posted Jul 25th, 2007 - Last weekend's leaderboard is almost complete, only the scores from Virginia are still missing. The Northwest Skydiving League had bad weather luck once again. The first NWSL meet of the 2007 season in June was already weathered out, and it wasn't much different last weekend in Oregon.

NWSL Director Harry Waller has learned to take it easy over the years: "Sorry, no scores and meet pictures from here, unfortunately everyone has seen rain before and once again last weekend."

He reported that there were beautiful blue skies on the Friday before the meet and began with the last preparations for the event: "A few calls about video, babysitters and last minute pick up teams..."

Saturday morning at 8:00 am thirty eager skydivers attended the yoga and stretching session, and Harry Waller could still be hopeful: "At 9:00 am Theresa came into the clubhouse to announce that we have 12k under the cloud cover. Four teams, including two new Rookie Class teams started to gear up."

It still didn't work out with the weather in Oregon on Saturday. The situation changed ten minutes later: "At 9:10 am the cold and thick rain started and never let up. Anyway, it was good to see the two new teams Death Grip from Molalla, Oregon and Overcast from Snohomish, Washington, on site, ready to go." Now the NWSL teams hope for better weather next month.

The weather in Scandinavia was obviously much better last weekend since teams in Denmark and Sweden completed their meets without weather problems. The meet management in Sweden had to deal with a different problem, which is not so unusual in this Scandinavian country.

An elk/moose was in the way of the judges to the event location in Västerås. The two Swedish FAI-judges, Percy Kristersson and Zeljko Tanaskovics, crashed their car with this big and strong animal and were taken to a nearby hospital. They had to stay for the night, both with face injuries. The car was totally destroyed. Swedish league manager Lennart Vestbom reported that the judges were really lucky since it could have been much worse.

The competition still began as scheduled, and it was hosted by FK Aros in Västerås. The Swedish teams competed in the AAA Class (4) and in the A Class (3) and took the top positions of last weekend's leaderboard.

AAA Class team Spaï topped the Swedish competition without any problems and was also the strongest team after six rounds. The NSL leaderboard sorts the rankings by the highest meet average and still shows ZenaD from Denmark and Spaï tied with a 15.7 average in first place.

However, the Swedish team had actually a 5-point lead after the first six rounds. ZenaD, with three members of the former Danish national team, the DaneZ, was able to lift the 6-round average of 14.8 to the final 15.7 average in the remaining four rounds.

Team Spaï will represent Sweden as the country's national team at the World Cup of Formation Skydiving 2007 in Russia next month. The Swedish skydiving association had approved the team status for the World Cup already earlier. Lennart Vestbom had updated the NSL News on July 12:

"Team Spaï has been selected to represent Sweden at the World Cup and the European Championship in Stupino. Last autumn, Team 42 was actually selected for this event. However, difficulties to train together and private issues caused problems, so they offered their slot to another team."

Sweden has also a new team for IPC's female 4-way category. The team name is Chili and consists of four quite experienced members. Yasmina Merzoug, Annica Carlsson, Mathilda Hansson and Monica Paulsson, posted a 9.7 average at their first meet and after not many training jumps. Former DeLand Majik world champion Joey Jones is the coach.

Two teams from Sweden took the first two places of last weekend's A Class leaderboard and both passed the 10.0 average easily. Lennart Vestbom explained that a new team of the Swedish Military showed up for their first competition and posted a 14.8 average after six rounds. Team members are Adam Stålsmeden, Mårten Norlander, Arvid Olovsson, Henrik Eriksson and Peter Wirenstedt on camera. The team plans to compete at the Swedish Nationals in August and then at the CISM competition in India in October.