posted Dec 3rd, 2008 - The NSL News covered the Rookie Class and the A Class competition at the NSL Championship 2008 already last week with the first stories and all videos in these two categories. Both competitions were thrillers and ended up with 1-point victories for Cold Turkey over Carolina Groove in the Rookie Class and Mile High Mayhem over Zero Tolerance Miami in the A Class.

The AA Class competition between Perris Jimani of the Southern California Skydiving League and FSC Wind Damaged from Florida did not end up with a 1-point difference. However, it still had the same drama as the races in the other two competition classes. Jimani won the NSL gold medals of 2008 with a 5-point victory after ten rounds and a battle with the FSL team that went back and forth.

The videos of this competition have now been uploaded, as well, and can be reviewed by clicking on the scores for each round. Penalties are marked by the numbers in parenthesis behind the scores.

NSL Championship 2008		League	Rd1	Rd2	Rd3	Rd4	Rd5	Rd6	Rd7	Rd8	Rd9	Rd10	Total	Av.
Rank	AA Class	League	G-B-K-1	22-4	M-9-L	F-15-19	H-20-A	N-14-P	18-C-Q	8-7	21-E-2	13-D-J	Total	Av.
1	Perris Jimani	SCSL	14	7(-2)	19	13	13	13	12	10	11	14	126	12.6
2	FSC Wind Damaged	FSL	12	8(-1)	18	13	12	12	11	11	13	11	121	12.1

The matchup between these two teams was colorful and had very interesting aspects. Both teams had already competed at the USPA Nationals 2008 in October, and both teams did not show there what they are capable of.

Actually, it was more the Lake Wales team that was eager to put some higher scores on the leaderboard this time. Perris Jimani had a completely different lineup compared to the USPA Nationals, while FSC Wind Damaged was competing with the original lineup.

Jim Earman, Jimani's centerpoint, competed with Anders Mattsson, Brian Sawatzky and Mahindra Raj (George Katsoulis on camera) as a guest team in Eloy and finished with a 7.4 average in 15th place. FSC Wind Damaged had no problem to beat this score at the USPA Nationals, as the Lake Wales team finished with a 10.6 average in 6th place.

Gilles Dutrisac (Center Outside), Joel Kmetz (Center Inside), Mario Luppa (Tail) and Martin McKerrell (Point), with Bill Schmidt on camera, were still not happy in Eloy, as the FSL team had already shown at the previous meets and in training that there are skills and potential for significantly higher scores. The NSL Championship 2008 was on FSC Wind Damaged's meet schedule anyway, and it would be a good opportunity for redemption.

Jimani's Jim Earman, on the other side, had already performed on a higher scoring level, as well. He competed with Judy White and Perris Fury members Chris Farina and Uli Stuewe (Nik Daniel on camera) at the NSL Championship 2007 and won the AA Class trophy with a 10.0 average after only three rounds in DeLand.

This year, he came to DeLand with an even more competitive lineup. Rusty Lewis (Center Outside) and Bodyflight Storm's female 4-way world champion Hannah Betts (Center Inside) had agreed to join Perris Jimani for the NSL Championship 2008. Performance Designs tour representative Nick Grillet filled the Point slot for the west coast team. Thomas Hughes was filming the team and providing coaching advise.

This high-profile lineup put a lot of pressure on Jim Earman in the Tail position who would surely become the key factor for Jimani's scoring level. There was hardly a doubt that this lineup would score higher than FSC Wind Damaged's 10.6 average at the USPA Nationals. The open question prior to the meet was how much higher the FSL team could lift its scoring level and whether Jim Earman would have the skills and nerves to keep up with anything that Wind Damaged would come up with.

The stakes were set for an exciting competition, and the meet turned out to be exactly what was to be expected. It was a battle that went back and forth round by round. Perris Jimani won six rounds, FSC Wind Damaged won three rounds, only Round 4 was tied. FSC Wind Damaged proved clearly with the 12.1 average that the team could do much better. Jim Earman showed that he could handle the pressure and keep up with a 12.6 meet average, this time after ten rounds in DeLand.

The NSL News will follow up with more details of the AA Class competition soon.