posted Nov 25th, 2010 - It was about time for this live NSL Talk. The NSL News has been working together with BJ Worth for many years, at least once per year in the last decade. That's whenever SkyQuest came up, the skydiving event that was launched as a parachuting air show at Fantasy of Flight in 2001.

However, BJ Worth has also been very active for many years in pushing and forming the future of Formation Skydiving competition, both as the President of the International Parachuting Commission (IPC) and also as a long-time member of the IPC Formation Skydiving Committee. The NSL News has received a lot of IPC updates from BJ Worth at the time of his serving.

It was no surprise that he was very engaged in the development of Formation Skydiving competition, as his own skydiving career began with competition. He attended his first World Cup of Formation Skydiving in 1974. His 10-way Speed Star team, Wings of Orange, won the gold medals. Jerry Bird was the team captain.

Live NSL Talk with BJ Worth

BJ Worth added several gold medals over the years and was a member of the legendary US 8-way team Mirror Image. He retired from competition after winning his last 8-way gold medal at the World Championship of Formation Skydiving in 1981 and then focused his efforts on the development of the sport.

He founded the World Team in 1993 to pursue big-way world records and succeeded for the first time in 1994 with a 216-way. He had also used his skills and experiences to deliver skydiving stunts and became well known in Hollywood after working for the famous James Bond movies, both in freefall and under his parachute.

His World Team improved the big-way records to 297 in 1996, and then to 357 in 2004. The World Team set the current 400-way world record in 2006, and BJ Worth began with his plans for a 500-way.

By then, National Skydiving League and BJ Worth had already connected and successfully organized SkyQuest for several years. The cooperation began when the NSL went into its 4th year after launching the league in 1998.

Bill Kitchen, inventor of the vertical wind tunnel and owner of SkyVenture Orlando in the early years, and NSL founder Kurt Gaebel agreed to create a larger event and include other skydiving disciplines for a show event at Fantasy of Flight.

Kurt Gaebel knew who to ask for help with the big-way part of SkyQuest 2001, and the cooperation between NSL and BJ Worth began. It has continued until today, and SkyQuest 2010 marked the 10-year anniversary of this successful partnership. It was a good opportunity to get BJ Worth finally in front of the NSL-TV camera.