posted Jun 2nd, 2010 - The NSL News made a roadtrip to Zephyrhills last weekend. Skydive City was hosting the 7th Annual 4-way Scramble, organized by Oren Kalb and Laura Song. The NSL News had heard about the event and the impressive participation year by year. It was time to check out live on site what is going on at this event.

Event organizer Oren Kalb had mentioned earlier this year that he was once again expecting a great turnout. He had 12 teams lined up several weeks ago, and this surely caught the NSL News attention.

It turned out to be a new record participation. 22 lineups were competing on Sunday just for fun. 15 teams were the maximum number until last weekend.

It was interesting to see that the interest in 4-way seems to have a momentum on the top and on the bottom at the same time. The high-profile FSL Shamrock Showdown 2010 had the highest number of teams in history, as well, and the first meet of the United Kingdom Skydiving League 2010 had additional record numbers.

The format of the Z-Scramble seems to attract many recreational skydivers to test the 4-way environment and enjoy a day of casual 4-way competition. The participants sign up as individuals, and the organizers put the teams together using four different categories for the actual scramble of the lineups.

Their goal is to level out the field, and each team has a more experienced 4-way competitor to guide the team through the meet. The NSL News asked Oren Kalb and Laura Song to explain the format and the success of the event.

7th Annual 4-way Scramble at Skydive City - NSL Talk with the Organizers

Only two of the team captains were experienced top level AAA Class competitors, such as Ron Hill (Dallas Rogue), Bob Byrne (Teiwaz), Kevin Schafer and Dave Ruffell. Several of the other team leaders entered 4-way competition as members of more committed teams in the past years (Christine Freiherr, Yvette and Keith Walter, Eric Haller, Quinn Lamb, Jonathan Bojar, James Saine, Heather Hill, Bonnie Young, Paul Bartkus).

The team captains had to provide only the very basic 4-way guidance for their lineups. Top 4-way performance was surely not reqired for the sequences which consisted of a Rookie Class and A Class mix.

Hard evidence for the well leveled field was the fact that the best skilled and most experienced team captain, Ron Hill, ended up at the very bottom of the field with his lineups. His wife Heather finished far ahead of him in 8th place.

Activities at the 7th Annual 4-way Scramble at Skydive City

The event format has been so successful that it deserves to be applied more often and at other places, as well. Oren Kalb said that he will discuss the options with the Florida Skydiving League very soon.

The NSL-TV camera captured much of the activities all day long. The video clip begins with the scramble of the participants in the morning and ends when a typical rainstorm of the Florida summer brought the meet to an end after two rounds.

It also shows how the participants eat and drink while the videographers dub their footage for judging at the end of the day. The award ceremony concludes a fun event for all more or less serious 4-way participants that day.