posted Apr 16th, 2008 - The Arizona Skydiving League held another 4-way competition this past weekend. Although the meet was scheduled for Saturday, April 12th, due to the extreme winds of the desert, the competition wasn't able to get started until Sunday. Out of the five teams that registered for the competition, only three were able to make it back on Sunday. However, the competition was great and the teams were close in every round of the meet.

The AZSL meet was scheduled during one of AZ Divewerkz' monthly Mentor Camps. The purpose of the Mentor Camp is to attract skydivers who are interested in 4-way, but may not have a team of their own, or are just looking to improve their skills, lined up with a member of Divewerkz. Each Divewerkz member forms a separate 4-way group with a ratio of 1-on-3. Not only do skydivers get coaching on the ground, but the Divewerkz member is the player coach to work with them in the air. The ASL meet and Mentor Camp were scheduled at the same time to maximize the number of teams and participants.

Bryan Burke was the meet director, and he helped make sure the meet ran smoothly. Round 1 was wheels up at 7:30 am on Sunday, to make sure we got in at least a few rounds before the winds were too strong. Fortunately, the winds finally died down around 11:00 am, and the weather was beautiful for the conclusion of the competition. Round 6 was completed and judged before 2:00 pm. Former Airspeed and current AZDW member Chad Smith judged the competition.

As for the teams, the scores were close throughout the entire competition, and each round was up for the grabs. Eventually, the teams that were able to stick the exits and keep it clean inched up on the scoreboard point by point.

Team SACO (Ane Bauerle Brentford - Tail, Todd Hawkins - Center Inside, Andrew Hilton - Point, Simon Nath - Center Outside, Simon Brentford - Camera)was visiting from the United Kingdom and was training over the past week with Todd Hawkins at Skydive Arizona. Unfortunately, the winds that delayed the AZSL competition also affected the number of jumps they were able to get in. Luckily the SkyVenture AZ windtunnel came in handy as an easy back-up for them. To add to the team struggles, one of the SACO members also fell ill and was unable to make the meet jumps.

Coach Todd Hawkins was able to step in and compete with the team. SACO posted excellent scores throughout the meet after losing a few points to the other teams in Round 1, which set them behind off the bat. However, despite the initial point gap, the scores throughout the rest of the meet were solid and consistent, and similar to the other teams throughout the rest of the competition.

Hot Fusion (Jared Ashley - Center Outside, Steve Iverson - Center Inside, Cindy Nieves - Tail, Scott Pearsall - Point) and Five Flies in a Microwave (Blane Boynton - Center Inside, John Coffman - Center Outside, Allison Harper - Tail, Molly Osbourne - Point, Gordon Lindsay - Camera) were even more consistent. The battle of these two teams was neck to neck, and every point counted. The distance went back and forth, and Hot Fusion's final lead of of three points was all that separated the two teams by the end of Round 6.

All three medal recipients received prizes from Square 2 and Aerodyne. The next AZSL meet is scheduled for June 14th and promises to be another exciting competition.