posted Jul 8th, 2020 - The NSL News has used the interruption of Formation Skydiving competition events by the corona virus crisis to catch up with interviews that were recorded long ago and hibernated in the archives. There is also a lot of additional video footage waiting that has not been published on SKYLEAGUE.COM yet.

The recently published NSL News interviews were not recorded on video and can only be found in writing on the NSL News pages. However, there are other interviews that took place in front of the NSL-TV camera, and they still have not been available for reviews on the NSL-TV channel on YouTube.

Most of the NSL News stories, interviews and videos from the archives still connect past and present in many ways. This time, it is NSL Live Talk from 2006 that creates a similar connection. Natasha Montgomery and Gary Smith visited the NSL office in DeLand after the Shamrock Showdown 2006.

Their team, DeLand Fire, with Shannon Pilcher and Ian Bobo in the lineup, had placed 2nd behind the Italian national 4-way team Sinapsi PD and posted a new unofficial world record with the 47-pointer in Round 4. They were in the middle of preparations for the FAI World Meet 2006, where they would meet again with the surprisingly strong team from Italy.

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Shamrock Showdown 2006			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		K,3,18	11,22,8	H,10,17	F,M,P,O,E	5,1,15	G,19,7	C,9,Q,N	16,A,20	13,4,L	B,21,J,14	Total	Avg
1	Sinapsi PD	IT	19	17	19	42	20	22	37	20	20	23	239	23.9
2	DeLand Fire	US	16	14	22	47	18	21	35	18	19	22	232	23.2
3	Arcteryx	NO	16	15	20	40	17	19	31	17	18	20	213	21.3
4	Fastrax	US	16	15	17	38	17	20	28	17	18	20	206	20.6
5	Danez	DK	15	12	17	35	15	18	26	16	17	20	191	19.1
6	Monkey Circus	AT	14	12	13	33	13	15	20	13	13	15	161	16.1
7	Teiwaz Lake Wales	US	13	11	14	28	11	15	23	14	12	16	157	15.7
8	Optic Nerve	US	13	10	14	28	9	14	16	11	12	14	141	14.1

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NSL Live Talk with Natasha Montgomery and Gary Smith - DeLand Fire at the Shamrock Showdown 2006

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DeLand Fire themselves had surprised the best U.S. 4-way teams with the 1st place at the USPA Nationals 2005, which qualified them for the world meet in 2006. Natasha Montgomery, 4-way shooting star at that time, even had to go through a jump-off with the Golden Knights at the USPA Nationals in 2005.

The impressive progression of the DeLand team continued in 2006, and Natasha Montgomery became the first female 4-way world champion in FAI's 4-way Open category the same year. Eliana Rodriguez followed up with a new 4-way Open Class title for a female competitor two years later with Airspeed Odyssey.

DeLand Fire members Shannon Pilcher and Ian Bobo were new 4-way world champions, as well. Both attended their first world meet in Gera 2006. Gary Smith was the senior in the team. He was actually the reigning 4-way world champion after winning with DeLand Majik in 2004. He had also competed with South Africa's national team DeLand Equanimity and won an FAI bronze medal in 1997.

Gary Smith continued with team coaching after winning his second 4-way gold medal in 2006 and eventually guided NMP PCH HayaBusa to their first world championship title in 2014. He is still working with the Belgians who are now preparing for their next title defense in Tanay next year.

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FAI World Meet 2006			1	2	3	4	5	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open Top 10		N,20,16	K,J,C,G,3	D,19,B,6	L,14,10	F,17,M,2	Total	Avg
1	DeLand Fire	US	20	27	25	17	28	117	23.4
2	Gap Nice Icarius Autrement	FR	17	25	23	21	25	111	22.2
3	Sinapsi PD	IT	19	26	22	19	24	110	22.0
4	Sky Panthers Barkli	RU	21	23	23	17	25	109	21.8
5	Arcteryx	NO	18	25	21	17	24	105	21.0
6	Spa HayaBusa	BE	19	25	18	17	23	102	20.4
7	EADS	DE	17	23	20	16	18	94	18.8
8	Danez	DK	15	22	15	17	21	90	18.0
9	Spain	ES	16	18	17	14	19	84	16.8
9	Evolution	CA	15	14	19	14	22	84	16.8

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NSL Live Talk with Natasha Montgomery after the FAI World Meet 2006

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DeLand Fire had to overcome the Italian challenge that Sinapsi PD was demonstrating impressively at the Shamrock Showdown in March 2006. The second video clip is showing DeLand Fire at the Shamrock Showdown, including the world record performance in Round 4.

Gary Smith had four months to get his team ready for the next showdown with Pete Allum's Italian national 4-way team that included three original Sinapsi members. The French delegation focused on the 8-way event, and the 4-way team did not have much training in 2006, which made it easier for DeLand Fire.

However, the next competition with Sinapsi PD and DeLand Fire's convincing performance in Gera, Germany, did not allow France to get anywhere near the gold medal position. France won in 8-way while DeLand Fire took the 4-way sword back to Florida. Sinapsi PD ended up in 3rd place, one single point behind France after only five rounds due to bad weather.

Natasha Montgomery brought the William H. Ottley Sword for 4-way Formation Skydiving competition, also known as the Excalibur, to the NSL office after returning from the world meet in Germany. She retired from 4-way competition and training and still visits USPA Nationals once in a while.