posted Oct 19th, 2009 - The NSL News will soon begin to follow up on the 2009 USPA National Skydiving Championships with plenty of footage of the competition jumps, provided by CamScore. It's footage of the 4-way and 8-way competition in all competition classes.

One Arizona Airspeed video of the 16-way competition was already shown with the story on 17 October 2009. The same story provided details of the Airspeed lineup. Airspeed won the 16-way competition easily this year.

In fact, Arizona Airspeed had won all four Formation Skydiving events (4-way, 8-way, 10-way, 16-way) in 2007 and 2008. It did not work out the same way for Airspeed last week. The Golden Knights took the 1st place in 10-way, and Airspeed ended up only in 3rd place, even behind Annie's Toys in 2nd place. No Airspeed sweep this year.

Airspeed's 10-way lineup consisted of three 4-way members (Eliana Rodriguez, Craig Girard, Andy Delk). Mark Kirkby was the alternate, 8-way champion John Hamilton competed in 10-way, too. Paraclete XP members Thomas Hughes, John Eagle and Todd Hawkins joined Airspeed's 10-way team, plus Josh Hall of Perris Fury. Vertical Formation Skydiving 4-way champions Will Pesek, former Airspeed videographer, and Mickey Nuttall completed the 10-way lineup. Steve Novak was filming the team.

The Golden Knights were in 3rd (2007) and 2nd (2008) place in the past two years. It seemed as if it was time for a 10-way gold medal. The last 10-way USPA gold medal went to the US Army headquarters in 2005.

The Golden Knights competed with the complete 8-way lineup in 10-way, including 8-way alternate Kurt Isenbarger. Eric Heinsheimer completed the 10-way lineup. 8-way videographer William Fleming switched slots with former videographer Larry Miller who put the camera back on his helmet to film the 10-way team. The 10-way gold medal was the first USPA gold medal for several Golden Knights members.

Annie's Toys in 2nd place had the underdog lineup. Spaceland Blue member Annaliese Peterson captained the lineup of her toys, which were mostly recruited from the Dallas Rogue 8-way lineup (Scott Latinis, Ron Hill, Ari Perelman, Ben Liston, Rodney Cruce, Brian Stephens). Robbie Spencer, former DeLand Equanimity member and 4-way bronze medalist at the world meet of 1997, had competed for Piece Out in the Intermediate Class, together with his wife Melissa. Christy West was the alternate for the local 8-way team SPX8, and Shannon Pilcher completed the lineup. Brett Thomas was filming the team.

Airspeed had the two fastest builds of the 6-round competition but also swallowed a 40-second score in Round 3. The Golden Knights completed all six formations without any trouble rounds. Annie's Toys had a 40-second score in Round 1, as well, and still outscored the 4-way, 8-way and 16-way champions who also had a slow Round 6.

The 10-way competition concluded the Formation Skydiving events of the USPA Nationals 2009.