posted Dec 17th, 2006 - Round 7 was the last competition jump on the first day at the USPA Nationals 2006. Skydive Arizona's airlift machine had managed to push through the highest number of rounds on one day in USPA history. Not all teams and competitors were happy with the way it was done, as on-line feedback showed earlier. However, the calls came, and the teams had to board the planes, no matter what.

NSL-TV now presents the usual four videos of Round 8, including the three winners of each competition class, DeLand Groove (AAA/Open), Arizona Divewerkz (AAA/Advanced) and Ranch Pulse (AA/Intermediate), plus the Perris Fury videos, which can be viewed by navigating to the team's own on-line spot.

Round 8 was the first competition jump on the second day of the event. How was the situation on Monday morning before the teams would get back in the air? The last NSL News story on October 22 provided a summary of the events on Sunday. Shannon Pilcher provided a perspective from the leader's position with the story on October 23.

DeLand Groove had a 2-point lead over the strongest Team Fastrax that the skydiving community had seen so far. Fastrax was even four points ahead of the Russian world class team Black Cat. The new line-up of the Golden Knights was in 4th place and ahead of both Airspeed line-ups.

Airspeed Odyssey and Velocity were far behind expectations, while an underdog was shaking up the leaderboard. Perris Fury was tied with Airspeed Odyssey in 5th place and only four points behind the Golden Knights. The peaking Perris team was already three points ahead of Airspeed Velocity and would extend this distance to even six points at the end of the meet.

Perris Fury was not able to keep up with Airspeed Odyssey any longer throughout the last three rounds of the competition. However, Fury made up the 4-point distance to the Golden Knights and ended up even three points ahead of the Army team after ten rounds.

The most significant change on the second day of the competition happened in the Airspeed quarters. The Odyssey line-up was apparently tired of the team's own performance on Sunday. The last three rounds showed a completely different team and reminded on the Odyssey performance at the World Cup 2005.

It was obviously too late to threaten the DeLand Groove leaders. Black Cat and Team Fastrax were both too far away, as well, and did not show serious weaknesses at all. All the Odyssey members could do was showing that the team can still perform on world class level. And that's what they did. Another NSL News story on October 23 already commented Odyssey's comeback on Monday.

Airspeed Odyssey increased the pace and the performance level and left Perris Fury still seven points behind at the end. Odyssey then swallowed the Golden Knights on the way to the 4th place and the USPA bronze medal position. Only the Russian team collected more points than Odyssey on the second day of the meet. The Airspeed team and DeLand Groove both ended up two points behind Black Cat on Monday's jumps.

The currently featured Round 8 did not shake up the field very much at all. That happened at the faster rounds later. The slow sequence of Round 8 (12-F-2) did not allow any team to get past the highscore of 19 points. However, Airspeed Odyssey joined the top teams for the first time and shared this highscore with four other teams. Odyssey's 19-pointer broke the tie with Perris Fury and opened the door to a better day for Andy Delk (Inside Center), Craig Girard (Outside Center), Brian Johnson (Tail), Eliana Rodriguez (Point) and Will Pesek on camera.

Arizona Divewerkz was already so far ahead of the rest of the AAA/Advanced Class field (7 points) that only a miracle could have changed the course in this competition class. No miracle happened, and Round 8 even added most significantly to the lead over Cross Keys Vision and Perris Voltage.

The situation in the AA/Intermediate Class was similar compared to the AAA/Advanced Class. Ranch Pulse had dominated the competition throughout the first seven rounds. The lead and dominance was not as clearly and consistent as AZDW's. However, the 10-pointer on Monday morning made clear that Ranch Pulse would not offer the other contenders big chances on the second day to catch up.

The 10-pointer for the slow sequence (2-18) was another Pulse highscore for a round, only Mile High Levitation posted a 2-digit score, as well. The Ranch team had actually completed 11 points withing working time and lost a point due to the missing presentation of the exit formation to the judges.