posted Jan 28th, 2008 - Teiwaz lost four members of the team's extended line-up, and the Florida Skydiving League has a new team. The NSL News story on 10 October 2008 (Archives > 2007 > News > search for: Tempest) already mentioned that four Teiwaz members had decided to put more efforts into 4-way training and competition.

The team name was already there, as the Teiwaz line-up at the NSL Championship 2007 was called "Teiwaz Tempest". Three of the team members in November 2007 (Chris Ash, Thiago Murradas, Ari Perelman) and Kris Byrne joined forces at the end of the 2007 season and formed Sebastian Tempest.

The story of the Sebastian Tempest line-up began in August 2007 when the Teiwaz 4-way scramble with two line-ups at the FSL August meet in Zephyrhills brought Chris Ash, Thiago Murradas, Ari Perelman and Kris Byrne together in one of the two line-ups. Ari Perelman also competed in the other Teiwaz line-up at the same meet.

It was already obvious by then that there was a great "Teiwaz Young" chemistry at the meet in Skydive City. The four Teiwaz members kept in touch, and the NSL News story on 10 October 2007 announced officially that Tempest was working on team plans for the 2008 season.

Tempest still represented Teiwaz at the NSL Championship 2007 where Bob Byrne filled the open slot for his wife Kris. Then, Teiwaz had to form a lineup without the Tempest members for the battle with Optic Nerve at SkyQuest 2007. Tempest was already busy with the new team project.

Coach Gary Smith was hired for the first training camps in the windtunnel, and the new team was looking for a home dropzone. Skydive Sebastian eventually agreed to support Tempest and its training plans. The team also enjoys support by Performance Designs.

Sebastian Tempest began the team training with a tunnel camp in Raeford in December. The team has made approx. 50 jumps with the original line-up so far. All team members live in the Orlando area and can conveniently visit the SkyVenture windtunnel on weekday evenings here and there. Kris Byrne reported that they use the tunnel time to work mostly on B-slots and communication.

The first training camp this year took place last weekend at Skydive Sebastian. The next windtunnel training camp is scheduled for the upcoming weekend and will bring Sebastian Tempest back to Raeford, North Carolina. The team will try to work as much as possible with coach Gary Smith.

The team members also finalized additional plans for their activities at Skydive Sebastian. Kris Byrne explained that the Tempest schedule in Sebastian includes 4-way scrambles, 4-way and 8-way skills camps, freeflying camps, traditional Relative Work organizing and a hybrid weekend.

The team members can offer a broad variety of skydiving skills. Chris Ash and Ari Perelman are both freeflying experts after working as instructors in the Orlando windtunnel. Kris Byrne and Thiago Muradas both have already international competition experiences.

Thiago Murradas competed internationally with the South African and Brazilian national 4-way teams years ago. Kris Byrne represented the USA in IPC's female 4-way category at the World Championship of Formation Skydiving in Germany 2006.

Kris Byrne also collected her 8-way experiences last year. She trained and competed with the all-female 8-way lineup of Perris Moxie at the USPA Nationals 2007. Her 8-way team finished in 6th place with a 10.2 average after ten rounds.

Sebastian Tempest has made plans for a 2-year period, which will be concluded with the USPA Nationals 2009. The main team goal is to qualify for the FAI World Cup in 2009 and experience an international competition with this line-up. Tempest will represent Skydive Sebastian throughout the Florida Skydiving League 2008 season.