posted Feb 23rd, 2008 - The scores of the Valentine's Meet 2008 are finally complete. The last missing scores of Arizona Directe and Arizona Divewerkz for Round 10 have now been added.

Perris Fury also provided additional information and feedback from the team's perspective after the season opener in Eloy. Fury added three meet videos to the information package, and Rounds 3, 4 and 6 can now be viewed on NSL-TV.

The team from Perris completed a few short outdoor training camps since the beginning of the year and before the trip to Eloy. Reigning 4-way world champion with DeLand Fire, Shannon Pilcher, now DeLand Groove and still PD Factory Team member, worked with Perris Fury in Perris for three days in late January.

Chris Farina said that the goal for the time with Shannon Pilcher was to get a different perspective on how Perris Fury works as a team: "We wanted to pick Shannon's brain on what we call the little tidbits about block techniques and the overall approach to 4-way competition."

The Fury members then took some of those ideas and trained for a few hours in the Paraclete XP windtunnel in early February. Chris Farina said that the team learned a lot from the work with Shannon Pilcher:

"The Valentine's Meet was our first competition where we had the opportunity to put to use some of the things we gathered from our time with Shannon. We believe overall it was a pretty good showing. We are currently analyzing our performance at the meet and are taking a close look at the busts and overall look and feel of our skydives."

Perris Fury lost a total of nine points due to penalties, four points in Round 1 and additional 1-point deductions in Rounds 2, 3, 4, 6 and 9. The NSL-TV audience has the opportunity to find the three penalty situations in Rounds 3, 4 and 6.

Perris Fury jumped from the Twinotter, while Airspeed Odyssey and Evolution from Canada exited from the Pilatus Porter. Fury completed the same number of points as Odyssey within working time in Rounds 3, 4 and 6. These are also the jumps that are available on NSL-TV.

The Perris team was much closer to the US national team compared to the USPA Nationals 2007 where Fury lost each of the ten rounds by at least three points. Of course, the different jump planes made a big difference in Eloy last weekend. However, Perris Fury will surely be motivated to cut the distance even more at the FSL Shamrock Showdown 2008 in March.

Chris Farina reported that the meet ran smoothly even though the teams were jumping from two different planes. He was mostly impressed by the impact of the right-hand door exit on the teams that prepare for the World Championship of Formation Skydiving this year in France:

"My biggest observation was watching the teams having to train for the world meet out of the Porter and how challenging some of the exits ended up being. Having never jumped one, it was an eye opener to what kind of obstacle they were up against."

He watched the Canadian LeMay 4-way family team during the event, as well, which caught his attention for several reasons. Evolution trains in DeLand this winter and spring and made the trip to the west coast for the first 2008 meet challenge from the Pilatus Porter:

"I was also very impressed with how the Canadian team performed and handled themselves during the competition. A very nice group of individuals who carried themselves in a professional manner. As with us, they had quite a few deductions, including a lot of camera busts. However, they stayed strong, focused and still managed to put up some very nice scores."

Chris Farina finished his comments with complements for Airspeed Odyssey: "Not much to say, they always look good and strong. Even with the challenge of the Porter, they came to win."

The challenge for Odyssey will be even much tougher at the FSL Shamrock Showdown in March where the four strongest US contenders (Team Fastrax, Golden Knights, Perris Fury, DeLand Groove) will challenge Odyssey from the left-hand door of the Twinotter. France Maubeuge, Airspeed Odyssey and Evolution will jump from the Pilatus Porter.