posted Oct 19th, 2008 - This is the last update on Sunday, and it is probably the most exciting one of the day. The new daily NSL/PD News Show or Al's Night Swoop were actually supposed to wrap up the day. Both pieces were almost ready for uploading, but it got too late, and they will be available Monday morning.

The NSL/PD News Show included an interview with all five members of "Performance Desire", the world champion pickup team with Jack Jefferies, Dan BC, Shannon Pilcher and Ian Bobo. Willy Boeykens from Belgium is filming the team. The video of this interview has already been uploaded and is available at Sunday's NSL-TV page.

This unique 4-way had just completed a few training jumps and tested the slots and pieces before they visited the NSL/PD studio in Eloy. Each former Airspeed world champion (Jack Jefferies - Point and Dan BC - Center Inside) flies with a DeLand Fire and PD Factory Team piece partner (Shannon Pilcher - Center Outside and Ian Bobo - Tail). Willy Boeykens provided the video of the very first training jump on Sunday, which has also been uploaded and is now available.

The competition begins Monday morning, and the first boarding call is scheduled for 6:45 am. It sounded as if the jump order has the Open Class teams first.

Click here to go to the PD Blog photo gallery of the USPA Nationals 2008

Judges prepare for hard work

The next NSL-TV trip on the competition site in Eloy was a short one since the judging area is located just around the corner of the NSL News desk. The judges were in training session and studied videos of the past years, plus the few training videos which were provided by the some teams.

Fyodor Mozgovoy, formerly organizer of the Malevsky Cup, came across the NSL-TV camera and confirmed that he is filming the second Russian team in Eloy, Ocean 5. There is actually a third team from Russia at the USPA Nationals 2008, Crossroads. The four teams from France and three teams from Russia make this event a real high-rpofile international competition.

Fyodor left to meet his team at the mockup, and the NSL-TV camera completed the tour of the judging area. The judges had a nice welcome lunch before they went to work in the "fish bowl". It will be a very busy time for them, expecially on Monday and Tuesday when the 4-way competition takes place. The video clip is posted on Sunday's NSL-TV page.

The NSL News coverage of the USPA Nationals 2008 is brought to you with the help of:

Executive meeting at the beer truck

The Saturday night schedule of the NSL News did not only include the visit at SkyVenture Arizona and the observation of the final French meet preparations for the selection process. The inspection of Skydive Arizona's beer truck was also on the agenda, and it was a very exciting event.

Dramatic changes have taken place, and they are surely major improvements for the success of the event. Yes, Budweiser and Bud Light are still pouring out of two of the tabs. However, the three other tabs offer everything else that any thirsty skydiver can ask for at the end of the day: Amber Bock, Indian Pale Ale and Becks Oktoberfest. Nothing can go wrong from here on, sussess of the event is guaranteed...

Not only the NSL News enjoyed the significant improvements of the meet environment. Larry Hill, Bryan Burke, Jan Mayer and Exi represented the meet management and were at the same important spot all at the same time. It appeared to be a late night executive meeting at the beer truck. The NSL News joined the meeting for a few minutes...

New NSL News feature: NSL/PD Blog

Another new feature of the NSL News coverage at the USPA Nationals 2008 will be a very casual news page, the "NSL/PD Gossips". NSL News and Performance Designs' Kolla Kolbeinsdottir will collect information for quick updates on a separate page, which will also be updated on a regular basis. Either the classical NSL News story or Albert Berchtold's late night show, the "Night Swoop" will probably wrap up every day's coverage.

Last not least, the promised daily NSL/PD News Show will hopefully be "broadcast" for the first time today. The test show in DeLand, which included the NSL News interview with Doug Park, was successful but needed some technical adjustments, which could not be completed before leaving town. However, more portions of the whole show are available at the PD Blog website where Kolla will also post her updates from Eloy.

World champion pickup team complete

The combination of all these features will hopefully provide a coverage for the NSL News audience that will bring the event as close and entertaining as possible to homes and offices all over the planet. Omniskore's T2, Tim Wagner, and Jan Mayer will do their share to keep the audience up-to-date. Tim Wagner arrived this morning and set up his work station. NSL-TV has a short welcome clip posted at Sunday's NSL-TV page.

The last obstacle for the celebrity pickup team (Jack Jefferies, Dan BC, Shannon Pilcher, Ian Bobo) seemed to be out of the way when the NSL News found Dan BC chatting with veteran camera artist Mike McGowan. However, the NSL-TV camera captured a negative answer to the team related question. No John Lemming, no Mike McGowan - no pickup team and 4-way competition for the four former 4-way world champions of the last two decades.

Fortunately, this changed a little bit later when the NSL-TV camera ran again into the 4-way world champions of the 90's, Dan BC and Jack Jefferies. They confirmed a videographer for the team and already discussed the slots. It is a fact now that this 4-way team will compete tomorrow. The same conversation also revealed that Jack Jefferies made his last 4-way competition jump many years ago, probably when winning the silver medals for Airspeed in Australia 1999. He won the USPA 8-way gold medals in 2007 and did not compete in 4-way.

The NSL-TV camera just had to wait for a few more minutes before the other two team members, Shannon Pilcher and Ian Bobo, would eventually join the group. Training plans for this afternoon were made, and the complete lineup was complete for not much longer than a minute. However, it was enough time to get the first team photo. The clip of the whole team affair is also posted at Sunday's NSL-TV page.