posted Apr 25th, 2008 - Nine teams have competed in the A Class this year so far. One of these nine teams is last year's winner of the Rookie Class at the NSL Championship 2007.

Mile High Mayhem's fourth year has brought a change, the Colorado Skydiving League team has moved up into the A Class. After competing in the Rookie Class for the last three years and winning the NSL championship last October in Deland, the team has done the move already at the first competition of the 2008 season. All team members have returned in the same slots. The team has provided profiles of the members for the NSL News.

Center Inside Craig Julien has started his 6th year as an active skydiver and the 4th year competing at COSL and NSL meets. He surpassed the total of 400 jumps at the end of March. Most of his jumps are in Formation Skydiving, and he would like to do more free flying if he ever had time outside of team activities. He also enjoys running marathons and mountaineering in South America in his free time.

Tail Kim Smith has a total of almost 300 jumps and doesn't let the Mayhem boys push her around. She has made great progress in her flying ability and in cleaning up for what the boys create at the front of the formation. She has been skydiving since 2005 and has been competing in 4-way since 2006. She enjoys working out and relaxing with Mayhem teammate Russ Moran in their hot tub.

Russ Moran holds the 14-year team record for the most years with an active USPA license. He still has to pass the total number of 400 jumps this year. Russ Moran was the Mayhem Tail in 2006 and made the successful transition to Center Outside in 2007. He enjoys spending time with his two daughters who are both in the kids tunnel league at SkyVenture Colorado. They might join their dad for a few jumps when they get their A licenses in a few years.

Bob Meister continues in the Point slot. Team Mayhem recruited him early in 2007 at the Colorado windtunnel and asked him to fill in for a missing team member. He had only 30 jumps by then but many hours of tunnel training. He mastered the Point slot and then learned the Random Formations very quickly. He logged 300 jumps and 60 hours in the windtunnel in 2007, which brought him up to team speed easily.

The Colorado Skydiving League community will find Bob Meister waiting to get on any load if the sky is blue and a plane is flying. He spends half of the week at his dentist practice located at the Breckenridge ski resort and the other half in Denver with his daughter and her mother. Father and daughter like to spend time together at the dropzone or the windtunnel.

Coach Rusty Lewis is the "elder statesman" in terms of experience with over 4,800 jumps and 4,500 hours of flying time in the windtunnel. His skills range from RW, VRW, canopy piloting and coaching for the three disciplines. He is arguably one of the best body pilots and coaches in the country and travels around the world working for SkyVenture as an instructor trainer. Rusty Lewis is an active commercial pilot when he is not coaching and can be found catching up on reruns of South Park and the Family Guy.

Team Mayhem checked on what to do for the balance of the year in the middle of the 2007 season. Choices were to keep doing sequences of only Random Formations and focus on competing at the NSL Championship in the Rookie Class or start working on the A Class blocks. The team chose the former, worked very hard in the tunnel every week and jumped at the dropzone as often as possible. The hard work paid off with a nice first place trophy and bragging rights for the year.

The same Mayhem members decided to stay together and move up to the A Class for the 2008 season immediately after the NSL Championship 2007. Everyone agreed to take a month break before resuming the training. Bob Meister and Craig Julien even took a trip to the dark side and spent their time free flying in the tunnel, while Russ Moran and Kim Smith enjoyed a real break.

Team Mayhem did not really ease into the next season after the month-long break. Mayhem had already completed three windtunnel camps in Colorado and a 3-day training camp in Eloy before the end of 2007. The team members reported that everyone has thoroughly enjoyed learning the blocks, and the progress is great. Mayhem added more windtunnel time and two more 3-day visits in Eloy before the first meet of the 2008 season.

The stellar coaching by Rusty Lewis and the commitment of the team members make the 2008 season look very promising again. This time, Mayhem is planning to go after the A Class medals at the NSL Championship 2008 in November.