posted Jun 18th, 2007 - The 4-way summer in Florida is gaining new momentum. It has been a while that six teams from Florida attended a summer meet. Skydive DeLand hosted the 4th FSL meet of the 2007 season, and all six teams completed the six rounds on Saturday after a day with perfect weather conditions.

It was not a weekend where any teams would be able to post new record scores. The toughest golfing weekend at the US Open happened to coincide with the slowest competition draw of the 2007 season, at least for the teams in the AAA Class and also in the AA Class.

There was one significant exception. Tunnel Chaos came to DeLand on a completely different performance level last weekend. Chris Ash (Tail), Ray Dutch (Point), Pat Dynaster (Center Inside), Dalton Samulsen (Center Outside) and Louie Palomares (Camera) were not able to create any distance to the other AA Class teams in Florida in March (7.3 average) and May (7.5 average).

The June meet last weekend brought a different picture. Alternate Ari Perelman filled the Center Inside slot for this meet, and the regular tunnel training in Orlando showed its results for Tunnel Chaos. The meet average went up to 9.0 for a relatively slow competition draw, and FSC Wind Damaged and the Z-Team were not able to keep up with the tunnel experts any longer.

Tunnel Chaos still has to clean up the exits where the team still gives up significant working time and scoring points, as the meet videos on upcoming NSL-TV will show very soon. Tunnel Chaos had or tied the highest scores for each of the six rounds and won by seven points over the other two AA Class teams from Florida.

FSC Wind Damaged and the Z-Team showed progression, as well. The slow competition draw did not allow either of the two teams to put higher numbers on the leaderboard. The six rounds of the meet included 11 of the 16 AA Class blocks and only three of the 16 random formations. It was all the more impressive how Tunnel Chaos mastered this difficulty.

The recently increasing participation of the Florida Skydiving League has the main reason in the southern parts of the sunshine state. Pam Manos, stunt actor for several Hollywood movies and wife of 4-way world champion in 1985, Guy Manos, has been preparing her Formation Skydiving community at Skydive Miami in Homestead very carefully for 4-way competition.

She has been running wind tunnel camps for her current and future competitors on a regular basis in Orlando, and she organizes the Formation Skydiving activities in Homestead with the goal to create new teams and competitors.

There has always been a team from Skydive Miami at FSL meets of the past years, even though the team members have to deal with a 5-hour drive to reach the hosting skydiving centers in Central Florida. The June meet last weekend in DeLand was a celebration for the 4-way community from Skydive Miami with two teams representing Homestead.

ZT Mal4mations, once again with Gary Hansen (Center Inside), Lance Smith (Center Outside), Ana Sang (Tail), Scott Johnson (Point) and Luis Alvarez (Camera) in the lineup, attended the team's 4th meet of the 2007 season and posted two 8-pointers in the same meet, which stands for a new team record. Only the 1-pointer in Round 3 kept Miami's A Class team from moving up into the 6.0 average level.

Pam Manos herself guided the new Rookie Class team from Homestead through the meet in the Center Outside position. The other four Miami Vice members were Javier Aguerrevere (Tail), Pedro Diaz Pow Sang (Center Inside), Shiva Krovi (Point) and Caroline Prevost on camera.

Miami Vice had a great time in DeLand and has already made plans for the July meet. The 3.2 average is a great start for a team that has never attended a competition before. The team members were eager to learn as much as possible about the first steps in 4-way competition. In fact, the dubbing and judging area was always the center of attention when both teams from Skydive Miami visited to follow the procedures and get feedback from more experienced competitors. The team members had also brought family and friends from the south who showed the same interest in their teams' activities.

Plans are in the works for the 2008 season to bring the whole FSL community down south and visit Skydive Miami for at least one FSL meet next year. Pamela Manos mentioned that her 4-way community is even growing and that her activities find more and more interest. NSL-TV will follow up with the first meet videos very soon.