posted May 26th, 2005 - Once again the Texas Skydiving League has started off the year with a stellar meet. Skydive Spaceland hosted the first 2005 meet on May 21st and 22nd. The 4-way meet ran all six rounds on Saturday without a hitch. There were 12 teams in attendance with an expanded participation in the Rookie Class and more dropzones represented this year than in any previous year. The AAA Class had returning champions Dallas Thunder, as well as Dallas Blunder, Arizona Direct and the all female team, Method.

The AA Class had five teams consisting of 4 Fun Part Deaux, Spaceland Avalanche, Morpheus, Airtight, and 8 Balls. Last, but far from least, in an exciting expansion of the Rookie Class, three teams, including Funnel U2, Waller Whirlwinds, and Wild Wings competed each representing a different dropzone.

As usual, the briefing was exactly that - brief. Most of the competitors were experienced and all were happy to help the rookies along. The judges for the day were FAI rated judge Madolyn Murdock and USPA nationally rated judge Christy Hitchens. The meet was judged in record time and the 4-way meet wrapped in the late afternoon.

In the AAA division, Arizona Directe with Gary Beyer, Courtney Frasch, Kirk Campbell, Brian Vande Krol and Gordon Lindsay on video, took the division with a 14.3 average. The competition was close between the top two teams until a disappointing round six for Dallas Thunder lead to a second place finish for the day for the returning champs. Scott Latinis returns to the team for 2005, joined by Chad Smith, Lou Massey, Kelly Fredrickson (subbed by Dave Burton at this meet) and Al Levy on video. In 3rd place was Dallas Blunder made up of Ryan Smith, Jim Klinge, Alex Pincus and Sherry Dodson who finished with a 12-point average.

In the AA Class, the San Marcos team, 4 Fun Part Deaux (Lynn Sanders, Eric Ching, Gabe Stephenson, Scott Bram with Scott Sanders on video) won the division by a definitive one point per round. Second and third place was a tie between Morpheus from Skydive Dallas (Ron Shipp, Jim Ploehn, Ethan Tucker, coached by Rick Duran) and Airtight (Kim Airhart, Conway Hall, Michael Blanton, Fred Clark and Rico Estrada on video) from Skydive Spaceland.

The Rookie Class had teams from three different DZ’s around Texas. The first place team Waller Whirlwinds was from Skydive Houston and included Matt Jones, Johnny Tubbs, Georges Lezan and John McDonnell. They won the division handily with a 4-point per round margin. Wild Wings (Caty Sung, Neil Peterson, George Conwill, and Shari Jones-Gaulding with Shaun Conner on video) from Spaceland was second, followed by Funnel U2 (Randy Batastini, Aaron Hegeman, Dennis Greenwood, and Julie Stephenson) from Skydive Dallas in third by less than one point per round.

To wind up the day, in a new aspect of the TSL, Steve Boyd, owner of Skydive Spaceland, awarded the winners of the handicapped event T-shirts. Arizona Directe went home with a set of Skydive Spaceland shirts to show for their trip to Texas. Much to his dismay, meet director Ryan Smith was also presented with a cake for his 33rd birthday.

Unique in the country, for the 4th year now, the Texas Skydiving League also has an 8-way division. The 8-way meet was held on Sunday and planned for four rounds. This is an ever growing division with three practiced teams in attendance and one guest team participating. Judge for the day was Christy Hitchens. The meet went smoothly and finished in a timely fashion, thanks to the hard work of Skydive Spaceland, the fantastic judges and a hard working meet director.

Finishing the meet in 1st place was Deguello 9 whose lineup for the year includes returning members Jack Berke (founder and captain since 1989), Scott Elmer, Mary Lee, and camera man Brett Thomas. New members for the 2005 lineup are John Klinge, Julie Richter, Gary MacDonald, Mike Butcher and Mike Bond. In 2nd place was Dallas Spoiler composed of Ryan Smith, Scott Latinis, Don Ellisor, Cheryl Ellisor, Cherie Berke, Lou Massey, J. Hale, and Dave Burton with Al Levy on video. In 3rd for the day with a 7.5 average, was Dallas Thunder 8 captained by Karen Builder. Her lineup for the year includes Sara Stanford, Jay Rapp, Mike Westbrook, Joe Harris, Tim Patterson, Scott Hemsell, and Tim Addison with California Dave Ryder on video.

Special mention should go to the relative newcomers on the 8-way scene. Skydive Spaceland is home to a second practiced 8-way team composed of newer competitors. SPX 8 is captained by veteran Tom Jenkins and completed by Jorge Alvarez, Kim Murphy, Leah Blache, Rich Williams, Larissa Nichols, Kevin Roberts, Mike Snowden and Cory Kassan on video. This will be a team to watch as it progresses.

On a newsworthy note, the Texas all female 4way team, Method (Kirsten Johnson, Lauren Stevens, Angela Lanier and Shauna Dorsett) were filmed during the meet by Houston’s Channel 13 News, as Method and Synchronicity are involved in Project Strive (www.flylikeagirl.com). The news report aired Tuesday May 24th on the 6:00 news and spoke well of the sport and Skydive Spaceland.

Other factoids about the teams at the TSL include: Skydive East Texas sent its first team to a TSL meet in the form of the 8 Balls (Matt Smith, Don Fuller, Roger Stubblefield, and Kevin Roberts), and Avalanche has moved to Skydive Spaceland and has a different lineup, including Char Wait, Chuck deSostoa, Rich Delgado, Anton Maximov with Sean Ralls on video.

As always, TSL Director Ryan Smith did a great job making these meets happen. Skydive Spaceland ran an efficient meet with fast comfortable aircraft, not to mention the air conditioned packing. Texas Skydiving League is lucky to have so many competitors who participate and travel to the meets and make this league the success it is.

Meet story provided by Sherry Dodson