posted Aug 24th, 2005 - The NSL News story on July 20 had already covered the summer situation in Florida for the July meet. It was not much different in August. Three teams made their way to the Florida Skydiving Center in Lake Wales to compete at the 6th FSL meet of the 2005 season, which served as the FSL event of the NSL Playoffs 2005 at the same time.

USPA national judge and regional USPA Director Richard Schachner used the last opportunity for some judging training before the USPA Nationals 2005. He had to leave on Sunday heading to the west coast since the event training for the USPA judges and the competition of other disciplines have already begun in Perris.

The three teams on site in Lake Wales, Teiwa-Z-Hills in the AAA Class, FSC Wind Damaged in the AA Class and Zero Tolerance Miami in the A Class, still gave event judge Richard Schachner and video coordinator Jose Melendez enough work to keep busy throughout the Saturday. Teiwa-Z-Hills and Zero Tolerance Miami both completed eight competition rounds on the same day, while FSC Wind Damaged went through six rounds, including one re-jump.

Zero Tolerance Miami showed up in Lake Wales with a new Point for the meet, Ana Sang. Lance Smith, Gary Hansen and Dutch Vandervelt completed the line-up, Alex Batista was once again filming the team with the longest travel distance in Florida, coming from Skydive Miami in Homestead.

ZeroT seems to follow the Teiwaz concept and has currently eight players in the team's line-up. The ZeroT team project is supported by Skydive Miami and its management, including Guy and Pamela Manos and Fred Whitsitt. Guy Manos was a 4-way world champion with the Air Bears in 1985 and has never really lost his connection with Formation Skydiving competition, even though he has been very busy with Hollywood movie projects.

His wife, Pamela Manos, daughter of Jim and Wilma Godwin who used to operate a skydiving center in Florida years ago, has recently found increased interest in 4-way competition and joined the Teiwa-Z-Hills line-up for the June meet at Skydive City in Zephyrhills. She organizes tunnel training camps for Skydive Miami students and other Miami locals at SkyVenture Orlando on a regular basis. Her goal is to guide the Skydive Miami students from their first jump through the early stages of their skydiving career to the final destination of 4-way competition.

Each Zero Tolerance team member has attended at least one of the tunnel training camps. Pam Manos and her staff in Homestead also offer coaching and organized activities for their regulars, including an 8-way team training for the staff members. Ana Sang with her first meet experience in Lake Wales is the latest example for the well planned customer service at Skydive Miami.

The ZeroT team project and other training efforts also find additional support in Homestead by manager Fred Whitsitt who was the Tail for the SouthAfrican national 4-way team "Equanimity" in the late 90's. Fred Whitsitt, Solly Williams, Gary Smith, Robbie Spencer and Graham Harding on video won the bronze medals at the World Championship of Formation Skydiving in 1997 and then went different ways. Fred Whitsitt became co-owner of Skydive Miami and still provides local teams and FS jumpers with his expertise and experiences.

Zero Tolerance Miami veteran Lance Smith once again guided the team with new student member Ana Sang through the Lake Wales meet. The team finished its 5th competition of the FSL 2005 season with a 4.0 average after eight rounds and maintained the scoring and performance level of all previous meets in the A Class.

FSC Wind Damaged attended the team's 5th meet of the FSL 2005 season, as well. Mike Green (Center Outside), Joel Kmetz (Center Inside) and Martin McKerrell (Point) had competed with different people in the fourth slot throughout the FSL 2004 season as FSC JAMMM in the A Class and finished with a 7.4 season average.

The 3-way decided to move up into the AA Class in 2005 and to add former Canadian national 4-way champion, Bruce Robertson, to the line-up as the player coach. Former Windline Lightning member and USPA Intermediate Class gold medalist of 2003, Mike Mathes, now shoots the videos for FSC Wind Damaged.

The Lake Wales team has never even scored any lower in the new competition class with eight new blocks and longer sequences compared to the 2004 season average (8.2 - 7.8 - 9.3 - 7.5 - 8.3). The FSC Wind Damaged season average currently stands at 8.6 counting the best three out of the five attended meets.

The competition last weekend on home turf brought another new team record with the 15-pointer in round three. The FSC members are generally happy with the 2005 experiences and the progression. However, the team has its own goal and still pursues the magic 10-point average level. Two more meets are on the local travel agenda and offer the last 2005 opportunities to break the limits, the FSL Championship 2005 on October 1 - 2 and the NSL Championship at SkyQuest 2005 in November.

FSC Wind Damaged also witnessed a Windline Lightning re-union in round six of last weekend's competition. Center Outside Mike Green was unable to continue after a hard opening at the first attempt of the team's round six. Windline Lightning veteran Billy Bradshaw was on site to fill the slot for the re-jump due to a video malfunction. Billy Bradshaw's former Windline Lightning teammate and partner in the center, Mike Mathes, was now filming this unplanned comeback.

Teiwa-Z-Hills competed with another unique line-up of the 2005 season. Bob Byrne (Center Outside), Barbara Kobzik (Center Inside), Christine Bako (Tail) and Kurt Gaebel (Point) were the four of 27 active and inactive members who represented Teiwaz at the Lake Wales meet. John O'Donnell was filming the team.

Teiwa-Z-Hills finished the 8-round meet with an 11.0 average in the AAA Class, which took the 8th position out of 16 teams in this competition class last weekend. The different Teiwaz line-ups for each new event usually meet in person for the first time the morning of the meet day on competition site. Most of the Teiwaz members are experienced and skilled 4-way competitors who enjoy a relaxed meet atmosphere while looking for new challenges with other teams. Others do not pursue higher goals any longer and still enjoy 4-way competition in a casual way. The NSL headquarters usually forwards any team inquiries in the Teiwaz direction. There is always a good chance...