posted May 12th, 2019 - Freshly crowned 8-way indoor world champion Michelle Karamon was back to her Arizona Skydiving League project after winning FAI gold in 8-way and bronze in 4-way Women for the U.S. delegation at the FAI Indoor World Meet in April.

She met her ASL partner Eliana Rodriguez once again at Skydive Arizona last weekend, where they organized and completed successfully the 5th monthly 2019 meet of the Arizona Skydiving League.

Michelle Karamon and Eliana Rodriguez now also share a world championship title. Eliana Rodriguez won her first FAI gold medal in 4-way Women with Synchronicity in 2001. She followed up with Arizona Airspeed and the 8-way title in 2006 and completed the unique FAI triple-gold achievement with Airspeed's 4-way lineup in 2008.

There was no FAI-sanctioned indoor competition at the time of Eliana Rodriguez' world championship participation. She won all of her three different titles at outdoor events, and Michelle Karamon added a new indoor gold medal to the special collection of the ASL organizers.

Arizona Skydiving League 2019 - May Meet			1		2		3		4		5		6		Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		18,17,N		4,M,G,15		P,19,3		H,14,20		J,22,E,K		A,F,8,O		Total	Avg
1	AZ Defiance	ASL	11		9	-1	10	-2	9		12		11	-2	62	10.3
2	Arizona Windfall	ASL	7	-1	10	-1	10	-1	9	-1	9	-1	13		58	9.7
3	Wombat Combat	ASL	4	-2	7		9		6		7		11		44	7.3

Michelle Karamon may soon have the opportunity to match Eliana Rodriguez' gold medal in outdoor 8-way if Paraclete XP8 win this year's national championships and copy the indoor success at the outdoor world championship in Tanay 2020.

Another world champion joined Michelle Karamon and Eliana Rodriguez last weekend at Skydive Arizona. Arizona Airspeed's team captain Niklas Hemlin was also back home and in coaching action. He had joined previous meets of the Arizona Skydiving League to provide his experiences and 4-way knowledge for the participating teams.

This time, AA Class team Orange Rush from Colorado were in town for training with him and joined the meet to get some competition experiences under their belts. They competed in the A Class with the two other teams and won easily after an extremely consistent performance.

Orange Rush won five jump tickets, sponsored by Skydive Arizona, and team member Eric Daniel got an additional VISOII by Larsen & Brusgaard in a raffle. Larsen & Brusgaard sponsored the event with more product to support the competition. Eliana Rodriguez said that she will be raffling off more Larsen & Brussgaard products for registered competitors at the next three ASL meets.

Arizona Skydiving League 2019 - May Meet			1		2		3		4		5		6		Total	Avg
Rank	A Class		N,G,2		4,M		P,19		H,21		J,E,K		A,F,8		Total	Avg
1	Orange Rush	ASL	10		10		10		11		11	-2	10	-1	62	10.3
2	Eggplant	ASL	3		6		4		8		7		3		31	5.2
3	It'll Be Fine Squid	ASL	0		2		2		2		-		-		6	1.5

Eliana Rodriguez also pointed out that AZ Defiance and Eggplant both have attended all five ASL meets this year. AZ Defiance won their own five jump tickets from Skydive Arizona for the 1st place in the AAA Class. She said that the AAA Class competition has become quite competitive by now: "AZ Windfall came in 2nd in AAA, they had one of their best meets as a team. Their videographer struggled a little with the exit and they lost four points to video busts. Without the busts they would have won the competition. They have closed the gap to AZ Defiance, it will be interesting to see the battle between these two teams the rest of the year."

Wombat Combat came back with a new lineup. Player coach Brianne Thompson now has Leanne and Tripp Schwab (camera) from Colorado in the lineup, who have competed at previous ASL meets.

Eliana Rodriguez wrapped up the A Class competition, as well: "Eggplant finished in second place of the A Class. There has been some version of Eggplant since the very first competition, and Lori Zito has been to four of the five meets. Jennifer 'Jlo' Pierce and Ray Pierce joined forces with her this time, and they picked up Tom Riehl as a point, a young talented enthusiastic jumper who made his 126th jump. We want to thank Skydive Arizona and Larsen & Brusgaard for their support! We also want to thank all the competitors, with special thanks to all the returning competitors. We love the community that has come together for these meets and look forward to many more."

The next ASL meet on June 8th will feature once again even more Airspeed members, while Eliana Rodriguez and Michelle Karamon continue to offer great opportunities to get coached by some of the best in the country and the world...