posted Oct 25th, 2009 - Arizona Airspeed's triple victory (4-way, 8-way, 16-way) at the 2009 USPA National Skydiving Championships, the team's continued status as the US national 4-way team and Spaceland Fource XP's new 4-way world record in Round 6 caught a lot of attention by the audience and by the NSL News.

The battle for the 8-way slot in the US delegation for 2010 has also been a big topic and involved some of the Force members, as well. It went almost unnoticed that there was another top contender in 4-way who ended up in 3rd place with a 24.3 average, only one single point behind the new world record holders with their USPA silver medals.

Perris Fury performed better than ever before and finished with the highest 10-round average in the team's history. Chris Farina (Inside Center), Christy Frikken (Center Outside), Josh Hall (Point), Uli Steuwe (Tail), with Karen Lewis on camera, had two sole highscores in Round 7 and Round 10 and tied the highest score in Round 9.

In fact, Fury had the highest total of the last four rounds (Fury 89 - Airspeed 88 - Force 86), but the team's wake up call came too late. Airspeed was already cruising to the victory line, and Fury could not cut enough into Spaceland Force's 4-point lead after six rounds.

However, the numbers still speak very well for Fury's performance this year, and the 24.3 average is the best outdoor result ever. Fury performed at its best at the right time, it just was still not enough to beat the world champions from Arizona over a 10-round distance.

It might only be a matter of time when the Perris team eventually catches up with Airspeed and passes. Airspeed has won each single one of the 20 attended competitions since this lineup was founded at the beginning of the 2007 season. The world champions surely know how to win a meet. The performance level still has not gone up much at all. The annual meet average of all 10-round outdoor meets (24.0 - 23.8 - 23.7 including the shorter World Meet 2008) is even degressing.

This is not the case for Perris Fury. The progression curve is still going up, year by year. Of course, it is much easier for a team to show progression on a lower scoring level, as Fury in the team's early years (2005: 15.6 - 2006: 19.9 - 2007: 20.6). These numbers include only scores at outdoor meets over ten rounds.

The Fury progression still continued after passing the 20-average level. The scoring average of 2008 was 21.3 after four outdoor meets, and the 24.3 average at the USPA Nationals 2009 brought Fury to a 22.2 average for this season.

The Fury members will soon meet and discuss the past year and the future of the team. Hopefully, the most consistent Airspeed challenger of the past three years will continue with the same energy and motivation. And hopefully, other US top teams will join the races of the 2010 season.