posted Feb 9th, 2004 - HayaBusa and Airspeed are probably in another competition for the most popular words and names in the NSL News database. Both teams go farther back in time than the current NSL website, and Arizona Airspeed is even several years ahead of NMP PCH HayaBusa.

The NSL News has been publishing interviews with Formation Skydiving celebrities that were recorded before SKYLEAGUE.COM was launched in 2003. There were also a few NSL News updates of these earliest days of online event and news coverage that were added into the database, and there will be plenty of more to come after all the early interviews have been posted.

Today's NSL News update from February 2004 is another brief diversion from catching up with the historic interviews, and it covers a topic that is a part of the never-ending Airspeed/HayaBusa saga, which will have another milestone very soon when the scores and videos of the NSL Cloud Mondial 2020 will be posted at the end of the month.

Spa HayaBusa took over the top spot in Belgium in 2004, when they won a special qualification event for the FAI World Meet in Rijeka 2004. The qualification event was scheduled for June, and NMPV were the defending champions. Luc Verstrepen had been guiding and leading the Belgian military team before he joined HayaBusa as the Inside Center after the FAI World Meet 2006. Luc Verstrepen is now coaching one of the three Qatar 4-way teams and the German national team in 4-way Open, Oceanside AtomiX. He was on NSL Live Talk just a few days ago, together with Gary Smith and Marin Ferre.

The NSL News posted a preview of the Belgian qualification event at the beginning of the 2004 season, with input by Luc Verstrepen. It would be the second year of the original HayaBusa lineup, who attended four meets in 2003 and won the first ESL Championship. The leaderboards of these early events will be added into the database later.

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NSL News update on 9 February 2004: Did you know that the Belgian national 4-way team NMPV will be challenged this year?

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The NSL News reported on the progression of the European Skydiving League (ESL) last week. The Belgium Skydiving Trophy (BST) has played a strong role in Europe and currently hosts the defending ESL Champion 2003, team Hayabusa. The BST will open its 2004 season in April, and it seems as if this season will become even more exciting and competitive in Belgium.

The two strongest Belgian teams, NMVP and HayaBusa, both recently visited Florida for training camps at Skydive DeLand. The NSL News used the opportunity to speak with the team members and offer the NSL audience insights about the situation in another international league that has been participating in the NSL SkyVenture Competition.

Luc Verstrepen provided the information for NMPV. Verstrepen used to be a team member until last year's Mondial 2003 and has been the official team coach of the whole NMPV for six years. NMPV stands for "National Militaire Ploeg Valschermspringen" and is the equivalent of the Golden Knights in Belgium. The "National Army Skydiving Team" was formed in the 1960's and included a demo and competition team in the classic disciplines and 4-way Formation Skydiving as a part of the military CISM competition.

Verstrepen joined the Belgian Army in 1981 and the team in 1983. He was interested in 4-way, however, the Army team trained only Accuracy during the week. Together with several other Army members he jumped 4-way at civilian drop zones on the weekends.

As a result of this situation, many talented military skydivers ended up in civilian 4-way teams, and the civilian teams dominated the 4-way situation. Army member Verstrepen attended his first world meet with a civilian national team in Brazil in 1987 and also competed at the world meet in Spain in 1989. Then he left the civilian team and jumped with NMPV, still only training for the classic disciplines during the week and doing 4-way with his Army fellows on the weekends.

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FAI World Meet 2003			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		1,11,12	M,J,E,10	K,16,6	13,14,5	D,22,4	9,C,Q,N	F,19,21	2,20,L	18,B,3	8,P,7	Total	Avg
1	Maubeuge	FR	16	26	23	19	21	37	24	21	19	23	229	22.9
2	Golden Knights	US	17	24	22	19	18	35	22	18	19	20	214	21.4
3	DeLand Norgies	NO	13	24	21	19	18	36	19	16	19	21	206	20.6
4	Sebastian XL	UK	14	22	21	19	17	34	21	18	19	20	205	20.5
5	Sinapsi PD	IT	13	24	22	17	17	32	22	18	18	-	183	20.3
6	Endeavour	CH	13	21	19	15	17	29	21	17	16	-	168	18.7
7	NMPV	BE	15	19	19	16	15	29	19	16	16	-	164	18.2
8	EADS	DE	14	19	17	15	15	26	17	16	16	-	155	17.2
9	Wild Wind	RU	15	22	18	15	18	22	17	8	-	-	135	16.9
10	Phenix	SE	13	18	15	15	16	23	18	16	-	-	134	16.8
11	Spain	ES	12	17	14	15	17	23	16	14	-	-	128	16.0
12	Denmark	DK	6	19	14	12	14	23	17	15	-	-	120	15.0
13	Japan	JP	12	16	14	12	13	24	14	14	-	-	119	14.9
14	Netherlands	NL	11	16	14	13	13	21	15	11	-	-	114	14.3
15	Australia	AU	11	14	12	13	13	23	15	12	-	-	113	14.1
16	Bailey 5	ZA	11	10	14	11	13	19	15	13	-	-	106	13.3
16	Monkey Circus	AT	11	13	13	13	8	20	16	12	-	-	106	13.3
18	Canada	CA	11	15	13	11	12	18	12	12	-	-	104	13.0
19	Slovenia	SI	10	12	11	9	9	16	13	11	-	-	91	11.4
20	New Zealand	NZ	8	11	9	7	10	16	10	11	-	-	82	10.3
21	Skyservice	CZ	5	8	9	7	5	11	10	8	-	-	63	7.9
22	Israel	IL	1	3	2	4	4	7	3	4	-	-	28	3.5

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The civilian teams still continued to dominate the 4-way competition in Belgium until 1999. However, the national team of 1999 had not had much competition in Belgium in the previous years and lost its momentum. At the same time, the 1999 NMPV team with Verstrepen had decided to become more serious in 4-way, picked up the training efforts and lost the national championship in Belgium by only two points.

NMPV's progression in 1999 motivated the team to continue with even more efforts. The 2000 season finally brought a change in the Belgian 4-way history. NMPV's Army team with Luc Verstrepen, Stefan Dekock, Gust Michiels, Willy Vets and Danny Jacobs (video) won the national championship the same year and has been the national 4-way team ever since.

The NMPV team averaged 200 - 300 training jumps between 1994 and 2000 and worked randomly with Dan BC as a coach. The jump number remained at the same level in 2001 and 2002 without coaching. NMPV 2003 hired Joey Jones for the Mondial 2003 season and increased the jump number to 500, which were used only for 4-way training. The 2003 progression was the most significant one in the Belgian 4-way history (8.9 - 9.1 - 10.0 - 12.5 - 13.3 - 15.6 - 13.2 - 14.3 - 18.2 between 1985 and 2003) and resulted in a semi-final slot in Gap last year.

NMPV continues in 4-way, even though the other military disciplines cannot be ignored. The 2003 lineup won the last CISM 4-way event in 2002 and placed in the Top 10 in Accuracy, as well as in the overall CISM standings. NMPV has planned a total of 700 jumps for the 2003 season, 400 of these will be for 4-way training. Joey Jones is still the coach.

The military duties are not very demanding for the team members, and all the expenses are covered by the Army. However, the 2004 season will most likely become very challenging for NMPV. There will be a lot of pressure on the team caused by internal changes and external competition.

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Belgium Skydiving League June 2004		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	17,C,2	21,1,18	D,G,J,22	5,16,P	12,3,M	9,F,E,O	11,7,10	8,20,B	Total	Avg
1	Hayabusa	19	15	21	18	12	32	16	15	148	18.5
2	NMPV	17	13	16	15	5	27	13	14	120	15.0
3	Diva Lapalisse	11	11	14	12	11	21	11	11	102	12.8
4	Sonic Air	12	7	12	11	9	8	9	9	77	9.6
5	Joint Venture	9	7	9	8	6	14	8	6	67	8.4
Rank	A Class	C,2	21,19	D,G,J	8,6	4,M	9,F	E,7	P,O,B	Total	Avg
1	Sparks	8	5	10	3	6	12	11	13	68	8.5
2	Les Ours bleus	8	7	7	5	0	9	10	10	56	7.0
3	Vlakmonauti	4	2	6	6	3	8	11	10	50	6.3
4	A.S.A.P.	3	7	0	7	7	3	8	5	40	5.0
5	Black & Blue	9	1	1	0	6	6	10	0	33	4.1
6	Sparada	5	3	0	3	0	6	5	10	32	4.0
7	No Contact	1	0	3	1	1	5	3	4	18	2.3
Rank	Rookie	E,C,D	O,G,J	B,P,M	E,F,K	O,H,A	B,L,N	E,Q,C	O,D,P	Total	Avg
1	Sky Rockets	1	1	1	1	5	1	2	2	14	1.8
2	Puzzle	1	0	4	0	1	2	1	1	10	1.3

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The NMPV lineup of 2003 has changed significantly. Luc Verstrepen needed a hip replacement and has left the team as an active member. NMPV selected two new members to replace Verstrepen and also added an active alternate to the lineup. NMPV 2004 now consists of Stefan Dekock (Outside Center), Willy Vets (Inside Center) and Gust Michiels (Tail) of the 2003 lineup, plus the new members, Kevin Depourque (Point, 25) and Pascal Samstag (Tail, 30). Depourque and Samstag were selected from the former NMPV farm team, which has now been discontinued. The other two former farm team members, Koen Smets and Jurgen Srek still train with the A lineup on a regular basis to remain in shape if they were needed.

Smets had to be called unexpectedly for serious team duty at the DeLand camp when Dekock was injured at NMPV's first camp with the new lineup in Spain. Only NMPV's team veterans Vets and Michiels can now work the new members into the NMPV system. It is challenging for the new members. The former farm team performed on a 13-point average level, while NMPV scored 18.2 at the Mondial 2003.

The new lineup has to catch up, while Dekock is not expected to be back with the team before May 2004. It becomes even more difficult for NMPV since the Belgian association has scheduled a qualification event for June 2004. The BST (Belgian Skydiving Trophy) June meet will determine who represents Belgium at this year's world meet in September.

The defending ESL 2003 champion Spa Hayabusa is ready to take on the defending Belgian champion at this competition. Hayabusa is already in full swing with their unchanged 2003 lineup. The NSL News will continue this story with a look from Hayabusa's angle.

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FAI World Meet 2004			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		B,P,C,18	9,15,16	K,11,19	E,F,7,5	A,J,21,12	6,4,10	17,Q,L,1	H,14,3	13,22,O	N,M,D,2	Total	Avg
1	DeLand Majik	US	29	23	17	30	18	19	27	21	19	24	227	22.7
2	Maubeuge	FR	28	22	18	30	17	19	23	20	18	24	219	21.9
3	Sky Panthers	RU	24	21	19	25	22	15	28	19	16	22	211	21.1
4	Sinapsi PD	IT	22	21	20	28	21	18	23	19	16	22	210	21.0
5	EADS	DE	20	18	17	24	17	16	19	17	16	19	183	18.3
6	HayaBusa	BE	21	17	17	21	11	16	20	17	17	21	178	17.8
7	Endeavour	CH	16	17	14	19	16	13	19	14	14	-	142	15.8
7	Arcteryx	NO	19	14	15	21	15	13	17	15	13	-	142	15.8
9	Danez	DK	17	16	13	21	11	15	19	15	14	-	141	15.7
10	Spain	ES	19	16	15	21	15	11	16	12	14	-	139	15.4
11	Voodoo	UK	15	14	14	19	15	13	14	12	-	-	116	14.5
12	VNE	UK	15	15	13	18	15	11	14	13	-	-	114	14.3
13	Australia	AU	11	15	13	18	15	13	14	13	-	-	112	14.0
14	Stratosfear	CA	15	14	12	17	13	12	16	12	-	-	111	13.9
15	R-Fource	NL	16	14	13	17	11	10	14	12	-	-	107	13.4
15	Matrix	AT	13	14	13	18	13	13	11	12	-	-	107	13.4
17	New Zealand	NZ	15	14	12	14	13	11	15	12	-	-	106	13.3
18	Croatia	HR	16	11	12	16	13	11	9	10	-	-	98	12.3
19	Slovenia	SI	14	11	10	12	10	9	9	10	-	-	85	10.6
20	Kazakhstan	KZ	5	5	0	6	4	6	5	4	-	-	35	4.4
21	Iceland	IS	2	1	1	3	1	2	4	1	-	-	15	1.9

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