posted Sep 19th, 2014 - The Northwest Skydiving League held its final meet of the season on September 13, with unusually warm weather for this time of year in the Northwest. The teams got a great start, with the first load taking off shortly after 9am. All teams competed at Skydive Snohomish, as Synergy, which normally competes at Skydive Kapowsin, was at the USPA Nationals. Bill Selig served as judge for the meet.

The friendly competition between the A Class teams, JOES and Fun Sponge, continued. The two teams are coached respectively by Dave and Deb Correia. JOES took an early lead, topping Fun Sponge by 3 points each in the first two rounds. While Fun Sponge topped JOES in Rounds 3 and 6 and tied them in Round 5, they weren't able to overcome the 6-point deficit, and JOES took the meet with a 10.7 average to Fun Sponge's 9.8.

JOES has five team members. Andrew Gaiovyi, the team's original Point, moved to California in the spring, and Charles Wesley took his place for much of the season, including training in the wind tunnel. Andrew flew up for the July meet, but unfortunately it was weathered out. He was able to fly up again for the final meet, and Charles took on a new role for him, flying camera for the team, and he did a fantastic job. The other team members are Djordje Mandaric (Center Outside) and Denis Pershakov (Tail), along with coach Dave Correia (Center Inside). JOES is planning to move up to the AA Class next season.

USPA Nationals 2014		Rd. 1	Rd. 2	Rd. 3	Rd. 4	Rd. 5	Rd. 6	Rd. 7	Rd. 8	Rd. 9	Rd. 10	Total	Avg
Rank	AA/Intermediate Class	9,L,B	4,19	K,A,G,N	11,1	14,E,D	8,18	20,15	6,22	2,H,Q	O,13,M	Total	Avg
1	Spaceland SPX5 (US)	17	10	16	12	12	9	11	10	14	13	124	12.4
1	Falcons B (QA)	16	10	15	9	10	11	12	13	16	12	124	12.4
3	Team Singularity (US)	14	10	15	9	11	9	10	10	14	13	115	11.5
4	Synergy (US)	17	8	15	9	7	6	11	11	12	15	111	11.1
4	Centerpoint (US)	15	7	15	9	10	9	10	10	13	13	111	11.1

Fun Sponge competed all season with same team: coach Deb Correia (Center Inside), Kelli Alspach (Point), Jay Alspach (Center Outside), Zach Smathers (Tail). David Patterson did video for the last two meets. With only one training session before each meet of the season and no tunnel time, the team was very happy with their performance for the season and is looking forward to upping their game by working in the tunnel through the winter.

RainAir also had a great meet, although they didn't have any competition in their category. Irina Ulanova attended the USPA Nationals with Synergy, so RainAir picked up seasoned competitor Steve Platt (Point) to fill in, and ended the meet with an 8.8 average. Agata Staniak (Tail) commented while watching one of the team's videos that she didn't even recognize herself, there had been so much improvement.

Rae Park shot video for the team for the first time and did a great job. He commented that it was much more difficult in a competition setting than filming fun jumps, and he was pretty exhausted by day's end. The other team members are Samantha D'Andrea (Center Inside) and Matthias Kaminski (Center Outside), who will be moving to Alabama shortly and will be greatly missed.

September 13th, 2014		Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Round 5	Round 6	Round 7	Total	Avg
Rank	A Class	F,P,7	B,E,9	D,M,L	19,2	O,21	8,N	C,F,B	Total	Avg
1	Joes (US)	15	15	13	7	10	4	14	78	11.1
2	Fun Sponge (US)	12	12	14	4	10	7	-	59	9.8
Rank	Rookie	F,P,C	B,E,Q	D,M,L	G,H,P	O,K,J	N,A,E	C,F,B	Total	Avg
1	Rain Air (US)	11	9	8	6	7	12	-	53	8.8

At the end of the meet, the NWSL league champions were named, and it was no surprise that JOES took the honors in the A Class. RainAir won in the Rookie Class.

At the beginning of the season, the NWSL teams were asked if they would prefer to pay more for registration fees and get nice medals, but the overwhelming response was that they would prefer to pay less and get beer (shocking coming from skydivers...)

In trying to come up with a creative way to present the awards, league director Deb Correia created custom lanyards designed to hold a bottle of beer. Each person got to choose their favorite one from a variety of choices, which they then attached to the lanyard. It was a fun way to end the NWSL 2014 season...