posted Dec 9th, 2008 - The end of the 2008 season is also an opportunity for a review of the year and even further back in time.

There are a lot of scores on a multiple number of different leaderboards posted at the NSL website. In fact, the NSL News covered 109 different events this year, and the scores and related stories can all be found at the Schedule of Events.

The event coverage included several major events where the NSL News was live on site, such as the World Challenge 2008, the FSL Shamrock Showdown 2008, the Paraclete XP Money Meet 2008, the World Championship of Formation Skydiving 2008 and the USPA Nationals 2008. The live coverage will continue in 2009, and the new NSL News schedule is in the works.

There is also a lot of NSL-TV footage on a separate server. The storing space is still sponsored by former FSL competitor Randy Romero. NSL-TV fans can find enough footage to spend hours and even days in front of the computer screen. The links to this footage are not only set on the NSL-TV page. Several events have links to additional NSL-TV pages with more footage of the competition jumps.

The NSL News recently reviewed the most important ingredient of the whole NSL Network and the website: the teams.

The latest team number in the database is already over 2000. The database was created in 2004 by former US 4-way champion, co-founder of Skydive University and current President of International Bodyflight Association (IBA), Craig Buxton.

The lowest registered team number is 3 and belongs to DeLand Majik of 2005, the 4-way world champion team of 2004. The currently highest and last number of 2195 was given to the Teiwaz Blue lineup at the last meet of the 2008 season, the NSL Championship 2008.

Each team that has ever competed at any competition of the NSL Network has a registration number and its team page in the database. Each new team received the next team number, which is now approaching the 3000 in 2009. This means that roughly more than 2000 teams have competed at any meets of the NSL Network ever since the database was created in 2004.

Of course, the history of the National Skydiving League goes back much further.

It began in the winter of 1996 when six teams in Florida, including South Africa's national team Equanimity, bronze medalist at the World Meet of 1997, and Sebastian XL, launched the Florida Skydiving League. Another approx. 950 teams competed between the winter of 1996 and the beginning of the 2004 season when the new database was created.

The Florida Skydiving League held seven meets in the winter season of 1996/1997 before Texas and Georgia launched the next 4-way leagues in 1997. The total number of events this year was 109 for all participating leagues. 14 leagues in the USA are currently sending their scores to the NSL News headquarters in DeLand. The number of participating countries in other parts of the world has grown to 12 in 2008.

The synchronization of the competition classes, the dive pools and the competition draws between the leagues and event organizers has made the whole NSL Network project even more exciting. Weekend after weekend, the participating teams and the on-line audience have the opportunity to compare their own scores with others and to be up-to-date on what is going on in the Formation Skydiving competition world.

Especially the Rookie Class and the A Class offer a bridge to recreational and new skydivers and keep producing new and highly motivated competitors every year. Most of all, 4-way competition is still by far the most popular category in any sport parachuting events and keeps moving on with the most consistent and ever growing participation.

The National Skydiving League has enjoyed the growth of the past years, which still does not seem to be at its end yet. There are still areas on the planet that have not become a part of the network yet. Preparations for a few new leagues are in the works.

The young league network has grown so much and so quickly that the very small operation in the NSL headquarters can hardly keep up with the workload.

However, there is still much more ahead, as Skydiving Magazine reported already in 1999 of the founder's vision. This vision and the goals have not changed much ever since, and new plans for the new 2009 season are also in the works.

It will be another exciting season for the national and international NSL Network and the NSL News on-line audience. It's time for teams and competitors to begin dreaming of even more and better next year, for individuals to join networking efforts to find a great lineup and for new skydivers to find out why the 4-way community has so much fun. Opportunities are waiting everywhere.