posted Nov 2nd, 2011 - Arizona Airspeed's 8way lineup is keeping up quite well with Sky Panthers Barkli, 8way bronze medalist at the World Cup 2011. This year's lineup had no training at all. There is usually half a day at USPA Nationals with time enough for a few warmup jumps after the 4way competition is over. Not so this year when the 8way competition began right after the last round in 4way.

It is even more challenging this year since Mark Kirkby cannot jump today, he came down with a bad stomach last night, and alternate Christopher Irwin has filled his slot. Thomas Hughes would actually need a break, as well. He has been dealing with a very painful foot injury that he has been hiding as much as possible throughout the 4way competition.

In addition, Josh Hall and Niklas Hemlin don't really have much 8way experience at all and follow directions by the Airspeed 8way experts of the past years. However, it has even been a while for the Airspeed 8way champions that they have trained in this event. They are still ahead of Paraclete XP8 and not too far behind the Russian 8way team.

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The NSL News mentioned earlier that the 19.3 "amateur record" average, posted by Mass Defiance years ago, was once again a target for the teams at this year's USPA Nationals. All five original Mass Defiance members are actually at the competition site in Eloy. However, Mass Defiance did not compete with the original lineup, and the NSL News asked videographer Stephen "Scuba" Feldman for the reasons.

Jim Rees was judging the 4way competition and the performance of his Mass Defiance team mates, two of them (Benjamin Liston, Brian Stephens) in the DNR lineup, with Stephen "Scuba" Feldman on camera, and John Silva in the Team Captain lineup. All five of them are now back together in the 8way lineup of the Amphibious Attack Tigers.

None of the teams behind the Top 5 was able to get to the 19.3 Mass Defiance average. Throw Down (Ari Perelman, Katie Woods, Christopher Bobo, Kyle Collins, with Will Pesek on camera) came the closest with a 19.0 average. The NSL News will compare scores and competition draws soon.