posted Nov 14th, 2007 - The NSL News story on October 25 announced that Mattias Nord is the new Center Inside for Norway's national 4-way team, Arcteryx. The same story provided an overview of the team's history and mentioned that the new team member would be introduced to the NSL News audience soon.

Mattias Nord was in the middle of arrangements to prepare his move to Oslo, Norway's capitol city, when the NSL News contacted him this week. He currently lives in Stockholm, Sweden. The new commitment for the Norwegian national team includes the move to the other Scandinavian country.

Mattias Nord is probably the most experienced Swedish 4-way competitor, and he is just as excited to join the world-class team from Norway as his future teammates are. He thinks that the new Arcteryx line-up now has a very promising combination of talent and experience. Derek Broughton (Point), Ole Petter Hjelle (Tail) and Ditta Valsdottir (Center Outside) complete the 2008 line-up.

Velox was Mattias Nord's first serious 4-way team, which won the national championships in Sweden and represented the country between 1997 and 1999. Fastrax member Niklas Hemlin was his teammate with Velox, and they competed together at the World Championship of Formation Skydiving 1997 in Turkey. Sweden's team Velox placed 11th of 38 nations with a 14.8 average.

The same line-up competed at the World Cup 1998 in Portugal, too. Velox posted a 16.2 average and finished in 8th place of 33 teams.

Velox did not travel to compete at the World Meet in Australia 1999 since Niklas Hemlin was already preparing his move to the USA. He was trying out for a slot with Team FX, the World Cup winner of 1998.

Mattias Nord was already very active as a 4-way coach in Sweden at that time. He spent the next two years mostly with other teams and did not compete much himself.

Phenix was his next serious 4-way effort in Sweden, and the new team dominated the national 4-way competition between 2001 and 2003. Phenix took the 9th place at the World Cup 2002 in Spain with a 17.5 average.

The Phenix line-up had a change at the end of the 2002 season. The new line-up opened the 2003 season with a 17.2 average at the FSL Shamrock Showdown and finished with a 16.8 average in 10th place at the World Championship of Formation Skydiving 2003 in France.

Mattias Nord took another break at the end of the 2003 season and focused once again on his coaching job. Team 42 was formed in 2004, and Mattias worked with the team. Team 42 used the FSL Shamrock Showdown as the season opener in 2004 and posted a 13.2 average after six rounds. However, Sweden did not send a team to the World Championship of Formation Skydiving 2004 in Croatia.

Team 42 with coach Mattias Nord came back to DeLand in March 2005 and collected more competition experiences after the 12.7 finish over ten rounds. The 42 line-up was not ready for international meets yet, and Sweden did not have a team at the World Cup 2005 in Eloy, as well.

The 4-way situation in Sweden changed dramatically in 2006 when Team 42 and Team Spaï gave each other an incredible race for the Swedish top position throughout the whole year. The NSL News reported from Sweden several times in 2006. Team 42 with coach and alternate Mattias Nord finally won the race and represented Sweden at the World Championship of Formation Skydiving 2006 in Germany with a 16.2 average in 11th place.

The new Arcteryx member has been coaching 4-way teams full time since 2004, and he has also been working for the Swedish Parachute Association. He will now have to leave his position in Sweden and will get a new FAI license from the Norwegian federation.

The move to Norway will not be too difficult. Nord explained that the two Scandinavian languages are very similar, and the team members communicate easily in Norwegian. He will continue to work with 4-way teams while he is training and competing with Arcteryx.

The new line-up has already begun with the training and completed five hours of windtunnel time at Bodyflight Bedford this month. Mattias Nord already helped his new team coaching and organizing at the training camp for Norwegian skydivers, which was held in Bedford at the same time.

Arcteryx has another windtunnel camp in Bedford scheduled for December before the team will move to DeLand, Florida, in January. The whole team will once again spend the whole winter in Florida.

Mattias Nord said that he was extremely happy to join Arcteryx. He thinks that the new line-up is very promising, and the whole team is very excited about the new perspectives. The first training session in the windtunnel met even the highest expectations, and the team is very motivated. Arcteryx seems to be back in business.