posted Sep 20th, 2006 - The 2006 season of the Southwest Skydiving League has come to an end with last weekend's NSL Playoffs 2006 event in Elsinore. The SSL competition finally featured the long expected west coast showdown between Perris Fury and Elsinore Gravity, and both teams lived up to the high expectations with an incredible neck-to-neck horse race.

The NSL News expected the west coast competition between Perris Fury and Elsinore Gravity to become one of the most exciting stages of the 2006 season and began with the coverage very early. Perris Fury and the team's 2006 plans were introduced with an NSL News story on February 2.

The Perris team, with Chris Farina (Inside Center), Christy Frikken (Outside Center), Josh Hall (Point), Uli Steuwe (Tail) and Karen Lewis on camera, was first in putting 2006 scores on the leaderboard at the SSL Valentine's Meet 2006. The NSL News story on February 27 evaluated Fury's 18.7 average after the 6-round competition in Eloy. The videos of the February competition can still be viewed on the event's NSL-TV page.

Elsinore Gravity missed the first meet of the SSL 2006 season due to a scheduling problem, and the first showdown did not take place as it was actually planned. However, the NSL News introduced Elsinore Gravity and the teams' plans with the NSL News story on March 11.

The Elsinore home team, with Lou Ascione (Inside Center), Melanie Curtis (Point), John Hamilton (Outside Center), Steve Simar (Tail) and Bryan Harrell (Video) in the line-up, entered the competition stage at the SSL April meet. As Perris Fury in February, Elsinore Gravity made the long trip from California to Arizona in April. The NSL News story on April 11 evaluated Gravity's 17.7 average on April 8 in Eloy.

Both Perris Fury in February and Elsinore Gravity in April had competition, even though they missed each other at these meets. Team Thunder, with Kelley Fredrickson (Point), Scott Latinis (Inside Center), Louis Massie (Tail) and Chad Smith (Outside Center) served as the sparring partner at both events and allowed an indirect comparison between the actual two west coast rivals.

Perris Fury outscored Thunder at the SSL Valentine's Meet 2006 by two points average (18.7 - 16.5), while Elsinore Gravity had to work very hard in April to win by one single point (17.7 - 17.5). Thunder had improved a lot in the meantime, however, Gravity seemed to be quite far behind the Perris team at that time.

The May meet of the Southwest Skydiving League took place in Perris, and Elsinore Gravity made the 30-minute trip across the mountains to challenge Perris Fury on their home turf. Unfortunately, it turned out to be the next missed opportunity of the first showdown in 2006.

The Perris Fury members had already committed to take player coach positions with several home teams and were not able to jump in the competition with their own team. Elsinore Gravity still had good competition since the future world champion of the female category, Airkix, competed in Perris.

However, Fury and Gravity missed each other once again in May, as the NSL News reported with the meet story on May 22. Several stories followed up on the May meet when new rounds were posted on NSL-TV. Elsinore Gravity had moved up a bit again and finished the May meet in Perris with an 18.2 average.

The SSL July meet offered the next opportunity for the west coast showdown. This time, Elsinore was the place of the action, and Gravity was ready to defend the home turf, but the situation was still the same as in May. Only two Perris Fury members made it across the mountain chain between Perris and Elsinore to guide two teams from Perris though the meet as player coaches.

Elsinore Gravity competed with Elsinore Select in the AAA Class competition and made another step up to the 19.2 average after six rounds. The NSL News story on July 26 provided the details of the competition in Elsinore and included the roles of Perris Fury's player coaches.

The positions were perfectly switched when it was time for the next SSL meet on August 19 in Perris. This time, Perris Fury was ready to defend the team's home turf, attended the 6-round competition and finished with an 18.3 average. However, the showdown between Perris Fury and Elsinore Gravity could not take place.

Elsinore Gravity's Center Outside John Hamilton was in Germany to guide the US national team in the female category through the World Meet 2006. Elsinore Select had worked with John Hamilton as the team coach in 2006, and the trip to Germany coincided with the August meet of the Southwest Skydiving League.

There was one more opportunity left for the final showdown between Fury and Gravity before the USPA Nationals 2006, and both teams managed to be on site last weekend in Elsinore. The scores on the leaderboard of the event speak its own language.

The race was obviously even more exciting than expected. Both teams were tied after six rounds, and they decided to go into a jump-off round, as John Hamilton reported: "As expected, there was a heated battle between Elsinore Gravity and Perris Fury. Being tied after round six, we decided to have a jump-off and do round seveb, and of course, we ended up tying the jump-off round. Therefore we handed out gold medals to both teams."

John Hamilton promised to provide a more detailed meet story later. The videos of the meet jumps are also on the way from California to Florida, and the NSL News will follow up as soon as the additional information and footage will be available.