posted Sep 22nd, 2009 - The NSL News story on 18 September 2009 covered the September meet of the Midwest Skydiving League. MWSL Director Alan Butt had provided the meet report, which included the mention that MWSL team SDC Rhythm XP scored a new record average for an "amateur team":

"The AAA Class featured two of the best teams in the history of Midwestern skydiving: SDC Rhythm XP and SDC Furies XP. Rhythm made MWSL history last meet by scoring a 37 in the elective round ten. Today they made NSL history by posting a 19.7 average, the highest score ever by a 'weekend' team. The Furies, who were accompanied by team coach Brian Johnson, finished with a strong 15.5 average, almost two points higher than their previous meet."

As usual, attentive readers brought to the NSL News attention that it was not the first time that an "amateur team" posted a 19.7 average. In fact, the Sebastian Tempest 2008 lineup (Chris Ash - Tail, Thiago Murradas - Point, Ari Perelman - Center Outside and Kris Peterson - Center Inside) finished with exactly the same meet average after six rounds at the September meet of the Florida Skydiving League 2008 season.

The competition draw was even faster in September 2008, and Tempest took full advantage of it at the meet in Zephyrhills. Sebastian Tempest and CSC Rhythm then competed at the USPA Nationals 2008, Tempest in the Open Class, while Rhythm won the Advanced Class gold medals. Tempest finished two points ahead of Rhythm at the end of both teams' first season.

It was still just as interesting to follow both teams from then on. Tempest and Rhythm both had personnel changes at the same time, and both teams once again did exactly the same thing: they replaced a team member with a competitor who was new to the AAA Class dive pool. Rob Radez replaced Center Inside Brain Ball for Rhythm, and Gilles Dutrisac became the new Point for Tempest. Former Point Thiago Murradas switched to the Center Outside slot.

SDC Rhythm XP trained hard and a lot with coach Kirk Verner in 2009, while Sebastian Tempest had Thomas Hughes as often as they could get him. For most of the 2009 season, it seemed as if Rhythm would be far ahead of Tempest. Then the FSL team picked up the pace at last weekend's meet, according to Thomas Hughes' training plan, and all of a sudden there might be the same Rhythm/Tempest race as last year.

USPA Nationals 2009 - AAA/Advanced Class
Who will break the Mass Defiance "amateur record" of 19.3 average?	SDC Rhythm XP Sebastian Tempest Spaceland Blue Others
	Current Results

Both teams are holding the unofficial 19.7 record average for an amateur team in a 6-round weekend draw, and both teams are pursuing the 20-average benchmark. Mass Defiance still owns the 19.3 record average for a 10-round meet at the USPA Nationals. SDC Rhythm XP and Sebastian Tempest will both chase down this mark at the USPA Nationals 2009.

The other team at the September meet of the Florida Skydiving League, Rookie Class team DiZaster from Skydive City, flew to new scoring heights, as well.

Jonathan Bojar (Center Inside), Quinn Lamb (Tail), Tim Neaves (Center Outside) and Bonnie Young (Point) did not have to pick up the pace. They simply had to find a safer exit, as they had lost a lot of working time at the past meets after exit funnels and subterminal trouble.

DiZaster succeeded last weekend and did not funnel any of the ten exits in Sebastian. Result was a 10.1 average after ten rounds, which included a 21-pointer for the fast Rookie Class sequence in Round 9.

DiZaster has consistently improved the scoring average at the team's six meets of the 2009 season. The Z-Hills team is now ready to compete for the Rookie Class championship trophy at SkyQuest 2009 in November. The 10.1 average is probably not the end of the DiZaster progression this year.

The Rookie Class competition was included in the NSL Championship for the first time in 2005. No team from Florida has won the Rookie Class trophy yet. Team America (Texas - 2005), Fast Fockers (Carolina - 2006) and Mile-Hi Mayhem (2007 and 2008) were the best Rookie Class teams of the past years. Team DiZaster seems to be able to give the strong competition from Colorado (Relativity) and Texas (Funnel Approach) a good race this year.