posted May 25th, 2024 - The NSL News reported on February 13th that Dutch national 4-way indoor and outdoor team Out Of The Blue (OOTB) started with a new lineup into the 2024 season. Mandy Feijen and Bart Daenen did not continue, Roald de Leest and Paul Hofstee replaced them and started training with the returning OOTB members Mechie Voermans and Ralf Pijnenburg.

The new lineup went straight to indoor competition at the BENELUX Indoor Championship 2024 and picked up the pace where the previous lineup had left it by the end of the 2023/2024 indoor season at the FAI Indoor World Championship 2023 in Slovakia. Two weeks later, the new lineup traveled to China to engage in a battle with Brazil's Netunos for a Top 10 position.

The NSL News had pointed out a few competitors who had to hurry from the Weembi FS Cup 2024 in Lille, France, to make it timely to Round 1 of the indoor world cup in Macau, China. New OOTB member Paul Hofstee was one of them, even though he did not compete in 4-way at Weembi Lille. As one of the original Veloce QRF members he competed in 8-way at the Weembi FS Cup and had to switch to 4-way gear during the transition from France to China. He is used to this transition that he has been through many times between 2015 and 2024. The Veloce QRF lineup is also as colorful and international as his career as a Formation Skydiving competitor has been.

FAI Indoor World Cup 2024			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open Top 10		8,C,7		K,G,12,B		6,4,H		20,1,5		15,10,A		F,O,P,21		19,M,9		J,13,E,22		16,3,N		L,Q,D,18		Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	US	35		36	-2	32		29		29		44		39		29		31		39		343	34.3
2	Aethers	FR	32	-1	33		31		27		26		40	-2	36		28	-1	30		36	-1	319	31.9
3	Qatar Tigers	QA	29	-1	32	-1	25	-3	25		25	-1	41		35		28		27		33		300	30.0
4	Papea	ES	30		28		25		24	-1	23	-2	38	-1	33		25	-1	22	-1	26	-3	274	27.4
5	Echochamber Oceanside	SE	24	-2	30	-2	27		25		22	-1	37		29	-3	24		25		28	-1	271	27.1
6	China	CN	25		27		26		24		22		33	-4	29	-2	25	-1	20	-3	30		261	26.1
7	Fly X	IT	27	-1	26	-2	23	-2	22		22	-1	37	-2	30	-1	24		21	-3	27	-2	259	25.9
8	Qatar Lions	QA	23	-2	22	-5	26		21	-1	19	-2	35	-2	30		25		25		26	-3	252	25.2
9	Crazy Dragons	CZ	24	-1	24	-2	21	-2	20	-1	18	-3	34		30		23		21	-1	26	-2	241	24.1
10	Netunos	BR	19	-2	27		21	-2	18	-2	16	-2	30	-5	29	-1	23		21	-1	27	-1	231	23.1
11	Out Of The Blue	NL	23	-3	23		19	-2	19	-2	17	-1	34		27		21		22		22	-3	227	22.7
12	Indonesia	ID	23	-3	21	-6	15	-7	15	-4	16	-2	30	-3	24	-1	19	-2	18	-3	21	-3	202	20.2
13	Qatar Cheetahs	QA	21		19	-2	20	-1	19		13	-3	27	-2	25	-1	22		14	-4	19	-1	199	19.9
14	Só Pressão	BR	18	-2	22	-1	17	-1	18		13	-3	25	-5	22	-2	19	-1	19		23		196	19.6
15	Singapore	SG	19		13		19		13		15		26	-4	16	-5	17	-1	17	-1	18		173	17.3
16	South Korea	KR	14		18		18		10		14		22	-3	18		16		16		16		162	16.2
17	Thailand	TH	12		15		14		11		12		22		18		14		14		12		144	14.4
18	Indonesia 2	ID	12		11		13		13		11		20	-1	19		13		11		15		138	13.8
19	Singapore 2	SG	10		12		12		5		9		18	-5	18		13		13		11		121	12.1
20	Singapore 3	SG	6		10		13		8		9		10	-9	12		8		11		8		95	9.5
21	Malaysia	MY	2		2		1		3		3		7	-2	5		4		6		3		36	3.6

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Out Of The Blue at the BENELUX Indoor Championship 2024 and at the FAI Indoor World Cup 2024

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Paul Hofstee could be the only Formation Skydiving competitor in the history of the sport who has been a member in national 4-way teams of three different countries. Only former Arizona Airspeed member Thiago Gomes might match this record (Brazil - South Africa - United States).

The nationalities of his teams were almost irrelevant to Paul Hofstee, who has been thriving in 4-way and 8-way team training and competition. One of the most passionate Formation Skydiving competitors in the sport could never get enough of his favorite activity and was training with three different teams in 2016, one of his busiest years (Skytrax, 4XTT/ISR Thunder in 4-way, Veloce QRF in 8-way).

He never made the ultimate move from recreational Formation Skydiving competition to a full-time status and compensated for this missing piece as intensively as he could. There was not much more space in his life for any other activities besides 4-way and 8-way training and competition, and working hard to finance his demanding passion. He created his own team projects out of the box in his early years to accelerate his progression. He and Bert Hajee hired two player-coaches (DeLand Norgies Lise Aune Nansen, Pal Kolbenstvedt for the first international Punky Fish lineup and the beginning of a new era of player-coaching teams.

FAI World Meet 2010			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		10,7,12	3,11,5	J,M,Q,P,L	19,1,13	N,18,20	K,17,8	2,15,H	4,D,6	O,E,9,G	22,B,16	Total	Avg
1	Aerodyne Aerokart	FR	21	22	56	20	22	24	22	24	40	26	277	27.7
2	Arizona Airspeed	US	22	21	53	23	20	24	23	25	40	23	274	27.4
3	Sky Panthers Barkli	RU	19	21	56	21	19	21	23	22	41	21	264	26.4
4	NMP PCH HayaBusa	BE	21	21	55	20	17	20	23	22	36	18	253	25.3
5	Evolution	CA	19	19	51	20	18	22	21	21	31	18	240	24.0
6	Sinapsi	IT	19	19	49	16	20	17	21	19	37	19	236	23.6
7	Paratec-Saar	DE	16	18	53	17	15	18	16	19	30	-	202	22.4
8	Satori	UK	18	18	47	16	17	18	17	18	29	-	198	22.0
9	Dynamic Fource	NL	17	18	44	16	16	15	16	18	26	-	186	20.7
10	Pro Team	FI	17	16	43	14	15	17	17	17	28	-	184	20.4
11	Bodyflight Voluntas	DK	17	15	37	16	15	18	16	18	-	-	152	19.0
12	Voodoo	UK	15	15	31	13	14	14	15	17	-	-	134	16.8
13	Bardagi	SE	12	13	35	12	14	12	14	16	-	-	128	16.0
14	X3M4S Elements	NO	14	11	30	14	13	15	13	16	-	-	126	15.8
15	China	CN	12	13	30	13	12	14	14	14	-	-	122	15.3
16	Atmosfera G4	PT	12	10	28	13	13	14	14	14	-	-	118	14.8
17	Sky Dragons	SI	12	12	21	12	12	11	13	13	-	-	106	13.3
18	Kazakhstan	KZ	10	7	17	9	10	11	10	11	-	-	85	10.6
19	Ukraine	UA	6	7	11	9	9	9	9	9	-	-	69	8.6

Paul Hofstee was soon ready for a team that would win the Dutch national championship, Dynamic Fource, and compete at two world championships (Maubeuge 2008, Menzelinsk 2010) for the Netherlands. His aiming at ever higher performance levels connected him with two Belgian competitors while he was still training and competing with Dynamic Fource.

Original NMP PCH HayaBusa member Sven Ibens and Wesley Claessens became his new Belgian team mates with 4XTT and ISR Thunder, and the amateur team became one of the best 4-way teams in the world. Sven Ibens and Wesley Claessens eventually decided to continue with a complete Belgian lineup and launched the ISR FireFlash team with Maya Van Campenhout and Glenn Straeluyc.

Paul Hofstee must have liked his Belgian connections, as he joined Falco in 2019. He had to ask Falco for permission to join German national team AtomiX, who had won the qualification for the FAI Tanay Mondial and had to replace Mark Zimmermann. Tail was not Paul Hofstee's slot, however, he was eligible for a German 4-way team and had more than enough experiences for any slot. He returned to Belgian team Falco after two years with AtomiX. He was back to his Dutch roots when Out Of The Blue needed two new members at the beginning of the year. The indoor world cup in China was his return to international FAI events after the two outdoor world championships in 2008 and 2010 and the FAI World Cup 2012 where ISR Thunder was permitted to compete for the Belgian delegation.

Shamrock Showdown 2002			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		12,H,2	J,L,G,D,P	6,Q,C,B	K,N,7,16	F,A,14,M	5,13,15	18,3,10	9,19,18	17,4,22	11,O,21	Total	Avg
1	DeLand Majik	US	19	34	31	23	22	20	17	21	18	21	226	22.6
2	Airspeed Vertical	US	19	34	28	24	23	19	17	19	19	21	223	22.3
3	Sebastian XL	UK	17	27	22	20	23	16	14	17	17	18	191	19.1
4	Sinapsi PD	IT	14	27	18	21	21	14	14	17	15	17	178	17.8
5	Punky Fish	NL	14	24	21	16	17	13	11	14	13	13	156	15.6
6	Phenix	SE	14	19	19	17	17	11	13	6	14	14	144	14.4
7	Blue Eye Majik	US	11	23	14	19	14	10	11	14	12	14	142	14.2
8	Space Center Teiwaz	US	12	18	18	12	10	13	11	14	9	15	132	13.2
9	Jetstream	US	11	15	15	13	13	10	11	12	11	11	122	12.2
10	Superfly	US	11	15	12	11	10	9	10	11	7	11	107	10.7
11	TBD	US	5	14	9	9	12	8	4	10	9	8	88	8.8