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 when the NSL website was created in its current format.

The SKYLEAGUE.COM audience knows him mainly as one of the French national coaches, even though several news stories included content of his active competition career.

The soft-spoken and very kind French gentleman still turns into a furious and energetic competitor as soon as he feels the air, and he is just as passionate about his coaching jobs for the French teams.

Marin Ferre was born into a skydiving family. His parents met at the DZ, spent all their free time there and eventually got married at the DZ, as well.

It is no surprise that his brother (Martial) and sister (Celine) grew up as skydivers at the same nice little DZ in the French Bretagne, called Vannes. Marin Ferre made his first jump on static-line in February 1990.

His family members became his first team mates, and Marin Ferre learned all the basics of belly flying and sequential Formation Skydiving with them.

At this time, the French national 4-way team, the "TAG Team", dominated 4-way competition in the world, while the French 8-way team got very close to defeat the unbeaten Golden Knights. Marin Ferre and his brother were desperate to become a part of this competition drama.

Marin Ferre was eventually selected for the French national B-Team, the talent pool for the top teams, three years after his first jump. He had 300 training jumps when he won his first silver medals at the French Nationals 1993.

In the meantime, his brother Martial Ferre and Thierry Boitieux had committed to a 4-way team project in Maubeuge, a small DZ that would eventually host the French national teams and the World Meet 2008 - 15 years later.

Two slots were available in his brother's 4-way team in 1994. Marin Ferre and Davide Moy joined the new lineup, and the first Maubeuge team was complete.

The team began training hard with winter camps in Perris Valley and summer camps in Maubeuge. At the end of the 1995 season, after two silver medal at French Nationals, French head coach Jerome David and the French Federation finally selected Maubeuge as the new national 4-way team.

It was a great honor for Marin Ferre, and he also felt a great responsability, as his team had to beat Arizona Airspeed. It became a big challenge when Airspeed had been pushing 4-way competition to a new level every year since 1994. Maubeuge with the Ferre brothers was 20 points behind Airspeed at the first showdown at the World Cup 1996.

The difference was down to four points a year later at the World Meet 1996 in Turkey, and it was not enough for the Maubeuge team.

The gold medal goal was finally achieved in Australia 1999, after four years and a total commitment with approx. 3500 training jumps, most of them in Perris, California.

Marin Ferre and Davide Moy started with a new national 4-way lineup right after Australia 1999. Julien Losantos and Erwan Pouliquen were the new members.

The new team became just as competitive quickly, despite new and more competition from Norway (DeLand Norgies), Great Britain (Sebastian XL) and the USA (Space Center FX, PD Blue, Golden Knights, Deland Majik). There was great and tight competition at the world cups (2000, 2002), where all these teams could attend.

Marin Ferre's new Maubeuge lineup came to the same result with the same recipe after four more years with the same intensity: Gold medals at the World Meet 2003 in Gap, France.

Marin Ferre decided after silver at the World Meet 2004 in Croatia that two 4-way gold medals were enough. He was ready to find a "normal" job.

He worked as an AFF and Tandem instructor and completely quit the competition world until the end of 2006, when national head coach Jerome David called him back for a coaching job.

He started to work with the new national 4-way team that eventually won gold medals at the World Meet 2010 in Menzelinsk. It was his beginning of a professional career as a coach, and now he likes it at least as much as competing.

The coaching success continued for Marin Ferre when he began to work with the French national team in 4-way Women, Deep Blue.

He started with Deep Blue in 2008 and won the first gold medals for France in this event in 2010, followed by two more gold medals in 2012 and 2014.

Jeremie Rollett, who was in the 4-way lineup of 2008 and 2010, became the new national head coach after the French sweep in 2010. He had experienced Marin Ferre's coaching qualities in his time as a 4-way competitor and continued to work with him as the coach for the new French lineup in 4-way Women, the Deep Blue Defenders and then the French Girls.

Jeremie Rollett handed over the reigns to Mathieu Bernier in 2015, and the current national head coach has re-assigned Marin Ferre to the new French lineup in the Open Class for the coming two years. He has a very good reason for this decision, as he explained: "Marin Ferre is our most experienced coach in France, and it's a big goal for us to come back to the Top 3 positions as soon as possible. He's the best person for this challenge."