posted Nov 13th, 2024 - The upcoming personnel changes in Arizona Airspeed's lineup have been one of the most discussed topics in the Formation Skydiving community, and the NSL News gave it ongoing attention, as well. However, the speculation regarding the new team members were never a part of the NSL News coverage.

Christopher Kuhlmann and Joey Marshall said during the last NSL Live Talk with Arizona Airspeed's previous lineup that they were planning to make their final selection of the two new team members in November and begin with 4-way training at the beginning of December, together with returning Airspeed videographer Alex Swindle.

They followed up with their schedule and posted an official announcement yesterday that introduced Alisson De Vargas and Doug Hendrix as the new Airspeed members, at least for the next chapter of the Arizona Airspeed history.

---

ARIZONA AIRSPEED ANNOUNCEMENT: "In December of 2019, Christopher Kuhlmann and Joey Marshall joined Niklas Hemlin and Mikhail Markine on what would end up being a magical 5 year team. Over those 5 years, we’ve won 2 outdoor World Championships, 1 outdoor World Cup, 1 Indoor World Championship, 2 indoor World Cups, 4 USPA Nationals, and 5 USIS indoor Nationals. We hosted 28 bigway events including 5 Arizona Challenges and 2 successful TBS World Records, and 30 Tunnel Camps. We celebrated a 30 year Airspeed Reunion and accepted a USPA Lifetime Achievement Award on behalf of the project.

As Nik and Mikhail complete their 12 and 9 year tenures on Airspeed, it is now time for Chris and Joey to bring two more promising talents into this project. We are happy to announce that our search for the future of Airspeed is complete.

Alisson De Vargas and Doug Hendrix will be joining Chris Kuhlmann, Alex Swindle, and Joey Marshall in the next lineup of Arizona Airspeed. Alisson and Doug are two people who Chris and Joey feel excited and confident in starting a new chapter in the Airspeed story with."

---

Shamrock Showdown 2024			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		G,5,19		7,12,15		18,21,Q		17,16,A		E,L,22,11		2,10,M		F,6,N,9		J,13,O,8		C,K,H,P,B		D,20,4		Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	US	27		22		23		27	-2	25		23		34		25		53	-5	23		282	28.2
2	Aethers	FR	21	-1	18		22		24	-1	21		20	-1	29		22		42	-1	20		239	23.9
3	Golden Knights	US	23	-1	17	-2	18	-3	24	-1	21		21		27	-4	19	-2	40	-2	19		229	22.9
4	SDC Rhythm XP	US	19		16		18		22		19		17	-1	27	-1	22		39	-1	17	-1	216	21.6
5	Nephtys	FR	14		16		17		18		17		17		20	-3	20		31	-2	17		187	18.7
6	Chicken Bolts	US	17		14		12	-2	15	-3	13	-1	16		21	-1	16		29	-4	16		169	16.9
7	Thyra	NO	10	-2	9	-1	10	-1	12	-2	14		15		19	-1	16		23		10		138	13.8
8	Teiwaz	US	8	-1	11		11		13		11		11		15		8		14	-1	10		112	11.2

---

Arizona Airspeed - Chicken Bolts at the Shamrock Showdown 2024

---

Doug Hendrix is a former member of the New England 4-way team Chicken Bolts, who placed 1st on the AAA/Advanced Class leaderboard at the USPA National Championship 2024before returning the gold medals after detecting a mistake in the rules interpretation, as the NSL News reported on September 16th.

However, Doug Hendrix was not in the Chicken Bolts lineup at the national outdoor championship. He was not available for the 4-way competition and arrived at Skydive Chicago only in time for the 8-way event. Together with his team mate Ben Liston and Prison 9 he won the silver medals behind GKXP8.

Doug Hendrix had trained and competed with Chicken Bolts since 2021, while he had connected with Ben Liston already as early as in 2014 at one of the annual SkyVenture New Hampshire Indoor Fest events, where he competed with CT True Blue. The NSL News reported on 15 January 2019 how Ben Liston called Doug Hendrix and Brian Boyle both "up and coming skydivers" in the U.S. competition world. Ben Liston and Doug Hendrix eventually joined forces in 4-way and in 8-way and posted a 16.9 average at the Shamrock Showdown 2024. Ben Liston is probably not too surprised that Christopher Kuhlmann and Joey Marshall selected Doug Hendrix for the new Airspeed lineup.

FAI Outdoor World Meet 2022			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		20,16,B		P,D,21,13		17,K,11		E,A,19,22		2,9,M		C,14,F,12		3,6,18		4,10,1		8,Q,O,H		5,7,J		Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	US	21	-1	28		27		27		31		23		21		20		32		31		261	26.1
2	NMP-PCH Hayabusa	BE	20	-1	25	-2	21		23		28		20	-2	19		17		29		26		228	22.8
3	Qatar Tigers	QA	19	-2	23	-1	22	-1	21	-1	26		18		17	-1	17		28		28		219	21.9
4	France 4-way Open	FR	19		23	-1	22		23		27		20	-1	18		15	-1	20	-5	27	-1	214	21.4
5	Chimera	UK	16		21	-2	19		19	-1	18	-5	18	-1	16		14	-1	23	-1	24		188	18.8
6	Papea Masculino	ES	17	-1	20	-1	18	-1	21		21	-2	18		15		15		21	-1	20	-3	186	18.6
7	Echochamber Oceanside	SE	14	-1	21		19		19		20	-1	17		16		15		24	-1	20	-1	185	18.5
8	Airbus Oceanside Illertissen	DE	16		18	-2	19		16	-1	20	-1	13	-3	15		14		19	-2	22	-1	172	17.2
9	Agera FS 2022	NO	16		16	-2	17	-1	17		18	-1	15		15		13	-1	18	-3	21		166	16.6
9	4Astrophe	CA	15	-1	20		19		15	-2	21		15		15	-2	14		16	-3	16	-2	166	16.6
11	Out of the Blue	NL	16		16	-3	17		17		14	-2	17		12	-1	13	-1	21	-1	18		161	16.1
12	Ripper	AU	14	-1	16	-1	18		16	-1	21		15		12		10	-3	19	-1	19	-1	160	16.0
13	Sky4Four	PL	13	-1	14	-3	14		16		16	-2	12	-1	12		13		21		18	-1	149	14.9
14	HF Flying Circus	CZ	13		10	-7	16		15	-1	18	-2	12	-1	13		11	-3	16	-5	17	-1	141	14.1
15	Sequenz	DK	10	-2	16		15		14	-1	17	-1	12	-1	12		11	-1	17	-1	11	-3	135	13.5
16	INIT-Y	BR	12	-2	14	-1	14	-1	13	-4	16		11	-2	10	-3	12		17	-1	15	-3	134	13.4
17	HSV Red Bull Aerodynamix	AT	10	-2	16		14		15		15	-1	8	-3	9	-2	10	-1	15	-1	13	-1	125	12.5
18	Adventure Flyers	PY	9	-1	13		12	-1	11		16		11		10		9		14		14	-1	119	11.9
19	Equinox	LT	10	-1	12	-2	12		12	-1	13	-1	10		10		9	-1	12	-4	14	-1	114	11.4
20	Tina & The Dinosaurs	NZ	5		8	-1	4		9		9	-1	8		5		4	-2	10		8		70	7.0
21	La Playa	GT	2	-1	7	-2	5	-1	3	-3	7		5		3	-1	5		-		-		37	4.6

---

Arizona Airspeed - INIT-Y at the FAI Outdoor World Championship 2022, Video Footage Courtesy of FAI/ISC/InTime

---

The selection of the second new Airspeed member creates a few more complications, compared to the situation with U.S. citizen Doug Hendrix. Alisson De Vargas is a Brazilian citizen and has to go through the process of immigration and naturalization before he can become a 4-way world champion with Arizona Airspeed or compete for the United States at any FAI/ISC competition.

There is nothing unusual in this process, which has taken place several times in the United States and in other countries. The most recent example on the world's top level in Formation Skydiving competition was Italian citizen Michele Silvi, who won his 4-way world championship title with the NMP PCH HayaBusa lineup of 2021 (Jeroen Nollet, Dennis Praet, Michele Silvi, Andy Grauwels, with David Grauwels on camera) at the FAI Tanay Mondial 2020.

Arizona Airspeed themselves have several examples of world champion team mates, who immigrated from other countries: Mark Kirkby (Great Britain), Thomas Hughes (Great Britain), Niklas Hemlin (Sweden), Neal Houston (Canada), Mikhail Markine (Russia). Alisson De Vargas will not even be the first Airspeed member from Brazil, as Thiago Gomes spent seven years with Arizona Airspeed (2013 - 2019) in three different slots, without winning a world championship title though. Alisson De Vargas was in the outside center slot when he competed for Brazil's national 4-way team INIT-Y at the FAI Outdoor World Championship 2022 on Airspeed home turf in Eloy. His former team mate and piece partner Ricardo Pereira was still with Brazil's national 8-way team Netunos at Crystal Coast. Alisson De Vargas did not compete at the event, even though he was present. He had to sit out a world championship to be eligible for the next one in 2026.