posted Jul 26th, 2006 - With an unbearable heat wave hitting Southern California, six teams still toughed it out for the latest competition of the Southwest Skydiving League, held at Skydive Elsinore on July 22nd. Starting with the AAA Class, the women's world meet team, USA Elsinore Select, posted a team-best average of 15.0 over six rounds.

Select, with Tammi Rettig at Outside Center, Brianne Thompson at Inside Center, Kris Byrne at Point, Michelle Carlstrom at the Tail, and Rick Schindler shooting video, is ready to represent and step it up in Germany next month. Best of luck to our beautiful and rockin' ladies!

Also posting a new team record in the AAA Class, Elsinore Gravity showed continued growth with a 19.2 average over six rounds. A mechanical and brainlock-free round four added to a strong meet for Gravity, with the team showing solid consistency overall.

Mother Nature took over mid-afternoon and brought a wild summer storm, thunder, lightening, howling winds, and downpouring rain. All the planes and jumpers were grounded, leaving the meet at five rounds for the AA Class and the A Class, as well.

Taking the top spot in AA Class was Team Paragone, heading over the hill from Perris for a day of 4-way fun. Led by Chris Farina of Perris Fury, this line-up had never jumped together before.

Paragone came out strongly and posted great scores all day, ending the meet with a gold medal and an 11.4 average on the day.

The gold medal team in the A Class at the last SSL meet, Elsinore Aquila, moved up to the AA Class and posted a team record average of 7.8 overall, snagging the silver medals this time around.

This young team is working hard and is committed to getting better by jumping a lot, tunneling when they can, and getting coaching to keep them on track and improving. Keep an eye on this team, Aquila is on the way up.

Rounding out the AA Class, Elsinore Momentum with Morgan 'The Captain' Dunn at Outside Center, Nate 'Hollywood' Halprin at Inside Center, Chuck 'Chuckles' Reilly at Point, Brian 'Rhythm King' Sawatsky at Tail, and Ryan 'the Help' Simpson shooting video, posted good scores at their first SSL showing of the 2006 season, finishing the meet with a 6.4 average. With a team goal of a 10-average by the USPA Nationals, Momentum is working hard and wants to be ready to take the 4-way circuit by storm - keep it up guys!

Last but certainly not least, we had Team Geritol making up the entire A Class at this SSL meet. Geritol was captained by Uli Steuwe, also of Perris Fury, had a day of fun 4-way and ended the competition with a 5.4 overall average, with the gold medals around their necks. Not too shabby! This was the second meet of the year for Team Geritol, and we hope to see them at even more of the SSL meets coming up.

Big thanks to Skydive Elsinore for hosting a great meet despite the heat and weather. Next meet coming up for the SSL teams is hosted by Perris on August 19th.

Blue skies - Go Compete!

Meet story provided by Melanie Curtis