posted Feb 18th, 2018 - The recent Turning Points column in Blue Skies Mag's February issue gave 4-way families and their position in the sport more thoughts.

Topic was more the athletic part of 4-way and 8-way Formation Skydiving competition with the main question why family teams seem to be more successful than “ordinary” teams.

However, there are also other family relationships in the skydiving world that are not based on teams and competition performances. One of them can be found once again in Canada, where the NSL News has covered family relationships in many different ways on a regular basis in the past.

The Lemay family with father Michel and his three sons Martin, Vince and Ben were a serious factor in 4-way world class competition for many years. Evolution, without father Michel and still with the three sons, eventually won FAI silver medals in 4-way Open and 4-way VFS both at the FAI World Meet 2014 in Prostejov.

Canadian Nationals 2017		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	20,9,4	15,17,16	B,1,G,O	N,10,C,E	14,12,13	19,7,M	A,P,21,5	Q,K,D,11	L,22,6	8,F,18	Total	Avg
1	Evolution	17	14	23	18	15	17	20	24	18	16	182	18.2
2	Parachute Montreal Fuzion	17	16	19	19	11	19	20	17	14	19	171	17.1
3	4Astrophe	12	12	15	12	10	14	13	14	12	13	127	12.7
4	Phoenix	11	7	13	9	7	13	7	11	9	10	97	9.7
5	Flying Creepers	8	5	11	8	7	11	11	13	8	8	90	9.0
6	Altitude	10	5	11	9	6	10	10	8	9	10	88	8.8
Rank	AA Class	22,E,1	Q,L,4,14	J,D,9,O	21,19,K	N,7,A,20	C,G,P,H,15	18,B,11	2,6,13	8,F,M,G	8,7,14	Total	Avg
1	Storm	9	11	14	10	10	13	8	9	10	10	104	10.4
2	Slim Jim	9	8	13	11	11	7	9	8	11	7	94	9.4
3	Swish-Swish	9	9	11	9	8	10	8	8	10	9	91	9.1
4	Michel et ses Brus	3	6	9	4	9	8	5	7	8	6	65	6.5
Rank	A Class	E,B,7	F,H,J,9	M,G,Q	21,O,D	G,8,K	4,19	N,A,P,C	L,2,K	P,19,L	J,A,D,4	Total	Avg
1	Canetons Polissons	11	10	11	7	10	7	12	12	11	9	100	10.0

Richard Bisson's family team 4Astrophe, with his daughter Valerie and son Yannick, are from Montreal in Canada, as well, and the NSL News followed the career of the Bisson siblings carefully.

Valerie Bisson became a team member of Canada's national team in 4-way Women, Parachute Montreal Fuzion, turned 18 during the FAI World Meet 2014 in Prostejov and also competed at the FAI Mondial 2016 for Canada with Fuzion.

Yannick Bisson was selected for the Canadian 4-way Junior team Air Devils, who won FAI silver medals for Canada at the FAI Indoor World Meet 2017.

All three Bissons still joined forces randomly with family team 4Astrophe to post Indoor Cloud League scores for SkyVenture Montreal and at other indoor events while they trained and competed with their other teams.

Yannick Bisson eventually became a skydiver, as the NSL News reported on 18 October 2016, and he was ready for 4-way outdoor competition.

It did not take too long until he would attend his first 4-way outdoor competition. The NSL News reported on 24 July 2017, less than a year after his first AFF jump, that he won bronze medals with 4Astrophe at the Canadian Nationals 2017 with a 12.7 average.

It was the first outdoor competition for 4Astrophe, and father Richard Bissson was still in the lineup. Lemay father Michel joined 4Astrophe for the national championships, Nicolas Malley completed the lineup and Sean Paquette was filming the team.

That's where the next and different family relationship begins. Michel Lemay and Daniel Paquette are the founders of the NouvelAir Parachute Center near Montreal and have been running the operation for a long time together. The three Lemay sons (Martin, Vince, Ben) and Daniel Paquette's son Sean grew up with their fathers' skydiving operation.

Daniel Paquette was filming Evolution throughout the FAI World Meet 2010 in Menzelinsk, and his son Sean has apparently inherited the video equipment. He was on camera for his father's business partner Michel Lemay and 4Astrophe, and he also provided the judging videos for Slim Jim in the AA Class at the same event. Even though Sean Paquette may share the passion for camera work with his father, he will probably have his own newer and more sophisticated camera equipment...