posted May 1st, 2008 - The remaining Round 3 videos of the FSL April meet have now been uploaded, and the NSL-TV has some surprises after digging deep into the NSL-TV archives. The second 2008 showdown between Optic Nerve and Teiwaz was the reason for the NSL News to go back in time, to the April meet of the Florida Skydiving League 2001 season exactly.

The Optic Nerve lineup in DeLand on 19 April 2008 was identical with the original lineup of 2000 and 2001: Dr. Joel Shugar (Tail), Scott Keeler (Point), Solly Williams (Center Inside), Gary Smith (Center Outside), Rickster Powell (Camera). It was almost exactly seven years ago that the original lineup competed together the last time.

Optic Nerve founder Dr. Joel Shugar had finally found his dream team at the end of the 1999 season when Solly Williams and Gary Smith agreed to join the team as player coaches after moving to the USA. The two original South Africans eventually moved on to win gold medals at the World Championship of Formation Skydiving in 2004 with DeLand Majik. Gary Smith defended his gold medal successfully in 2006 with DeLand Fire.

The original Optic Nerve lineup already competed at the USPA Nationals 1999 and took the first place in USPA's Advanced Class with a 14.4 meet average. Optic Nerve could not win USPA medals by then since Solly Williams and Gary Smith were not eligible for medals at a USPA competition at that time.

Dr. Joel Shugar, Scott Keeler, Solly Williams, Gary Smith and Rickster Powell continued in 2000 and competed with this lineup at the FSL February meet of 2001. From then on, Optic Nerve began to show up at the meets randomly and with different lineups. The reunion with the original lineup happened seven years later, on April 19 this year.

Teiwaz competed at the same events in 2001 and 2008, as well. However, the original lineup (Mary Inhoffer - Point, Pamela Geoffrey - Center Inside, Mark Stose - Tail, Kurt Gaebel - Center Outside) disbanded long ago. The Teiwaz lineups have been very flexible ever since and changed meet by meet. The lineup at the FSL 2008 April meet consisted of Jim Klinge (Center Outside, Rodney Cruce - Center Inside, Nick Grillet - Tail, Kurt Gaebel - Point).

Optic Nerve had the upper hand in Sebastian in 2001 (14.7 - 13.3), while Teiwaz won at the FSL Shamrock Showdown 2008 (17.8 - 17.4) and at the April meet (15.4 - 14.6) in DeLand. The NSL News reported from Sebastian in 2001:

Optic Nerve Rocks

Optic Nerve continued its challenge for the team's first FSL Championship with the first victory at one of the FSL season meets ever. After placing second at the season opener Optic Nerve has taken the lead in the FSL rankings. The Optic Nerve performance is impressive. The slow draw allowed "only" a 14.7 average at this meet. However, this draw was the second half of the whole dive pool. Optic Nerve and all other teams had completed the first half of the dive pool at the season opener in January.

The Florida Skydiving League is exhausting the dive pool over two meets to give the teams the opportunity to see all blocks and formations regularly. At the first meet, Optic Nerve scored a 15.7 average after six rounds. This means that the team averaged 15.2 after twelve rounds and completion of the whole dive pool. Only the full-time teams in the United States and not many teams in the world are scoring on a higher level.

Optic Nerve is training only on weekends, and most of the time only on one day of the weekend in DeLand. Tail Dr. Joel Shugar is an eye surgeon and a strong supporter of Formation Skydiving competition with his Nature Coast EyeCare Institute. He is married to Michelle Shugar and father of infant Adam Shugar. His tight schedule is determining the training efforts for Optic Nerve. Point Scott Keeler is working for Dr. Shugar at the Institute. Both have been competing for quite a few years, receiving coaching from Airspeed, FX and now the South African school.

Solly Williams and Gary Smith lead Optic Nerve to the top of their current potential. Both are former members of the South African national 4-way team Equanimity that won the bronze medal in 4-way at the World Championship in 1997. Williams and Smith have been full-time coaches in DeLand for years. They are planning to start a new full-time team soon. However, they will continue with Optic Nerve through the 2001 U.S. Championship anyway. The big goal for Optic Nerve is still to win the gold medal at the USPA Championship in the Advanced Class.

The team placed first at the U.S. Nationals 1999 in Sebastian but never received medals or recognition. Of course, this was not a surprise since the team knew that Williams and Smith would not be eligible for medals. However, the lack of recognition for the guest team in first place caused even more motivation to grab the gold medal some day.

In 2000, it was only Smith not eligible for medals. Williams had become a "legal resident alien" at this time. Optic Nerve competed again as a guest team in the Advanced Class at the U.S. Nationals. This time, they ended up in second place, just shortly behind "Uptown 5", another guest team with South African guest competitor Robbie Spencer, former Equanimity team member with Williams and Smith. Neither team received USPA medals. But this time, the competition between Optic Nerve and Uptown 5 found more USPA coverage in the Parachutist than the actual medal winners, Teiwaz, Nemesis and PD Gold.

This year, Smith and Williams will both be eligible for USPA medals. And Optic Nerve is still not tired of pursuing the gold medal in the Advanced Class. Meanwhile, the team has outgrown the competition in this class and is closing the distance to the full-time teams in the country. However, most likely Optic Nerve will still be seen among the other weekend teams.

Whatever the team is planning to do - the performance is impressive and will not be limited to the current team meet record of 15.2 average. The 16.0 average will be the next benchmark. NSL-TV will present Optic Nerve with their world class performance in round one of yesterday's meet later today.

Well, today's NSL-TV videos feature Round 6 of the February meet in 2001 for a special reason. The sequence (Q-5-M-O) included a block that is no longer in the current dive pool. Block 5 was called "Black Hole - Bipole" by then and caused mirror imaged pages, just as the current Block 5 (Opal - Opal) still does.

Few teams really mirror-image any sequences any longer, as it was very common in 2001. Optic Nerve and Teiwaz both used the mirror image continuity without even thinking of another option. Things change, and the majority of teams prefers memory for both pieces today.

The NSL News found two other familiar team names on the leaderboard of the FSL 2001 April meet. Zero Tolerance Miami competed under exactly the same original team name in Sebastian 2001. Guido Marti was already Center Inside for the team from Homestead by then and has the same slot again after a long break. He is the only original team member who still competes this year. Zero Tolerance Miami scored 6.2 average in February 2001 and a 6.6 average in April 2008.

Last not least, Sebastian XL was on the top of the leaderboard on their home turf in February 2001. XL of 2001 consisted of Pete Allum, Steve Hamilton, John McIver and Toby Stafford. Ian Brown was filming the team. XL was training for the World Championship of Formation Skydiving in Spain 2001 where the DeLand Norgies would then steal the bronze medals (20.6 - 19.9) seven points ahead of XL in 4th place. DeLand Norgies member Pal Kolbenstvedt was the event coach at the FSL February meet in Sebastian.

XL posted a 16.7 average after the second six rounds of the complete dive pool. Pete Allum, Steve Hamilton and John McIver competed together at last year's World Challenge. Pete Allum and Steve Hamilton won the second place with XL at the World Challenge 2008, together with Thomas Hughes and Brian Johnson.

NSL-TV added XL's Round 6 of the FSL 2001 February meet to the latest videos. XL of 2001 mirror-imaged the sequence the same way as Optic Nerve and Teiwaz did. Enjoy the show.