posted Oct 26th, 2015 - The first scores have been posted at the USPA Nationals 2015, and the meet seems to be over after one round, at least in the 4-way Open Class on the top of the leaderboard. Arizona Airspeed put a 5-point cushion between themselves and the challenger, SDC Rhythm XP, which is significantly more than expected. In fact, the Golden Knights are in 2nd place after Round 1.

Each competition begins with the opening ceremony and the competition draw. It is the first part of the event, where the excitement begins to materialize more than on the days leading into the competition.

The officials, meet director Bryan Burke and the judges, made an effort to keep the official opening procedure as briefly as possible, as the teams are eager to begin with the actual preparations. The first NSL-TV clip of the Sun Path Products NSL News tries to bring across somehow the exciting atmosphere at this point in time.

The competition draw is on the fast side, as NMP-PCH Hayabusa coach Gary Smith explained while watching SDC Rhythm XP engineering. Round 3 is a fast Super Sequence, even though Block 9 is not as fast as a sequence of random formations. The 4-way experts are expecting scores in the mid-40s for Round 3.

Gary Smith is not only visiting the USPA Nationals 2015 to watch Hayabusa's only serious competition, Arizona Airspeed. The Qatar Falcons 8-way team will compete beginning on Wednesday, and he has been guiding the Falcons to the recent 8-way bronze medals and the 14.3 average at the FAI World Cup 2015.

Gary Smith had Scott "Scooter" Janise by his side while watching SDR Rhythm XP's engineering. He was waiting for his team to arrive from Prague, where they had an outstanding performance at the 1st FAI World Indoor Skydiving Championships. The Golden Knights did not need him in Prague, and he is now back in camera action. His team had still not arrived in Phoenix at the time of the competition draw. Monday will be a very long day for the Golden Knights...