL Network will continue doing the same work and offering the same playground, in cooperation with all the passionate league and meet directors, teams, competitors, judges and officials. For now, the NSL News wishes the whole skydiving world a Happy New Year with loads of 4-way fun.