posted Feb 12th, 2007 - It was the NSL 2002 season when teams from Canada joined the network of the National Skydiving League for the first time. Judging veteran Al Altendorfer and 4-way fan Jennifer VanRysdam launched the CanAm Skydiving League with its first meet on July 20, 2002.

The Canadian national 4-way by then, Stratosfear, and three other Canadian teams competed at this first CanAm competition. Two more meets in August and September 2002 completed the first CanAm season. Frontier Skydivers and Skydive Burnaby hosted the three 4-way meets in the area of the US/Canadian border south of Toronto and close to the Niagara Falls.

Scott Anderson managed the CanAm efforts in 2003, 2004 and 2005, while Stratosfear was still the Canadian national 4-way team and attended the CanAm meets once in while. However, the momentum in the original CanAm region had dropped to the lowest level in 2005, and Stratosfear had to accept that a new Canadian 4-way team had taken the prime position.

Team Evolution had caught the attention of the NSL News for the first time on June 21, 2005. The team from the NouvelAir Parachute Center near Montreal attended the CanAm meet at Skydive Burnaby. The weather allowed only three rounds on June 18, however, the Evolution scores (17.3 average after three rounds) were impressive.

Evolution caught even more attention when the team won the Canadian championship in July 2005 and replaced Stratosfear as the new Canadian national 4-way team. The Evolution scores at the Canadian Nationals 2005 included new national records for a single round (32) and for the meet average (16.8), and the NSL News story on August 1, 2005, commented the results.

The NSL News became even more interested in the French/Canadian team when more details became available. The new story on August 7, 2005, followed up with a profile of the team: "Did you know that the new Canadian champion Evolution is a family affair?"

The team of Formation Skydiving competition veteran Michel Lemay had exciting training plans for the 2006 season, which would conclude with the World Meet 2006 in Germany. The team members and supporters had always shown their interest in the CanAm Skydiving League, as well. However, the league did not schedule any 4-way meets for the 2006 season.

The NSL News still followed team Evolution on its way to the World Meet 2006, and the Canadian national 4-way team was mentioned many times in several stories, including the dramatic events around the Fun Flag.

The NSL News coverage of the Canadian team continued in 2007 when Evolution visited the NSL office in DeLand and explained the team plans for the 2007 season. The NSL News story on January 5 included the video of a live interview with this year's line-up, which includes father Michel Lemay and his three sons Martin, Vincent and Benoit.

The team's official alternate, Donald Poulin, works for the Lemay family business and filled the slot for Martin Lemay at the January camp in DeLand. The Lemay family runs the NouvelAir Parachute Center in Farnham near Montreal, and Michel Lemay and Donal Poulin discussed the option to bring the CanAm Skydiving League back to life in a new region.

The NSL headquarters and Donal Poulin continued to discuss the CanAm plans after the team's January camp, and the result is a CanAm schedule for the 2007 season.

Donald Poulin serves as the CanAm Director, and his team will support his efforts. The NouvelAir Parachute Center will host the three scheduled 4-way competitions in June/July and September. No meet is scheduled for the month of August when the Canadian Nationals 2007 will be held.

Team Evolution and Donald Poulin see enough potential in the Montreal/Quebec region to form several line-ups with the local and regional skydivers. The Evolution members will help to create the interest and put the teams together for the meets on their home turf.

Donald Poulin knows that each single meet at the NouvelAir Parachute Center will probably not bring enough teams to offer serious competition on site in each competition class. However, he has followed the NSL News for a long time and understands the whole concept of the league network:

"We may have only one team in any of the competition classes on site at our meets. However, the NSL connects the whole skydiving competition world with each other on a meet weekend. Our teams will know that there are many other teams competing at the same time in other locations all over the continent and the world. I will make sure that they get excited to compare their scores directly with all the other teams of the NSL network on the days following our own competition."

The NSL affiliated leagues from all over the world have synchronized their competition classes and dive pools, which are posted at the NSL website ("Rules"). The NSL headquarters provides a competition draw on any given weekend throughout the whole skydiving competition season. The draw is being delivered to each league that holds a competition on the same weekend, and it is also posted at the NSL website on Friday evening before the meet.

Each league runs its own competition live on site at different locations. The leagues sent the scores soon after the conclusion of the meet to the NSL headquarters. The scores of all meets and all teams are being posted at the NSL website shortly after the conclusion of each meet weekend. The NSL News usually follows up with meet stories, pictures and videos.

Donald Poulin will have more to offer to the CanAm 2007 participants than just the connection to the whole skydiving world. His league project is supported by the best Canadian 4-way team in history. He and the other Evolution members will be able to provide the CanAm 2007 participants with up-to-date and first-hand 4-way experiences and expertise during the events at NouvelAir. Canadian skydivers will have the opportunity to learn new techniques and have fun at the same time. There seem to be a lot of good reasons to get in touch with the new league director and mark the meet dates in the calendar.