posted Oct 20th, 2008 - The field in the Open Class is excitingly tight after three rounds, in both "categories". The "pro teams" (1st - 7th place) are close to each other, even though Airspeed Odyssey has already worked out a 4-point lead over France in 2nd place.

Performance Desired made it into this group of teams with Jack Jefferies who has not competed in 4-way for may years and had to learn the new blocks after arrival at the competition site in Eloy...

The field of the "weekend amateur teams" begins in 8th place where former USPA Advanced Class champion Arizona Divewerkz leads this group with a 3-point lead over another former USPA Advanced Class champion, Mass Defiance. From then on, downwards in the rankings, the teams are separated by only one single point, rank by rank. The competition will be very exciting for the teams in the middle of the Open Class leaderboard.

Advanced Class leader CSC Rhythm XP would fit right into this field with an 18.7 average after three rounds. The Midwest Skydiving League team currently has an 8-point lead over Centerline XP in 2nd place. Coach Kirk Verner, who competes with Paraclete XP in the Open Class, must be proud of the Midwest team that he has been coaching this year. In fact, CSC Rhythm is ahead of his own team by five points after three rounds

Click here to go to the PD Blog photo gallery of the USPA Nationals 2008

Things are moving along in Eloy. It sounded as if the meet management will try to complete seven rounds today. Judging falls slowly behind, even though the scores are coming up quicker than ever before. The lower number of teams makes it a little bit easier. By the way: nine of the 21 teams in the Open Class competition are guest teams.

Black Cat from Russia is one of them, and the new lineup with Aleksander Golovkin just posted the sole highscore for Round 3. The team insisted on a photo op with NSL News reporter Kurt Gaebel yesterday and also informed the NSL News that Alexey Minaev is still a team member. He has only stepped back to give the young new member his chance after the former alternate has been standing by for almost three years.

Black Cat has a new sponsor and seems to be in good hands under the umbrella of a big Russian oil company. The NSL News will try to capture a current Black Cat video as soon as the screen allows.

The NSL News coverage of the USPA Nationals 2008 is brought to you with the help of:

Young audience in DeLand

Doug Park visited the NSL News office in DeLand for an interview last week. He said that he would not be able to make the trip to Eloy, and Ian Bobo would replace him in 8-way. He said that he would follow the event on the NSL News and on Omniskore from home - and he surely was.

The staff in Eloy, including the NSL News, had hardly arrived on site this morning when the first e-mail with the request for scores and information was already in the mail box. It must be very difficult to be in DeLand at the moment and not in Eloy...

Doug is not the only family member who follows the event action, he said. A picture of his two twin baby girls, Madyson and Paeton, was attached to the message. By the way, and for everybody who has not watched the NSL/PD Daily Show yet: Airspeed's Mark Kirkby also had a new baby a few weeks ago. Congratulations, Mark.

NSL/PD Daily Show and Night Swoop are on

Good morning from Eloy. It has been very busy for everybody. The weather is beautiful, and the meet is in full swing. Teams are already in the air for Round 2, and the judging of Round 1 is almost complete.

Round 1 brought no surprises - neither in the Open Class nor in the Advanced Class. Airspeed Odyssey showed everybody that the world champions have no intention to give up an inch on home turf and started out with a sole highscore.

CSC Rhythm XP would be tied in 7th place in the Open Class with the 15-pointer in Round 1 and has a 3-point lead after the slow sequence. It will be a landslide victory in the Advanced Class...

All three NSL/PD project shows have finally been uploaded and cover the Sunday and its events. They can be viewed at the PD Blog website. Kolla Kolbeinsdottir, Morten Pedersen and Kurt Gaebel hosted the daily show and had team Performance Desire as their guests in the studio. Al Berchtold had invited Airspeed's Craig Girard and Eliana Rodriguez for the "Night Swoop", which can be viewed on the same page.

There is much more footage to come, and the first meet videos will follow soon, as well. Stay tuned