posted Jan 7th, 2005 - First of all, the NSL News would like to apologize for a little flaw that came with the latest NSL Newsletter. There was a problem with the direct links to some of the stories. The links to the first stories worked properly, while the remaining ones did not show the according articles.

The reason for this flaw is obviously the fact that the first two stories are posted in the NSL 2005 data base, while all the other stories go back to last year. The empty NSL 2005 screen, which appears after clicking on the 2004 stories, does not mean that these stories are not available any longer. Only the direct links of this last newsletter do not work properly. The stories can still be found at the NSL News of the 2004 Archive. This cannot happen again since any future newsletters will only have stories of the same calendar year.

Back to the real news. Many Skyleague.com visitors have been wondering what is happening in the quarters of Arizona Airspeed at Skydive Arizona in Eloy. The NSL News had covered many of DeLand Majik's activities in 2004 and also the forming of the new team "Fire" with former Arizona Blade members Natasha Montgomery and Thomas Hughes. The "Fire" coverage is not over yet, however, it was only a start to introduce all the top contenders of the 2005 season. The NSL News is still waiting for a Majik update, the Golden Knights promised to provide their plans, and team Fastrax is on the NSL News agenda, as well.

With all these topics on the waiting list, it was a great surprise when Airspeed veteran Craig Girard called the NSL office yesterday for a long chat. It now gives the NSL News the chance to respond to the numerous requests for Airspeed information from the NSL audience. Thanks to Craig Girard and Neal Houston who reacted so quickly to these requests.

The 2005 season promises great competition for teams and competitors on the west coast. Arizona Airspeed is back into 4-way with more efforts compared to the last years. Craig Girard mentioned that Airspeed has always been very interested in both events, 4-way and 8-way. However, the last years had pushed the 8-way team into a tough battle with the Russian 8-way team, and Airspeed had to work very hard to keep up with the Russians.

The Russian 8-way charge began already in Australia 1999 when Airspeed represented the U.S.A. for the first time in this event. The Golden Knights had dominated the 8-way event before. Airspeed 1999 with Jack Jefferies, Craig Girard, Dan Brodsky-Chenfeld, Gary Beyer, Mark Kirkby, John Eagle, Kirk Verner, Alan Metni managed to fend off the Russians by only two points. It was the same event where the Airspeed 4-way team lost against the French team.

Russia did not let go and pushed the 8-way event even harder for the next two years. The results in Spain 2001 were reversed compared to 1999. The dramatic 8-way competition ended up with the Russians in first place and Airspeed, competing with the same line-up as in 1999, only one single point behind in second place. It was the first time in the history of the 8-way event that the U.S. team did not win the gold medals. Airspeed was still compensated in 2001 with Vertical's gold medals in 4-way.

Airspeed began with personnel changes in 2002. The new line-up with Craig Girard, Mark Kirkby, Neal Houston, John Eagle, Kirk Verner, Eliana Rodriguez, Dennis Rook, Todd Hawkins and Andy Honigbaum had the main goal to win back the 8-way title against the Russians at the Mondial 2003 in France. There was still not much room for a lot of extra efforts in 4-way. The competition with the Russian 8-way team in Gap 2003 was even tougher than in 2001. This time, both teams were tied after ten rounds, and the jump-off ended up in a deadlock, as well. The rule book gave the tie-breaker and the first place to the Russian team, and Airspeed went home without any gold medals this time.

Airspeed's team vocabulary does not include the words "give up" or "quit". The 2004 line-up with Craig Girard, Neal Houston, Kirk Verner, Eliana Rodriguez, Dennis Rook, Chris Talbert, Andy Honigbaum and Mike Inabinet focused once again on the 8-way event and the battle with the Russian team, this time in Croatia. The Airspeed persistence in 8-way was rewarded this time. The U.S. 8-way team from Arizona won back the 8-way title that was lost in 1999, while DeLand Majik took the gold medals in 4-way.

Even with the 8-way sword currently back in Arizona and fresh world champion titles, it was still time for Airspeed to recruit new members for the 2005 season. Craig Girard, Neal Houston, Kirk Verner, Eliana Rodriguez, Dennis Rook and Andy Honigbaum signed up once again, and two slots were open. A try-out took place in December. Brian Johnson, last year's DeLand Scape member, and Andy Delk, former Vengeance and Perris School Boyz competitor, won the race for these two slots. Steve Novak is back to film the 8-way team and one of the 4-ways. The 2005 line-up was complete.

The same try-outs had an additional result for Arizona Airspeed. Three other candidates, who did not make it into the Airspeed 2005 line-up, decided to form a "farm team" with player coach and former Airspeed veteran Mark Kirkby. Dave Burton is a former Inferno and Dallas Thunder member. Chris Farina competed with Formula 4 in 2001 and won USPA's Intermediate Class competition in Eloy. Samer Haija was the Colorado Skydiving League director in 2002 and 2003 and trained and competed with GSL team Nexus in 2003. Player coach and multiple world champion Mark Kirkby recently helped guiding Arizona Blade through a very impressive 2004 season that ended with the first place at the NSL Championship 2004.

The new Airspeed members have a very exciting season ahead of them. The plan for 2005 splits the training efforts in half for 4-way and the other half for 8-way. Girard explains that it will still be important to defend the 8-way title this year in the U.S.A. and next year at the world meet in Germany. However, there will be serious Airspeed 4-way training and competition again. Girard remembers how much fun the combination of both events was when he won gold medals in both events with Airspeed 8 (1999) and Airspeed Vertical (2001).

Girard added that they gave the new 4-way line-ups a lot of thought before making the final decisions: "We used to put together the most experienced players in one 4-way team in the past. We changed the strategy this year and created a mixture of talent, experience and leadership. Finally, Neal, Kirk and myself ended up in different line-ups."

Then it was time for the veterans of the team, Girard, Houston and Verner, to put together the rest of the two 4-way line-ups. Girard himself has Eliana Rodriguez and the two newcomers, Brian Johnson and Andy Delk, in his own team. Houston and Verner will jump with Dennis Rook and Andy Honigbaum.

Girard is very excited about the new strategy of combining talent and experience: "The potential of these two teams seems to be unlimited. We made test meets in 4-way and 8-way before we began with the training and scored already respectable scores. It will already be quite exciting to compete at the SSL Valentine's Meet in Eloy after at total of 250 training jumps."

Girard's team scored 16.3 and 17.1 averages for the same 10-round draw with one repetition, the other team ended up shortly behind with 15.8 and 15.9 averages. The 8-way team began the 2005 season with 14.8 and 15.5 averages. Girard's huge collection of 4-way and 8-way experiences gives him the reason for his excitement. He has no doubt that the scores at the Valentine's Meet will already be significantly higher.

Airspeed 2005 will follow up with participation at several more meets: "We have the Malevsky Memorial Cup 2005 and another international competition on the team agenda. We will also compete at as many NSL/SSL meets in Eloy and elsewhere as we can squeeze into the calendar. This will be different compared to the past years where we were mostly focused on 8-way. The new tunnel in Eloy will also help us a lot to train more 4-way."

That's great news for the Southwest Skydiving League and also for the rest of the 4-way and 8-way community. The SSL Valentine's Meet in Eloy will open the 2005 competition season with 4-way and 8-way on February 12. The Malevsky Cup 2005 will also include 8-way competition for the first time. The NSL News has already been invited to Stupino by the Russian event organisers.

Last not least, Girard mentioned his greatest appreciation for Airspeed's most important sponsor, the Larry Hill family who owns and runs Skydive Arizona: "The whole Airspeed project would be impossible without the incredible and neverending support by the Hill family. Larry and his family have made it possible for us to get where we are now. And we try to give back to them with our own efforts, and as much as we can."

P.S.: Airspeed's new videographer for Craig Girard's 4-way line-up is Will Pesek.