posted Feb 17th, 2015 - Niklas Hemlin is the new Point for Arizona Airspeed, as the Sun Path Products NSL News has mentioned many times since the new lineup came together at the end of the 2014 season.

He is not new at all though, neither to Airspeed nor to the slot.

He was flying the Point slot for Fastrax years ago, and he won the 4-way gold medals as the Inside Center for Arizona Airspeed at the Mondial Dubai 2012.

Then he took a 2-year break and came back for the new lineup in the new slot.

Arizona Airspeed attended their first competition with the new lineup at the Wind Games 2015 and are now in preparation for the Paraclete XP Indoor and Outdoor Championships 2015.

Niklas Hemlin discussed several topics with the Sun Path Products NSL News last week live on Skype, and his comments are now available for the audience.

It took a while until the complete new lineup made their first outdoor training jump.

All current team members, including videographer Justin Price, participated as player coaches at the Valentine's Meet 2015, which took place last weekend in Eloy.

The Sun Path Products NSL News will follow up with scores and meet information later.

Wind Games 2015		Rd. 1	Rd. 2	Rd. 3	Rd. 4	Rd. 5	Rd. 6	Rd. 7	Rd. 8	Rd. 9	Rd. 10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open	C,17,6	3,4,M	F,11,15	D,2,5	J,13,N,K	Q,1,O,P	19,22,B	10,7,9	14,G,H,16	L,E,8,12	Total	Avg
1	NMP-PCH Hayabusa (BE)	33(-1)	28	31	32	32	36(-1)	28	29	29	26(-1)	304(-3)	30.4
2	Arizona Airspeed (US)	32(-1)	30	30	29	34	32(-5)	24(-3)	30	29	24(-3)	294(-12)	29.4

The first outdoor team jumps had to wait until the Valentine's Meet was over, and Arizona Airspeed is now "officially" in training.

Niklas Hemlin explained why Airspeed is not competing at the Valentine's Meet any longer.

He also brought back memories of the 2012 event where his team scored only 23-pointers or higher before winning the World Championship of Formation Skydiving at the end of the year in Dubai.

Niklas Hemlin admitted that he was a little bit nervous switching from Inside Center to Point.

However, the new slot eventually came more naturally to him than he thought during the first indoor training camps.

Valentine's Meet 2012

Rd. 1

Rd. 2

Rd. 3

Rd. 4

Rd. 5

Rd. 6

Rd. 7

Rd. 8

Rd. 9

Rd. 10

Total

Avg

Rank

AAA Class

N,O,F,K,2

10,A,J,8

4,C,P,11

M,3,17

G,B,14,1

7,15,H

21,D,E,16

12,6,9

20,L,18

22,19,Q

Total

Avg

1

Arizona Airspeed (US)

37

23

25

27

25

28

26

23

23

23

260

26.0

He gives piece partner Thomas Hughes a lot of credit for the great combination, as they fly together in a piece for the first time. Thomas Hughes was the Inside Center for Fastrax when Niklas Hemlin was in the Point slot.

He also said that Airspeed is currently still in the experimental phase, where the team tries to find out all components of the engineering and continuity plan for the next two years. The performance at the Wind Games was a part of the experiments. Niklas Hemlin said that Airspeed has more options with the current lineup and the new slots. Thiago Gomes also switched for the next two years, from Point to Tail.

Niklas Hemlin did not accept too much credit for his "secret" work with 2014 bronze medalists Evolution. He said that he only gave the team some technical advice here and there and offered different perspectives. Then he looked ahead at the upcoming US competitions and explained why they are so exciting...