posted May 5th, 2018 - The NSL News mentioned the Black Magick 4-way project the very first time on 6 April 2005. It was only an idea that Joey Jones, DeLand Majik 4-way world champion of 2004, developed in his head and discussed with some of his free-flying friends.

The idea became reality at the June meet of the Florida Skydiving League 2005 when Black Magick with Thomas Hughes (Outside Center), Joey Jones (Inside Center), Juliana Se (Tail) and Joel Tambor (Point) posted scores on the 4-way leaderboard. It was an impressive performance, and the back-flyers were even competitive on the A Class leaderboard.

Thomas Hughes, who learned his free-flying skills as a tunnel instructor at SkyVenture Orlando and became a member of the British national 4-way team Sebastian XL, then turned back over on his belly and eventually joined Arizona Airspeed to win an FAI 4-way gold medal in Dubai 2012, followed by two silver medals in 2014 and 2016.

Joey Jones brought Black Magick back to life six years later at the World Challenge 2011, while Thomas Hughes was preparing for the dramatic 1-point battle with NMP PCH HayaBusa at his first world championship with Arizona Airspeed.

Florida Skydiving League June 2005		1	2	3	4	5	6	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	N,C,Q,E,D	P,B,21,M	16,H,10	G,11,12	19,L,13	5,J,6	Total	Avg
1	Teiwa-Z-Hills	26	23	17	15	14	16	111	18.5
2	Phugoid	24	24	14	12	15	16	105	17.5
3	Kachina	16	17	12	11	11	12	79	13.2
4	Teiwa-Z-Hills Purple	17	15	10	9	10	10	71	11.8
Rank	AA Class	N,C,Q,E	P,B,21	7,H,9	G,11,14	19,L,13	4,J,6	Total	Avg
1	FSC Wind Damaged	12	11	11	6	7	9	56	9.3
2	Z-Hills CTRL-Z	10	8	7	4	6	7	42	7.0
3	Geronimo	8	6	6	5	6	6	37	6.2
Rank	A Class	N,C,Q	P,B,21	7,H	G,6	19,L	4,J	Total	Avg
1	4 NO's	8	5	8	6	5	6	38	6.3
2	Zero Tolerance Miami	6	6	5	2	6	4	29	4.8
3	DeLand Black Magick	5	3	4	5	5	6	28	4.7

Original Black Magick team mates Thomas Hughes and Joey Jones had different purposes in Bedford 2011. Thomas Hughes could not stop the Belgians at that time, who won the indoor meet and have been undefeated at the World Challenge ever since. Joey Jones had 4-way belly competition on his agenda only as a coach and had recruited a new lineup for Black Magick.

The new Black Magick lineup, with host Paul Mayer, Tristan Hampson and Rob Silver, signed up for the Rookie Class competition in their first year and moved back up into the A Class a year later with Jay Richardson for Rob Silver.

Joey Jones and Paul Mayer continued to show up at the World Challenge every year between 2012 and 2015 with different lineups in the A Class and then missed the events in 2016 and 2017.

This year, they were back with a new lineup and had even competition on the A Class leaderboard, where the Back Panthers copied the Black Magick flying style on their backs. Black Magick finished with a new team record average, while it was still difficult to keep up with the well trained and skilled belly-flying teams, who are posting higher scores every year, as well. The videos show the impressive performance and are entertaining, too...

World Challenge 2018			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		11		Total	Avg
Rank	A Class		H,F,D		6,G		P,L,E		4,M		9,B		N,C,8		K,7		19,2		Q,21		O,J,A		E,2		Total	Avg
1	Oman Wolf	OM	35		17		23		16		25		19		22		14		17		30		-		218	21.8
2	Omega4way	PL	36		16		28		19		20		14		22		12		17		29		-		213	21.3
3	4eigners	IT	29		15		23		15		24		18		14		13		17		21		16		189	18.9
4	Aeropotam's	BE	29		14		21		16		23		15		18		11		15		27		14		189	18.9
5	One Shot	IT	29		12		25		19		26		10		14		14		11		24		-		184	18.4
6	The Flying Penguins	RO	24		15		19		16		21		14		17		11		14		16		-		167	16.7
7	Nebula	UK	29		14		17		13		21		9		17		10		14		19		-		163	16.3
8	VR UniQ	IE	21		13		17		13		18		9		16		8		12		22		-		149	14.9
9	Recruitz Ice	UK	18		13		10		10		15		9		16		9		14		16		-		130	13.0
9	Black Magick	UK	18		10		14		12		15		13		13		10		11		14		-		130	13.0
11	Anemoi	UK	14		10		16		10		18		11		12		9		11		18		-		129	12.9
12	Anaconda	IE	10		7		6		8		9		7		8		4		6		13		-		78	7.8
13	Back Panthers	UK	10		7		4		7		5		7		6		3		7		13		-		69	6.9