posted Apr 19th, 2006 - After completing the coverage of the FSL Shamrock Showdown 2006 and uploading the first round of the FSL April meet in Lake Wales last weekend, NSL-TV continues with the coverage of the Southwest Skydiving League meet on April 8 at Skydive Arizona in Eloy.

The sequence of round two (20-L-D-7) was faster than the meet opener, and faster rounds usually separate the teams easier than slower rounds. This was not the case in Eloy. Elsinore Gravity and Thunder continued with a horse race that they had already started in the first round and that would last throughout the whole competition.

Both teams had posted 13-pointers in round one and followed up with 18-pointers in round two. Elsinore Gravity and Thunder were still tied after two rounds of the AAA/Open Class competition in Eloy.

However, the outcome of this round was also not really as close as the numbers show. Both teams had different ways how to engineer the jump and execute the block techniques. The more aggressive style of Thunder in this round resulted in the completion of the 18th point clearly within working time, while Elsinore Gravity performed more cautiously and was lucky to have the judge's stop watch on the team's side.

The other race between Elsinore Select and Arizona Divewerkz ended with a 1-point advantage for AZDW in this round. Divewerkz benefitted from a costly exit by Elsinore Select. It took USPA's national team of the Women's event 6.5 seconds to build the first formation of the sequence, and the remainder of the working time was just enough to put 12 points on the scoreboard.

The US national team for this year's World Meet was still looking much better than the actual scores show. Elsinore Select with the team's new Center Inside, Brianne Thompson, is still in the beginning phase for this line-up and will probably pick up the pace very soon.

An interesting aspect of the last two meets on NSL-TV (SSL 2 and FSL 2) is the fact that Kris Byrne can be viewed in the Elsinore Select line-up on April 8, as well as in the Teiwaz Lake Wales line-up on April 15. Elsinore Select is her prime commitment for the 2006 season.

However, Kris Byrne has also already attended several meets with Teiwaz in the past years, which requires only being on competition site on meet day mornings. Her personal scoring records are still with Teiwaz at this point (15.7 at the Shamrock Showdown, 28-pointer in round four). However, it looks as if Elsinore Select will soon catch up with the Teiwaz scores.

There are more reasons for Kris Byrne to join the Teiwaz line-up once in a while. Her husband Bob Byrne is a Teiwaz member, as well, and has also recorded his personal best with the team (15.0 in April 2005). Last weekend, the whole Byrne family was in the air together over Lake Wales, and a new record average for Bob Byrne was so close. The two lost Photon points would have been enough for a 15.2 average. Next time...