posted Jul 27th, 2022 - A new country will join the 4-way competition community this year at the FAI Outdoor World Meet at Skydive Arizona in October. No team from Guatemala has ever competed at a world meet or a world cup, and La Playa will be the first one for the Central American country.

La Playa are not new to the NSL News audience though. Julio Giron, Ramiro Lopez, Juan Merck and Enrique Otzoy, with Fernando Fernandez on camera, competed first time at the May meet of the Arizona Skydiving League 2021. They started in the AA Class and followed up half a year later in the AA/Intermediate Class competition of the USPA Nationals.

The NSL News pointed out the visit of the team from Guatemala with the update after the ASL meet in May 2021 and explained how Emily Bombardi and Eric Daniel brought the team to the ASL competition and motivated them to continue.

Emily Bombardi and Eric Daniel, who have recently launched the new Indoor Cloud League team at iFLY Colorado Springs, then helped La Playa with their next international competition experience at the USPA Nationals last year.

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Arizona Skydiving League May 2021		1		2		3		4		5		6		Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	11,F,3		H,D,P,18		16,8,L		22,10,21		9,C,14		O,Q,7,19		Total	Avg
1	AZ Defiance	12		16		10		11		-		-		49	12.3
Rank	AA Class	11,F,19		H,D,P,18		8,L,6		22,21		9,C,14		O,Q,7		Total	Avg
1	Four Flight	8		9		8		7		8		11		51	8.5
2	La Playa - Guatemala	5		8		6		6		7		5	-3	37	6.2
Rank	A Class	F,19		H,D,P		8,L		21,G		9,C		O,Q,7		Total	Avg
1	Eggplant 21.1	7		8	-2	7		8		10		11		51	8.5
2	Patient Zero	7		8	-1	3		7		6		-		31	6.2
3	Unicorn Surprise	1		4		2		2		1		2		12	2.0
Rank	Rookie	F,K,M		H,D,P		Q,L,B		E,G,N		J,C,A		O,Q,F		Total	Avg
1	Gold Diggers	1		1		0		2		0		3		7	1.2

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La Playa's registration for the outdoor world meet requires the team to train the complete FAI/ISC dive pool this year. Emily Bombardi said that LaPlaya performed one of the two Indoor Cloud League's 4-way Open Class sequences (AAA/AA) in July and ended up only one point behind iFLY Colorado Springs' July highscore in this category.

La Playa were back in Eloy later for an indoor/outdoor training camp, and they completed six hours of indoor training in three days, on top of the outdoor training. They were preparing for their national championships in August where they plan to defend their 4-way title.

Julio Giron and Enrique Otzoy were team mates in a different 4-way team before joining forces with Ramiro Lopez, who had previous 4-way experiences with Pilas, the previous Guatemalan champion team. Juan Merck completed the current lineup. He is the current president of the Guatemalan Skydiving Federation (La Asociacion Nacional de Paracaidismo Deportivo de Guatemala - ASOPARAC), which is supported by the Guatemalan government.

La Playa are planning to attend the USPA Nationals in September for a serious test in the AAA/Advanced/Open Class before competing at the world meet.

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USPA Nationals 2021		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Intermediate	L,2,M	K,13,8	14,E,H	4,9	P,15,C	20,1	22,11	21,Q,D	A,J,18	B,6,F	G,7,O	Total	Avg
1	Kaos Theory XP	15	14	11	15	14	10	10	15	15	19	-	138	13.8
2	Dallas Dynasty	13	13	13	15	13	11	10	15	13	21	-	137	13.7
3	Air Force Atlas	13	12	11	14	12	10	6	16	15	18	14	127	12.7
4	SDC Rhebellion XP	15	11	13	12	13	10	8	13	12	20	13	127	12.7
5	Air Force Stallions	14	12	13	9	12	9	8	12	9	17	-	115	11.5
6	Perris Fall Risk	11	6	11	10	9	7	8	11	7	14	-	94	9.4
7	Combat Turkeys	10	8	7	10	8	7	7	10	10	14	-	91	9.1
7	CK PetriCKor	8	10	9	9	8	8	7	8	10	14	-	91	9.1
9	Hammer-Hammer	9	9	8	6	9	7	7	10	8	13	-	86	8.6
9	Cinnamon Roll Fight Club	10	6	9	9	8	6	7	9	10	12	-	86	8.6
11	Organized Kaos	9	9	8	6	8	7	7	11	8	11	-	84	8.4
12	Jump Florida Furtherance	9	6	8	9	7	6	5	8	10	11	-	79	7.9
13	Proximity	9	9	6	9	8	7	6	9	5	7	-	75	7.5
14	Limbo XP	10	5	7	8	8	5	6	5	11	7	-	72	7.2
15	Spaceland Toxic Thunder	10	3	6	9	6	6	7	7	8	9	-	71	7.1
15	Funnel Vision	9	6	4	8	7	6	5	7	9	10	-	71	7.1
17	Basket of Cocks	5	7	5	9	7	7	5	7	7	10	-	69	6.9
18	Whatever Works	8	7	7	7	6	4	5	7	6	10	-	67	6.7
19	Wasted Potential	8	6	6	7	2	7	5	9	7	9	-	66	6.6
19	Carolina Bootie Babes XP	10	4	3	8	6	7	6	8	7	7	-	66	6.6
21	CSC Dynamika	9	7	5	6	6	3	3	8	6	9	-	62	6.2
22	Colorado Grip Switch	6	5	5	6	6	6	5	7	7	8	-	61	6.1
22	La Playa	8	3	3	6	7	4	5	6	10	9	-	61	6.1
24	Deland's Hit Show	5	6	3	7	4	5	5	2	7	11	-	55	5.5
24	Carolina Relative Humility XP	6	4	5	6	5	5	5	5	7	7	-	55	5.5
26	Stepmom x TreShaun	6	3	5	8	5	5	2	6	6	5	-	51	5.1
27	7 Foot 4-way	4	4	4	4	4	5	5	5	5	8	-	48	4.8

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Team member and ASOPARAC President Juan Merck told Emily Bombardi and Eric Daniel during the training camp in Arizona that his team is highly motivated: "We are giving it our all this season. How lucky are we that we are in our second year together, training as a team, and we have the chance to represent our country at world championships that will be hosted at a dropzone that has been our home away from home."

More than anything, Emily Bombardi said, La Playa hope to continue inspiring talent within the Guatemalan skydiving community and continue to elevate the country's skydiving level for a larger representation internationally in the coming years.

However, La Playa face direct competition from the rebuilt Pilas team, with original members Manuel Rojas and Luis Escobar. The progress and the competition of the two teams from Guatemala has also inspired a new A Class team, Los Alacranes, to train for the national championships and for international events in their future.

Los Alacranes (Guillermo Castellanos, Arturo Miranda, Daniel Santiago and Julio Estrada, with Susie Fuentes on camera) had a training camp with Emily Bombardi in Ft. Lauderdale in May.