posted Nov 15th, 2019 - NMP PCH HayaBusa and Qatar Tigers coach Gary Smith recently spent over a month in China. The NSL News reported earlier that the CISM World Championship and the Asiana Championship both took place at different locations in China. Neither HayaBusa nor the Tigers could make it to the FAI Outdoor World Cup in Eloy, and U.S. 4-way teams took the first four places on the 4-way Open Class leaderboard.

Gary Smith returned from China last weekend and was back at his home on Texel in the Netherlands when the NSL News connected with him for an online NSL Live Talk.

He said that the outdoor season at most places in Europe was over, with cold and rainy winter weather arriving. The teams that he is coaching are soon heading to Florida for outdoor training, where the winter season brings the desired weather situation after a hot and humid summer. The NSL News reported earlier that three 4-way teams from Qatar were already in training with coach Luc Verstrepen at Skydive City in Zephyrhills.

Gary Smith is very familiar with the winter weather in Florida. He moved from South Africa to Florida when his 4-way team Equanimity pursued medal positions at world cups and world meets in the late 90s. Equanimity (Gary Smith, Solly Williams, Robbie Spencer, Fred Whitsitt) eventually won FAI bronze medals at the world meet in Turkey 1997.

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FAI World Meet 1997			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		13,Q,D,9	5,K,F,12	1,14,22	H,M,11,7	A,E,3,G	15,18,3	20,L,23	O,19,4	17,10,J	6,C,21	Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	US	26	20	18	23	27	15	20	16	21	24	210	21.0
2	France	FR	25	19	17	22	25	16	20	21	20	21	206	20.6
3	DeLand Equanimity	ZA	25	20	16	20	20	15	17	20	21	19	193	19.3
4	Russia	RU	24	18	17	17	23	14	12	19	17	19	180	18.0
5	Sebastian XL	UK	24	17	14	21	19	13	16	19	15	18	176	17.6
6	DeLand Norgies	NO	20	14	12	18	20	12	14	17	16	18	161	16.1
7	Switzerland	CH	21	15	13	17	18	13	14	16	16	16	159	15.9
8	Australia	AU	17	17	14	17	19	10	14	17	17	16	158	15.8
9	Spain	ES	21	16	13	13	19	13	14	16	18	14	157	15.7
10	Daedalus	DE	19	14	13	17	20	12	12	16	15	17	155	15.5
11	Sweden	SE	19	11	12	16	18	11	13	17	16	-	133	14.8
12	Japan	JP	19	13	11	15	19	11	11	17	14	-	130	14.4
13	Italy	IT	19	11	11	15	18	11	12	14	12	-	123	13.7
14	Monkey Circus	AT	19	13	11	8	16	11	14	17	13	-	122	13.6
14	Finland	FI	19	12	13	13	16	12	10	16	11	-	122	13.6
16	Belgium	BE	18	13	12	14	14	10	13	14	11	-	119	13.2
17	Hungary	HU	15	12	11	14	17	9	10	14	15	-	117	13.0
18	Canada	CA	18	12	12	10	15	9	7	15	13	-	111	12.3
19	Netherlands	NL	17	11	10	9	15	9	12	12	13	-	108	12.0
20	Croatia	HR	17	11	10	11	15	9	9	9	-	-	91	11.4
21	Brazil	BR	14	8	11	14	11	9	9	13	-	-	89	11.1
22	Luxemburg	LU	12	10	10	11	11	8	10	13	-	-	85	10.6
23	Mexico	MX	13	9	9	11	12	8	10	12	-	-	84	10.5
24	ProDytter	DK	15	12	0	10	13	6	11	12	-	-	79	9.9
25	Czech Republic	CZ	14	6	9	7	12	9	9	12	-	-	78	9.8
26	New Zealand	NZ	12	8	8	9	11	8	8	10	-	-	74	9.3
27	Lithuania	LT	10	4	6	9	9	5	9	9	-	-	61	7.6
28	Slovakia	SK	8	9	7	5	10	6	7	8	-	-	60	7.5
29	Ireland	IE	7	7	9	7	5	7	8	9	-	-	59	7.4
30	Israel	IL	10	8	9	4	9	3	5	9	-	-	57	7.1
31	Portugal	PT	12	4	7	3	9	6	8	7	-	-	56	7.0
32	Poland	PL	6	6	3	3	9	6	2	7	-	-	42	5.3
33	China	CN	8	2	5	5	3	2	6	4	-	-	35	4.4
34	Venezuela	VE	6	0	5	6	4	1	6	6	-	-	34	4.3
35	Turkey	TR	6	7	3	4	0	2	6	3	-	-	31	3.9
36	Indonesia	ID	0	5	7	7	2	0	4	2	-	-	27	3.4
37	Cyprus	CY	2	0	0	1	2	3	4	2	-	-	14	1.8
38	Korea	KR	3	0	0	0	1	1	3	2	-	-	10	1.3

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All South African team members staid in Florida where they had settled at Skydive DeLand, even when Equanimity discontinued. Gary Smith and Solly Williams then formed DeLand Majik together (Joey Jones, Doug Park) and won Fai gold medals in 2004.

Gary Smith was still not done and became the player-coach for DeLand Fire (Natasha Montgomery, Shannon Pilcher, Ian Bobo). He won his second consecutive 4-way gold medal at the FAI World Meet 2006 with the next DeLand world champion team.

Eventually, he moved to the Netherlands with his whole family, his wife Suzanne who came from Germany/Netherlands and who he met in DeLand, and his two sons Yannick and Noah. He now lives on the island of Texel in the Netherlands and visits Florida for training camps with the teams he is coaching. His recent visits with the Qatar delegation brought him to Skydive City, host of the Shamrock Showdown 2020, and NMP PCH HayaBusa will run their winter training camps in Zephyrhills, as well.

Gary Smith said that NMP PCH HayaBusa and Qatar Tigers both focus on outdoor training in the upcoming winter season. The Belgian world champions arrive in Florida in December and will be back at the end of January. The Qatar Tigers begin with their 4-way training camp at the end of November.

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NSL Live Talk with Gary Smith on November 15th

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Gary Smith also discussed the current 8-way situation with the NSL News. He actually mentioned the surprising Airspeed/XP8 update that yesterday's story picked up as a topic. He also mentioned the 8-way indoor training that brings HayaBusa and ISR FireFlash back together with the Fly-In Machine 44.

He said that he does not see great chances for NMP PCH HayaBusa to add 8-way training and competition to the Belgian agenda. The competition at the world's top level, especially in 8-way, will be extremely tight next year, and he supports the HayaBusa decision to stay away from 8-way competition.

Gary Smith sees the HayaBusa connections with their former members (Roy Janssen, Luc Verstrepen, Sven Ibens) and the immediate family as one of the team's strengths and compares them with the larger group of Airspeed alumni. He is curious how Airspeed will select their new team member(s). Team captain Niklas Hemlin said that he is looking at a commitment for a longer term.

Last and not least, the Qatar Tigers coach said that his team's recent 24.4 average at the Asiana Championship came with exits from a PAC and the Meeker (Random Formation E) as a standard exit formation for most of the sequences. He believes that the Tigers will be strong enough to challenge SDC Rhythm XP for FAI silver medals next year...