posted Oct 28th, 2010 - Arizona Airspeed's Mark Kirkby recently caught special NSL News attention when he announced the new Airspeed lineup for the 2011 season. Several stories have followed up on the topic ever since the news broke on 18 October 2010.

The story on 19 October 2010 mentioned that a new NSL Profile of Mark Kirkby will soon be published. The profile work has been completed, and the audience now has the opportunity to learn more about Mark Kirkby's whole skydiving career, including the extraordinary Airspeed story.

The Airspeed story, which makes the largest part of the profile, begins with the original lineup of 1994: Mark Kirkby, Jack Jefferies, Dan BC, Kirk Verner. The NSL News searched for some videos of this original lineup in the NSL-TV archive and found all ten Airspeed rounds at the USPA Nationals 1998. Mark Kirkby was already for five years in the Tail slot by then.

Arizona Airspeed's original 4-way lineup at the USPA Nationals 1998

Mark Kirkby's 4-way team career began earlier in the United Kingdom though. His first 4-way team in the USA were the Perris Nasty Popes, and he soon connected with Dan BC's Airmoves in Perris.

He finished with gold medals and a 20.7 average at his first World Championship of Formation Skydiving in 1995 and has collected a total of five world meet gold medals ever since, four in 4-way (1995, 1997, 2001, 2008) and one in 8-way (1999).

This record makes Mark Kirkby one of the three most successful 4-way competitors in the history of the sport. The French TAG Team members Eric Fradet and Philippe Schorno also collected four gold medals in 4-way, consecutively between 1987 and 1993.

His Airspeed team mate Craig Girard has even more gold medals in his collection with a total of seven, however, five of Craig Girard's gold medals are in 8-way.

Mark Kirkby is obviously not done yet, as his new Airspeed 4-way lineup surely has the potential to play again a major role in the next two years. The Airspeed 2011 lineup may win the USPA Nationals next year and then compete for Mark Kirkby's next gold medal at the World Meet in 2012.

His 5th gold medal in 4-way would leave the two French 4-way competitors behind who are not actively competing any longer. Eric Fradet became one of the top skysurfers after his 4-way career, and Philippe Schorno is now the French national coach for Freeflying.