posted Aug 3rd, 2005 - Hot off the 18-team showing for the June meet of the Southwest Skydiving League at the host of the USPA Championship 2005, Perris Valley, 14 teams arrived at Skydive Elsinore for the final meet of the regular SSL 2005 season. With record breaking heat well into the 100's expected for the day and thunderheads in the distance, wheels were up early at 8:15 a.m.

With the June meet winner Perris Fury absent due to a scheduling conflict, the AAA Class looked to be the best competition of the day, and it did not disappoint. With eight teams in attendance, including Fastrax Select visiting from their home base in Indiana, the field was the most competitive in SSL history. Any team in attendance was capable of finding the podium on any given day.

There was also a competition within the competition as two of the top women's teams in the country, Fastrax Select and Element Perris, battled it out for honors and prepared for their battle at the upcoming nationals with Synchronicity and for potential US team slots for the World Cup 2005 in Eloy and the World Championship 2006 in Germany.

The fast 2-block Round 1 (E-F-16-10) found four teams (Elsinore Gravity, Arizona Directe, Fastrax Select and Perris Katalyst) tied for first with 17 points, with Element Perris one point behind. Round 2 ended the speed portion of the day with the all-random sequence K-B-H-A-M.

Opting for different engineering, Element Perris won the round with an eye opening score of 26 points. Arizona Directe followed with 25 points, while Elsinore GT and Gravity landed with 23 points. As the day progressed through the more technical middle rounds, Elsinore Gravity and Arizona Directe separated themselves from the field, while Fastrax Select, Element Perris and Perris Katalyst fought it out for the bronze medals.

Heading into Round 6, Elsinore Gravity was two points up on Arizona Directe (83 - 81). In the race for the third place, Element Perris lead the pack with 76 points, with Perris Katalyst and Fastrax Select at 75 and 74 respectively. With Block 20 out the door and some fast random transitions, 2-point leads could easily disappear with a mistake.

In the race for the gold, Arizona Directe made an exciting attempt to catch Gravity, out scoring them 15-14 in the final round, but falling one point shy at the end. In the race for the bronze medals, Fastrax Select turned in perhaps their best jump of the day with 14 points in round six, which allowed the Mideast Skydiving League team to overtake both Perris Katalyst and Element Perris for the third place and capture the women's honors for the day.

Although only three teams can medal, the effort of the AAA Class field as a whole is noteworthy as all eight teams scored extremely well, most of them setting team bests for the season in both single-round and 6-round scores. It is a testament to the increasing talent in the National Skydiving League as a whole when a team can jump an 11+ average in a regional meet and finish in 8th place. It was only as long ago as 2000 that an 11.8 average would earn you an Advanced Class bronze medal at the USPA Championship.

When asked about Elsinore GT's performance, author Steve Miller jokingly responded, "It was our plan to get all of our bad skydiving out of our system prior to nationals. As you can see from our scores, we worked EXTREMELY hard toward achieving this goal. On this point, we viewed the meet as a glowing success!!!!!".

The AA Class competition continued the rivalry between Elsinore Equinox and Elsinore Alloy. With Arizona Diveworkz absent from this meet, Equinox and Alloy (with a new Inside Center) locked it up once again, this time with a different result. Although tied after three rounds with impressive scores of 20-17-10 and 19-17-11, respectively, perennial AA Class contender Equinox pulled away over the more technical last three rounds to take a 79-73 victory, setting new team bests for a single round with 20 points in round one and a 6-round 13.2 meet average.

This meet story was provided by Elsinore GT member Steve Miller. More meet information and meet videos, including the A Class coverage, will follow later.