posted Nov 2nd, 2009 - The closest and most exciting competition of the 2009 USPA National Skydiving Championships took place in a category that is used to be in the second row.

SDC Furies XP and Ranch Fallout battled for USPA's Advanced Class gold medals from the first to the last round and ended up two points away from each other after ten rounds. The Furies, with Anabel Durham (Center Outside), Karyn Rees (Point), Shannon Sweet (Tail), Rhonda Wilcox (Center Inside) and Charles Lane (Camera), had the upper hand at the end.

It was the first time in history that an all-female lineup won gold medals in any category at the USPA Nationals. Some lineups of the US national teams in IPC's female category may have been able to do this already in the past. However, they always had to compete in the Open Class to qualify as the national team, despite USPA eligibility for the Advanced Class medals and according to the USPA regulations.

In fact, Spaceland Blue, the current national team in the female category, and a few other Open Class teams, such as Sebastian Tempest and Elsinore BTE, would have been eligible to compete in USPA's Advanced Class but felt more home in the Open Class. Both categories apply the same dive pool and competition draw.

The NSL News had introduced the Furies in depth, including the team's long history, with the story on 15 September 2009. The team members' passion, persistence and progression over the years has been very impressive, and this year's gold medals in the Advanced Class are the most deserved reward for all the efforts.

The members of Ranch Fallout (David Grabowski, Kim Hollander, Robert Schuyler, Kimberly Schuyler and Steven Hollander on camera) have been competitors of the Ranch Skydiving League for many years. They did not get much competition practice this year, as the RSL was on hibernation in 2009. The USPA Nationals 2009 was the first meet for Fallout in 2009, while the Furies had already attended two meets of the Midwest Skydiving League earlier this year.

However, the members of both teams are experienced competitors. Both teams had new lineups this year, and the Furies lineup was already introduced earlier. David Grabowski, Robert Schuyler and Kimberly Schuyler trained and competed with Fallout already in 2008. Kim Hollander replaced Dave Bauer for this year's competition at the USPA Nationals.

Robert Schuyler, RSL Director of the past years, had already won a USPA gold medal in the Intermediate Class in 2006, together with Brian Ball, Roger Cunha and Dimitri Kavour. Kimberly Schuyler was the alternate for Ranch Pulse in 2006.

The new NSL-TV video features the first five rounds of the exciting battle between the two teams. Ranch Fallout had the much better start and was up by four points over the Furies after Round 5.

Actually, it looked much more like a battle between Ranch Fallout and Spaceland Havoc at that point in time and before the Furies started the uphill run to the top of the leaderboard beginning in Round 6.

The Furies' victory this year forces another team of weekend competitors to move up into the Open Class competition if the Furies continue with their impressive team career. Ranch Fallout would have the opportunity to continue in the Advanced Class and try again to win gold medals next year.

The USPA rules do not allow the winning team to defend the gold medals and require the Advanced Class champions to move up into the Open Class competition.

---

Participation in all competition classes at USPA Nationals since 1997

---

It does not matter whether the team members become full-time competitors or not, or whether the team increases or decreases the training efforts and scores higher or lower in the future.

These USPA regulations for the Advanced Class teams and competitors do not seem to benefit the competition in this category very well. The USPA Advanced Class is the only category that shows a quite significant drop in participation ever since it was created. This year's participation was the record low.

It might be more attractive for all other Advanced Class teams if the defending champion is still around next year. It is always exciting to challenge the defending champion, especially if the champions don't train so much any longer after an intensive year. This is only possible in the Open Class, according to the current set of USPA rules. The Advanced Class champion has to move up, no matter what.