posted Mar 9th, 2022 - The first national outdoor championship of the year took place in New Zealand, where Skydive Abel Tasman hosted the event in Motueka. The teams had two full days of jumping and completing as many rounds as possible.

Meet Director Sue Walsh and event coordinator Henry Morgan of Skydive Abel Tasman, with the support of the New Zealand Parachute Federation (NZPF), applied the same format that was used for last year's national championships, when FAI judges in Australia were responsible for the scores.

Footage of the jumps was sent down-under and judged remotely. Teams and competitors in New Zealand were able to see the scores over the weekend after they were posted online.

New Zealand's 4-way teams had competed at the Australian outdoor nationals since 2017 to determine their own national champions before the New Zealand Parachute Federation eventually decided to go back to hosting their own national championships last year at Skydive Auckland.

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New Zealand Outdoor Nationals 2022		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	J,G,K,16	3,N,E,C	18,6,20	1,H,19	21,D,17	11,9,Q	P,15,4	8,10,O	7,5,M	14,13,2	Total	Avg
1	Tina & The Dinosaurs	5	6	7	9	6	9	6	4	9	-	61	6.8
Rank	A Class	K,J,H	A,9	D,B,Q	C,2	E,7	N,4	F,L,M	8,19	P,21	O,G,6	Total	Avg
1	Taupo B Team	9	7	5	5	6	2	10	5	4	6	59	5.9
2	Team 5 Way	3	3	4	4	2	2	6	1	-	-	25	3.1
3	Wing It	2	1	3	3	2	1	4	-	-	-	16	2.3

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Tina & The Dinosaurs - Taupo B Team at the New Zealand Outdoor Nationals 2022

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Three teams had attended last year's national outdoor championships, and the winner in the two applied 4-way categories (AAA - A) defended their titles successfully. A Class winner Taupo B Team did not have domestic opponents in 2021, while two other teams competed in this category at the end of February 2022. Tina & The Dinosaurs were alone on the AAA Class leaderboard this time.

Tina & The Dinosaurs, with the same lineup as in 2021 and Wayne Holmes on camera this year, are now officially entitled to represent New Zealand at the FAI World Championship of Formation Skydiving this October at Skydive Arizona.

The A Class winner, Taupo B Team, had only Adam Geary return a year later, and he had a very interesting lineup defending the A Class title. Last year's 1.2 average would not have been enough for the 1st or 2nd place, and the new lineup won with 5.9 after ten rounds.

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New Zealand Outdoor Nationals 2021			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		10,A,O,18		H,3,K,9		J,14,5		4,2,21		22,7,15		8,11,17		D,G,6,19		B,N,12,F		C,P,20,M		Total	Avg
1	Tina & The Dinosaurs	NZ	7		9		7		8		5		5	-1	8		8		9		66	7.3
2	Team Fallout 4	NZ	7		5	-2	7		6		6		5		6		7		8		57	6.3
Rank	A Class		21,E		K,M,O		L,9		F,G,H		4,2										Total	Avg
1	Taupo B Team	NZ	1	-1	3		0		2		0		-		-		-		-		6	1.2

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Robert Trogele, Brent Findlay and Travis Funnell joined Adam Geary and completed the new lineup. Robert Trogele, with a total of 11500 jumps on his own, is the German national coach for outdoor competition, as the NSL News mentioned in earlier updates from Germany. He is still competing at the popular Paranodon Cup events, and the Airbus 4-way and 8-way teams train at his skydiving center in Illertissen.

He had Stephanie Meyer, Jan Rojek and Marco Arrigo in his Paranodon Classic lineup at last year's competition in Illertissen. He spends his winter time in New Zealand and joined the A Class team to support the first competition of the country's youngest skydiver, Travis Funnell.

With 17 years of age, Travis Funnell now owns the record of the youngest Formation Skydiving champion in New Zealand.

Brent Findlay completed the Taupo B Team lineup with his own 4-way experiences as a AAA competitor. He was a member of Method, who represented New Zealand at the FAI Outdoor World Meet 2018 in Australia.