posted Nov 12th, 2008 - The NSL 2008 season is coming to its end very soon. SkyQuest 2008, the annual event that concludes each NSL season, is scheduled for November 20 - 23.

Skydive DeLand will once again be the SkyQuest host. The combination of BJ Worth's Kaleidoscope Dives and the NSL Championship, plus other skydiving disciplines in different years, has been a fun and entertaining event for eight years now.

The NSL Championship brings together the teams that have not had enough of 4-way competition at this time of the year. The 4-way event also offers the A Class and Rookie Class teams an opportunity to compete live on site on a more than regional level.

The USPA Nationals has an arena for the AAA Class teams in the Open and Advanced categories, and the AA Class teams can compete in the Intermediate Class with the identical dive pool and rules.

The A Class and Rookie Class teams compete regionally at the league events of the NSL Network throughout the regular season, and they can compare their scores indirectly after the weekend due to the synchronization of the competition draw and the weekly leaderboard at the NSL website.

The NSL Championship then offers all participating teams the opportunity to meet each other live on site at the end of the season and compete for medals and trophies.

This year's NSL Championship will take place for the first time without Dr. Joel Shugar who died this year in a skydiving accident. The 4-way award ceremony this year will be dedicated to and in memory of one of the greatest fans and contributors in Formation Skydiving competition. Optic Nerve, Dr. Joel Shugar's 4-way team, attended 40 meets since 1997, with different lineups - but always with Dr. Joel Shugar.

These 40 meets included nine USPA Nationals and seven NSL Championship events. Dr. Joel and Optic Nerve posted scores at last year's NSL Championship and also at the 4-way Invitational of SkyQuest 2007. The last Optic Nerve scores appeared on the leaderboard of the FSL Shamrock Showdown 2008.

The NSL Shugar Cup has been the trophy for the winner of the NSL Championship in the AAA Class for many years and is currently in Sebastian Tempest's possession.

Tempest will try to defend the Shugar Cup successfully next weekend. DeLand Geneses (1998, 1999), PD Blue (2000), Golden Knights (2001), DeLand Majik (2002, 2003), Arizona Blade (2004), Teiwaz (2005, 2006) are the other NSL champions with their team names engraved on the NSL Shugar Cup.

Sebastian Tempest will try to defend the AAA Class title. Perris Jimani will be back to defend the AA Class title of 2007. ZT Mal4mations from Skydive Miami is the reigning A Class champion, and Mile High Mayhem from Colorado won the Rookie Class competition last year. The special NSL Champions page shows all winning teams in all competition classes evers ince the inception of the National Skydiving League in 1998. The same page also shows how the different competition classes were introduced year by year.

While the 4-way teams are getting ready for the last competition of the 2008 season, BJ Worth prepares his team of Kaleidoscope Divers for this year's jumps at SkyQuest 2008. The roster has already been posted at the SkyQuest website, along with the dive designs and additional information. The former 8-way world champion and organizer of the World Team's large-formation world records has a special theme for this year's Kaleidoscope Dives, as his latest bulletin explains:

"There is a common thread to all of our 2008 dive sequences, and a bit of symbolism in a few of the formations themselves. As usual, each sequence includes striking geometric changes from one formation to the next – reminiscent of kaleidoscopic visuals. To view the 2008 Dives, please go again to the Kaleidoscope home page. Rags Raghanti has put a lot of effort into turning BJ’s stick drawings into individual pieces of art. For those who really want to get a preview of the slot engineering, please click on the link for “Exit Configuration” on the bottom of the home page.

The common thread is that the final formation on each of our 3-point sequences will be a Big O. While the first formations for each of this year’s dive sequences will be relatively straight forward (at least, we will all be facing forward for the most part), completing those big stars will our most daunting task to date. Your organizing team, however, feels sure that we will be up to this task!

As for the symbolism… the first formation on Dive 2 is the view when looking through the barrel of a Walther PPK/S, rifling and all – used as the pre-title graphic on all James Bond films. This is to commemorate the new 007 film that is opening this month. The first formation on Dive 4 is a big snowflake, to remind us why we are in DeLand in November, and not somewhere up north. And, although not by design, the Big O has significance due to a recent change in the political landscape."

Sounds like a fun plan for the Kaleidoscope Divers of 2008. BJ Worth's lineup is complete, including team captains and videographers, while 4-way teams can still sign up for the event until the meet weekend. The first Kaleidoscope Dives will be launched on Thursday. The competition draw for the 4-way event is scheduled for Friday at noon. Two rounds are schedule for Friday afternoon.