posted Feb 14th, 2021 - The story of the Shamrock Showdown began officially in 2002. The next edition in March 2021 resumes the event series before the 20-year anniversary in 2022.

The inaugural event in 2002 took place when the Florida Skydiving League transitioned from the original format and schedule to the current one. The Florida Skydiving League was launched in the winter of 1996/1997. World-class teams in Florida (DeLand Equanimity, Sebastian XL, DeLand Genesis) and regularly visiting teams from other countries for outdoor winter training (DeLand Norgies) were eager to get more competition practice.

Plans were finalized after the FAI World Cup 1996 in Belgium, where DeLand Equanimity, Sebastian XL, and DeLand VNE competed together and then traveled back to their homes in Florida. Result was the first season of the Florida Skydiving League, which began to grow into the National Skydiving League a year later. The FSL meets were held between October and April, the time period with the best weather situation in Florida, while the winter break began in Europe and the other regions of North America.

The idea of the Florida Skydiving League and the regular regional 4-way meets spread quickly, and the first NSL Championship was held between Florida, Texas and Georgia in November 1998. The schedules of the early leagues were different though, due to the locations and the weather. The Florida Skydiving League began to adjust the meet schedule after merging with Texas and Georgia. Goal was to create meet weekends with synchronized competition draws and shared leaderboards, while holding meets at different locations. The start of the FSL competition season was pushed back from October/November to January.

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Shamrock Showdown 2002			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		12,H,2	J,L,G,D,P	6,Q,C,B	K,N,7,16	F,A,14,M	5,13,15	18,3,10	9,19,18	17,4,22	11,O,21	Total	Avg
1	DeLand Majik	US	19	34	31	23	22	20	17	21	18	21	226	22.6
2	Airspeed Vertical	US	19	34	28	24	23	19	17	19	19	21	223	22.3
3	Sebastian XL	UK	17	27	22	20	23	16	14	17	17	18	191	19.1
4	Sinapsi PD	IT	14	27	18	21	21	14	14	17	15	17	178	17.8
5	Punky Fish	NL	14	24	21	16	17	13	11	14	13	13	156	15.6
6	Phenix	SE	14	19	19	17	17	11	13	6	14	14	144	14.4
7	Blue Eye Majik	US	11	23	14	19	14	10	11	14	12	14	142	14.2
8	Space Center Teiwaz	US	12	18	18	12	10	13	11	14	9	15	132	13.2
9	Jetstream	US	11	15	15	13	13	10	11	12	11	11	122	12.2
10	Superfly	US	11	15	12	11	10	9	10	11	7	11	107	10.7
11	TBD	US	5	14	9	9	12	8	4	10	9	8	88	8.8
Rank	A Class		C,K,15	P,G,N	Q,D,H	A,4	L,E,O	M,J,21					Total	Avg
1	Quest	UK	6	8	12	9	13	11	-	-	-	-	59	9.8
2	Apogee	US	3	9	5	7	10	7	-	-	-	-	41	6.8
3	Pahokee 4play	US	6	8	8	4	5	7	-	-	-	-	38	6.3
4	Zero Tolerance Miami	US	5	5	5	7	7	6	-	-	-	-	35	5.8
5	Slow Motion	US	2	5	4	4	4	5	-	-	-	-	24	4.0
Rank	Rookie		E,P,K	E,A,H	E,D,N	E,M,Q	E,C,B	E,G,J					Total	Avg
1	Sebastian 8L	US	10	15	10	9	12	12	-	-	-	-	68	11.3
2	Obsessive Compulsion	US	4	10	6	8	5	8	-	-	-	-	41	6.8

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DeLand Majik and Airspeed Vertical at the Shamrock Showdown 2002

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The winter meets in Florida became more popular every year, as visiting teams from other countries and North America could combine outdoor winter training with collecting competition experiences at the FSL meets. Even additional indoor training was possible after the first wind-tunnel was built in Orlando in 1998, SkyVenture Orlando.

The March meet of the Florida Skydiving League became the most popular event over time, and DeLand Majik members Solly Williams and Joey Jones suggested names for the FSL/NSL event. The proximity to St. Patrick's Day eventually became the name-giver for the first Shamrock Showdown in 2002.

The first event was a great success, and the international world-class participation became a great opportunity for top-level competition practice. The Shamrock Showdown home team, DeLand Majik, even brought home the FAI world championship title in 2004, followed by DeLand Fire in 2006.

The Shamrock Showdown had become its own signature event in March in the meantime, while the Florida Skydiving League continued to adjust the meet schedule and match the growing number of new leagues in the NSL Network, and their event dates. The Shamrock Showdown finally became the regular opening event of the competition season in Florida.

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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	26.4
2	SDC Rhythm XP	US	27		23		23		33	-1	18		27		29		20		23		25		248	24.8
3	Aerodyne Realfly	FR	27		24	-1	21	-1	28	-4	17		28		31	-1	19		23		27		245	24.5
4	Aerodyne Weembi Girls	FR	26	-1	23		21	-1	33	-1	15	-2	26		27		19		22		23	-1	235	23.5
5	Qatar Tigers	QA	25		23		22		29	-2	17		25		26	-2	18		21		23		229	22.9
6	FL Defiance	US	16		14	-1	8	-4	15	-3	12		16		16	-1	13		15	-1	15		140	14.0
7	SCZ ZEUS	US	12		12	-2	12		12	-1	9	-1	12		13		11		11		10	-1	114	11.4
8	Adventure Flyers	PY	11		11		9		14		9		11		10	-1	6	-1	9		10		100	10.0

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Arizona Airspeed and French Weembi Girls at the Shamrock Showdown 2018

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The nature of the Shamrock Showdown began to change over time again, while the date is still the same. The rapidly increasing number of wind-tunnels across the planet turned the outdoor winter season, with random trips for training camps in the warmer regions, into the new indoor season, even with FAI/ISC world meets and world cups added to the teams' winter schedules.

However, the top teams still needed regular outdoor training and continued to combine winter training camps with the Shamrock Showdown, which slowly became the test event at the beginning of an outdoor world championship season.

The last Shamrock Showdown was held in March 2018, the year when Shamrock winner Arizona Airspeed ended up two points behind NMP PCH HayaBusa at the FAI Outdoor World Meet 2018 in Australia. There was no Shamrock Showdown 2019, as the teams were in their final preparations for the FAI indoor world meet at Weembi Lille in April. The Shamrock Showdown 2020 then promised to become a new world-class event at the beginning of the FAI Tanay Mondial 2020 season. However, both events were eventually canceled due to the corona virus pandemic.

The Shamrock Showdown could be catching up now, as there will be two outdoor world meets in consecutive years, first the rescheduled FAI Tanay Mondial in August this year, followed by the next outdoor world meet in 2022. Registration is open for the 2021 event, and teams of all categories (AAA – AA – A – RRR) are welcome to share the jump planes at Skydive City with the best 4-way teams in the world...