posted Oct 27th, 2019 - The 4-way revolution in the United States, with SDC Rhythm XP defeating Arizona Airspeed for the first time in an outdoor competition at the USPA Nationals 2019, was not the only serious upset this year. There was another very similar rebellion in Germany, where Oceanside AtomiX finished ahead of Airbus.

Just as SDC Rhythm XP has done for a long time, AtomiX have pursued their goal of winning the 4-way top spot in Germany with patience and persistence, after starting from far behind. The NSL News had provided the details of the German "4-way fairytale story" on August 31st.

The same story mentioned at the end that the successful completion of the 2019 season, with a new 19.5 team record average, was also the last competition with Mark Zimmermann who had joined the team in 2017. He had replaced Janine Tillenburg in the inside center slot and moved to tail after the end of the 2018 season. Original team member Peter Ingenhaag switched back to the slot he was flying for AtomiX in the early years. Result was the record average and the German 4-way title.

Oceanside AtomiX began with the recruiting efforts of a new team member as soon as the national championship was over, and they ended up extremely successful. Flying Dutchman Paul Hofstee has committed to join the German 4-way champions, and he is taking the inside center slot, which brings Peter Ingenhaag back to tail.

---

German Nationals 2019		1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	E,G,M,2		B,4,1		9,K,L,O		13,15,14		22,16,3		21,6,D		5,J,12		P,17,7		10,H,C,11		8,F,19		Total	Avg
1	Oceanside AtomiX	26		19		26	-1	15	-1	15		17		19		24		18		16		195	19.5
2	Airbus	22		18	-1	28		15		14	-1	15	-2	18		21		16	-1	19		186	18.6
3	Dark Energy	18	-2	14		20		11		13		16		14		17		13		14		150	15.0
4	Bardarbunga 2.0	20		14		22		13		8	-5	11	-2	14		17		13		16		148	14.8
5	Skynamite	18		14		17		11		11		14		12	-1	17		12	-1	14		140	14.0
6	NeVa FSZ Saar	19		14		15	-2	10		11		13		13		15		11		14		135	13.5
7	HorschD FSZ Saar	18		12		14		10		10		12		10		9	-2	11		11		117	11.7
8	Join Up	13	-1	13		15	-1	11		7	-2	12		10	-1	14		10	-1	11		116	11.6
9	Airgrips	10	-1	9		13		5	-1	7		10		8		9	-1	10		9	-1	90	9.0
10	4Motion	10		9		13		8		7		8		3	-1	9		6	-1	9		82	8.2

---

Paul Hofstee is a highly experienced world class 4-way competitor and knows center work from many years as outside center for his previous teams. He competed for the Netherlands at three FAI World Championships of Formation Skydiving, first with Punky Fish in 2006, followed by Dynamic Fource in 2008 and 2010.

Then he joined forces with his Dutch team mate Jacco van Eerden and Sven Ibens and Wesley Claessens from Belgium to form the international Thunder ISR 4-way team. Thunder competed with the best 4-way teams in the world at international high-profile events and were arguably the unofficial amateur world champions. NMP PCH HayaBusa and Thunder ISR joined forces a few times for 8-way events with the Thund8rbirds.

Thunder ISR discontinued at the end of the 2016 season, when Sven Ibens and Wesley Claessens decided to form a Belgian 4-way team, ISR FireFlash, so they would be eligible to compete at FAI events, as well. Paul Hofstee re-directed his attention to the Dutch 20+ Project, where he contributed his wealth of 4-way experiences to help advance 4-way competition in the Netherlands. He also continued with his 8-way passion that he had maintained with Martial Ferre's Veloce QRF signature team at indoor events.

---

First AtomiX indoor training with Paul Hofstee

---

It did not take too long though until Paul Hofstee was back in 4-way team action. He joined the Belgian 4-way team Falco for the 2019 season and helped to lift the team's outdoor average from 10.2 in 2018 to 13.4 at the ESL Championship 2019.

He had already been in touch with Oceanside AtomiX earlier this year, and the communication became much more intense when the German team had to recruit a new member. Paul Hofstee has already been shuttling back and forth for a while between the Netherlands and Germany where his girlfriend Maren Werner lives. Now he has moved in and practices his German language even more.

There are no eligibility issues for him by joining the German national 4-way team, as his last competition for the Dutch delegation is dating back to Menzelinsk 2010. That was the event where Dynamic Fource posted the highest meet average in Dutch 4-way history. Paul Hofstee has scored significantly higher at outdoor meets with Thunder ISR.

He will go back to a world meet in Russia exactly a decade later, and he will try to beat the highest meet average of a German 4-way team in a 10-round meet. FSC Eisenach-Paratec posted a 20.8 at the German Nationals 2009, disregarding the 22.4 after nine rounds in Menzelinsk 2010 with two very fast sequences. Oceanside AtomiX will most likely break the 20+ outdoor benchmark next year for the first time, and go from there. The scheduled 400 training jumps with Paul Hofstee could even bring the team close to the best placing of a German team since 2004, the 5th place of EADS at the FAI World Meet in Croatia. The first indoor training has been completed, and coach Luc Verstrepen will continue to work with the team.