posted Oct 2nd, 2004 - The USPA Championship 2004 has already begun. The competitors of the artistic events have already determined some of their new US champions. Four teams competed in Skysurfing, five teams in Freestyle, a total of 17 teams currently competes for the Freestyle medals in two classes.

These events are the ouverture to the main event of the USPA Championships, the Formation Skydiving competition in 4-way, 8-way and 16-way. Out of these three FS events, the 4-way competition will once again be the event with the by far greatest participation. 15 Open Class, 12 Advanced Class and 33 Intermediate Class teams are currently registered for the 4-way competition, which is scheduled for Monday with round one.

More teams will sign up over the weekend. However, last year's record numbers of the championship in Lake Wales (15 Open, 24 Advanced, 37 Intermediate) will probably not be exceeded in Perris. The Advanced Class competition seems to have less participation compared to the 2003 numbers.

The competition will still be as exciting as in the previous years. The names of the registered teams promise great competition in each of the three FS classes. Most of the team names will sound familiar to the NSL audience since they already competed at NSL meets of the 2004 season. The currently registered teams can be found at the event's website. The NSL News will not be on site this time. However, the host's event website and the usual Omniskore coverage will provide all necessary information. The NSL News will still offer event stories and insights.

This year's USPA Championship is not the qualification event to the next World Championship of Formation Skydiving, which is scheduled for 2006 in Germany. The event in Perris takes place in the so-called "off-year". DeLand Majik, Arizona Airspeed and Perris Synchronicity just returned from Croatia where they won the two 4-way events and the 8-way gold medals of this year's world meet. The USPA Championship 2005 will determine the US national teams for the next world meet in Germany. The competition in Perris will have a more relaxed background, at least for the top teams of the Open Class.

The 4-way competition of the Open Class will still offer world class performances, not only by the current national team, defending USPA and NSL champion and new world champion, DeLand Majik. Arizona Airspeed has put together a 4-way line-up that will probably even challenge the DeLand team. Former Airspeed Vertical members and 4-way world champions Craig Girard and Neal Houston have brought back their 2003 teammate in the point position, John Eagle. Vertical is now almost complete. Former tail Mark Kirkby, who took a player coach position with Arizona Blade, will be replaced by Kirk Verner. This should not weaken the new 2004 line-up at all. Verner is one of the most experienced and hottest 4-way and 8-way competitors in the history of Formation Skydiving competition.

Then there is the Army team, the Golden Knights, with a new line-up in Perris. After a major shake-up, the Army finally decided to focus once again on the 4-way event. John Hoover, Brooks Weiner, Brian Krause and Matt Davidson currently represent the Army in 4-way. Kurt Isenbarger is the alternate, Larry Miller is filming the team. The Golden Knights have trained hard to catch up with the top level, and the DeLand Majik members expect the Army team on a scoring level well above the 20-point average benchmark.

The Open Class competition for the medals might be limited to these three teams. However, several other Open Class teams will once again raise the level of 4-way competition in the USA and use this event to see where they are compared to the best teams in the world. The second Airspeed line-up with Eliana Rodriguez, Dennis Rook, Andy Honigbaum, Michael Inabinet Steven Nowak on video have not trained much 4-way this year at all. However, these Airspeed members will now be looked at as world champions and will have to defend themselves in 4-way, as well.

The challengers will be the 4-way experts of Arizona Blade, Arizona Directe, the Perris Skoolboyz and team Fastrax, the newcomer from Indiana. The new world champion of the Women's class, Perris Synchronicity, will have to work hard to keep up with these US teams, which also include other female competitors as Airspeed member Eliana Rodriguez, Blade's Natasha Montgomery, Directe's Becky Brocato and Courtney Frasch. All of the mentioned teams have already posted great scores this year and are well prepared for the upcoming competition in Perris.

There is probably a third tier of very competitive teams in the Open Class, which will be very close to the pro and semi-pro level. Most of these teams consist of real amateurs and weekend warriors who have put great efforts into their 4-way training and competition. Dallas Thunder, DeLand Mojo and Rave would all be medal contenders in the Advanced Class competition and will probably represent the overlapping area between the Open and Advanced Class, according to the previously posted scores of the 2004 season. Cross Keys O2 Project was already introduced earlier this year and signed up for the Open Class only after includng coach Brian Johnson in the line-up.

The currently registered field of the Open Class competition can be viewed by clicking here. The NSL News will follow up with an introduction of the Advanced Class teams next.