posted Dec 16th, 2009 - It took the Rhythm 3-way not even two days to come to a conclusion. The long and intensive selection process ended last weekend with the tryout of three candidates at the Paraclete XP wind tunnel. The NSL reported live from the tryout site with stories and video clips on 11 November 2009 and followed up with one missing piece on 13 November 2009.

Steve Lefkowitz called the NSL News on Monday afternoon and announced officially that Thiago Muradas is the new Tail for his team. He had already informed all three candidates before breaking the news for the NSL audience.

The NSL News took action right away and invited Thiago Muradas for a live interview in the NSL office. The new Rhythm member accepted the invitation and visited the NSL DeLand office next day. The video of the interview has been uploaded and is now available for reviews.

The latest results of the according NSL Poll before the final decision still favored Nick Grillet as the new Rhythm Tail. However, Thiago Muradas' numbers improved dramatically after the video clip of his flying session was uploaded. His flying skills in the wind tunnel were obviously convincing for several new voters, as he more than doubled his share in the poll.

The NSL News has covered Thiago Muradas' skydiving career already several times in the past. This coverage went parallel with the SDC Rhythm XP story, quite often and by coincidence. A story on 23 May 2007 (Archives > 2007 > News > Search for "Lefkowitz") introduced the CSC Rhythm lineup of 2007. A little over a week later, on 2 June 2007, the NSL News introduced Thiago Muradas in person (Archives > 2007 > News > Search for "Muradas").

JaNette and Steve Lefkowitz and Thiago Muradas started their original and upcoming Rhythm careers in the USA almost at the same time.

Thiago Muradas met his future Sebastian Tempest members shortly after the NSL News stories in May and June 2007. The "Teiwaz Young" lineup at the August meet of the Florida Skydiving League would soon become the original Sebastian Tempest lineup.

The parallel coverage of Rhythm and Thiago Muradas became more frequent once Rhythm and Sebastian Tempest began challenging each other throughout the whole 2008 season and continued with the same race this year. They even trained together several times at the Paraclete XP wind tunnel and eventually joined forces for the 8-way competition at the USPA Nationals 2008 and 2009.

It was obviously not a big surprise that Thiago Muradas became a candidate for the SDC Rhythm XP tryout when his own team disbanded after this year's USPA Nationals, and when Rhythm had to look for a new Tail at the same time. It was actually a perfect timing, although it was just another coincidence.

The situation between the two teams has another interesting aspect, as the new Rhythm lineup fills the open gap at Skydive Sebastian. The former Tempest host welcomes SDC Rhythm XP for the 2010 season as the new home team. Rhythm will share the training efforts between Skydive Chicago, Paraclete XP and Skydive Sebastian.

Sebastian will be mainly the winter home of the team. Skydive Chicago's Twin Otter will fly in Sebastian throughout the winter season and lift Rhythm for training jumps. The team will move to Illinois as soon as the summer season begins there.

Even though it was not a big surprise that Thiago Muradas would be a candidate at the final stage of the tryouts, there was still no guarantee that he would be the new Tail. He had to work hard for it, as the Rhythm 3-way had two other very capable candidates, Nick Grillet and Samer Haija.

His biggest job was to prepare himself for a slot that he has never flown in his life. Rhythm needed a Tail, Thiago Muradas has been in the front piece only.

He had to do some serious home work, and he surely took on the challenge. He explained to the NSL News that he could prepare himself only mentally, and he had between six and eight weeks to complete his preparations.

His Tempest team mate Chris Ash helped him with his own technical notes for the Tail slot. Rhythm also provided him with the notes that former Rhythm member Laurent Beaudouin had written down in his three years with the team in the Tail slot. Thiago Muradas said that he spent approx. five hours to study these notes.

He spent another ten hours to study 4-way videos and specifically the rear piece and the Tail slot, of course. He found quite a few of those videos on the NSL website, he added. Finally, he spent a total of approx. eight hours to visualize himself in the Tail slot.

The results were impressive, as Thiago Muradas looked very comfortable and familiar with the slot, just as if he had already tons of experiences as a Tail. He will now receive the rewards for the hard work. His days as a weekend skydiver and competitor are over, and that's exactly what he has always been dreaming of and aiming for. His new team, SDC Rhythm XP, will begin to pursue the very top level of 4-way Formation Skydiving competition.

P.S.: One slot is still open. SDC Rhythm XP is looking for a videographer who wants to join the pursuit of excellence next year. Interested skydivers can get directly in touch with the team by e-mail.