posted Aug 2nd, 2005 - Several teams have already used the opportunity of combining winter training camps in the southern parts of the country with attendance at earlier NSL meets in Florida, Arizona or California. That is nothing very new. It has also become normal operation that team members travel to locations far away to attend team training camps and competitions.

It is more unusual when teams decide to compete at different locations, which are outside of the geographical area of the "home league". Other reasons for a longer road or air trip, beside the winter or spring training locations, can be that the team's schedule might not fit perfectly to the home league's event chedule.

However, there is also a growing number of teams that travel to other meet locations in the middle of the season, just to experience a different meet environment and enjoy the trip. There are also other benefits, which will not only be found in the social aspects of the meet travel agenda.

The major events of the skydiving competition season usually require traveling and bring a new and unknown meet environment after arrival at the new place. It is beneficial for a team to be familiar with the event location since the distraction factors are on a lower level at a well known place.

It is almost impossible for a team and the current line-up to become really familiar with each potential event location. However, a team can train how to deal with the distractions of a new meet environment by traveling to different locations on a regular basis.

The setup of the NSL competition leagues usually bring the teams and competitors of each league to the participating skydiving centers of the area and within driving distance. Most of the teams take advantage of this setup, and only a few teams decide to compete only on their home turf.

A trip to locations outside of the actual league area changes this familiar pattern and brings new experiences for a team. The Northern Plains Skydiving League team Fast Forward recently traveled to a competition of the Midwest Skydiving League. The great experiences of the Fast Forward road trip were summarized by team member Bill Rehm in a message to MWSL Director Alan Butt:

"Great meet, too bad about not getting in round six, but this was one of the best run meets I've ever been to. The SkyKnights sure run a nice DZ and meet. Thanks for all the hospitality. It was great to see some old friends, and we also met some really decent competitors, as well."

Visiting teams can also provide additional and valuable feedback for the hosting league director. Bill Rehm added: "I am completely impressed with Eliana. As I understand it, you don't get traveling coaches in much for your meets. I highly recommend it, especially after talking to a couple of the teams and hearing about what they are looking for."

Finally, a great experience will most likely encourage the visiting team to make more trips, and the new and different environment can even be athletically inspiring, as the Fast Forward experience shows:

"I hope we get to visit the MWSL a bit more in the future. The vibes and good weather really helped us get into a good place for practicing, and we got our team high at your meet. It was just about the cleanest day of jumping I've seen from my team in a long time. This all with a medium pace, but kind of a technical draw anyway. That makes the good scores even better, since we had to earn them."

Team Kachina had a similar experience at the July meet of the Virginia Parachute Council after visiting the June meet of the Florida Skydiving League at Skydive City. Kachina competed with player coaches Pete Allum and David van Greuningen in Florida and with a different line-up in Virginia.

Pete Allum was not available for the July meet, and Kachina brought in Andy Honigbaum from Airspeed to fill the slot. The Kachina plan was to have Golden Knight Matt Davidson join the line-up, but at the last minute the Knights added another day of training with the full line-up.

Kachina was able to get a long-time friend of the team members, Terry Arnold, to help out. Terry Arnold had not been doing any 4-way since the 2004 season and was excited to join Kachina. Coaching was provided by Andy Honigbaum, and Kachina had a great time.

One of the Kachina members provided a summary of the experiences at the July meet in Virginia and feedback: "Downplane-Dave put on a great event, as usual, and he busted his tail to make certain that everyone had a great time, got scored quickly, and he did it all without getting crosswise with manifest. Skydive Orange was a great host DZ, and for the day being sandwiched between morning and afternoon weather, the meet came off superbly!"

The complete schedule of all NSL 4-way events in the country can always be found at the NSL Schedule of Events.