posted Aug 18th, 2004 - Round three of the last Texas Skydiving League meet (C-18-F-14) included the same two blocks that were drawn for the sequence of round one (14-4-18) at last weekend's Southwest Skydiving League competition in Perris. The NSL audience has the rare opportunity to compare the block techniques of 16 AAA Class teams directly.

The sequence of the TSL meet is featured by Dallas Thunder with a score of 14 points. Arizona Blade introduces round one of the SSL Meet with a score of 14 points, as well. Blade competed with Robert Healy in the Tail position for the first time. The SSL sequence for round one was slower compared to the TSL sequence with Block 4 (Monopod - Monopod) instead of the two random formations in Texas.

The SSL video master tape for rounds one and two was not complete and had some teams covered with round one, others with round two. The NSL audience will be sent back and forth between these two rounds until round three will be uploaded. Round two in Perris was completely identical between the AAA Class and the AA Class. A quick look across the AAA and AA scores table for the second round shows that the scores consistently decrease from top to bottom and according to the rankings.

The scores of the AA Class for this round were extremely consistent. All of the seven teams posted scores between seven and eight points. The whole AA Class scores also show that each of the seven teams at least shared the highest score for a round in one of the six rounds. It was a great AA Class race in Perris.

The sequence of round two in Perris is featured by Synchronicity, the US national team of the Women's Class. The fifth SSL meet of the 2004 season was the first competition for Synchronicity this year. It was the one and only test for the same line-up as in 2003 before the team's trip to the World Championship of Formation Skydiving next month. Synchronicity with Sally Hathaway (Point), Jaimie Johnson (Outside Center), Kim Glover (Inside Center) and Jacquelyn O'Bryan (Tail) has trained with veteran coach Dan BC in Perris this season.

The meet in Perris was a great test since Arizona Blade and Arizona Directe both gave Synchronicity serious competition. Blade finished six points ahead of Synchronicity, while Directe ended up nine points behind in third place. All three teams won and shared the highest scores for different rounds. The US team might find itself in a similar situation at the world meet in Croatia where the competition could be very close once again.

Blade had won round one by one point, and Synchronicity tied the Blade score for round two with 16 points. Blade's round two was not avaulable for NSL-TV. Arizona Directe with Gary Beyer, Becky Brocato, Kirk Campbell and Courtney Frasch had already fallen far behind in round one and would still give the two top contenders a good competition in almost each of the following rounds. Enjoy the new NSL-TV show.