posted Aug 26th, 2016 - The Sun Path Products NSL News goes back to the busiest weekend of the year before the next competition features teams from the Midwest and the Northern Plains Skydiving League.

A total of exactly 100 teams competed on the August 20 weekend, 44 teams using the same competition draw, while the 56 British teams had and still have their own sequences for all four categories at the UK Nationals 2016. The Sun Path Products NSL News has covered the international AAA Class competition with several stories. Ten national 4-way teams created two very colorful and interesting leaderboards.

Eight of the same ten teams will meet each other again in the 4-way Open (Satori XL, Final Fire, Pangaea, M4trix, H4O) and 4-way Women (NFTO, No Mercy, CZ Ladies) competition of the Mondial 2016 next month.

August 20th, 2016			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AA Class		7,14	J,Q,D,4	20,2	19,L,11	9,C,F	22,A,B	O,15,K	18,P,6	E,M,N,21	1,13	Total	Avg
1	Seattle Swift	US	6	15	11	11	21	13	13	11	-	-	101	12.6
2	DeLand Kickers	US	10	12	9	9	15	10	-	-	-	-	65	10.8
3	HF Flying Circus	CZ	6	12	8	9	21	4	11	9	13	7	100	10.0
4	4igamie	NL	9	10	9	8	13	9	9	9	14	8	98	9.8
5	HF Skycentrum	CZ	8	11	8	7	11	8	9	7	12	8	89	8.9
6	Blok 43	NL	8	8	6	5	11	9	7	9	11	5	79	7.9
7	Mix	NL	7	8	5	6	10	8	7	6	7	7	71	7.1
8	Accord	CZ	5	4	6	5	6	6	5	5	9	5	56	5.6
9	ZeuS	US	7	6	5	2	2	5	4(-1)	5	-	-	36	4.5

The AA Class leaderboard featured a similar international competition as in the AAA Class. Czech Republic, Netherlands and the U.S. leagues each had three teams on the AA Class leaderboard, while additional eight British teams competed for medals at their national championships with a different draw.

The best U.S. team posted the highest meet average after completing eight rounds on the August 20 weekend, and it is not the first time that Seattle Swift finished in the top spot of the AA Class leaderboard. The Northwest Skydiving League team did the same on the July 16 weekend, as the Sun Path Products NSL News reported on July 20th, outscoring a total of 21 AA Class teams.

NWSL Director Deb Correia witnessed the Swift top performance and said that her teams had to deal with a very inconsistent weather situation: "Saturday brought record highs while Sunday was forecast to be much cooler but still lovely. Late in the evening we found out there might be a marine layer in the morning, which turned out to be accurate and unfortunately lasted until 2:30."

August 20th, 2016			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	A Class		7,4	J,Q,D	2,F	19,L	9,C	A,B,21	O,K,H	P,6	E,M,N	8,G	Total	Avg
1	Precision	US	8	10	10	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	28	9.3
2	4midable	NL	8	8	10	7	6	10	13	11	12	7	92	9.2
3	Lightining	NL	6	5	9	6	5	8	12	8	12	0	71	7.1
4	Mimozemky	CZ	5	10	7	5	1	9	9	8	10	3	67	6.7
5	Das Booties	US	2	11	8	4	-	-	-	-	-	-	25	6.3
6	Try Out	NL	6	7	5	6	5	9	7	7	6	2	60	6.0
7	Maverick	NL	4	4	7	5	6	7	8	7	4	1	53	5.3
8	Fun Sponge	US	5	4	6	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	15	5.0
9	GONO Team	CO	3	5	5	4	5	6	-	-	-	-	28	4.7

She said that Seattle Swift did not even have the greatest start into the competition, despite the impressive 12.6 average: "Denis Pershakov started off the day with a brand new jumpsuit, and the team had a rough Round 1. They came back strong and still had a good meet."

The Northwest Skydiving League had another winning team in the A Class, where Precision took the 1st place of nine teams. Deb Correia explained how the NWSL teams mastered the weather situation: "The A Class teams all chose to hang around and wait for the weather, which at first was expected to clear by 11."

Precision had Monica Aikins filling in for Amira Morghem, who hurt her shoulder on a bicycle accident. Deb Correia said that Precision's NWSL A Class rival Das Booties had a rough Round 1 but scored very well in in the next two rounds. Das Booties had trained with Andy Honigbaum the weekend before the meet and also at iFLY Seattle with Deb Correia. Fun Sponge had 4-way rookie Lauren Galloway once again filling in for Deb Correia.

The weather breaks became interesting when they took too long: "In boredom, Kurt Ferstl made a trip to the dollar store and bought supplies to play Hungry Hungry Hippo, including some small baskets and ping pong balls. The 4-way teams were made up of the members of the regular skydiving teams, and we rotated slots, so each person got to be the hippo while the remainder of the team pushed the hippo on the creepers, trying to collect as many balls as possible and maintaining grips on a formation of their choice."

Eventually, the "Hungry Hippo Game" became even quite competitive: "A judge was assigned to each team to assess busts. It was hilarious and a great way to use up some of the spare time. And of course there is video, compiled by David Patterson. Interestingly, the Hungry Hungry Hippo results matched the skydiving results later in the day: Precision (50) - Das Booties (43) - Fun Sponge (32). Maybe this is a good training tool..."

Deb Correia also explained that Rookie Class team Low Key had a new team mate with Lenora Mae: "They were just started to get their groove on when team member Nat Mote hurt his shoulder in Round 3, and the team called it for the day."