posted Jul 18th, 2025 - The NSL News reported on June 12th that Skydive DeLand founder and owner Bob Hallet lost his life in a car crash on May 13th. The update on July 6th provided more information of the partnership with Tom Piras, who was his co-owner of Skydive DeLand when they launched their business operation in DeLand.

Tom Piras started the 4-way team DeLand Air Bears shortly after settling in Florida (Guy Manos, Joe Nepute, John Robbins, Norman Kent on camera), and they won the first FAI World Championship of 4-way Formation Skydiving after the current competition format was introduced.

Blocks (24) and Random Formations (16) were not the same as they are currently in the FAI dive pool. However, the basic format of mixing up blocks and random formations in the same competition jump was introduced by FAI/ISC in 1984 and applied for the first time at the world championship in Mali Losinj 1985, an island on the Mediterranean coast of former Yugoslavia, now Croatia. The previous 4-way world champions of 1983, Blue Magic from Switzerland, still won the FAI gold medals and the William H. Ottley Sword for the 4-way world champions, also known as the Excalibur, after the ten competition rounds with a different format, as the NSL News reported on 7 November 2023.

FAI World Championship 1985			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4way Open		-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Total	Avg
1	DeLand Air Bears	US	12	14	13	11	11	11	11	11	12	12	118	11.8
2	Canada	CA	12	12	8	11	10	11	12	11	11	14	112	11.2
3	France	FR	12	11	9	11	10	10	11	11	11	13	109	10.9
4	Australia	AU	11	12	10	11	10	4	11	10	11	14	104	10.4
5	Austria	AT	12	13	8	11	6	11	11	6	12	12	102	10.2
6	New Zealand	NZ	10	12	5	10	9	9	9	9	10	12	95	9.5
7	Italy	IT	10	10	10	9	9	10	10	5	10	11	94	9.4
8	Great Britain	UK	8	6	10	8	8	8	9	10	11	11	89	8.9
9	Denmark	DK	9	9	6	9	9	8	7	7	9	11	84	8.4
10	Finland	FI	4	11	9	6	9	9	9	7	9	8	81	8.1
11	Russia	RU	8	10	5	9	7	6	8	8	9	10	80	8.0
12	Switzerland	CH	10	9	7	5	9	8	8	9	3	10	78	7.8
13	Sweden	SE	8	9	8	7	8	5	6	8	9	9	77	7.7
14	Belgium	BE	8	8	6	9	4	8	6	7	8	10	74	7.4
15	Germany	DE	8	4	7	9	8	7	7	7	8	7	72	7.2
16	Norway	NO	6	8	7	8	7	8	5	7	8	5	69	6.9
17	Netherlands	NL	6	8	6	7	6	7	7	7	7	6	67	6.7
18	Spain	ES	6	2	5	5	5	6	5	5	7	6	52	5.2
19	Czech Republic	CZ	3	4	4	5	5	5	5	5	5	6	47	4.7
20	Yugoslavia	YU	3	5	2	4	5	5	5	4	4	6	43	4.3

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DeLand Air Bears in 1985 - Video Footage and Productions by Norman Kent

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William H. Ottley had sponsored the formation skydiving competition community with his special sword in 1975. The 4-way team from the United States (Hales S. Brown, Don Carpenter, Rocky Evans, Ken Coleman, Craig Fronk) had the first names engraved on the plaque. Canada (1977 and 1979) and the Golden Knights lineup of 1981 were next before Blue Magic won the last event with the previous competition format in 1983.

The Swiss team were proudly showing the 4-way Excalibur during the award ceremony in 1983, while the trophy was not available when the DeLand Air Bears won in Mali Losinj 1985. Their names were engraved on the trophy retroactively.

The competition format changed between 1983 and 1985, while other parts of formation skydiving competition were still very different compared to today, not only the additional point deduction for an infringement. Most significantly, the teams did not have their own videographer whose footage would be used by the judges. The NSL News reported on January 13th how the judging method was changed in 1992. 4-way and 8-way teams had already applied freefall videography for training purposes for years before FAI/ISC adopted it and created new rules and regulations for judging.

FAI World Championship 1985			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open		TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	Total	Avg
1	Coors	US	12	13	15	11	11	12	10	13	12	11	120	12.0
2	France	FR	11	10	8	9	9	11	8	10	10	10	96	9.6
3	Canada	CA	10	10	12	8	8	4	8	11	10	7	88	8.8
4	Russia	RU	9	7	8	8	8	7	6	6	6	7	72	7.2
5	Finland	FI	8	8	10	6	4	7	5	7	7	6	68	6.8
5	Denmark	DK	7	8	10	6	6	6	5	5	8	7	68	6.8
7	Great Britain	UK	7	7	8	5	7	8	2	8	5	7	64	6.4
8	Sweden	SE	7	6	8	5	6	7	4	7	6	5	61	6.1
9	Belgium	BE	7	4	6	5	5	6	3	7	3	7	53	5.3
10	Australia	AU	6	5	7	5	7	1	3	7	2	4	47	4.7
11	Germany	DE	6	5	3	4	5	6	4	4	3	3	43	4.3

Norman Kent was one of the most creative and innovative early freefall video producers. He resided in Florida and spend a lot of time with Bob Hallet and Tom Piras and the Air Bears at Skydive DeLand. Eventually, he was also filming the 4-way team at the world championship in Mali Losinj 1985 for artistic purposes, and he permitted the usage of his original footage for an update by the NSL News.

The Air Bears movie features the DeLand team at the event in a very scenic environment. Jumpsuits with booties were not invented at that time, and the Florida team performed with the most popular footwear in the state, sandals and flip flops. Norman Kent's movie also includes the gound-to-air judging method, even though he showcased freefall video at the same event. Creepers were just a new invention at that time, and the DeLand Air Bears used them for jump preparations.

Switzerland's Blue Magic celebrated their own 40-year anniversary of the world championship title in 2023, while 4-way and 8-way competition has now applied the same basic format for 40 years, as well. The first competition with the new format in Mali Losinj 1985 also included the first visit of a Russian delegation at world championships. The Russian teams started with a 11th place in 4-way and a 4th place in 8-way. Norman Kent has been one of the most popular names in the business of film works for feature films, commercial and television for decades, while Tom Piras will become retroactively a new member of Skydiving Museum's Hall of Fame this year. His former partner Bob Hallet is probably a new candidate.