posted Jan 8th, 2009 - The first preview of the World Challenge 2009 had one of the busiest top teams of the 2008 season it the lineup for the AAA Class competition at Bodyflight Bedford in April: Perris Fury. The silver medalist of the USPA Nationals 2008 had its busiest season in team history last year after attending seven different competitions, including two tunnel meets.

The 2009 season will not be much different for Chris Farina (Center Inside), Christy Frikken (Center Outside), Josh Hall (Point), Uli Steuwe (Tail) and Niklas Daniel on camera. Christy Frikken informed the NSL News already earlier that her team has planned the 2009 season once again around the same five major events as in 2008: Valentine's Meet, Shamrock Showdown, World Challenge, Paraclete XP Money Meet, USPA Nationals. Additional meets of the Southern California Skydiving League, either with the complete lineup or with player coach project teams, will complete the busy 2009 schedule.

The team's success in 2008, with the USPA silver medal after Chris Farina's injury in the middle of the season, confirmed that the meet experience was obviously very helpful. Airspeed Odyssey has already shown for a while that there might be less pressure after facing all opponents as early and as often as possible. Perris Fury continues to go down the same road and will also collect a lot of additional meet experience throughout the 2009 season.

There is a very good chance that the Perris Fury schedule will once again match exactly with Airspeed Odyssey's. The regular Fury - Airspeed showdown at these meets in 2008 was enough reason for the NSL News to compare the two US top teams directly with the story on 17 October 2008. At that time, right before the USPA Nationals 2008, the numbers seemed to indicate that the Perris team was getting closer to Airspeed.

This tendency was not confirmed by the results in Eloy in October where Airspeed pulled away from Fury and the rest of the field. The updated chart of the race between Perris Fury and Airspeed Odyssey begins at the Valentine's Meet 2007 and ends at the USPA Nationals 2008. It will be continued this year where the stakes will be much higher.

The USPA Nationals 2009 is the qualifying event for the World Championship of Formation Skydiving in 2010, and Perris Fury wants to compete as the national team for the USA by then. Fury could even be the home team for the world meet in 2010 since Perris Valley Skydiving has sent a bid for the event to the International Parachuting Commission (IPC).

Another chart of Perris Fury's progression since the team was founded in 2005 shows that Fury is still on track. The performance and scoring level has been going up year by year, and it will probably continue in 2009. The main question is whether Fury will be able to increase the scoring level to a point where the team can challenge and eventually break Airspeed's 15 - 0 winning record.

Perris Fury launched the steep team career with Christy Frikken, Josh Hall and Uli Steuwe in the original lineup of 2005. Dan BC and Mark Kirkby took turns as player coaches in the center inside slot. The NSL News mentioned Perris Fury for the first time on 23 April 2005, after a competition of the Southwest Skydiving League:

"Perris Fury was the strongest AAA Class team at the SSL March meet and finished with a 16.0 average. Fury consists of player coach Dan BC (Inside Center), Christy Frikken (Outside Center), Josh Hall (Point), Uli Steuwe (Tail) and Karen Lewis (Video)."

The new team received more attention in the middle of a promising first season. The story on 25 August 2005 (Archives > 2005 > News > Search for: "Fury") provided more details and a team profile. However, the headline indicated trouble for Perris Fury: "Did You Know... that Perris Fury lost Dan BC for the USPA Nationals?"

The 4-way veteran competitor and coach had injured himself while playing tennis and could not jump. British XL member John McIver eventually filled the slot, and Perris Fury competed as a guest team.

Chris Farina joined Fury for the 2006 season as the new center inside engine, and the lineup has not changed ever since, except for the video slot and during the time of Chris Farina's injury in 2008. Niklas Daniel is now on camera for Fury and continues in 2009, Thomas Hughes took the center inside slot at the Paraclete XP Money Meet 2008.

The first three events of the 2009 season will already show how serious the Perris Fury threat will be for Airspeed Odyssey. Closing in on the current world champions from Arizona worked well for Fury between February 2007 and July 2008. The increased distance between the two opponents at the USPA Nationals 2008 could have been a result of Chris Farina's injury and the lack of enough training with the complete lineup before the competition in October.

Perris Fury needs a good start at the first competition of the 2009 season, the Valentine's Meet on Airspeed's home turf in Eloy. A closer finish than at the USPA Nationals 2008 would surely bring a lot of energy and motivation for the team members. The next outdoor meet is the Shamrock Showdown 10-round competition in DeLand just four weeks later. The third 2009 showdown between Airspeed and Fury is the World Challenge 2009 at Bodyflight Bedford, a 10-round indoor competition.

This 3-meet package for both teams takes place within a time period of only seven weeks. The results after the World Challenge 2009 will provide the numbers and information for the first serious evaluation of the ongoing race between the two top contenders in the USA.