Huh? There were 76 4way teams alone. 76, that was the record for a US nationals. Look at how many teams compete in the NSL. Now how many Freefly teams competed at Nationals? 15,. and those teams are composed of 3 people not 5. I find it extremely hard to believe that FS is becoming a lost art.
Thats about as believable as freeflyers should get out first cause they fly smaller canopies. Which is far from the case, because I see as many if nor more FS people flying tiny canopies than the inexperienced 1-200 Jump Freeflyers.
Either discipline though I encourage teams to form. Jump with the same people on a regular schedule. DZ might offer some discounts if they see you working hard, which means even more jumps, Plus after a few jumps you figure out fall rate, flyging styles etx so you can actually start to learn something instead of wasting dive after dive with random people all over the place
I do agree with you, and think that higher requirements for licensing is good, or better yet extend to an E license at 1000 or 1500 jumps. (dont even want to consider the politics going into who would get E-1).