posted Sep 15th, 2007 - There were also a few other events taking place last weekend, while the majority of the 4-way teams in the USA and Europe competed at the USPA Nationals 2007 in Ottawa, Illinois, and at the ESL Championship 2007 in Spa, Belgium.

The Florida Skydiving League held its playoffs event at Skydive DeLand, and three teams completed all ten rounds. Rookie Class team Mile Hi Mayhem of the Colorado Skydiving League completed the first three rounds before bad weather stopped the meet at Mile Hi Skydiving. All four teams plan to attend the NSL Championship 2007 on October 25 - 28 in DeLand, together with several other teams from across the country, including a few Perris Fury line-ups from California.

The NSL News story on August 28 introduced several FSL teams, including more team details and an evaluation of the A Class team from Skydive Miami, ZT Mal4mations:

"Meet by meet, ZT Mal4mations has shown progression and the potential to get to the next higher performance and scoring level. One or two low scores per meet have always put the team back in the area between 5.5 and 6.0 average. ZT Mal4mations is probably saving the best for the last meet of the FSL 2007 season, the NSL Playoffs event on Sepember 8 in DeLand."

ZT Mal4mations followed up on the NSL News story and delivered the team's best performance exactly at that time. The 7.7 average after the ten rounds in DeLand last weekend beats all previous meet averages in 2007 by far (5.0 - 5.8 - 4.2 - 5.7 - 5.7 - 5.8) and lifted the Miami team up to the 2nd place in the A Class Rankings.

The highest ZTMal4mations scores for a single round were several 8-pointers this year. Last weekend, the Miami team posted two 10-pointers in rounds five and eight. The sequence of Round 5 was not even only made of random formations, it included Block 7 (Side Buddies - Side Buddies).

AA Class team FSC Wind Damaged had already broken through the magical 10.0 barrier for the first time at the FSL August meet. The team from Lake Wales confirmed the 10.0 average and up situation of the future at the 10-round meet last weekend. The 14-pointer in Round 1 was the highest FSC score for a sequence that includes a block (Monopod - Monopod). The 16-pointer in Round 8 was a new overall team record, as the 10.5 meet average was too.

FSC Wind Damaged has already adjusted the team goals. The 10-point average was the main goal for the 2007 season. Team speaker Joel Kmetz said that his team will move on right away and aim at the 12-point average from here on. Teiwaz member Bob Byrne has recently coached the team, and the results of his work with FSC Wind Damaged are promising.

The Rookie Class team from Skydive Miami, Miami Vice, introduced a new team member to 4-way competition. Alex Kolb in the Tail position had never done 4-way before and made her first team jump at the competition in DeLand. It was Miami Vice's fourth competition this year since June, and the team is not done yet.

The NSL Championship 2007 includes the Rookie Class, and Miami Vice will represent the Florida Skydiving League. There will be very strong competition, as the best Rookie Class team in the USA, Mile Hi Mayhem of the Colorado Skydiving League, has already made travel plans for the October event in DeLand.

Mayhem's progression is very impressive (6.4 - 8.0 - 9.8 - 14.0) and included two new team records last weekend. The 15-pointer in Round 2 was followed by a 16-pointer in Round 3. The new NSL-TV video shows another Mayhem competition jump at the August meet.