posted Jul 3rd, 2018 - I have to say I am impressed. It's not the first time I am impressed with Arizona Airspeed and that might be the point. It seems like they impress not only me, over and over again.

We just completed the Shamrock Showdown 2018 at Skydive DeLand, which has been the first high-profile outdoor competition of every new year for a long time. Most of the best teams in the world travel to Florida to check out their performance status at the beginning of a new competition season.

Arizona Airspeed has been using the Shamrock opportunity year by year to measure up with their U.S. opponents, which has mainly been SDC Rhythm XP, and with the other international top contenders. It provides a good starting point for the year and a lot of data for all teams that they can use to develop and fine-tune training plans for the coming year.

I am not only impressed with how easily Airspeed once again defended their Shamrock glory. (They have been undefeated in DeLand since 2011, no matter which of the world’s top teams they compete against, and DeLand is obviously not Airspeed's home turf.) It is impressive to me how Airspeed rebuilt their team and brought it to the world's top level in just a few years.

TURNING POINTS: Airspeed - Over and Over Again

It was a dangerous situation, domestically and internationally, when they had significant changes to the lineup at the end of the 2016 season. The "King of the Tunnel," Thomas Hughes, who also owned the outside center slot, discontinued at the end of the 2016 season and left big shoes to be filled.

Airspeed also did not recruit the needed new member from SDC Rhythm XP, as it had happened year by year before 2016. They invited Ari Perelman, who had never been on a high-level, hard-core team before. Everybody knew he was a gifted flyer, though, and Airspeed trusted he would also fit well into the Airspeed family.

However, it was not only the task of putting a new world class lineup together that created a dangerous situation. SDC Rhythm XP had a 2-year head start with their lineup when Airspeed began scrambling members and slots and the main U.S. opponent was showing consistent progress. And I am not even talking about NMP PCH HayaBusa yet...

Niklas Hemlin had a plan. It was a very challenging one, as it included a complete slot scramble AND a new member. The confident and highly experienced Swede had no doubt that he could be the best outside center in the world, as Thomas Hughes had been for many years. He gave up his inside-center slot and handed it over to Thiago Gomes, who was in the tail slot before.

Paraclete XP Indoor 2017		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	7,20,G	17,J,4	10,16,B	12,F,D,E	O,P,22,19	K,N,6,15	3,14,M	C,1,21	13,2,L	9,18,8	Total	Avg
1	SDC Rhythm XP	28	25(-2)	25(-1)	30(-1)	27	27(-1)	26	26	23	23(-1)	260	26.0
2	XP4	27	28(-1)	24	30(-1)	27	27(-1)	26	23(-1)	22	24	258	25.8
3	Arizona Airspeed	21(-2)	29	25	31	27	29	23	25	23	24	257	25.7

Hemlin was in a good position for the changes. He could forward his wealth of inside-center experiences to Thiago, who was his rear piece partner before. Then he could also go through all the details of the front piece with his new piece partner Ari Perelman, the latest Airspeed member. Mikhail Markine had to make room for Ari and moved back to tail where he had been with SDC Rhythm XP.

It was actually an ideal situation for such a dramatic change and it paid off even better than expected. The new lineup managed to fend off SDC Rhythm XP at the most relevant competition, the 2017 USPA Nationals, which was the qualification event for the FAI World Meet in Australia. Another half year later, Airspeed finished miles ahead of Rhythm and the French national team, Aerodyne Reafly, at the Shamrock Showdown.

That's not enough and now it becomes even more interesting and impressive. HayaBusa, the Belgian 4-way indoor and outdoor world champions of 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017, are obviously the big elephant in the room, as they did not travel to DeLand this month.

HayaBusa has been training and competing with their lineup since 2015, the same time period as SDC Rhythm XP. They had the same 2-year head start and used it carefully, to many people's surprise, as new member Jeroen Nollet had to replace Roy Janssen in the tail slot. HayaBusa has been far ahead of Airspeed at all indoor and outdoor meets that both teams attended last year and also at the Wind Games 2018. However, that seems to be over, at least, as the scores at the Shamrock Showdown indicate.

Shamrock Showdown 2018			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		B,J,17,20	M,10,O,3	Q,22,2	A,D,P,F,16	N,12,14	15,9,C	K,4,G,E	21,1,13	7,6,11	H,5,19	Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	US	28(-1)	26	24	34(-1)	21	29(-2)	31	20(-1)	23	28	264(-5)	26.4
2	SDC Rhythm XP	US	27	23	23	33(-1)	18	27	29	20	23	25	248(-1)	24.8
3	Aerodyne Realfly	FR	27	24(-1)	21(-1)	28(-4)	17	28	31(-1)	19	23	27	245(-7)	24.5
4	Aerodyne Weembi Girls	FR	26(-1)	23	21(-1)	33(-1)	15(-2)	26	27	19	22	23(-1)	235(-6)	23.5
5	Qatar Tigers	QA	25	23	22	29(-2)	17	25	26(-2)	18	21	23	229(-4)	22.9
6	FL Defiance	US	16	14(-1)	8(-4)	15(-3)	12	16	16(-1)	13	15(-1)	15	140(-10)	14.0
7	SCZ ZEUS	US	12	12(-2)	12	12(-1)	9(-1)	12	13	11	11	10(-1)	114(-5)	11.4
8	Adventure Flyers	PY	11	11	9	14	9	11	10(-1)	6(-1)	9	10	100(-2)	10.0

Airspeed did not only leave Rhythm, France and Qatar far behind at the Shamrock; they also sent a very strong message from DeLand to Belgium. The 26.4 average is only six points behind the highest outdoor average that the current HayaBusa lineup has ever posted. It was a 27.0 average at the USPA Nationals last year.

On top of that, Airspeed jumped for the first time from a Cessna Caravan in DeLand, which might have had an impact on the scoring numbers as well. HayaBusa knows that Airspeed is always a factor; however, the Belgians may not have expected the U.S. team to already be so close, with still half a year until the world meet.

Both teams have signed up for the World Challenge 2018, where Airspeed just wants to face the reigning world champions for the next competition experience. The results in Bedford are almost irrelevant, as outdoor competition is the main focus for Airspeed this year. It will just be interesting to see if Airspeed can cut the indoor distance significantly as well.

It has been an impressive Airspeed year with the new lineup and the second year is seeming to start even better. NMP PCH HayaBusa will probably have to work much harder for the next set of gold medals and it would be no big surprise to see a copy of the FAI Mondial 2012, which ended with a 1-point difference, to the advantage of Airspeed ...