posted Aug 6th, 2005 - Elsinore GT's Center Inside, Steve Miller, already provided a meet story of the Southwest Skydiving League July meet for the NSL News story on August 3, which covered mostly the athletic part of the AAA and AA Class competition. Erin Murphy, Elsinore Gravity member and SSL Director Pamela Stevens' assistant in Elsinore, had additional information available for the NSL News.

"The 6th and last SSL meet of the regular 2005 season started as planned, with an early takeoff around 8:15 am. John Hamilton gave the usual meet briefing, Pam had the video coverage coordinated, and Mary-Beth did an awesome job keeping up with the judging. Like last time, she was done not too long after the last load landed. A couple of shared videographers kept us from speeding up the calls too much, but we were still done by approx. 5:30 pm."

"It really was a very close competition. Only one single point separated the 1st and 2nd place in the AAA Class competition. As a Gravity member, I had no idea if we had won until the awards ceremony. On Sunday, we finished the 10-round draw in a friendly competition with Arizona Directe and had the same result. Another single point separated 3rd, 4th and 5th place."

"The all-female teams, Fastrax Select and Element Perris, had a good battle for the bronze medals. Fastrax Select came back from behind, gaining three points on Element Perris in the last round to beat them by one point. Katalyst finished in 5th position just another single point behind the girls."

"Elsinore GT didn't have a very good meet, but they also had Thomas Hughes flying video instead of the point position. Christy's Kids, the girls she has been coaching this year, had a good day. Baat came out and filled the point slot for Elsinore Momentum. It was good to see her out there doing 4-way again. Everybody liked to see Elsinore Equinox winning the meet with such a great improvement. The team has been working so hard, and it now pays back for Equinox."

Steve Miller had already given Equinox the same credit in an earlier message: "Equinox made a huge leap in this meet, and the team is what I consider to be the "news of the meet". I believe it was three points above their best average ever. Equinox has been working hard. It is nice to see them move up. They've had a season long battle with Elsinore Alloy and Arizona Divewerkz. ADW didn't attend this meet, but Equinox beat Alloy for the first time this season.

Erin Murphy also explained a special ceremony for the awards that has been celebrated in Elsinore for a while. It was the presentation of the "Elsinore Cup". Both Steve Miller and Erin Murphy were directly involved in this ceremony after the conclusion of the SSL July meet in Elsinore:

"It's a shot glass with Skydive Elsinore engraved on it. We have one for the AAA Class and one for the AA Class. It is awarded to the top Elsinore team in each class. The losing team or teams must present the cup to the winning team in what has become the "Elsinore Cup Ceremony". The shot glass is, of course, filled with some tasty beverage. It is very, very humbling for the losing team. Much fun had by all."

Steve Miller finished his meet story with thanks to the host and the SSL teams and competitors: "On a day that was crazy hot and an otherwise busy day at Skydive Elsinore, the meet was wonderfully run. Special thanks should go out to John Hamilton and the Skydive Elsinore staff, the pilots, the video guys for working their tails off with two and sometimes three teams, and to our favorite judge Mary-Beth who has judged each of the last two SSL meets single handed. I hate to even count how many skydives that is with a minimum of two viewings per jump. The competitors should also be mentioned for their outstanding support of the Southwest Skydiving League over the season, their competitive nature and good sportsmanship and their willingness to accept shorter or sometimes longer calls to get the meets finished on time."

The official regular season of the Southwest Skydiving League has been completed after six competitions at the three host locations, Skydive Arizona, Skydive Perris and Skydive Elsinore. Each meet was completed after six rounds, and the average participation was 11.8 teams per meet. It was a great season in the Southwest.

All three SSL hosts have one more NSL event to come. The NSL Playoffs 2005 will be held on August 20 - 21, and the three drop zones will offer any NSL teams the opportunity to attend the 10-round competition, which is the official qualification event for the NSL Championship 2005 at Fantasy of Flight in November.

Skydive Perris will then host the USPA Nationals in September, while Skydive Arizona gets ready for the IPC World Cup 2005 in October. The NSL News will cover both events live and directly from the competition sites. SkyQuest 2005 with the NSL Championship, the Kaleidoscope Dives, the Fantasy Swoop and Team Elite concludes the 2005 competition season. There are still a lot of scores to be posted at the NSL website this year.