posted May 29th, 2023 - The recent NSL News updates from Australia included an introduction of the 4-way team Whitefish who will represent their country at the FAI Outdoor World Cup 2023 in Voss, Norway.

The NSL News turn to 4-way training and competition Down Under began with the scores of the national outdoor championship, where Ripper won their second 4-way title and the qualification for the next outdoor world championship in Israel 2024. Ripper had competed for Australia at the FAI Outdoor World Championship 2022 in Eloy and plan to travel to Israel next year, as well.

Whitefish will put Australia on the outdoor world cup's 4-way Open Class leaderboard in the meantime, as Ripper do not have the event on their own team agenda. However, the FAI/ISC rules for world cups allow up to four teams to be registered for each participating country anyway.

The NSL News coverage of the FAI Outdoor World Cup has begun with previews of the event, and the first teams have been added to the three leaderboards of the events that the NSL News has been covering traditionally, including Whitefish. The leaderboards will be filled with team names gradually in the run-up to the event in Norway.

Australian Outdoor Nationals 2023		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	6,3,J	P,16,1	17,8,M	18,21,9	N,D,14,20	15,22,13	C,Q,E,L,K	4,H,7	2,19,12	G,A,B,O,10	Total	Avg
1	Ripper	17	14	15	16	15	13	24	13	13	20	160	16.0
2	Whitefish	12	12	13	12	13	9	20	14	10	15	130	13.0
3	Chop Chop!	11	11	11	10	9	9	15	14	10	12	112	11.2

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Ripper - Whitefish at the Australian Outdoor Nationals 2023

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Whitefish appeared for the first time on an NSL leaderboard in 2018, which was the first year for the current lineup who will compete for Australia in Norway. There is some 4-way experience in the lineup that the team members have carried into Whitefish from previous team projects.

Karen Hardy in the point slot trained and competed with Australia's national team in 4-way Women, Bellatrix, who representated Australia in this category at the FAI Outdoor World Cup 2015 in Teugue, Netherlands, then again at the FAI Outdoor World Championship 2016 at Skydive Chicago. She has 26 years in the sport and is a highly accomplished instructor, coach and mentor at the Far North Freefall Club. More recently Karen Hardy was also elected as a Director for the Australian Parachute Federation (APF).

As her team mate Karen Hardy, Whitefish's tail Valerie Schmied jumps at Far North Free Fall. She is also extremely active in the skydiving community as a representative in club and state councils. Valerie Schmied loves Formation Skydiving and spends a lot of time in her capacity as instructor and coach passing on her own passion. Originating from France, Valerie Schmied will proudly represent Australia at her first international FAI/ISC competition in Voss, Norway.

FAI Outdoor World Championship 2016			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Women		12,A,16		18,15,O		1,F,E,C		17,B,14		10,2,20		21,11,G		J,5,19		L,M,K,7		D,8,4		3,13,Q		Total	Avg
1	Golden Knights	US	21		21		30		20	-2	17		19		24		35		20		17	-2	224	22.4
2	French Girls	FR	21		18		30	-1	23		17		18	-2	24		34		18	-1	14		217	21.7
3	NFTO	UK	17		15		21		19		13		16		18		26	-1	17		13	-1	175	17.5
4	Parachute Montreal Fuzion	CA	18		15	-1	19	-1	16	-2	14		16		17	-2	25		17		14		171	17.1
5	Les Stunts	BE	15		14		20	-1	16		11	-1	13		16		24		15		13		157	15.7
6	Bellatrix	AU	13		12		20	-1	16		12		13		15		22		13		14		150	15.0
7	Skymix	DE	13		11		15	-1	15		12		13		14		23		12		12	-1	140	14.0
8	No Mercy	PL	14		14		19	-1	13	-1	9		11	-1	12	-2	19	-4	14		11	-1	136	13.6
9	Infra Red Band	RU	15		12	-1	16	-3	13	-1	9	-2	11		13		17	-2	14		10		130	13.0
10	CZ Ladies	CZ	11		11		14	-1	13		9		10		12		19		9	-2	10		118	11.8
11	Valkyria	DK	10		8		16		10		9		10		11	-1	17	-2	12		10		113	11.3
Rank	8-way Open		12,A,16		18,15,O		1,F,E,C		17,B,14		10,2,20		21,11,G		J,5,19		L,M,K,7		D,8,4		3,13,Q		Total	Avg
1	Golden Knights	US	31		25		26	-1	22		20		22		19		26		24		24	-1	239	23.9
2	France	FR	22	-1	20	-1	25		18		16		19		17		23		19		20		199	19.9
3	Tanay	RU	23		19		25		17		14	-1	16		16		21		20		19		190	19.0
4	Qatar Falcons	QA	19		16		20		15		7	-2	10	-4	13		16	-1	15		15		146	14.6
5	Microclim8	UK	15		14	-1	16	-1	14		11		13		13		14	-1	13		17		140	14.0
6	Airbus München	DE	16		15		17		11		11		13		12		14		12		15		136	13.6
7	Innuendo	AU	13		13		14	-1	12		9	-1	13		12		15		10		14		125	12.5
8	Divergence	CA	11		10	-1	9	-2	11		8		10		8	-1	10		11		11		99	9.9
9	Brazil	BR	11		8	-1	10		9		5	-2	9		9		11		8		13		93	9.3

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Bellatrix - Innuendo at the FAI Outdoor World Championship 2016

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Alex Cattaneo, Dale FIndlay and Steve "Spot" Tonson on camera are completing the Whitefish lineup. Alex Cattaneo is the team's outside center, who has been an active competitor in the local Formation Skydiving circuit for many years, after entering the sport ten years ago, and he has competed in 4-way and 8-way teams at Australian outdoor championship. He jumps at Skydive Ramblers, and the outdoor world cup will be his first international competition, as well.

As his Whitefish team mates, Dale Findlay has been a consistent face at Australian national championships. The team's inside center has trained and competed with Impulse in 4-way and Innuendo in 8-way, Australia's national team at Skydive Chicago in 2016. He has now focused primarily on 4-way training and competition, while contributing to the sport in Australia as recently elected APF Director.

Whitefish have no doubt that their team videographer, Steve "Spot" Tonson, is Australia's best competitor on camera "...hand down": "He rarely misses a point and takes his job seriously. If Spot isn't competing in 4-way he is filming something else, and it is quite common to find him at big-way events and boogies in Australia or New Zealand. Outside of Formation Skydiving spots his other love is CRW and flying flags. He has represented Australia in CRW a number of times." Former Rotor Out member Craig Vaughan has been guiding Whitefish as the team's coach.

Australian Outdoor Nationals 2018		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	22,B,3	7,H,14	G,F,O,J,16	17,9,6	M,15,18	N,10,D,A	K,13,12	P,21,4	Q,2,8	5,19,C	Total	Avg
1	Rotor Out	16	17	25	18	17	21	14	17	16	18	179	17.9
2	Kinetix	16	18	24	17	16	16	12	17	15	17	168	16.8
3	Boomerang Betty	13	16	20	17	12	14	11	15	13	14	145	14.5
4	Eminence	11	11	15	13	8	10	9	13	9	8	107	10.7
5	TVR Defence	8	9	13	11	9	12	7	12	10	9	100	10.0
6	Whitefish	8	9	8	11	9	11	8	11	11	9	95	9.5