posted Dec 23rd, 2019 - Qatar's Formation Skydiving delegation is spending a lot of time in Florida this winter. It brings the teams back to their roots, as the whole project began with AFF training at Skydive DeLand, and it offers the NSL News the opportunity to provide more information of the Qatar teams and competitors.

It's not only the training and competition history of the Qatar teams in Florida that creates the special coverage. Qatar's 4-way and 8-way teams both have worked their ways up the leaderboards to the top level in the world, where the Qatar Falcons won the first FAI medals with the 3rd place at the FAI Outdoor World Meet in Australia 2018, and the Qatar Tigers are on their way to the medal level, as the NSL News reported lastly on November 22nd.

It's the winter training that has brought the Qatar teams to Florida, where they have recently been training at Skydive City, host of the USPA Nationals and the Shamrock Showdown next year. The complete Qatar delegation will be back for more in January, and then again in March to compete at the Shamrock Showdown in 4-way and 8-way.

The Qatar Falcons 8-way team had already left when the NSL News visited Skydive City last week, this time for an extensive NSL Live Talk with the team members, including coach Gary Smith and videographer Pavel Skotak, who has been with the Qatar delegation since the very beginning of the Formation Skydiving project.

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The team members of the Qatar Tigers made a conversation without an interpreter possible, as they have picked up the English language in their decade of Formation Skydiving training and competition, and they speak fluently now without any previous specific education. Coach Gary Smith is also doing his work without an interpreter.

That was different when the project began in 2008. All four team members and videographer Pavel Skotak came to DeLand for AFF training in 2008, Pavel Skotak on camera, Rashid Easa Al Kubisi, Hamad Rashid Al Marri, Abdulaziz Shafi Al Shammari and Fahad Soud Al Shammari as AFF students.

All four of them have accumulated between 7,000 and 8,000 skydives since 2008, which is almost exactly identical with the number of team jumps that the Qatar Tigers have logged in their team career. The four AFF students of 2008 have been the Qatar Tigers ever since.

It was not an easy start, as the video of Abdulaziz Shafi Al Shammari's first AFF jump is showing. He is now the team captain in the tail slot, and he has become the role model for other skydivers in Qatar. The video together with his 4-way career are evidence that a rough start at the very beginning in the sport does not necessarily hold back from becoming a world class competitor.

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The Qatar Falcons provide insights into their lives as full-time competitors, which requires a lot of time and efforts. They have to travel a lot and leave their families in Qatar, who support their journey to the top of the world in Formation Skydiving competition. Abdulaziz Shafi Al Shammari and Fahad Soud Al Shammari are cousins, one with five children between newborn and 10 years of age (Fahad) and the other one married without children so far (Abdulaziz).

It will soon become a lot easier for the teams, as Qatar is building a skydiving center in Doha, the country's capital city. Their situation is similar to NMP PCH HayaBusa's in Belgium, as the Qatar military is paying the bills, and also with the family relationship between two members.

There is one major difference though, as the Qatar Tigers have to interrupt their training and competition agenda every year for one whole month, beginning at the end of April. They participate fully in the Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, when Muslims worldwide are fasting, praying, reflecting and spending time with family and community. The Qatar Tigers say that their success of keeping the team together for over a decade with exactly the same team members requires mostly respect for each other.

There is no doubt that the Qatar Tigers are eager to win FAI 4-way outdoor medals this year. Videographer Pavel Skotak made it very clear when he corrected the NSL News reporter: "We are not after the bronze medals..."