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Did You Know...

... that original HayaBusa member Sven Ibens visited Florida for a different reason?

Sven Ibens (center) with Vigil staff at the PIA Symposium 2025
posted Mar 14th, 2025 - The Formation Skydiving competition career of Sven Ibens has been well documented in the history of NSL News, and it includes his NSL Profile, even though he has never been a world champion as a founding member of NMP PCH HayaBusa. He stepped back when he thought that HayaBusa had the potential to win world championships with a full-time lineup.

It took NMP PCH HayaBusa eight years after Sven Ibens’ retirement from high-intensity training and competition until the 2012 lineup won the first FAI outdoor gold medals for Belgium in Prostejov 2014. They did not let go of the legendary William H. Ottley Sword for the 4-way world champions, also known as the Excalibur, until Arizona Airspeed won in Eloy 2022.

Sven Ibens visited Florida this week in his new position as Vigil's CEO. The NSL News had reported on 29 September 2024 that he had concluded his competitive 4-way career. The update included NSL Live Talk on the Zoom internet platform where he provided more background information and the reasons for the change in his professional career. He was on work duty when he visited Florida this week, where the PIA Symposium took place in Daytona Beach. It was the next opportunity for real NSL Live Talk in the Ocean Convention Center, which was hosting the PIA Symposium.



NSL Live Talk with Sven Ibens, Recorded on 14 March 2025 at the PIA Symposium
Spa HayaBusa in DeLand at the Shamrock Showdown 2005
It was not the first visit in Florida for Sven Ibens. The different HayaBusa lineups always chose Florida for their outdoor winter training camps. It was Skydive DeLand in the earlier HayaBusa years, while the current lineups have been running most of their training camps at Skydive City.

Spa HayaBusa were in their third year with the first lineup (Sven Ibens, Roy Janssen, Andy and David Grauwels, Bruno van den Eede on camera) when they trained in DeLand and competed at the Shamrock Showdown 2005. The same lineup attended their second outdoor world championship in Gera 2006 after their first world meet experiences in Rijeka 2004.

Spa Hayabusa finished in 6th place at both world championships despite increasing their scoring average from 17.8 in Croatia to 20.4 in Germany. That's when Sven Ibens decided to step back, while Roy Janssen, Andy and David Grauwels joined the Belgian military forces to go full time and become 4-way world champions. Sven Ibens was far from being done with Formation Skydiving competition, even though he did not continue with NMP PCH HayaBusa. He was just as passionate for the sport as he was before, and it did not take very long until he recruited his next team to continue on the recreational competition level.

USPA Nationals 2017
12345678910TotalAvg
Rank8-way OpenG,22,19,6,2D,7,178,J,C,KQ,B,14,2019,15,4A,10,1312,M,N,PH,O,3,165,21,11TotalAvg
1Golden KnightsUS2217161921221921281720220.2
GFly-In Machine 44BE2316171615211620261518518.5
GQatar FalconsQA1612151215161317201314914.9
2Arizona AirspeedUS1714111515171413181314714.7
GAmphibious Attack TigersUS1812131013181416151114014.0
6SDC Rhythm XP8US1211121311151215141212712.7
7Paraclete XP8US1311101112141211141011811.8
8Spaceland Gummies 8US1111871012910109979.7
GPerris Spider PigsUS5745657547555.5

Fly-In Machine 44 at the USPA Nationals 2017
NMP PCH HayaBusa in Z-Hills at the Shamrock Showdown 2022
The Dutch/Belgian Thunder ISR combination attended their first competition in 2009 and continued for seven years until their last appearance at the ISR Grand Prix 2016. In the same seven years, Thunder became one of the strongest unofficial amateur teams in the sport and was showing this at the 33 events in the team's competitive history.

They brought the unofficial amateur scoring to the highest level at all events where the lineup with team members from two different nations were accepted. The duel with the Russian team Sportloto was one of the regular challenges for Thunder.

Sven Ibens still moved on and formed a new Belgian team, ISR FireFlash, in 2017 (Wesley Claessens, Sven Ibens, Glenn Straeluyc, Maya Van Campenhout, Grim Swinnen still on camera), who soon became one of the strongest amateur teams in the world, as well. ISR FireFlash then joined forces with the new NMP PCH HayaBusa lineup for the Fly-In Machine 44 8-way team, who took the 2nd place as a guest team behind the Golden Knights at the USPA Nationals 2017. Sven Ibens said during the NSL Live Talk that he is now encouraging his son Siem (18) to pursue similar goals that he had, and he works on putting together a new 8-way team, including his wife Annelies Hasewinkel-Ibens and his son Siem Ibens, who collected his first 4-way experiences with Family Flash and Falco.

World Challenge 2015
12345678910TotalAvg
RankAAA Class15,K,E,F11,22,A16,H,M,193,10,D17,18,P4,12,O5,N,L,G14,B,C,202,1,21J,Q,6,13TotalAvg
5Thunder ISR BE 3521292327212824222725725.7
6SportLoto RU 3623302124213222232225425.4
World Challenge 2014
12345678910TotalAvg
RankAAA Class17,18,195,16,64,N,13P,F,12,MJ,D,10,KG,3,O,CH,22,1420,2,81,21,1115,7,LTotalAvg
5SportLoto RU 2426203021302421202724324.3
6Thunder ISR BE 2024213027272121212924124.1
World Challenge 2013
12345678910TotalAvg
RankAAA ClassO,E,J,K,3M,Q,A,144,6,168,18,NH,19,122,7,1311,C,P,915,D,10L,F,17,G20,1,22TotalAvg
6SportLoto RU 3528192324213023342025725.7
7Thunder ISR BE 3332212323222921311925425.4
FAI Outdoor World Cup 2012
12345678910TotalAvg
Rank4-way Open1,19,214,18,15N,16,20E,6,J,AC,K,9,13F,8,11Q,22,L,21B,17,H,P12,D,O,4G,10,7TotalAvg
2ISR Thunder BE 2017202427202031201921821.8
3SportLoto RU 1617212920192031192021221.2

ISR Thunder (BE) - Sportloto (RU) at the FAI Outdoor World Cup 2012
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