posted May 18th, 2009 - The videos of the first two rounds at the May meet of the Florida Skydiving League in Sebastian were already uploaded on Saturday. Rounds 3 and 4 are now available on NSL YouTube TV, as well. The new videos come along with a photo gallery of the competition day at Skydive Sebastian.

There are usually many more photos of an event than only the ones which are embedded in the NSL News story. Whenever possible, the NSL News will now upload the other photos of any event, as well, as this brings the activities on competition site even closer to the on-line audience.

The combination of the meet videos and as many snapshots as possible is another step to make the NSL News coverage of any event even more tangible. The link to the photo gallery of the FSL meet in Sebastian can also be found on the top of the according event page.

The first story from Sebastian on Saturday already mentioned that the Rookie Class teams had a great time at the scenic skydiving center on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean, where AAA Class Sebastian Tempest has its training headquarters, as well.

Tempest still follows the order of slowing down the pace by the team's coach Thomas Hughes. The 13.8 average after last weekend's six rounds copies exactly the result of the April meet in DeLand. Thomas Hughes applied a very similar concept with Spaceland Blue in 2008, which turned out to be very sussessful. The US national 4-way team in the female category eventually won the silver medals at the World Meet 2008, one single point behind Bodyflight Storm.

The Tempest members fully believe in the team's training plan and apply the instructions of their coach very carefully. They are still waiting for the coach's green light to pick up the pace. They could not say when Thomas Hughes will ask them to increase the energy input. A recent live interview with the Spaceland Force member will follow very soon.

The main focus in Sebastian was naturally on the Rookie Class competition, as the participation was higher than ever before in Florida. However, there were also very specific aspects of the competition that made it even more exciting than only the record number of Rookie Class teams.

Team DiZaster from Skydive City attended already the team's third competition this year and matched the 7.0 average of the previous meet. The exits are still the Z-Hills team's most challenging part of a competition jump. Bonnie Young, Jonathan Bojar, Quinn Lamb and Tim Neaves will probably turn the 7.0 average instantly into a 10-point average as soon as each exit will be more reliable.

In fact, the team members promised that this will be the case at the next competition. The FSL June meet will take place on DiZaster's home turf in Zephyrhills, and that's the time and place when the team wants to post the scores according to the team's potential.

It was even more exciting to follow the progression of the other Rookie Class lineup from Skydive City.

Ryan Anderson (Center Outside), Justine Brenc (Center Inside), Aaron Engelman (Tail) and Wendy Manning (Point), with Scott Pratt on camera who also filmed Team DiZaster, were inspired by their friends from Z-Hills and formed their own lineup for the meet in Sebastian.

Last Minute Z had absolutely no 4-way experience at all and made their first 4-way jumps together in Sebastian. It was a tough and rough start, as they started from scratch and had to work hard to launch a linked 4-way piece successfully. Each jump was a little bit better and more promising than the previous one, and they finally mastered the exit in Round 5. However, the transition to the first scoring formation did not work well, and it still turned out as another zero on the scoreboard.

The exit of Round 6 fell to pieces once again, but Last Minute Z was now well prepared to find each other quickly enough and complete a formation without a linked exit.

The whole FSL crowd on site followed the judging of Round 6 and cheered for Last Minute Z when the Open Accordeon of Round 6 was complete at 27 seconds. The first scoring formation was rewarded with the first point on the scoreboard, and the team members got the well deserved credit for hard work and a lot of patience.

Both teams from Z-Hills celebrated and exchanged their new and fun experiences in Sebastian after the meet. They said that there is a very good chance that their own experiences may even spark more interest in forming Rookie Class lineups at Skydive City. The popular annual Memorial Day 4-way Scramble is coming up this weekend, which is like a recruiting event for casual 4-way competition in Z-Hills. The June meet of the Florida Skydiving League at Skydive City may even have another record number of Rookie Class lineups. Welcome to the club...