How many of us wish, after landing from our first jump, that we had begun skydiving earlier in our lives.  Pete Allum is one of the fortunate few to begin skydiving at the age of 15.  He has been skydiving for 21 years. His parents, Michael and Inger, both keen skydivers in the UK introduced him ...

Female class necessary or not - Lise Nansen, formerly Aune, is one of the two perfect examples in this skydiving world proving as a living example that female competitors can be just as good as males (or better). As a member of the Norwegian national team, DeLand Norgies, she was with the team ...

Many teams and competitors have tried something that seemed to be impossible: Winning a gold medal in 4-way and 8-way at the same FAI World Championship of Formation Skydiving. It seemed to be impossible until Menzelinsk 2010, where and when the FS miracle eventually happened. Mathieu Bernier ...

Dan Brodsky-Chenfeld is his real name, many friends keep it short with just "BC".  However, he is one of the most experienced competitors and coaches in the history of Formation Skydiving, a living legend.  His story is as exciting as can be, a fairytale of skydiving with all ups and downs ...

Few people know "Chromy" by his first name, and even fewer know that he was actually born in the old Czechoslovakia in 1965. Many skydivers who meet him on his many travels around the world are impressed when he mostly likely communicates in the language of the country that he is visiting or the ...

The eternal battle for Excalibur, the trophy for the World Champions of Formation Skydiving in 4-way and 8-way has now been fought for more than two decades. In 4-way, this competition for the gold medal has been exclusively a two-way race between France and the U.S.A. ever since 1985. Jerome ...

Arianna de Benedetti is one of the best female 4-way competitors in the history of Formation Skydiving. She belongs in the same category of high-caliber female athletes who have shown the world how female skydivers can keep up with the best male competitors, just as Dawn English, Lise Aune and ...

There are not too many skydivers with a total number of 22000+ jumps. There are also not too many 4-way and 8-way competitors who are flying in a windtunnel every day, unless they are working as indoor instructors at the same time. French competitor Julien Degen does both, and it still always ...

Dawn English was the first female 4-way competitor who proved to the skydiving world that women can be just as successful in the sport, which is dominated by male athletes. There have been other female 4-way competitors in the history of Formation Skydiving competition, as the French all-female ...

Chris Farina grew up in Rochester, NY, until he moved to California to attend college in San Jose. He graduated from college in 1996 with a B.S. Accounting degree and then spent two years working in public accounting to become a Certified Public Accountant. He left public accounting for a ...

The name Marin Ferre has been around in SKYLEAGUE.COM news stories ever since the website went on-line. In fact, Marin Ferre was a Formation Skydiving competitor long before the National Skydiving League was founded. He was coming to the end of his career as a member of the French national teams ...

Christy Frikken is the Center Outside for Perris Fury and the 2007 Skydiver of the Year. The Skydiving Magazine award for her accomplishments in the sport is a good reason to follow up with her up close and personal NSL Profile. The Skydiving Magazine explained the reasons for the selection of a ...

"Craig Girard with his 7th gold medal has now become the most successful Formation Skydiving competitor in the history of the sport. He has five gold medals in 8-way and two in 4-way. The NSL News is still working on his profile..." This paragraph was posted by the NSL News during the aftermath ...

It is almost impossible to separate the career stories of the Grauwels brothers David and Andy from each other. Their names stand for Hayabusa, and Hayabusa has never been without David and Andy Grauwels. However, David is the older brother, and his NSL Profile was first. Andy Grauwels is the ...

It is almost impossible to separate the career stories of the Grauwels brothers David and Andy from each other. Their names stand for Hayabusa, and Hayabusa has never been without David and Andy Grauwels. However, David is the older brother, and his NSL Profile will be first. David Grauwels is ...

Niklas Hemlin has been a true competitive athlete for all of his life. He has tried all kind of different sports (swimming, soccer, archery, hockey, short-distance running, table tennis) when he grew up in Sweden and before he eventually arrived at skydiving competition, and he was good with every ...

Everybody who has read the latest Skydiving magazine is probably familiar with the name John Hoover and his position with the Golden Knights. However, not many people would be able to identify the modest and quiet young man at a drop zone. People who have met him in person remember him. Hoover's ...

Born In Swindon, England, on February 9, 1981, Thomas Hughes grew up on a farm, heavily involved in water skiing. His first competition experiences came from water skiing, as well. After already competing for a few years in England, he moved to Florida and continued competing in the water skiing ...

Not all of the NSL Profiles introduce only current and former 4-way and 8-way world champions... Sven Ibens from Belgium could have been a 4-way world champion if he had continued with Hayabusa. Two of the current members, 4-way indoor and outdoor world champions Andy and David Grauwels, were ...

A static line skydive had a big impact on Joey Jones. As a matter of fact, that first skydive changed the course of his life forever. Jones was on active duty with the Marines in 1989 when he made his first static line skydive in Normon, Oklahoma. He was hooked. Jones continued to learn to ...

Mark Kirkby is the longest standing Arizona Airspeed member. In fact, he is one of the founding fathers of this amazing ever evolving skydiving project. He made his first jump with the British light infantry display team "Trailblazers" at the Thruxton DZ in the United Kingdom in 1985. His first ...

The special people who get their place on the NSL Profiles pages are not only world champions, even though there are many of them, who surely deserve the attention and the credit. There are many passionate skydivers who have dedicated almost their whole lives to the sport, not only to become a ...

Brian "BK" Krause calls himself a "Golden Knight 101", and this explains almost everything. He has retired from the U.S. Army and now works in the marketing department of Sun Path Products. However, any conversation with him makes you feel that his heart is actually still with the Golden ...

Michel Lemay is one of the most humble Formation Skydiving competitors in the history of the sport. He has been competing for over 30 years and is still performing on the top level in the world. His team Evolution placed 5th at the World Meet 2010 in Menzelinsk, Russia, with a 24.0 average. He has ...

John McIver started skydiving in 1987, at the Tilstock Airfield, Sport Parachute Centre. He joined a few mates on a static-line round course. They jumped from a Helio Courier, and John didn't enjoy the first jump due to being really scared. All he remembered was that it was very loud: "The ...

Some of the most interesting stories come from ordinary beginnings. For Alan Metni, reading a newspaper advertisement had a profound and lasting effect on the rest of his life. A young man on his way to becoming an attorney would follow a different path and become a world-class skydiver within 10 ...

A FAIRY-TALE STORY: FROM NOWHERE TO 4-WAY WORLD CHAMPION IN 4 YEARS Natasha Montgomery caught the NSL News attention for the first time in May 2004. That was 18 months after she had made her first skydive in November 2002. The NSL News story on May 26, 2004, covered the third meet of the ...

Pilcher's individual skydiving story is so closely connected to the story of DeLand Genesis/PD Blue that it is difficult to separate both stories.  And the whole story is almost like a skydiving fairy-tale.  As a skydiver, Pilcher grew up at the Freefall Ranch in Warm Springs, GA.  There he ...

The point flyers of 4-way teams have always been something special not only to me. They are considered the artists who have to master the position with very little sight of what's going on behind them. And then they have to fix whatever the center is not preparing well for building any ...

Eliana Rodriguez can brighten a room with just a smile. Young, intelligent and athletic, Rodriguez has become a shooting star in the world of skydiving competition since her first meet only three years ago. Rodriguez is a member of Synchronicity, the U.S. Women’s 4-way team that took the gold ...

It is coincidence that the four French skydivers on the current list of NSL Profiles are all coaches. Of course, they started as competitors, and each of them is a former 4-way or/and 8-way world champion. Jeremie Rollett has collected three gold medals, two in 4-way (2006 - 2008) and one in ...

Dr. Joel Shugar, one of the most passionate 4-way competitors and a true supporter of the sport, died in a skydiving accident in Eloy on May 26, 2008. It would fill books to cover his merits in his professional career as an eye surgeon and for skydiving as a sport. He will be in our minds ...

Imagine the opposite of a dare-devilish, adventure seeking, adrenaline-driven skydiver. Imagine a calm and casual thinker, a well educated and perfectly behaved gentleman, a healthy athlete in a great shape - simply a role model for other competitors. Imagine such an image turning into reality, and ...

Something is going on in the corn fields next to the landing area at the skydiving center in Ampfing, Germany. It s almost harvesting time, and the corn is taller than people's size. Seems like some people are having a good time racing each other, celebrating something in the middle of the ...

The NSL Profiles feature the most experienced Formation Skydiving competitors in the history of the sport. There are still not many even in this elite club of skydiving celebrities who have been training and competing throughout the whole time period of "modern Formation ...

Solly Williams is a full-time coach and part-owner of Skydive DeLand in Florida.  He competed with DeLand Equanimity, the South African national 4-way team.  At the World Championship in 1997, his team won the bronze medal.  Equanimity discontinued, but Williams remained in touch with the most ...