posted Feb 23rd, 2007 - The first live NSL-TV interview by telephone with Craig Girard provided insights from the perspective of a participant of the Valentine's Meet 2007. Current 4-way world champion with DeLand Fire and national champion with DeLand Groove, Ian Bobo, followed up with his evaluation of the competition from an outside position.

Ian Bobo visited at the NSL office in DeLand the day after the NSL News had spoken with Craig Girard in Arizona. He had just completed a coaching job with a Russian team and took the time on his first day off to talk about his own situation at the present time and the results of the Valentine's Meet.

DeLand Fire's and Groove's Tail had not followed the action in Eloy with all of his attention before he sat down in front of the NSL-TV camera on Thursday morning. He looked quite impressed when he studied the scores and compared them with the competition draw round by round.

However, he was not overly surprised that Airspeed Odyssey came up with world-class scores at the beginning of the season and with the new line-up. He still remembered very well how Odyssey with Brian Johnson upset the USPA champion of 2005 and already qualified national team from DeLand at the FAI World Cup 2005 with a world-class performance.

In fact, Ian Bobo expects the new line-up to be even stronger than before since Mark Kirkby brings a lot of experience to the table. The performance of the new French national team was neither a surprise for the current 4-way world champion. He sees France as the "powerhouse of Formation Skydiving competition" that produces world-class teams year by year.

However, Ian Bobo has his doubts that the French 4-way and 8-way members will be able to achieve what others have not in the past. He remembers that even the "Airspeed Dynasty" in its strongest times was not able to win the gold medals in both events at the same time.

France has obviously another good chance for success in 2008. However, the 4-way competition might be too strong in Ian Bobo's eyes. On the other hand, he knows that the French national coach, Jerome David, has set his eyes on this greatest goal of all.

Ian Bobo remembered his own earlier stages in a very successful and complete 4-way career when he looked at Perris Fury. They are the "young guns" with the big goals. By his own experiences, he knows that it takes years to get to the highest point in 4-way competition, even though the Perris team is already aiming at the top positions. He believes that a team needs the same line-up for a few years to get there. He asked the most important question from his perspective: "Can they stay together long enough?"

The situation of the Perris Fury members lead the conversation into Ian Bobo's own position at this point in time. He feels very comfortable by reaching his goals after 15 years of 4-way competition. He explains that he will focus more on his plans with the PD Factory Team and Canopy Piloting competition from here on.

However, Ian Bobo and the other DeLand Groove members will not completely disappear from the 4-way stage. In fact, each team member has already expressed interest in "doing something" this year. This "something" still needs to be defined though, and it might be too early to have "something" by the time of the FSL Shamrock Showdown 2007.

DeLand might not have a serious home turf defender this year when four of the best teams in the world (Airspeed Odyssey, Team Fastrax, Golden Knights, Norway Arcteryx) will open the 2007 competition season on the east coast in March. However, Ian Bobo will surely observe the competition live on site.

Finally, the NSL News rose the question what the 4-way community can expect by the end of the season if the scoring level is already at 22.2 in February. Ian Bobo does not necessarily see new record scores and averages coming this year. He said that "record dreams are made of perfect conditions".

The world records by Russian teams (Sky Panthers Barkli, Black Cat, Extreme.RU) at the events in Russia last year (44 points, 24.1 average) were scored under these perfect conditions, including one very fast sequence at each of the two meets, the Russian Nationals 2006 and the Malevsky Cup 2006.

Ian Bobo expects a possible new record level rather in 2008. By then, the new line-ups of the best teams in the world will probably have caught up to the current world record level and then push the limits. The video of the whole interview with Ian Bobo can be viewed by clicking here