posted Jun 16th, 2019 - The story of Arizona Airspeed's recent roster change continues with an update from the Paraclete XP Summer Classic.

Neither Airspeed nor SDC Rhythm XP made the trip to Raeford, even though both teams used the event in the past to get a serious performance check in the middle of the outdoor season. However, the newest Airspeed member Matt Davidson, who replaces Ari Perelman in the point slot, competed this weekend.

Five Golden Knights had made plans to get a break from 8-way training and post some 4-way scores: 8-way team captain Andrew Starr, Jeshua Stahler, Jennifer and Matt Davidson, with Reese Pendleton on camera. Drew Starr, Jen and Matt Davidson have competed in 4-way together before, last time at the Paraclete XP Indoor Championship 2019.

Jessie Stahler trained and competed with the 8-way lineup and won FAI gold medals in Prostejov 2014 and Chicago 2016. Then he started a 4-way VFS team for the U.S. Army. This weekend, he came back to traditional 4-way competition and brought his VFS team mate Reese Pendleton to film the ten rounds.

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Paraclete XP Summer Classic 2019		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	2,16,E	P,L,12,A	3,1,5	11,G,19	9,22,15	K,H,10,21	7,17,O	F,N,M,J,20	B,6,4	8,C,Q,13	Total	Avg
1	Golden Knights	19	24	18	19	19	19	24	29	22	19	212	21.2
2	Ranch 2nd Generation	18	21	14	16	15	20	21	24	19	16	184	18.4
3	Vega XP	11	13	13	12	11	15	15	23	15	13	141	14.1
4	SDC RhEvolution XP	12	12	11	14	11	12	14	20	15	15	136	13.6
5	TSC Cadence	9	9	8	9	10	8	11	15	-	-	79	9.9

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The NSL News had a NSL Live Talk conversation with Jen and Matt Davidson during the FAI Indoor World Meet on April 20th. Matt Davidson was the official alternate for Paraclete XP8 at Weembi Lille, and Jen Davidson was on vacation. Both did not know by then what would come soon as the next step for Matt Davidson.

Jen Davidson, 4-way Women world champion of 2016 and 8-way world champion of 2018, has continued as a member of the Golden Knights 8-way team. Matt Davidson retired from U.S. Army duties this year. He was considering a slot in Paraclete XP's 8-way team. This move would have brought both Davidsons into direct competition with each other at the USPA Nationals this year.

Everything changed when Ari Perelman left Arizona Airspeed, and the team was looking out for replacement candidates, and Matt Davidson was available after leaving the Golden Knights.

The new NSL Live Talk with Jen and Matt Davidson was recorded on Saturday, the first day of the Paraclete XP Summer Classic, and Matt Davidson had committed to the point slot for Arizona Airspeed.

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Arizona Airspeed was in a very fortunate situation to find Matt Davidson available at the right time. He is currently the most successful active Formation Skydiving competitor in the world, and his collection of national and international 4-way and 8-way medals goes back into the mid 90's. It will be difficult to count all of them.

He was also an Airspeed fan when he joined the Golden Knights in 1996. He had followed the first and original Airspeed lineup joning east and west coast forces and finally taking away the 4-way gold medals from France. More than 20 years later, and with his own 8-way gold medals at home, he joins Airspeed in 4-way to help them on their way to competing once again for medals in Tanay 2020.

Matt Davidson is one of four Golden Knights who made the same move in the past. Craig Girard won FAI 8-way gold with the Golden Knights and then with Arizona Airspeed, and he also added FAI 4-way gold medals with Airspeed's Vertical (2001) and Odyssey (2008). Chris Talbert and Andy Honigbaum became Airspeed members too, after a career with the U.S. Army.

Matt Davidson was still back in his rear piece slot for the Golden Knights at the Paraclete weekend, even though he has been studying the point slot as soon as he had committed to the short Airspeed year. The Golden Knights won easily in Raeford...