posted Dec 11th, 2007 - The recent visit of Canada's national 4-way team, Evolution, to its first winter camp in DeLand had a funny beginning. The four LeMay's went shopping at a local grocery store later in the evening and asked a young female clerk for help: "We are looking for dates, can you help us, please?"

The young lady looked confused when father Michel and the three sons Vincent, Martin and Benoit seemed to be very serious with their inquiry. The LeMay's noticed that the clerk did not really know where to put this question and eventually realized the second meaning of the dates...

The NSL News reporter saw and tasted the evidence of the true and honest inquiry at the grocery store when the team invited the NSL News to the team room at Skydive DeLand this week. The Evolution members have in fact good reasons why they eat dates during their training days.

Dates are very nutritious, assimilative and energy producing. In fact, this fruit is rich in nutrients, and due to its dietetic values it has always been held in high esteem by athletes. Compared to other fruits and foods, dates give more than 3,000 calories per kilogram. Training days are long for skydiving teams and require a lot of energy.

The team members did not elaborate as of any other more traditional dates in DeLand, and they clarified with the clerk in the store that they were really looking for food...

It was a funny story, and the Canadian diet is just as different from other usual food supply in team rooms as their warm-up exercises are. The NSL News arrived at the dropzone when morning fog kept the team on the ground and the LeMay family entertained themselves and others with an incredible 4-way joggling performance.

Fortunately, the NSL-TV camera was ready for capturing the spectacular family exercise of coordination and concentration for a few seconds. The joggling video is not good enough to show the whole picture and bring across the impressive skills of the LeMay Family Circus. However, it provides a brief introduction of the extraordinary show, and the NSL News will follow up with a better and longer video as soon as the Canadian team returns to DeLand later this month.

Finally, story telling of dates and family joggling was over, and the NSL News could get to the core of the actual team visit to DeLand, the first 4-way winter training camp with the complete LeMay line-up. The joggling video includes a few live questions and answers. Coach Shannon Pilcher also provides his feedback on the video.

The NSL News was mostly interested in Evolution's experiences with the right-hand door of the Pilatus Porter. The team openly answered questions and provided footage of the training jumps in DeLand. The first 50 training jumps from the right-hand door included every exit experience that a 4-way team can imagine.

The other NSL-TV video is a short collection of different exits and a summary of the progression. The Canadian team knew that it would be a tough start into the first training camp with the Pilatus Porter, which will be used at the World Championship of Formation Skydiving 2008 in France.

However, it was probably still a painful experience to go back to the very beginnings of exit training.

Evolution's coach Shannon Pilcher had already seen other teams making similar experiences in the past, and he was not surprised that there was a lot of work to do. Team and coach had planned to work only on exits and sub-terminal moves throughout the first training camp. It turned out that there was first very little opportunity to practice sub-terminal moves since the exits did not allow an early start most of the times.

The coach and reigning 4-way world champion was still impressed by the quick progression of the Canadian family team. He mentioned that the team eventually improved the exits to a point where the sub-terminal training became more realistic and challenging.

The video includes only footage of the first 40 jumps. The last two days of the training camp brought the improvements of the exits, and the NSL News will hopefully be able to follow up with new footage very soon.

Evolution made approx. 50 training jumps at the December camp and completed two hours of windtunnel training in Raeford. The trip to the 16-foot Paraclete XP tunnel in North Carolina was a part of the planned training camp in DeLand.

The goal of the camp was defined by coach Shannon Pilcher who wanted to fine-tune all technical aspects of the individual flying skills and the block techniques: "For now and here, fly as if you were the best 16-point average team in the world."

Evolution had already posted 18.5 and 20.3 averages at the 6-round meets of the CanAm Skydiving League in June. The LeMay's won the Canadian Nationals 2007 in July with an 18.7 average after ten rounds. Michel, Martin and Vincent LeMay had posted a 16.8 average at the World Meet 2006 in Germany when Benoit was still packing for his family. He joined the active line-up this year.

The Canadian team still followed the coach's order and slowed down the pace, at least in freefall. Shannon Pilcher reported that he was impressed when he allowed the team once in a while to go full speed in the windtunnel. The next training camp this month may already show Evolution going a faster pace. The plan includes once again a lot of dates...