posted Jul 24th, 2009 - The Rookie Class competition was the main part of the July meet of the Florida Skydiving League, which was hosted for the second time by Skydive Miami in Homestead.

It was a home affair only, as no other FSL teams made the long way down to the very south of Florida during the hottest summer time of the year. Only FSL coach and meet director Bob Byrne from Orlando was in Homestead to provide the three Rookie Class teams and one A Class team with guidance for the meet.

Skydive Miami has built a reputation of recruiting many new skydivers for their 4-way lineups in the past years. Some of them, like Trevor Cedar and Alex Kolb, have already advanced their skills and experience level significantly within a short period of time. Pam Manos, former 4-way world champion Guy Manos' wife and stunt actor in several movies, can take the credit for this great achievement.

She finds the best support by Skydive Miami's general manager Fred Whitsitt who knows 4-way competition up to the world class level. He was a member of the South African 4-way team Equanimity (Solly Williams, Gary Smith, Robbie Spencer, Fred Whitsitt) and won a 4-way bronze medal at the World Championship of Formation Skydiving in 1997.

Once again, three Rookie Class lineups came to the DZ at sunrise to show what they have already learned in their short skydiving careers. The Florida summer guarantees storms and rain in the early afternoon, and the teams agreed to start the day early enough. Bob Byrne reported that the meet began on Saturday at 6:15 am...

Miami Reyand had already attended the FSL May meet in Sebastian and posted a 4.3 average. Rookies Rey Valentino (Inside Center) and Andrew Lee (Outside Center) were assisted by Pam Manos and Trevor Cedar by then. Last weekend, Pam Manos had her other team mate Alex Kolb in the Tail slot to complete the lineup, and Reyand increased the meet average to 7.2 on their home turf. Jose Cardoza was filming the team.

Miami Reyand did not really have serious competition in Homestead and compared the scores more to last weekend's Rookie Class scores on the overall leaderboard. Colorado team Relativity had the 1st place there, while Miami Reyand finished in 2nd place in a field of six Rookie Class teams.

Miami Improv Rookies Peter Garrido and Pedro Diaz Pow Sang were assisted by Miami Synergy member Trevor Cedar and Gary Hansen, a former Zero Tolerance and ZT Mal4mations member. Gary Hansen had already missed the competition in Sebastian in May, as the NSL News reported on 11 June 2009. He was glad to help out the Rookie Class team this time. Nelson Perez was filming this lineup. Miami Improv completed only four rounds since Trevor Cedar and Gary Hansen both helped out two other lineups when team members had to leave earlier.

Miami Aircraft Droppings was the Rookie Class team with the lowest experience level. Trevor Cedar was guiding Debbie Roif, Leandro Moraes and Brian GoodKind through their first 4-way competition. Aircraft Droppings was working very hard to get the team's first scoring point on the scoreboard and succeeded eventually in Round 3.

The Rookie Class team's great efforts were rewarded earlier compared to Last Minute Z's race for the most important first point at the May meet in Sebastian.

Last Minute Z posted the 1-pointer literally in the last minute, as the NSL News reported on 18 May 2009. Miami Aircraft Droppings even added another point in Round 4.

A Class team Miami Impostors consisted of Gary Hansen (Inside Center), Javier Agverrevere (Tail), David Virden (Point) and Mike Anderson (Outside Center). Tom Holmes and Nelson Perez filmed the team taking turns. The Impostors went through all ups and downs between a 0-pointer in Round 1 and an 8-point score in Round 4. There was not enough daylight left for the Impostors after the afternoon storm to complete Round 6.