posted Mar 16th, 2006 - The preparations for the FSL Shamrock Showdown 2006 in DeLand were in full swing yesterday. DeLand Fire did the first training jumps with the original line-up after Natasha Montgomery's back injury in January.

The NSL News story on January 22 had provided the details of the injury, and Natasha has worked hard in the meantime to get back into physical shape strong enough to resume training and compete. She said that she feels good, strong and confident, and the team members confirmed her full recovery.

DeLand Fire trained side by side with the Italian challenger, Sinapsi PD. The Italian team has been training in DeLand for a little while already, and both teams shared Skydive DeLand's Twinotter yesterday and today for the training jumps. Norway's team Arcteryx was in full swing with the meet preparations, as well.

Team Fastrax was not complete on Wednesday. Mark Kirkby arrived in Orlando in the afternoon and was on his way to DeLand, while the other Fastrax team and staff members were busy with other activities. John Hart had meetings with team sponsors on the agenda, and finally the team got in the air for a different purpose, as well.

Fastrax used the day before the scheduled training to introduce skydiving to representatives of PR and Marketing firms that John Hart works together with. Tandem jumps at Skydive DeLand were on the agenda for the invited business professionals. Getting people in the air is always the best way to introduce the element to the public, and John Hart had the field trip for the sports business pros well prepared.

He had brought his own Fastrax tandem masters and the Selection.com tandem canopies. Of course, John Hart, Niklas Hemlin and Doug Park joined the tandem in freefall and made it a great experience for the passenger who is using a wheel chair due to a paralysed lower body.

Three of the Fastrax PR and Marketing experts made a tandem jump in the afternoon, and they were all in the same plane for an even better group experience. Skydive DeLand's Skyvan made it easier to lift the paralysed passenger from the wheelchair into the plane.

Today was another full training day for all three top contenders. Fastrax had planned to make 20 training jumps on Thursday and has another full training day on the agenda for Friday. The competition draw will take place at 6 pm at the DeLand Holiday Inn Convention Center.