posted Dec 22nd, 2008 - Back to the team business of the west coast and other updates of successful recruiting efforts.

The NSL News mentioned during the coverage of the NSL Championship 2008 that Perris Jimani was looking for a 4th member. The story on 3 December 2008 had covered how Jim Earman's Jimani lineup in DeLand won the AA Class competition.

The three Jimani members of 2008 (Jim Earman, Anders Mattsson, Brian Sawatzky) then went team shopping together at the Perris Fury camp a little bit later, as the NSL News reported on 8 December 2008.

Once again it did not take too long until a positive update came from California. Jim Earman said that Janna Wynne seems to be very interested in the point slot for Jimani in 2009. The three Jimani members had jumped with her at the Perris team building workshop and already thought by then that she might be a very good fit.

They scheduled another weekend of jumping only with her hoping that Jimani 2009 would be in place then.

In the meantime, Jim Earman, Anders Mattsson and Brian Sawatzky made another trip to the east coast. A tunnel camp at Paraclete XP was on the agenda, and the 3-way spent three hours in the tunnel with Fastrax Blue coaches. Jim Earman said that the real Jimani lineup is anxious for redemption after a poor showing at the USPA Nationals 2008.

The following weekend with the candidate for the point slot, Janna Wynne, was successful, and Jim Earman confirmed that she is going to train and compete with Jimani in 2009. The new lineup has a problem though. Janna Wynne loves to jump with BJ Worth and the Kaleidoscope Divers at SkyQuest every November where the NSL Championship takes place at the same time. Jim Earman said that his team will try to find a solution since the new lineup will most likely try to defend the NSL title.

Perris Jimani was originally a Fury test project with two players and two Fury coaches. Judy White (Point) and Jim Earman (Tail) were the players, Fury's tail Uli Steuwe was the primary coach at the center inside slot. Christy Frikken and Chris Farina alternated for the center outside slot.

Jim Earman remembers that both players had no real 4-way experience before the project started and had never done any block maneuvers at all. The Fury project team began with the training, attended three meets of the Southern California Skydiving League in 2007 (7.3 - 10.8 - 7.8) and finished the 2007 season with the first place at the NSL Championship 2007 and a 10.0 average after only three rounds. Uli Steuwe and Chris Farina competed with Judy White and Jim Earman in DeLand.

Next step in the short team career was a new lineup for the 2008 seaaon. Jim Earman and Brian Sawatsky had met each other a few times in 2007 and decided to reform Jimani for the 2008 season. Christy Frikken connected them with Anders Mattsson and Mahindra Raj, and the Jimani lineup for 2008 was complete. Christy Frikken was the team's coach, Angie Katsoulis and Erin Murphy filled in for training and SCSL meets whenever Jimani were short a player.

Jim Earman said that the 2008 season "was sort of up and down for us". Brian Sawatsky got injured in the middle of the season and was out for a while. Mahindra Raj is a commercial pilot and had a schedule that was not very flexible. Eventually, the Jimani results at the USPA Nationals 2008 turned out below expectations. Jim Earman recalled for the NSL News how the idea of competing at the NSL Championship 2008 came up:

"I think that our self coaching shortcomings were evident at 2008 Nationals but we learned a lot. One night at the DZ bar during Nationals Hanna Betts and Rusty Lewis asked if I was interested in going to Deland for the NSL competition. It's amazing the things that you agree to after a few drinks..."

The redemption in DeLand worked well for the only original Jimani member, as his lineup won the AA Class competition with a 12.6 average.

Jim Earman, Anders Mattsson and Brian Sawatzky then agreed to continue with Perris Jimani for the 2009 season, and it was time to look for a 4th player. Janna Wynne became the new Jimani member, and the new lineup already made a few jumps and spent some wind tunnel time together as a 4-way. All team members agreed that it seems to be a good team fit and began to make plans for the 2009 season.

Christy Frikken is going to be Jimani's ground coach. She had a meeting with the 2009 lineup and told Jimani that she has a "killer plan" for the team. This turned on the heat for the new lineup, as Jim Earman reported:

"I can't wait. I am excited that we have the team together so early in the season. We are going to start training early and hopefully do well in 2009. Our plan is to stay in AA, but I suppose that could change. We'll probably get advice from Christy on that. I also hope that Jimani will be in Deland to defend the title, assuming that we stay in AA."

Janna Wynne, the new Jimani point, has been skydiving for 19 years. She has been doing mostly big ways and noncompetitive 4-way for years. She said that she became more interested in competition with the wind tunnel in Perris and the Fury coaching team about four or five years ago.

She began her 4-way career with a player coach team in 2005. Pat McGowan guided this lineup, which took on the AAA Class dve pool in the Advanced Class right away. Janna Wynne said that the team members (Amy Von Novak, Debbie Jasek Parisi) wanted to learn all they could. She was already flying the point position by then.

Then she joined Perris Fury's 8-way project team Moxie with Christy Frikken in 2006 and continued with Josh Hall and 8-way team Active8 in 2007. Her 2008 season was dedicated to 8-way too. Unfortunately, she was stopped after half of the season due to a broken ankle.

Janna Wynne now looks forward to train even harder after switching back to 4-way with Perris Jimani. The only problem is the last event of the skydiving season, SkyQuest, where she has shown up for the Kaleidoscope Dives in the last five or six years: "It's my favorite big-way event. I'm not sure what we will do about the NSL Championship there next year."

The problems could be worse. The new Jimani lineup will hopefully find a way to accommodate both events and defend the AA Class title.