posted Jul 25th, 2011 - Another national championship was completed this month. A total of 11 teams competed in Canada's Open (4) and Advanced Class (5), two additional female lineups had their own leaderboard.

The NSL News had reported on 7 July 2011 that Canada's national 4-way team Evolution was aiming at winning both the traditional 4-way competition and also this year's 4-way VFS event. The story explained that it was a challenging goal:

"Winning the Canadian Nationals 2011 in both events is not going to be a walk in the park. There is no doubt that Evolution will win the traditional 4-way competition. However, it will be much more challenging in VFS 4-way. The wind tunnel instructors in Montreal have their own lineup, and they focus only on VFS 4-way."

It turned out to be exactly like that. Evolution did not even get close to the 24.0 average at the World Championship of Formation Skydiving 2010. In fact, the 18.5 average was the lowest Evolution average since the Valentine's Meet 2008. However, it was more than enough to leave the team in 2nd place (Flashpoint - 13.9) far behind.

Vincent LeMay said that the LeMay family with a new videographer did not get a fair share of training this summer due to the VFS goal they had set for the team: "The 18.5 average is the downside of putting all efforts in making sure we were going to take the VFS event."

The teams completed all ten rounds in the traditional 4-way event on one day. Meet director and host took advantage of the long daylight in Edmonton, Alberta, to finish the competition as soon as possible. As expected, it was different in the 4-way VRW competition where father Michel LeMay sat on the bench. The wind tunnel instructors of Hired Guns were close enough to make the three Evolution brothers (Martin, Vincent, Benoit) plus Philippe Thibodeau work hard enough for the gold medals.

Vincent LeMay reported that Style and Accuracy were also completed early, and the Evolution VFS lineup had a day off to relax and warm up for the VFS competition. Then the VFS 4-way teams also completed all rounds on one day. Evolution surprised themselves with a great performance, as Vincent LeMay remembered:

"Never in my wildest dreams I had imagined having a 6-point lead after two rounds. We have been training alongside the Hired Guns all winter and all summer, both at SkyVenture Montreal and at Parachute Montreal. I know I was scared, but also confident going into the meet. Let me tell you that it was a relief to see the scores after two rounds. We knew we had to stay calm and keep going with the same energy and attention to details."

It worked out well for both Evolution lineups, and the goal was accomplished, much to the satisfaction of the three youngest members: "You know what?! We did it! Very few believed we could do it..." Vincent LeMay still had great respect for the Hired Guns challengers in VFS 4-way after a tough 1-day competition: "Big props to the Hired Guns. Seriously boys!"