posted Dec 6th, 2004 - The 2004 season had been a good year for Carolina Ice before the team traveled to the west coast in early October to compete at the USPA Championship in Perris. It was the second year for Ice after Pete Langehans, John Patten, Kyle Rice and Bruce Travis formed the team for the Carolina Skydiving League 2003 season. The scores of the first year were consistent and went up through the league season (9.4 - 8.2 - 8.7 - 9.8 - 11.0 - 9.5). The Carolina Ice showing at the USPA Championship 2003 in Lake Wales was respectable with a 10.0 average and the eighth position.

The same line-up with Robin Kellum filming the team made plans for the 2004 season. The team signed up once again for the AA Class and now had more training and higher goals in mind. The scores of the regular CaSL season and the NSL Playoffs 2004 were on track (10.0 - 10.8 - 11.0 - 11.0 - 10.6) and showed that Carolina Ice would be one of the medal challengers at the major events of the 2004 season.

Unfortunately for the Carolina team, the trip to the USPA Championship 2004 in Perris did not turn out at all as it was expected. Any hopes for a medal were shattered when the scores in Perris turned into zeros for rounds nine and ten. Carolina Ice was safely in second place after round eight and on the course for a set of silver medals. Things for Ice changed dramatically when team videographer Robin Kellum's camera failed to function properly on the jump run for round nine.

Meet videographer Wendy Smith was on board and supposed to film Ice in round nine to collect additional footage. The Carolina team saw a chance to avoid holding up the meet operation, if they rode the plane down, and decided to let Smith film the team for judging purposes. This was not a good decision.

The team obviously did not know the Formation Skydiving competition rules well enough or interpreted them inaccurately. The good and innocent intentions were seen differently by the meet officials who strictly and properly applied the 4-way rules. Carolina Ice did not only get zeros for the remaining two rounds of the meet after a non-registered team member (videographer Wendy Smith) competed for the team in round nine. The meet officials saw such a grave infringement of the rules that the team was disqualified. All official scores turned into zeros, and Carolina Ice ended up in last position.

It was a sad experience for Carolina Ice and a very hard way to learn more about the 4-way rules. It took Ice a while to get over the shock and frustration of this experience. However, weeks later the team finally decided to get back up and make another effort to finish the 2004 season more successfully. The last trip of the year to Florida and Fantasy of Flight should also become the 2004 highlight for Carolina Ice.

It would still not be a walk in the AA Class park for Carolina Ice at the NSL Championship 2004. In fact, team Kaizen of the Great Lakes Skydiving League had clearly dominated the AA/Intermediate Class competition at the USPA Championship and was already in safe gold medal position when Ice was disqualified. However, Kaizen would not travel to Florida in November. Carolina Ice was now the top contender and challenged only by the Southwest Skydiving League 2004 champion of the AA Class, Elsinore Equinox.

Equinox was founded by Rob Cope, Marti Cope, Frank Weidler and Kevin Thompson in 2001, attended five SSL meets (6.0 - 5.0 - 8.0 - 8.2 - 10.5) that year and placed 11th at the USPA Championship 2001 with a 10.0 average. Rob and Marti Cope, Chaz Wynn and Kevin Thompson continued the team at the SSL meets in 2002 (10.7 - 10.3 - 9.7 - 9.8 - 8.0), scored an 8.7 average at the NSL Playoffs and placed in ninth position at the USPA Championship 2002. Rob Cope, Michael James, Chaz Wynn and Kevin Thompson were the Equinox 2003 line-up, the team attended only three SSL meets (6.5 - 8.0 - 7.2) and did not compete at the USPA Championship in Lake Wales.

Rob Cope, Don Mullenix, Steve Simar, Kevin Thompson and Ray Cottingham on video picked up the Equinox pace in 2004. The team attended four meets of the regular Southwest Skydiving League season (9.0 - 7.0 - 8.2 - 8.3) with similar scores as in the past years, which did not seem to be a serious threat for the Carolina team. However, this situation changed when Equinox posted a 10.3 average over ten rounds at the NSL Playoffs 2004 in September. The SSL team had now become a medal contender at the two remaining major events of the 2004 season.

Equinox ended up without a medal at the USPA Championship in Perris. Two costly penalties in round four of the competition put the team too far behind Touch-N-Go in third place. Equinox posted a 9.7 average after ten rounds and finished in fourth place.

The season was not over yet for the SSL Champion 2004 in the AA Class. SSL Director Pamela Stevens had organised the "SSL Grand Prize" for the SSL winners of the AAA Class, Arizona Blade, and of the AA Class, Elsinore Equinox. Both teams were invited to compete at the NSL Championship 2004, and the Southwest Skydiving League would cover all the costs for both teams, except the actual jump tickets. Equinox accepted the invitation and arrived on November 17 at Fantasy of Flight for the AA Class showdown with Carolina Ice.

Equinox started into the competition at SkyQuest 2004 almost as unfortunate as Carolina Ice fell out of the competition at the USPA Championship 2004. The race for the NSL trophy and medals of the AA Class was already almost over after the first round. Equinox mistakenly prepared the sequence for round one with Block 20 instead of the required Block 22. The mistake remained undetected on the ground, and the team finally performed a wrong sequence. An exit funnel increased the damage, and only three points ended up as the official result for Equinox on the scoreboard. Equinox' and Ice's round can one now be viewed on NSL-TV.

The SSL team was able to shake off the result of the terrible first round and came back with the highest score in round two. However, Equinox was already eight points behind ther CaSL team and had a very long road ahead to catch up or only get close. It still continued to be a great competition between the two contenders. Each round between two and six showed only a one-point difference. Carolina Ice then increased the difference by additional three points in round seven and confirmed the leading position clearly.

Even a six-point deduction for Carolina Ice in round ten did not change the outcome of the competition anymore. The judges Richard Schachner and Craig Buxton did not accept Ice's center-point violations in each of the team's maneuvers for Block 1 (Snowflake - Offset). Carolina Ice had been on the road toward a 12.0 average and the perfect finish of the 2004 season with the best meet average in team history. The 11.1 average after ten rounds was still the best team average and was rewarded with the NSL 2004 gold medals and the AA Class trophy.

The Equinox trip to the east coast was still very much worth the effort. There was a 10.1 meet average on the scoreboard, and the SSL team also won the NSL SkyVenture Competition and 60 minutes of free SkyVenture tunnel time. Carolina Ice received additional 30 SkyVenture minutes for the second place after handicap. The AAA Class meet story is next.