posted May 30th, 2007 - The upcoming meet weekend will be the peak of the 2007 season so far. Nine different 4-way competitions will take place in seven different countries (Austria, Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, Sweden, USA). The National Skydiving League participates with teams in Arizona, California and the Midwest.

The competition draw will be synchronized between all events, as it has become a popular procedure in the past years. The NSL leaderboard at the beginning of next week will most likely feature the scores of more teams than ever before in the history of the NSL.

Canada is one of the international leagues that kick of the 2007 season this weekend. However, the CanAm Skydiving League has actually been a part of the NSL network in the USA for several years. The NSL News story on February 12 provided information of the CanAm history.

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 area of the CanAm activities has been between Buffalo (USA) and Toronto (Canada) around the Niagara Falls ever since.

Team Evolution, the Canadian world-class national 4-way team with four Lemay family members, and Donald Poulin, Evolution's alternate, have now moved the CanAm area even further north.

The first CanAm meet of the 2007 season will be held this weekend at Evolution's home DZ, the Parachutisme Nouvelair Skydiving Center in Farnham, Québec, Canada.

Donald Poulin reported that he expects eight teams to compete at Nouvelair. The highest number of teams in the history of the CanAm Skydiving League was five in 2002. Three additional teams will also join the new CanAm activities in Burnaby at the meet on June 30. Former Stratosfear member Rocky Nash still offers 4-way activities in the old league area.

Donald Poulin is well prepared for the start of the CanAm 2007 season and already knows the line-ups of the teams that he expects to attend the meet this weekend.

One of the most interesting aspects of the CanAm season opener is the fact that Team Evolution will compete for the first time with the complete family line-up. Michel Lemay (Center Outside and father of the three Lemay sons), Martin Lemay (Center Inside) and Vincent Lemay (Point) competed together at the World Meet 2006 in Germany.

16-year old Benoit Lemay will now take Francois Pigeon's Tail slot. Michel and Martin Lemay have switched their center slots, and Peter Toutoudakis continues to film the team. Evolution finished with a 16.8 average in Germany last year. The current Canadian national champion has trained a lot last winter with coach Shannon Pilcher. It will be very interesting to see where the complete family line-up will begin its team career.

Cat Women

Evolution member Vincent Lemay has also prepared a Canadian female line-up for the first competition this weekend. The "Cat Women" are aiming at the position of the Canadian national team in IPC's female 4-way category. It is the first 4-way season for Marie-ève Dalaire (Center Outside), Nathalie Métivier (Point), Mia Prebinsky (Center Inside) and Jacynthe Labelle (Tail). René Deveau is filming the team.

The Cat Women complete three hours of windtunnel training and only 20 training jumps so far. However, Donald Poulin said that the team already shows great team flying skills. The Cat Women plan to compete in the AAA Class competition.

Synergy

Team "Synergy" is the second home team at Nouvelair and has the second place at this year's Canadian Nationals as the team goal. The line-up consists of Richard Bisson (Center Inside), Patrick Tremblay (Tail), Thomas Howard (Point), Donald Poulin (Center Outside) and Sylvain Barrière (Camera).

Synergy has worked with coach Pete Allum who created the training plan for the team and supervised the four hours of windtunnel training. Synergy has completed approx. 30 training jumps and will compete in the AAA Class, as well.

Skyhawks

The "Skyhawks"is the Canadian army team with Pierre Sanschagrin, Michel Denis, Brian Mcdougall and Pat Lajoie in the line-up. CanAm Director Donald Poulin said that the team is apparently not supported by the Canadian army this year. However, the team members still enjoy jumping together. The Skyhawks are more familiar with the CISM dive pool. They will still take on the AAA Class sequences this weekend.

Serious Fun

Philipe Morin (Tail), Albert Pelchat (Center Outside), Monique Leblanc (Center Inside) and Josée Leblanc (Point) call their new team "Serious Fun". The team fun started with two hours of windtunnel training and 10 training jumps. Serious Fun has not decided yet in which competition class they will compete.

Donald Poulin added that two more teams from Ottawa and Gananoque are planning to attend the CanAm season opener at Nouvelair. He also thinks that there will be at least one pick-up team forming this weekend. He concluded his preview of the upcoming meet in appreciation of the support he found at Nouvelair:

"I'd like to thank the three dropzone owners of Nouvelair, Daniel Paquette, Mario Prévost and Michel Lemay, for supporting the NSL/CanAm efforts and the teams. Mario is struggling with the staff's schedule to accomodate the competitors who are working for Nouvelair. Daniel is a camera professional and has filmed the teams for free, here at Nouvelair, in DeLand and in Z-Hills. Michel is doing 4-way for the love of the sport and shares his passion and experience with new skydivers for free when he jumps with them. Everything is now set for the first CanAm meet at Nouvelair, and we just hope for good weather."