posted Oct 6th, 2004 - Arianna de Benedetti did not compete for the top rankings with the guest team Optic Kurves in Perris in the past days. However, the fun combination with Lise Aune and the new NSL Profile might have caught the attention of the valued NSL audience in Perris anyway. Dr. Joel Shugar put the line-up together once again, completed by long-time team mate Scott Keeler. The Omniskore camera caught the team dressed up for dinner action after the hard work...

There were not too many surprises in the Open Class and Advanced Class competition. DeLand Majik increased the pace when the new world champions realized that the Golden Knights were even better prepared than expected. Airspeed Red could not complete the meet and was not strong enough to challenge neither Majik nor the Golden Knights. Arizona Blade with former Airspeed member Mark Kirkby was eight points ahead of Airspeed after six rounds. However, former Sebastian XL member Thomas Hughes is not eligible for USPA medals, and Blade had to pass the bronze medals to Fastrax.

The fully sponsored team from Indiana confirmed the dynamic progression in 2004 and won the much deserved bronze medals after a great competition with a 17.1 meet average. Fastrax kept up with Airspeed throughout the first six rounds and was not too far behind Blade. The 4-way community will have to keep an eye on the Indiana team. The 2004 season was only the beginning for this Fastrax line-up.

No big surprises were reported in the Advanced Class, as well. The NSL News expected the three teams from Elsinore in the top rankings of the Advanced Class competition. However, things looked different for quite a while, as long as Exceed was still a part of the competition. In fact, the player coach team with former PD Blue member Shannon Pilcher was dominating the Advanced Class competition from the very beginning. It looked as if the Elsinore teams would only compete for the remaining medal sets for second and third places.

This changed when the event management found out that one of the team members was not eligible to compete for USPA medals at all. The scores for each round turned into zeros, and Elsinore Adrenaline, GT and Satori were back in the race for the championship gold medals. Only Mass Defiance interfered with the Elsinore dominance for nine rounds and lost any of the medal sets in the most dramatic round ten. Elsinore Adrenaline won the first place after a great Advanced Class battle.

The outcome of the Intermediate Class competition was also changed by non-athletic factors. Kaizen of the Great Lakes Skydiving League from AerOhio left the rest of the field in the dust and is the true new and undisputed champion of this class. The drama of the Intermediate Class competition took place in the race for the silver and bronze medals.

Carolina Ice, the NSL 2003 Champion of the AA Class, was once again one of the most serious contenders for USPA's Intermediate Class medals in 2004. After a great competition with the Tye Breakers of the Northwest Skydiving League, the guest team Perris Rebels of the Southwest Skydiving League and Touch-N-Go of the Texas Skydiving League, the sympathetic team from Carolina ran into a video problem on jump run. They did not want to slow down the meet and ride the plane down. Thus, they decided to use one of the meet videographers who happened to be in the same plane with a functional video camera.

This was a very unfortunate mistake and cost Carolina Ice any chances for a USPA medal set. The videographer for this jump was not registered as a team member, and the bad news hit the CaSL team later on the ground. Even the Ice scores of the earlier rounds turned into zeros for unknown reasons.

The Tye Breakers finished the 2004 season with the best team result of a 10.9 meet average and won the USPA silver medals. Touch-N-Go took the third place with a 10.2 average, while Carolina Ice will travel back home with empty hands. It was a sad ending for a team that had trained and competed very hard throughout the past years and the 2004 season.