posted Dec 20th, 2018 - It's been a long time since the Arizona Skydiving League posted the last scores that were generated at an ASL 4-way competition. In fact, it was Pat For 5 (Pat Atkin, Lou Massie, Sarah Smith, Kim Winslow, Jim Vance on camera) who competed at two meets in 2015 before the league went into hibernation.

The Arizona Skydiving League grew out of the Southwest Skydiving League, which was launched in 2004 and then split up into the Arizona and the Southern California leagues. The Arizona Skydiving League had its most active period in 2007 and 2008 when Arizona Divewerkz, USPA Advanced Class champion of 2006, became involved and helped to launch the new 4-way league for the 2007 season.

The NSL News now has good news for the 4-way fans and all skydivers in Arizona and the Southwest area. Eliana Rodriguez and Michelle Karamon have decided to work together and re-activate the Arizona Skydiving League.

Eliana Rodriguez is back in Arizona, where she became an Arizona Airspeed member in 2001, right after she had won 4-way Women gold medals with the U.S. team Synchronicity. She followed up with Airspeed 8-way gold medals in 2004 and 4-way gold medals with Airspeed Odyssey in 2008. She is the only Formation Skydiving competitor in the history of the sport who won FAI gold medals in three different events.

FAI World Meet 2001			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Women		8,19,24	A,L,22,H	E,10,D,11	21,6,4	B,18,C,14	G,5,20	2,1,16	M,K,12,9	15,23,P	O,17,Q,N	Total	Avg
1	Synchronicity	US	13	13	13	12	14	14	15	16	13	24	147	14.7
2	Norgie Girls	NO	13	15	15	13	13	12	13	15	13	22	144	14.4
3	4 Pleasure	SE	13	15	14	13	14	14	14	15	12	19	143	14.3
FAI World Meet 2004			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open		B,P,C,18	9,15,16	K,11,19	E,F,7,5	A,J,21,12	6,4,10	17,Q,L,1	H,14,3	13,22,O	N,M,D,2	Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	US	20	23	16	17	19	20	19	21	17	-	172	19.1
2	Maubeuge	FR	21	19	16	16	20	20	19	20	18	-	169	18.8
3	Evolution Pro	RU	18	20	17	16	18	19	20	20	19	-	167	18.6
FAI World Meet 2008			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		B,17,7	H,N,13,A	10,J,C,6	18,12,2	E,3,9	19,O,4	D,M,5,16	14,20,21	-	-	Total	Avg
1	Airspeed Odyssey	US	30	32	24	16	29	21	28	15	-	-	195	24.4
2	Maubeuge	FR	28	30	23	17	27	23	28	18	-	-	194	24.3
3	HayaBusa Defence	BE	27	33	23	17	27	22	25	17	-	-	191	23.9

Eliana Rodriguez and Craig Girard, Airspeed 4-way and 8-way world champion team mates, left their Arizona homes in 2010 and moved to Dubai where they were heading the Formation Skydiving project for several years.

The Dubai project was discontinued a few years ago, and they moved back to Arizona where they have had their old and new headquarters ever since.

Michelle Karamon recently moved from the east coast to Arizona. She has been the Inside Center for Ranch 2nd Generation since 2016, the 4-way shooting star in the United States. She continues with R2G and is also training and competing with the new Paraclete XP 8-way team that is trying to win the USPA Nationals 2019.

Eliana Rodriguez and Michelle Karamon together are bringing more experiences, skills and knowledge in Formation Skydiving competition to the Arizona Skydiving League area than the participants were ever able to enjoy in the past.

They have scheduled monthly 4-way meets at Skydive Arizona beginning in January 2019. Best of all, they will be available to coach and guide each team throughout the competitions.

USPA Nationals 2018		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open	J,19,K,22	P,13,A,E	H,G,Q,B,21	9,2,L	C,14,4	O,16,3	1,15,10	M,20,11	F,D,18,6	5,12,17	Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	23	29	34	28	23	24	19	24	26	25	255	25.5
2	SDC Rhythm XP	20	25	33	26	20	18	17	21	23	20	223	22.3
3	Airspeed Odyssey	20	25	28	22	18	20	17	19	20	17	206	20.6
4	Defiance	19	23	25	21	18	21	15	21	21	19	203	20.3
5	Ranch 2nd Generation	17	22	20	22	17	18	15	17	21	19	188	18.8
6	Spaceland Lite	15	19	24	19	16	18	12	17	17	14	171	17.1
7	Phoenix XP	17	17	21	18	13	17	12	16	16	14	161	16.1
8	Perris Force	12	11	21	17	13	13	12	17	14	14	144	14.4
9	Spaceland Dallas 350	17	0	17	17	13	16	13	14	20	16	143	14.3
10	Victorious Secret	11	13	16	12	10	9	9	12	13	10	115	11.5
11	SNE Fly Girls	8	8	10	12	9	11	9	9	8	8	92	9.2
12	Spaceland Heatwave	9	11	11	6	6	9	7	7	9	9	84	8.4

The new ASL activities begin with a 4-way meet during the upcoming Christmas Boogie at Skydive Arizona. Eliana Rodriguez said that "it's going to be a fun competition with some Airspeed members and unique formations".

The winners will get medals and 15 minutes of wind tunnel time, sponsored by Skydive Arizona. The first official ASL 4-way meet with the current FAI/IPC dive pool and the four NSL categories (AAA - AA - A - RRR) is scheduled for January 12th.

Eliana Rodriguez and Michelle Karamon will go even beyond the 4-way activities of the Arizona Skydiving League and offer other events, as well.

The affiliated Arizona Skydiving Tribe will be the "inclusive skydiving community" that Eliana Rodriguez and Michelle Karamon are planning to build in the Arizona area: "We support and encourage each other in the learning process throughout our competitions and events."

They plan to create different opportunities to develop individual skills and apply them at the different events, including the 4-way meets of the Arizona Skydiving League: "We all want to get better, so we will coach you on basic and advanced skills that also transfer to other disciplines, like cross referencing, grip discipline, flying on level, communication and much more!"

More information is available on the ASL Info Letter and by e-mail.