posted Nov 3rd, 2025 - One of the many highlights of the USPA Nationals 2025 was once again related to Arizona Airspeed, the Formation Skydiving institution in the United States. For over 30 years, Arizona Airspeed have provided the skydiving world with highlights, and it all began with the original lineup and the Larry Hill family.

The current Arizona Airspeed lineup could not bring the highlight to this year's national outdoor championship on their home turf in Eloy, as the Golden Knights won the 4-way Open Class competition and will compete for the U.S. delegation next year in October at the same location. It was another Airspeed lineup who compensated largely for the missing next set of USPA gold medals in 4-way Open.

It was the original Airspeed lineup who posted scores on the same 4-way Open Class leaderboard where the battle with the Golden Knights took place, even though Kirk Verner, Jack Jefferies and Dan BC had Jeana Billings in their OGs tail slot. Mark Kirkby was at the competition site and the alternate for the team, with Craig O'Brian on camera. The original lineup did not complete the ten competition rounds together, while Mark Kirkby was available for the highlight of the event and the first authentic NSL Live Talk conversation. The NSL News had original Airspeed members in front of the camera whenever it was possible in the past years. It was still the first time with the complete original lineup, even though team videographer John Lemming was dearly missed.

USPA Nationals 2025			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		O,4,5		21,12,22		6,J,H,G		N,2,20		L,13,A,F		7,19,M		1,14,18		9,10,15		17,E,8		C,3,P,K		Total	Avg
1	Aethers Lille	FR	23	-1	19		33		23		34		26		18		21		23	-1	30	-1	250	25.0
2	Golden Knights	US	21	-3	19		29		22		36		26		19		19	-2	26		28		245	24.5
3	Arizona Airspeed	US	24		17		27		19		29		23		15		17		22		23	-1	216	21.6
4	SDC Rhythm XP	US	19		14	-1	27		19		26	-1	22		15		16		19		19	-5	196	19.6
5	Elsinore Elevate	US	17	-1	14		23		17		26		21		15		16		19		21		189	18.9
6	Inertia AZ	US	16	-1	14	-1	24		16	-1	25		20		14		16		12	-5	20		177	17.7
7	The OGs	US	17		9	-3	21	-1	15	-1	21	-2	18		13		12	-2	16	-1	18	-2	160	16.0
8	Redline XP	US	14	-1	10	-1	18		14		22		13	-3	12		12		17		15	-1	147	14.7
9	Ranch TNT	US	13	-3	11		21		13		18		16	-1	11		12		14		12	-2	141	14.1
9	Double Trouble	US	14		11		18		12	-1	18		15		12		12		13	-1	16		141	14.1
11	Rhetirement Rhedux	US	12	-2	7	-3	16		11	-1	17		14	-1	9	-1	8	-2	10	-1	14		118	11.8
12	XP Angels	US	11	-1	9	-1	15	-2	11	-2	16	-1	13		10		7	-2	13	-1	12		117	11.7

---

NSL Live Talk with the original Arizona Airspeed lineup - The OGs at the USPA Nationals 2025

---

The ten rounds at the USPA Nationals were not the most important part of the conversation, even though Dan BC explained how earlier reunion thoughts and plans by team members eventually materialized last week. It is totally impossible to cover the complete history of Arizona Airspeed in 20 minutes, and even just the story of the original lineup would require a book, which was actually written by Dan BC. ABOVE ALL ELSE was introduced by the NSL News on 29 April 2011 and goes even beyond the complete Airspeed history.

The 20 minutes of NSL Live Talk were still enough to cover parts of the Arizona Airspeed beginnings, and the memories and stories generated plenty of laughing and joking. The situation at Skydive Arizona last week and throughout the 4-way competition year was even similar to the past when the four original Airspeed members were tired of being defeated by the French national teams with their own U.S. teams at world championships.

They joined forces and negotiated the support by the Larry Hill family at Skydive Arizona. Then they won the USPA Nationals in 1994 and began to prepare for the 2-point battle (207 - 205) with the defending 4-way world champions from France. They won the William H. Ottley Sword for the world champions, the 4-way Excalibur, a decade after DeLand Air Bears had brought it to the United States in 1985, and defended it successfully two years later. Different Airspeed lineups have won the 4-way sword five times ever since. France has taken back the world's 4-way top position again, however, the OGs have no plans of resuming their efforts to take possession of the 4-way Excalibur again, which is still in Eloy at the moment.

FAI World Meet 1995			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	US	16	26	26	20	18	23	21	18	21	18	207	20.7
2	France	FR	16	25	26	18	17	21	23	17	21	21	205	20.5
3	Touche	DK	15	21	22	18	16	19	18	15	18	17	179	17.9
4	DeLand Norgies	NO	13	23	21	14	14	20	22	15	16	13	171	17.1
5	DeLand Equanimity	ZA	13	19	21	16	16	17	19	15	18	14	168	16.8
6	Russia	RU	14	17	22	13	14	19	20	13	17	16	165	16.5
7	Belgium	BE	13	19	21	12	16	18	14	13	15	15	156	15.6
8	Switzerland	CH	13	21	14	14	14	18	18	11	15	9	147	14.7
9	Daedalus	DE	14	17	13	14	15	18	18	13	15	-	137	15.2
10	Japan	JP	12	19	16	16	13	15	13	11	16	-	131	14.6
11	Sweden	SE	11	18	17	13	13	17	17	11	13	-	130	14.4
11	Monkey Circus	AT	12	15	19	15	11	16	17	12	13	-	130	14.4
13	Spain	ES	11	19	21	13	14	15	14	11	11	-	129	14.3
14	Australia	AU	10	15	16	13	13	12	15	11	16	-	121	13.4
15	Sebastian XL	UK	9	16	16	13	12	12	16	11	13	-	118	13.1
15	Canada	CA	11	13	17	13	12	13	15	11	13	-	118	13.1
17	Netherlands	NL	10	11	14	12	12	12	14	9	-	-	94	11.8
18	Finland	FI	11	13	12	13	7	14	14	8	-	-	92	11.5
19	Croatia	HR	8	15	12	11	11	11	12	8	-	-	88	11.0
20	Hungary	HU	11	8	15	11	9	12	10	9	-	-	85	10.6
21	Italy	IT	10	5	13	11	11	11	14	8	-	-	83	10.4
22	Luxemburg	LU	7	9	9	7	10	11	8	9	-	-	70	8.8
23	New Zealand	NZ	8	10	7	4	9	10	9	8	-	-	65	8.1
24	Yugoslavia	YU	6	3	7	4	5	4	9	6	-	-	44	5.5
25	Ireland	IE	7	6	9	6	0	5	5	5	-	-	43	5.4
26	Israel	IL	5	5	9	6	6	1	6	3	-	-	41	5.1
27	Latvia	LV	5	6	0	6	6	0	7	2	-	-	32	4.0
28	Indonesia	ID	5	3	4	4	2	3	6	2	-	-	29	3.6
29	Mexico	MX	1	8	1	4	-	-	-	-	-	-	14	3.5