posted Mar 17th, 2009 - The scores of the Aerokart Indoor Championship 2009 have now been replaced by the first scores from Brazil this year. Four AA Class teams competed, and three of them gave each other a good competition over the six rounds.

The AAA Class winner of the indoor competition in Paris, France, Hayabusa Defence, currently trains in Spain with coach Joey Jones and almost missed the registration deadline for the World Challenge 2009. The flaw was detected just in time and before the 50-team field was complete.

The preparations for the FSL Shamrock Showdown 2009 are in full swing in the meantime. St. Patrick's Day is actually today, and the following weekend has traditionally been the season opener for the Florida Skydiving League for many years. The green Irish day gave the Shamrock Showdown its name and character.

The CamScore operators from the United Kingdom, Andy Mansfield and Jo Bell, will arrive in DeLand tomorrow and set up the judging and DZ-TV system.

The female judges, Judy Celaya and Rina Gallo, arrive a day later on Thursday, and Eric Heinsheimer will be in DeLand Friday morning. The competition draw is scheduled for Friday at noon, and the teams will take off for Round 1 at 3 pm on Friday afternoon.

The NSL News contacted the members of the IPC Formation Skydiving Committee for a recommendation of the judging speed for the second viewing and is still waiting for an answer. The CamScore system will be used at the Shamrock Showdown for a real-life test of slower viewing speed for the judging.

The host of the USPA Nationals 2009 at Skydive Spaceland, Steve Boyd, visits DeLand to take a closer look at the CamScore system, as well. He and his son Eric will also cheer for Spaceland's new home team, Spaceland Force. The NSL News introduced the new world-class lineup already earlier

Several teams have already been training on site. The French national lineups, France Maubeuge and Aerokart Deep Blue, are already in their second week of training and are approaching the 100-jump number. The Open Class lineup had two off-days on Sunday and Monday and enjoyed the beach and the springs in Florida.

Mathieu Bernier and Pete Allum joined forces to master the surf of the Atlantic Ocean nearby. They will use their energy separately on Wednesday when France Maubeuge and Sinapsi have scheduled a 1-day mini meet to test their current performance levels. The NSL News will try to spy on both teams...

Sunday evening brought the opportunity for everybody in the area to watch a shuttle take-off in the evening. The French delegation made a trip to the beach where the view of the shuttle launch in Cape Canaveral is even more impressive.

Aerokart Deep Blue had only the Monday for a day off after arriving a few days later. Coach Marin Ferré said that the female lineup had to make up for the missing days. He is a passionate surfer and diver, too, and he used his own day off on Monday for both activities.

Mathieu Bernier and Marin Ferré both explored Blue Spring together, a diving opportunity that is frequently visited by other DeLand skydivers, as Thomas Hughes, Pete Allum and Shannon Pilcher.

Both Russian teams, Cross Road and Crystal, have also been training already, and the Dutch team NRG recently joined the training activities. The Airspeed Odyssey 4-way world champions arrive on Thursday and plan to make a few warm-up jumps on Friday morning.

It will be a busy weekend in DeLand, as the Florida POPS community has new record plans for this weekend, as well. The local media is already well informed, and the general public will participate strongly on the Shamrock Showdown weekend as usual. The NSL News will try to upload as much information as possible during the event action.