posted Oct 2nd, 2021 - This year's USPA Nationals are just three weeks away, and the NSL News continues with the series of the USPA Advanced Class history. All national champions and their team careers between the introduction of the USPA category in 1999 until 2009 have been introduced so far (Frost - Teiwaz - Identity Crisis - Nemesis - Inferno - Adrenaline - Mass Defiance - Arizona Divewerkz - Aftermath - Rhythm - Furies), and the 2010 champions accomplished something very special.

Doug Barron, Andrew Happick, Joey Coffineau, Ben Worrall and team videographer James Sides had won USPA's Intermediate Class gold medals in 2009 with their Virginia Tech team VTSD, which was introduced when the NSL News covered Doug Barron's and Andrew Happick's unique achievements. They had to step up into the AAA Class world and return to the next USPA Nationals 2010 in the Advanced Class competition.

They did so and accomplished a new and unique USPA double-gold success in 2009/2010, which was eventually copied by Skydive Midwest NEXT in 2015/2016. However, Doug Barron and Andrew Happick had more in their minds and continued with SDC Rhythm XP.

The rest of the story is well known and documented in the same story that was posted by the NSL News after they had won their third USPA gold medals at the USPA Nationals 2019. It was the last and ultimate step to win the 4-way Open Class competition, after a jump-off with Arizona Airspeed.

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USPA Nationals 2010		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Advanced	16,21,11	3,L,K,10	6,22,1	12,20,4	Q,M,2,N	H,D,9,G	19,5,13	F,E,17,O	C,8,7	A,18,14	Total	Avg
1	Carolina Turbo XP	11	13	13	12	17	19	12	21	15	12	145	14.5
2	Fallout	13	10	12	10	17	19	10	20	15	13	139	13.9
3	Quattro	10	10	10	12	18	18	12	15	14	11	130	13.0
4	Spaceland Lite	11	11	11	9	13	18	12	20	13	11	129	12.9
4	Perris H Ball	11	11	9	10	15	19	12	17	14	11	129	12.9
6	Teiwaz	10	10	8	8	16	16	9	20	14	11	122	12.2
7	Carolina Ice	11	9	9	10	12	16	12	14	10	10	113	11.3
8	Spaceland Havoc	10	10	9	9	13	11	10	13	12	8	105	10.5
9	Hipshot	10	7	9	9	12	11	10	12	11	11	102	10.2
10	Katalyst	8	9	8	9	11	15	9	11	10	8	98	9.8
11	Start 4way	0	11	8	7	11	19	10	15	10	6	97	9.7
12	4D	8	8	6	7	13	11	5	9	15	7	89	8.9
13	SDC Ellipsis	4	7	7	6	13	14	7	12	9	6	85	8.5
14	TSC Motion	10	10	7	8	5	13	8	6	6	8	81	8.1

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Carolina Turbo XP in 2012

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There is only one 4-way gold medal missing in Doug Barron's and Andrew Happick's collection, which comes together with the William H. Ottley Sword for 4-way Formation Skydiving competition, also known as the Excalibur, and with the world championship title.

They came even closer than most other teams in the world and won the FAI silver medals at the FAI Tanay Mondial 2020 in August this year, together with Christy Frikken, Steve Lefkowitz and Rhythm videographer Justin Wageman.

However, the pursuit of the ultimate goal, after the three USPA gold medals and FAI silver, seems to be still in sight only for Doug Barron. SDC Rhythm XP announced on September 19th that the 2021 lineup will disband after the USPA Nationals.

Even Doug Barron and Andrew Happick, who have been training and competing together since 2009 and seemed inseparable, will part ways.

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FAI Tanay Mondial 2020			1		2		3		4		5		6		Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		O,19,Q,5		17,B,E,P		H,15,12		M,N,7,F		K,L,C,4		J,18,16		Total	Avg
1	NMP-PCH Hayabusa	BE	32		41	-1	23		43		30	-4	24	-1	193	32.2
2	SDC Rhythm XP	US	25	-2	35	-5	22		39		26	-4	22		169	28.2
3	Qatar Tigers	QA	24	-1	38	-2	19		34		26		19	-2	160	26.7
4	Aerodyne Cypres Lille	FR	23		33		19		32		24		21		152	25.3
5	Papea Masculino	ES	18	-2	27	-2	14		24	-4	19		16	-1	118	19.7
6	Kazakhstan	KZ	19	-1	23	-1	13		24	-1	17		15		111	18.5
7	Out of the Blue	NL	12	-2	25		15		23	-2	18		15	-1	108	18.0
8	Adventure Flyers	PY	12		15		11		14	-1	14		7		73	12.2
9	Indonesia	ID	3	-2	6	-1	1	-3	10	-4	1	-2	5	-1	26	4.3

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SDC Rhythm XP at the FAI Tanay Mondial 2020

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Only Doug Barron continues and will rebuild SDC Rhythm XP's 4-way team. He will recruit new team members and then resume on the same path. It will be a long way to catch up with Arizona Airspeed, who have been training and competing with their current lineup since 2020.

Doug Barron witnessed in Tanay how three members of the Airspeed 4-way lineup (Niklas Hemlin, Mikhail Markine, Chris Kuhlmann) won their first FAI 8-way gold medals in their second event. They may even drop 8-way training and competition after the USPA Nationals to focus on the big job of dethroning the Belgian 4-way world champions of NMP PCH HayaBusa.

The Belgians were miles ahead of SDC Rhythm XP at the world meet, and Airspeed knows that it will take all energy and efforts to get close to them.

This will not make it easier for Doug Barron's new Rhythm 4-way lineup, especially as Arizona Airspeed have announced plans for a longer time period. However, Doug Barron himself knows how to create miracles and pursue dreams successfully. He showed it with Rhythm at the USPA Nationals 2019, after a long journey together with Andrew Happick, which included the USPA Advanced Class gold medals in 2010.