posted Oct 31st, 2008 - Last not least, the captured videos of the 4-way Intermediate Class competition at the USPA Nationals 2008 have been added to the special NSL-TV page. 14 competition jumps can be reviewed, and they include once again several rounds of the medal winners in this category.

Team R4 from Northern California (Julius Frank, Deanna Frank, Jon Martens, Rob Radez and Jason Imamura on camera) won with a 13.1 average, seven points ahead of the Air Force team Encore.

R4 had a slow start and lost Rounds 1, 3 and 4. However, the west coast team had already captured the gold medal position in Round 2 and never gave it up from then on. In fact, R4 increased the lead round by round slowly and steadily.

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The team had already shown its strength at the September meet of the Southern California Skydiving League. The 12.2 average in September indicated that R4 would be in contention for the top positions a month later, as the NSL News story on 23 September 2008 explained.

Jon Martens is the most experienced team member and already won an Intermediate Class gold medal at the USPA Nationals in 2001 with Formula 4.

Perris Fury's Center Inside Chris Farina was his team mate by then, together with Robert May and Matt La Chance. Formula 4 with the same lineup competed in the Advanced Class a year later (12.5) before the team disbanded.

Next year, Jon Martens formed a pickup team for the USPA Nationals and competed with Elsinore Illusion (Jon Martens, Alan Lo, Mike Inabinet, Doug Forth, 12.7) in the Open Class.

His next lineup in 2004, Elsinore Adrenaline (Tammi Rettig, Jon Martens, Melanie Curtis, Jim Browning) invested more time and training and competed at three meets of the Southwest Skydiving League. Adrenaline then won the Advanced Class gold medals at the USPA Nationals 2004 with a 13.2 average.

Jon Martens now joined Elsinore GT for the 2005 season where he trained and competed again with his Formula 4 team mate of 2001, Robert May. Steve Miller and John Craig completed the EGT lineup, which ended up in 4th place of the Advanced Class competition at the USPA Nationals 2005 with a 12.3 average. It was the last event for Elsinore GT.

Jon Martens and Robert May joined forces again for team Onyx at the USPA Nationals 2006 where they posted an 11.7 average in the Advanced Class competition, together with Gary McDonald and Julie Richter. He missed the USPA Nationals 2007 at Skydive Chicago and now came back to guide R4 to the gold medals in the Intermediate Class.

Air Force Encore had to work much harder for the silver medals in Eloy. James Hickerson, Brandon McCutcheon, Jimmy Miltenberg, Addison Schenk and Mike Kendrick on camera had already posted an 11.7 average at the May meet of the Colorado Skydiving League, which would not have been enough to win silver medals at the USPA Nationals this year. In addition, Slipstream of the Northern Plains Skydiving League was well prepared for the competition in Eloy.

Jon Arnold, Stephen Blake, Aaron Hislop, Bill Rehm and Richard Barr on camera had attended three meets of the Northern Plains Skydiving League this year und challenged themselves with the AAA Class draw at these meets. Averages between 10.3 and 11.7 indicated that Slipstream would be able to score on the expected medal level in the Advanced Class competition - and they did.

In fact, Slipstream opened the competition at the USPA Nationals 2008 with a bang and posted the sole highscore for Round 1 with a 15-pointer. Things seemed to be on track for the NPSL team. However, the team may have put too much pressure on itself with this perfect start, as Slipstream was not able to maintain the early lead. First, R4 left Slipstream behind for good in Round 2, then the Air Force team passed by already in Round 3. Slipstream fought back and gave Encore a good race throughout the remainder of the competition. However, the gold medals were soon out of reach, and the Air Force cadets had the stronger nerves at the end.

It was a great competition in the Intermediate Class, and the meet videos provide at least an idea of how the teams were doing in this category. All three videos of the medal winners' Round 8 are available and allow the NSL-TV audience to compare the teams directly in one round.