posted Feb 13th, 2024 - Interesting news came from the Netherlands earlier this month. The Dutch national indoor and outdoor champions, Out OF The Blue (OOTB), announced that there will be a major change in the lineup. Only two members of the time period between 2018 and 2023 continue, Mechie Voermans and Ralf Pijnenburg.

Mechie Voermans is the only remaining original OOTB member of 2017, after her 4-way time with the previous Dutch national 4-way teams, Whooops and M4trix. Ralf Pijnenburg started as a participant in the Dutch Formation Skydiving Project 20+ and was selected for the next OOTB lineup in 2018.

Together with original member Mandy Feijen they added former team videographer Bart Daenen to the active lineup in front of the camera at the end of the 2018 season, and this lineup trained and competed together until the ISR Grand Prix 2023. The NSL News covered the impressive OOTB performance in Roosendaal on 26 November 2023. Just a few months before, OOTB had returned from the 23rd FAI World Cup of Formation Skydiving in Norway with the first Top 10 finish at an international FAI/ISC event, and it seemed like the Netherlands had a new 4-way team heading towards the Top 10 positions at an outdoor world championship.

FAI World Meet 2008			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		B,17,7	H,N,13,A	10,J,C,6	18,12,2	E,3,9	19,O,4	D,M,5,16	14,20,21	Total	Avg
1	Airspeed Odyssey	US	30	32	24	16	29	21	28	15	195	24.4
2	Maubeuge	FR	28	30	23	17	27	23	28	18	194	24.3
3	HayaBusa Defence	BE	27	33	23	17	27	22	25	17	191	23.9
4	Sky Panthers Barkli	RU	28	30	22	16	28	20	27	17	188	23.5
5	Arcteryx	NO	27	29	21	17	25	21	26	14	180	22.5
6	Evolution	CA	25	27	22	17	24	18	26	16	175	21.9
7	Spin Team	IT	23	21	16	13	21	16	21	-	131	18.7
8	Dynamic Fource	NL	22	20	16	12	21	16	22	-	129	18.4
9	VIVA	CH	19	23	17	13	21	15	18	-	126	18.0
10	FSC Eisenach	DE	21	17	14	13	21	15	21	-	122	17.4
11	Airtite	AU	15	21	16	11	19	16	-	-	98	16.3
12	Magic 4	LT	19	19	13	13	16	15	-	-	95	15.8
12	Danish Blaze	DK	18	20	14	11	16	16	-	-	95	15.8
14	Voodoo	ZA	17	18	15	11	19	14	-	-	94	15.7
15	Evolution	SE	16	18	14	10	16	16	-	-	90	15.0
16	Tigers	FI	19	19	14	10	16	9	-	-	87	14.5
16	Monkey Circus	AT	14	19	15	12	16	11	-	-	87	14.5
18	CTR Optimum	BR	15	14	11	10	17	14	-	-	81	13.5
19	Fusion	UK	15	17	14	8	16	6	-	-	76	12.7
20	China	CN	7	9	8	5	9	8	-	-	46	7.7
21	Cyprus	CY	6	5	4	5	5	6	-	-	31	5.2
22	Turkey	TR	5	6	6	2	6	4	-	-	29	4.8
23	Slovakia	SK	9	4	4	0	4	3	-	-	24	4.0

It has happened only twice in the history of Dutch 4-way competition that a team placed in the Top 10 at outdoor world championships, disregarding the FAI Tanay Mondial with a heavily compromised field of 4-way teams. Dynamic Fource accomplished the Top 10 with an 8th place in Maubeuge 2008 and again with a 9th place in Menzelinsk 2010.

The interesting aspect of the recent OOTB personnel change comes with the fact that one of the new team members was in the Dynamic Fource lineup of 2008 and 2010. Out Of The Blue have already announced the two new team members: "We are proud to present Roald de Leest, former member from the Dutch team LUX, as a new member of our team. Furthermore, Paul Hofstee, former Dutch champion team Dynamic Fource, team Thunder and current member of team Falco, will be helping us out where necessary."

Paul Hofstee has been active in 4-way and 8-way competition ever since, in the Netherlands, in Germany and in Belgium, and he has been a member of Martial Ferre's Veloce QRF 8-way signature lineup for many years. He continued with the Dutch/Belgian combination of ISR Thunder until 2016, when Dynamic Fouce stopped at the end of the 2010 season. The Belgian team Falco had an open slot that he was glad to fill in 2019. Soon after, Germany's national team in 4-way Open for the FAI Tanay Mondial, AtomiXhad an open slot, as well, and Paul Hofstee was also ready to take it.

23rd FAI World Cup of Formation Skydiving			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		3,G,N,19		11,17,L		13,7,C		2,D,O,8		14,K,J,12		9,M,P,H		5,4,18		15,1,10		16,21,E		F,20,6		Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	US	26		27		26		25		22		48	-1	22		21		25		25		267	26.7
2	France 4-way Open	FR	23		25	-1	26		24		19		45	-1	19		19		23		23		246	24.6
3	NMP PCH HayaBusa	BE	20	-4	20	-2	25		23	-1	18	-2	45		20		19		24		24		238	23.8
4	Qatar Tigers	QA	20	-1	22	-1	23		20		19		40		13	-4	17	-1	22		19	-4	215	21.5
5	SDC Rhythm XP	US	18		17	-1	19	-2	19		17		38		16		17		18		18	-1	197	19.7
6	Airbus Illertissen Oceanside	DE	17	-1	18		20	-1	17		14		31	-1	15		15		18		18		183	18.3
7	Amnesya	IT	16	-1	17		19		17	-1	16		31	-1	15		14		18		18	-1	181	18.1
8	Papea	ES	14	-3	17	-1	18	-1	17		14	-1	32		14	-1	15		18		18		177	17.7
9	Qatar Cheetahs	QA	17		16		19		17		16		29		14		14		17		17		176	17.6
10	Out Of The Blue	NL	17		15	-1	18		16	-1	15		31	-4	14		13		16		18	-1	173	17.3
11	Agera	NO	15	-2	13	-2	16		18		12	-1	32	-1	13	-1	15		18		13	-4	165	16.5
12	Lightspeed XP	US	14		15	-1	17		15		12		30		13		13		15		17		161	16.1
13	Chaotic Motion VIXX	NL	15		13	-2	15	-3	16	-1	13		30	-1	12		11		15		18		158	15.8
14	Skydive Midwest NEXT	US	15	-1	11	-4	16	-2	16		13	-1	32		14		10	-1	15	-1	14	-3	156	15.6
15	Qatar Lions	QA	0		14	-1	16		18		13	-2	31	-2	15		14	-1	14		17	-2	152	15.2
16	Aurora	SE	14		14		15	-1	13	-1	12		26		11	-1	13		13	-1	17		148	14.8
17	Sequenz	DK	14	-1	12		15	-1	12	-1	10	-1	24	-1	12		11		12	-1	13		135	13.5
18	LUX	NL	12		11		13		13		10		23		10		9		11		15		127	12.7
19	Whitefish	AU	11	-1	10	-1	14		13	-1	11		20	-1	9	-2	11		12	-1	15		126	12.6
20	Mriya	UA	11		10		9	-2	11		10		20	-1	9		9		10	-1	14		113	11.3
21	Grumsen	NO	12	-1	9	-1	12	-2	13		10		21	-3	7	-2	10	-1	10		8	-3	112	11.2
22	DNF	UK	11	-1	9		12		11		9		21		9	-1	9		8	-1	10	-2	109	10.9
23	4igami	NL	8		8		8		9	-1	8		14	-1	7		7		10		11	-1	90	9.0
24	4Reigners	UK	9		8		7	-1	9		7		16	-1	7		0	-10	8	-1	10	-1	81	8.1

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Out Of The Blue - LUX at the 23rd FAI World Cup of Formation Skydiving - Video footage courtesy of InTime/FAI/ISC

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He trained and competed with AtomiX in 2020 and 2021. The German team did not travel to Russia in 2021 and and did not continue after losing the national outdoor championship in a dramatic Round 10 finish in 2021. Falco welcomed Paul Hofstee back in 2022, and he has spent two more years with the Belgian team.

The new OOTB opportunity brings Paul Hofstee back to his Dutch roots with Dynamic Fource. The national 4-way team plans to maintain their status with the new lineup: "Fortunately we found a great replacement and back-up, so we can continue and maintain our national status. We are training very hard for the upcoming competitions: the Dutch indoor championships and the world cup in Macau."

Roald de Leest is the other new OOTB member. He has been training and competing with Dutch team LUX, and he collected international competition experiences with his previous team at the 23rd FAI World Cup of Formation Skydiving. Four teams from the Netherlands competed at Skydive Voss in Norway last year, as the NSL News reported on 17 August 2023, and Out Of The Blue was expected to be a contender for the Top 10 positions. Roald de Leest may have the opportunity now to carry the Top 10 position into the 26th FAI World Formation Skydiving Championships 2024.