posted Dec 22nd, 2024 - The story of the recent personnel changes for two of the best U.S. teams in the world, including the reigning 4-way Open Class world champions of Arizona Airspeed, has been a popular topic for the NSL News and the Formation Skydiving competition community. There does not seem to be a limit of related topics that lead to the current situation and to exciting competition to be expected next year.

The history of the new Airspeed lineup has been covered mostly by introducing the two new team members and the strategies for the selection of Alisson de Vargas and Doug Hendrix. The coverage and the related interviews with the experts in the sport came to the conclusion that the 2025 season will feature an exciting race for the top positions in the United States and in the 4-way world.

Airspeed's returning world champions Joey Marshall and Chris Kuhlmann were introduced as the new team mates for Niklas Hemlin and Mikhail Markine in 2020, and they have now turned into the 2-way foundation for the new lineup, together with returning team videographer Alex Swindle. At the same time, the introduction of the two new team members was almost dominating the story of the new lineup. The NSL News is now going back one more time to the time period before the reigning world-champion lineup began with training and competition after the conclusion of the 2019 season, when SDC Rhythm XP won the USPA Nationals and the qualification for the FAI Tanay Mondial 2020 in August 2021.

Paraclete XP Indoor Championship 2016		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AA Class	P,13,G	7,19	9,O,B	C,A,N,6	18,11	K,2,21	22,8	E,L,J,20	4,1	15,M,F	Total	Avg
1	Ranch 2nd Generation	19	19	30	22	13	17	15	25	17	28	205	20.5
2	Nimbus	14	17	26	19	12	14	13	19	15	21	170	17.0
3	Exit Strategy XP	13	14	26	19	11	13	14	20	13	23	166	16.6
4	Texas Crush	16	16	25	20	11	15	11	18	12	19	163	16.3
5	Mortal Enemies	9	14	24	18	11	12	11	15	12	14	140	14.0
6	Blocksmith-4-Less	14	11	19	17	8	10	11	14	10	20	134	13.4
7	Dallas Disturbance	12	14	12	18	9	12	11	15	9	19	131	13.1
8	Multi4	11	15	15	16	8	11	10	13	11	18	128	12.8
9	Haya Whoosh A	10	12	18	14	5	12	9	14	11	14	119	11.9
10	Why Not?	9	13	17	13	9	10	8	12	11	13	115	11.5
11	Not A Legal Grip	11	9	18	13	9	8	7	12	9	15	111	11.1
12	Flight SP	4	12	19	11	10	13	7	7	8	13	104	10.4
13	Randomonium	10	9	13	11	7	9	3	11	7	13	93	9.3
14	Blockwork Orange	5	10	12	9	6	6	7	17	5	10	87	8.7
15	No Rhythmmm XP	7	8	7	3	5	4	6	8	4	5	57	5.7

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Ranch 2nd Generation at the Paraclete XP Indoor Championship 2016 - NSL Live Talk with R2G

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The USPA National Championship 2019 was not only the last outdoor competition where Arizona Airspeed was defeated in the last five years, which in itself could be a historic winning streak in 4-way Formation Skydiving competition. The same event was also the last one for the U.S. team that was eventually the breeding ground for the new team members in 2020, Joey Marshall and Chris Kuhlmann.

There are other U.S. top teams who have been recruiting targets for new Arizona Airspeed lineups, especially SDC Rhyhtm XP. However, Ranch 2nd Generation became eventually even more than a very promising young team from the Blue Sky Ranch in New York State, with future Airspeed world champions Joey Marshall and Chris Kuhlmann in the lineup.

Ranch 2nd Generation also generated three members of the reigning 4-way Women world champions, XPG4: Brenn Richards, Michelle Karamon and Jeana Billings. In fact, all R2G members in the last lineup of 2019, and original member Brenn Richards, won FAI gold medals in their respective events this year. Joey Marshall and Chris Kuhlmann began with their gold medal collections already in 2022 with the same Arizona Airspeed lineup. Brenn Richards, Michelle Karamon and Jeana Billings finished in 3rd place at the same event and jumped up to 1st this year.

USPA Nationals 2019			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		11		Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open Class		7,C,H,P		J,21,20		O,3,11		B,2,K,E		8,Q,10		15,D,F,12		N,L,M,14		6,1,9		A,18,13		G,4,5		17,16,22		Total	Avg
1	NMP-PCH Hayabusa	BE	45	-1	24		27		37		21		25		34		25	-1	26	-1	25	-4	-		289	28.9
2	SDC Rhythm XP	US	41		22		21	-1	33		21		23		27		25		24		25		21	-1	262	26.2
3	Arizona Airspeed	US	40	-1	24		22	-2	32		19	-2	24		29		25		21	-2	26	-1	20	-2	262	26.2
4	Defiance	US	30	-1	21		15	-4	28		16		19		22	-3	21		18	-1	18	-1	-		208	20.8
5	Ranch 2nd Generation	US	26		19		19		24	-2	16	-1	17	-1	24		18	-1	19		19		-		201	20.1
6	Kinetix	AU	26		18		17		22		13	-1	17		18	-1	17		17		17		-		182	18.2
7	Lite XP	US	24	-1	17		17		22		15		17		20	-2	16	-1	14		17		-		179	17.9
8	No Name	US	22	-4	17		14		19	-2	12	-2	13		14	-3	15		14		16		-		156	15.6
9	Aviatrixx	US	21		14		13	-1	18	-1	12	-2	15		17	-1	14	-1	12		14		-		150	15.0
10	Perris Force	US	20		13	-1	14		18		11	-1	11		18	-1	13	-1	12		12	-1	-		142	14.2

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Ranch 2nd Generation at the USPA Nationals 2019

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Brenn Richards started with Joey Marshall and Chris Kuhlmann in 2015, with Dean Van Tassell in the lineup, and with their biggest fan, Kamuran "Sonic" Bayrasli, on R2G camera. Michelle Karamon joined them in 2016 and replaced Dean Van Tassell. The four current 4-way world champions spent two years together and won USPA Advanced Class gold medals in Perris 2017.

Brenn Richards then took a break. Michelle Karamon, Chris Kuhlmann and Joey Marshall continued with Chris Haslam and Kamuran Bayrasli on camera, of course. This lineup had to step up to the 4-way Open Class competition and placed 5th at their first outdoor appearance on the new leaderboard at Chicagoland 2018. Finally, Jeana Billings replaced Chris Haslam in 2019 and completed the lineup who all won FAI 4-way gold medals this year, Chris Kuhlmann and Joey Marshall with Arizona Airspeed, Michelle Karamon and Jeana Billings with XPG4.

Brenn Richards did not return to Ranch 2nd Generation when she had her comeback after the break. She joined XPG4 in 2021 where she re-connected with her former R2G team mate Michelle Karamon and met Jeana Billings of the last R2G generation. The XPG4 2022 lineup (Anna Brunner, Andres Mesa on camera) won FAI bronze medals in Eloy 2022, gold in Voss 2023. Then they confirmed the world's top position in 4-way Women with new team mate Jennifer Davidson and Taylor Buffington on camera at Crystal Coast in October. Ranch 2nd Generation were an extraordinary lineup of future world champions between 2016 and 2019, and five of the team members are going into their 10th year in the top positions of 4-way leaderboards.

FAI Outdoor World Championship 2024			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open Top 3		14,G,13		J,C,17,12		D,A,21,P		18,B,H,F		E,L,O,8		22,2,K		6,7,16		9,20,15		3,M,N,4		5,1,10		Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	US	24		27	-1	33		36		31		23		26		26		25		22	-1	273	27.3
2	Aethers	FR	22		23	-4	33		32	-1	29		23		22		21		25		22		252	25.2
3	Qatar Tigers	QA	21		20	-3	26	-2	32		29	-1	20		21		20		19	-2	20		228	22.8
Rank	4-way Women Top 3		14,G,13		J,C,17,12		D,A,21,P		18,B,H,F		E,L,O,8		22,2,K		6,7,16		9,20,15		3,M,N,4		5,1,10		Total	Avg
1	XPG4	US	19	-1	22	-1	28		30	-1	28		20		20		18	-1	24		18		227	22.7
2	China	CN	18	-1	17	-4	29		27		28	-1	18		21		16	-1	21		17	-1	212	21.2
3	Nephtys	FR	17		20		27		26	-1	25		18		17	-1	15	-1	17	-2	16		198	19.8

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Arizona Airspeed - XPG4 at the 26th FAI World Formation Skydiving Championships

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