posted Jan 3rd, 2005 - The NSL headquarters wishes a happy and successful new year with lots of blue skies for all league events in 2005. NSL webmaster Craig Buxton used the holiday season to prepare the NSL website for the change of the year. Goal was to keep all previous information available and still be up-to-date for the new NSL competition season.

2004 was the first year for the new data based NSL website design that Buxton created and customized for the NSL needs. He now added an archive to the website, which will contain the 2004 information. Visitors can switch back and forth between these two years of NSL competition. The year number below the NSL logo will help to make navigation easier.

The new year began for the NSL with two colorful and great articles in both of the major skydiving publications in the U.S.A., the Skydiving Magazine and USPA's Parachutist. Both articles in the January issues covered SkyQuest 2004 and the NSL Championship, the final NSL event of each season in November at Fantasy of Flight.

The Parachutist had assigned Ron Hill to write a comprehensive story of the whole event. Hill covered all four skydiving events at SkyQuest 2004 and received editorial assistance from Chris Hayes. Both writers experienced the SkyQuest atmosphere at Fantasy of Flight as competitors live on site.

Ron Hill has been a passionate 4-way competitor as long as he has been skydiving. He is well known in the skydiving community and has written several articles for both magazines in the past. Hill has not only been very passionate with his sport, he also quickly developed his talent and skills to a very high level of performance.

Hill has kept his life style flexible enough to accommodate any possible team careers ever since he fell in love with 4-way skydiving competition. He began skydiving in 1993 in Arkansas and joined his first 4-way team, Gyro, in 1995. He moved to Florida in 1996 after he became addicted to his new passion. He saw better chances to accelerate his skydiving career in the center of the skydiving world.

Hill joined team Frost in 1998 and trained and competed together with Niklas Gummeson, Carlos Curti and Sally Hathaway. Frost attended the team's first competition at the NSL Championship 1998 in DeLand and finished with an 11.6 meet average after ten rounds. DeLand Genesis won this inaugural NSL Championship with a 12.4 average. Frost traveled to Eloy shortly after the NSL Championship and competed at the USPA Championship 1998, as well. The 12.6 average in Eloy put Hill with Frost in 10th position of the Open Class competition.

His first years in Florida only strenghtened Hill's desire to make it to the very top in 4-way. He even decided to dedicate his whole life to this goal and joined the U.S. Army hoping for a slot in the Golden Knights' line-up. Hill spent three years in the Army, beginning from scratch at the boot camp. However, a slot with the Golden Knights never became available for Hill, and he moved back to Florida in 2002.

Hill's former team Frost had continued in the meantime with Robert Healy taking his slot in 1999. Frost had won USPA's Advanced Class competition in Sebastian 1999 and continued with a flexible line-up at the seven meets of the Florida Skydiving League in 2000. Frost took a break in 2001 and welcomed Hill back to the line-up after his returning to Florida.

The 2002 Frost line-up with Ron Hill, Carlos Curti, Niklas Gummeson, Kurt Gaebel and Ray Dutch on video joined the Florida Skydiving League in June 2002 and attended the remaining three meets of the FSL 2002 season. The same line-up traveled to Skydive Chicago in September and finished with a 14.9 average in the Open Class. The NSL Championship in November 2002 at Fantasy of Flight was the first time for Ron Hill to be a part of SkyQuest Florida.

Frost discontinued in 2003, and Ron Hill joined a strong line-up from Skydive City, the drop zone at his home town Zephyrhills, for a few months. Robert Healy, Steve Johnson, Brian Johnson and Hill posted a 16.6 meet average at the FSL April meet in DeLand. Rusty Lewis, 2004 member of DeLand Scape, replaced Healy at the next meet in Zephyrhills, and the Z-Team posted a 15.4 meet average. The Z-Team did not continue, and Hill sat out for the remainder of the year.

While Hill continued with his professional career at FedEx, he was still keeping his eyes open and his environment prepared for a quick move in case of an open slot in a top team. His talent and skills would allow him to pursue the goal that has never subsided. However, nothing materialized at the end of the 2003 season, and Hill ended up joining the Teiwaz line-up at meets of the FSL 2004 season.

Teiwaz offered a casual opportunity to be a part of the 4-way community without much training and too many efforts at all, especially since the scores with Hill in the flexible line-up were still on a reasonable level (15.4 in March 2004, 14.3 in April 2004, 14.8 in June 2004). The last Teiwaz line-up of the 2004 season with Ron Hill, Robert Chromy, Alex Pincus, Kurt Gaebel and Scott Franklin finished with a 14.5 meet average at SkyQuest 2004. It was the event that Hill was now covering with his story in the Parachutist.

Hill is currently observing the 4-way team situation for the 2005 season and is prepared for any kind of situation that might come up. Hill is only 32 years old, and he says that he would still quit the job for the dream opportunity, but he is also ready for a team that is eager to build up toward the top level. Last not least, there is always Teiwaz with the chance to have 4-way fun once every month in Florida.

Hill's coverage in the Parachutist was supported with information provided by Chris Hayes who was the event manager of the Fantasy Swoop at SkyQuest 2004. Hayes competed in his own event, as well. He managed to run a very successful swooping event at Fantasy of Flight, while he enjoyed the competition as a participant in his second year. SkyQuest management and Hayes have already begun with preparations for next year's event.

The NSL News will continue with the coverage in the Skydiving Magazine next.