posted Oct 25th, 2007 - Norway's national 4-way team, Arcteryx, has been covered by the NSL News many times ever since the team was founded in 2004. It was already a challenging task for the original Arcteryx line-up (Ditta Valsdottir, Ole Petter Hjelle, Oyvind Buer, Tore Buer) to fill the space of the retired DeLand Norgies (Lise Aune, Carl-Erik Tuv, Torstein Valen, Pal Kolbenstvedt).

The DeLand Norgies were a world-class team and challenged the very top positions at each international meet between 1998 and 2003. They consecutively won bronze medals for Norway at three World Championships of Formation Skydiving (Australia 1999, Spain 2001, France 2003) and retired with a 20.6 average at the end of the 2003 season.

Arcteryx had the long-term goal to put the DeLand Norgies behind and develop the team's own brand name as a symbol for high-quality 4-way competition coming from the small Scandinavian country.

The Arcteryx situation was different compared to the DeLand Norgies who founded their own line-up from a pool of experienced Norwegian competitors. The members of the original Arcteryx line-up were young and inexperienced. Ditta Valsdottir and Ole Petter Hjelle had previous team experiences, Ditta with the Norwegian female line-up, Ole with Punky Fish. Oyvind and Tore Buer were new in the 4-way community.

Oyvind Buer, 26 years young by then, was one of the talented Norwegians who had already gone through the drills of the famous Basic and Advanced Camps in 2002. He was then selected by coach Lise Aune after try-outs for the new national team.

His brother Tore, 22 years old in 2004, had already filmed Arcteryx with a different member at a previous camp. Tore Buer was also trained in the same Norwegian Basic and Advanced Camps that his brother Oyvind had attended before. Coach Lise Aune and his future team mates knew about his talent and that he was eager to join the team. Tore Buer finally dropped all of his commitments in Norway and joined the team when the slot became available.

The progression of the team was steep. Arcteryx attended the World Championship of Formation Skydiving 2004 in Croatia for Norway and finished in 7th place with a 15.8 average. A year later, the same line-up had a 19.2 average in the records, posted at the FAI World Cup 2005.

The 2006 season began for Arcteryx already significantly past the 20.0 average level. The 21.3 average after the ten rounds at the Shamrock Showdown 2006 moved the new Norwegian national team already up into the group of world-class 4-way teams. The NSL News story on 25 March 2006 (Archives > 2006 > News) provided the details.

The 5th place at the World Championship of Formation Skydiving 2006 in Germany with a 21.0 average was a well-earned result of the consistent training and competition practice.

The same line-up had come from 15.8 average in Croatia 2004 to a 21.0 average in Germany 2006. Arcteryx was on the planned way to the desired medal positions in the future.

Things changed for the Norwegian team at the beginning of the 2007 season, as the NSL News reported with the story on January 23. Oyvind Buer, who flew in the rear piece together with his younger brother Tore, did not come back for the 2007 season after his three years with Arcteryx. World-class freeflyer Derek Broughton became the new member, and Arcteryx had to accept a little setback.

However, the new line-up picked it up at a much higher level compared to the first team season in 2004. Arcteryx opened the 2007 season with a 19.7 average at the FSL Shamrock Showdown 2007 and moved past the 20.0 average level a month later.

The 5th place at the FAI World Cup 2007 followed in August with a 20.3 average. But most importantly, Arcteryx beat the DeLand Norgies for the first time at the Norwegian Nationals 2007, as the NSL News reported with the story on August 23.

The Arcteryx 2007 line-up traveled to Illinois next and competed as a guest team at the USPA Nationals 2007. The 20.8 average was the highest result for this line-up. However, the end of the USPA Nationals 2007 was also the end for this Arcteryx line-up. Tore Buer now left the team, as his brother had done a year earlier.

It was not the end for Arcteryx though. Ditta Valsdottir, Ole Petter Hjelle and Derek Broughton still had a well-trained and highly-skilled 3-way and did not hesitate at all to begin looking for a new team member after a short break.

It took only a little bit more than a month until Arcteryx could fill the slot and announce the new line-up. The new Center Inside comes originally from Sweden. Mattias Nord is very experienced 4-way competitor, and Arcteryx is excited to resume the team training very soon, as team speaker Ole Petter Hjelle confirmed:

"It is finally official: Our new team member is Mattias Nord. He has been on the Swedish national 4-way team for many years, first with Fastrax member Niklas Hemlin, then with Phenix. He is a great jumper, but just as importantly a higly motivated, analytical and ambitious competitor. For the first time in the history of Arcteryx we feel that we have four people with the same ambitions, drive and mindset. Our biggest drawback in the last few years has been the lack of motivation and ambition in some of our previous team members. We will train in Bedford in a couple of weeks and then go back to Deland on January 1st. We plan on doing 800 jumps befor the World Meet in Maubeuge."

The NSL News will follow up with more information of the new Arcteryx member soon.