posted Nov 6th, 2007 - The NSL Championship 2007 is history, and the next NSL event is already coming up. The Kaleidoscope Dives used to be a part of the annual SkyQuest multi-discipline event. However, SkyQuest 2007 has a different format and presents only the Kaleidoscope Dives this time, with the option of another small invitational 4-way competition.

There were several reasons to separate the events this year, and SkyQuest 2008 will bring back the exciting combination of the different skydiving disciplines. One result of this year's separation is the fact that more Formation Skydiving competitors have signed up for the Kaleidoscope Dives 2007.

The complete Kaleidoscope roster for this year's 4-day event in DeLand includes names of 4-way competitors who could not participate in the past years. BJ Worth has once again attracted a high-profile group of skydivers to his annual event, which has become a most exciting foundation of SkyQuest Florida.

Former DeLand Majik 4-way world champion, Solly Williams, has joined this year's group of team captains who have managed the Kaleidoscope Dives together with BJ Worth in the past (Kate Cooper, Larry Henderson, Mike Johnston, Roger Ponce de Leon). Lou Tommaso and Guy Wright are also providing their input and experience at SkyQuest 2007.

The Kaleidoscope Dives were created by World Team and 400-way world record organizer BJ Worth when SkyQuest was launched for the first time in 2001. BJ himself is a multiple 8-way US and world champion. He was on top of the competition world with his team Mirror Image in the 70's. Kaleidoscope team captain Roger Ponce de Leon was his teammate by then.

BJ Worth will be able to welcome USPA's national director Glenn Bangs in DeLand next week who is currently the USPA President. BJ is a national USPA director himself.

The field of new 4-way and 8-way competitors at the Kaleidoscope Dives 2007 is headed by Guillaume Bernier from France.

The NSL audience can find his name in the French 8-way line-up of 2006 and 2007, which won gold medals at the World Championship of Formation Skydiving 2006 in Germany and at the FAI World Cup 2007.

Bernier is also a member of the French national 4-way team that placed second in Russia this year after the dramatic jump-off finish with Hayabusa Defence. He will come back to DeLand with his complete 4-way team in March 2008 to compete at the FSL Shamrock Showdown 2008.

A closer look at the Kaleidoscope roster for the 2007 event will detect many more familiar names of the 4-way and 8-way community. Carolina Skydiving League Director of the past years, Randy Garman, and former Ranch Skydiving League Director Dawn Pavlu will also visit DeLand for the 17 jumps from 18,000 feet.

Skydive DeLand's founder and owner, Bob Hallett, has already been a Kaleidoscope Diver in the past years. He will get back in the air in the second consecutive year that the event is held on his home turf.

The Kaleidoscope Divers are coming to Florida from all parts of the planet. The Russian delegation has grown larger this year and includes Igor Yurash, manager of the annual Malevsky Cup 4-way competition. Andrey Veselov from Russia is the chief videographer for the Kaleidoscope Dives and works together with some of the most experienced big-way videographers in the world (Gustavo Cabana, Bruno Brokken, Gaby Meis, Phil Roberson).

This year's dive designs have already been posted at the SkyQuest website for a while. BJ Worth has created new shapes and patterns, which will be just as challenging as in the previous years of the event. Rags Raghanti of Performance Designs has once again assisted BJ with the technical part of the dive design.

SkyQuest 2007 will obviously be a most exciting skydiving event with a world-class mixture of competitors and big-way experts. The NSL News will cover the event with the same attention that is usually given to the major 4-way and 8-way competitions. The coverage will include videos and regular updates. The four days of the event (November 15 - 18) will be worth a few visits at the NSL website.