posted Nov 12th, 2006 - The NSL News story on November 9 included the first part of the interview with the three DeLand Groove members, Gary Smith, Shannon Pilcher and Ian Bobo. These first ten minutes covered mostly the specifics of the line-up at the USPA Nationals 2006 and the history of the pieces and the piece partners.

The second part, which can be viewed by clicking here, picks up the topics of the discussion, which is currently going on at the discussion forum of Dropzone.com. The NSL News story on November 6 reported that participants of the USPA Nationals 2006 had initiated this discussion at the forum.

The NSL News was interested in the feedback from participants on the top level of the competition in Eloy and used the interview with the three DeLand Groove members to collect additional information. Gary Smith, Shannon Pilcher and Ian Bobo are the current world champions and the new national champions in 4-way, and they surely have very valuable insights to offer.

Each of the three DeLand Groove members has been at numerous different national and international competitions. They have experienced all kind of different ways how to organize, manage and run skydiving events. The NSL News asked for their feedback and what kind of advice they would have for future event managers.

The feedback from the new USPA 4-way champions was quite similar to the contributions at the on-line discussion. The way the award ceremony was handled this year was hardly supported by any particpants. Ian Bobo mentioned that he missed the opportunity to share the precious experience on the stage with his pals of the whole skydiving community.

All three DeLand Groove members have great memories of the award ceremony at Skydive Chicago in 2002 where the efforts of the participants and winners were honored "with drama". The USPA Nationals 2006 will once again be hosted by the skydiving center in Ottawa, Illinois.

Shannon Pilcher pointed out that Skydive Arizona runs a perfectly functioning "machine" to get the job done. However, the world champions agreed that there is more to a national championship than only the goal to complete the event in time or even ahead of time.

Gary Smith added the question whether it is beneficial to complete seven rounds on one day. He said that this might be easy for the "senior teams" but adds stress to many "junior teams". The tight schedule makes it difficult for the participants to really enjoy the opportunity of meeting the friends in the whole skydiving community.

All three DeLand Groove members also enjoyed the drama that was added when the final rounds and jump-offs were judged, while the teams were interviewed live on stage. This concept was introduced in Lake Wales 2003 and continued in Perris 2004 and 2005. Skydive Arizona removed this part of the celebration from the agenda this year.

The on-line discussion at Dropzone.com includes another topic that did not come up during the interview. Several contributors to the discussion complained about the spotting procedures, which forced all four teams of one load to exit in one pass. Landing and returning to the event area became apparently difficult for the last teams in the plane.

The second part of the interview is also approx. ten minutes long. The last part will be posted soon.