posted Nov 18th, 2008 - Wednesday is the last day before the Kaleidoscope Divers will launch SkyQuest 2008 with the first 100-way on Thursday morning. Several participants begin with their warm-up jumps on Wednesday, and the facilities at Skydive DeLand get their final touch, as well. The weather is promising, as the recent forecast shows, with a lot of needed sunshine and temperatures that invite to wear the SkyQuest 2008 T-shirts at least on one of the four event days.

BJ Worth has set the minds of the Kaleidoscope Divers on the good old Big O, he wants to see a round 100-way Star successfully built within the 4-day time frame and has planned 16 jumps to achieve this goal. The Star is supposed to be the last formation of each sequence. The World Team captain has once again put together a beautiful dive plan with designs that the spectators on the ground will enjoy to see unfold in the skies over DeLand.

The NSL phone has already been busy for days. The general public in the area is well aware of the event, and calls with questions related to the event show once again how much interest there is. Local newspapers have already announced their visits at the event site.

The T-shirt design of SkyQuest 2008 features the renewed symbiosis between the Kaleidoscope Dives and 4-way competition, which have been the main ingredients of the event ever since it was moved from Fantasy of Flight to Skydive DeLand. It is a good fit even though the formations are not exactly of similar sizes.

The Kaleidoscope Divers are mostly recreational skydivers with a few exceptions, including 4-way world champion of 2004 with DeLand Majik, Solly Williams. There are several other former and current 4-way and 8-way competitors in the roster who have signed up for the Kaleidoscope Dives with former 8-way world champion BJ Worth.

The combination of recreational big-way experts and competitors in the roster indicates how serious the participants take their job at SkyQuest 2008. BJ Worth's last information bulletin shows that he tries to get the most out of the jumps and the participants. There is a good balance between making the best big-ways of the year and having fun.

The situation is very similar at the NSL Championship 2008. It is obviously a 4-way competition and the final NSL event of the 2008 season. However, most of the 4-way teams in the country have trained, competed and traveled enough for the year after the annual USPA Nationals. There are still teams and competitors who either did not make the trip to Eloy in October or can never get enough of 4-way competition.

The NSL Championship also offers an arena for the A Class and Rookie Class teams who cannot compete at the USPA Nationals. The nature of the competition is a very casual one where the teams and competitors still get a lot of individual attention and recognition. The balance between competing seriously, putting the best scores of the 2008 season on the NSL leaderboard and having fun is very similar to the purpose of the Kaleidoscope Dives.

There will be good and tight competition in all categories. Sebastian Tempest is trying to defend the NSL Shugar Cup and will face the challenge of two Teiwaz lineups in the AAA Class competition. Teiwaz has not released the exact configuration of the lineups yet. However, there are rumors that the Florida Skydiving League team is getting help from a couple of Midwest Skydiving League competitors who just won gold medals in the Advanced Class at the USPA Nationals 2008...

The AA Class competition will see a rematch of last year's duel between California Skydiving League team Perris Jimani and FSC Wind Damaged. The FSL team from the Florida Skydiving Center in Lake Wales finished far ahead of Jimani (106 - 74) at the USPA Nationals 2008, but things will be very different this weekend.

Jimani's founder Jim Earman has recruited a much stronger lineup for the NSL Championship 2008 (Rusty Lewis, Hannah Betts, Nick Grillet), and his team will perform on a much higher scoring level. Thomas Hughes is filming and helping the team. Hannah Betts is a Bodyflight Storm member and reigning 4-way world champion in the female category.

FSC Wind Damaged does not seem to be too impressed with the lineup from California. Gilles Dutrisac, Joel Kmetz, Mario Luppa and Martin McKerrell know that they can score significantly higher than they did in Eloy last month. They also want to give their leaving Tail, Mario Luppa, the best farewell they can. The Italian citizen goes back home at the end of the year after completing his services for the Italian military in Tampa, Florida.

Mile High Mayhem of the Colorado Skydiving League will challenge the Florida Skydiving League teams in the A Class competition. Zero Tolerance Miami is probably the strongest defender of the FL hometurf in DeLand.

DeLand home team Cold Turkey will try to take over the Rookie Class trophy from Mile High Mayhem, last year's NSL Champion in this category.

The Colorado team stepped up into the A Class this year and has its team name already on the trophy. Carolina Skydiving League team Groove visits from Chester and has the eyes on the Rookie Class trophy, as well. The Carolina Skydiving League has the strongest participation nationwide in this category. Carolina Groove has obviously a very good reason to go after the title in the Rookie Class. The competition is open for other teams, eligible for NSL medals or guest teams.