posted Aug 4th, 2005 - With beautiful blue skies, views of snow capped mountain tops, the Puget Sound, and competitors eager to jump, the Northwest Skydiving League held its second meet of the 2005 season in Snohomish, Washington. Three teams competed with the local Washington and traveling Oregon mixture.

Elsinore Vengeance has been training since February with the newest team member filling the Point position, Lisa Albrecht. Vengeance also has a new team videographer who joined the team this year, Luke Nevin. Deb and Dave Correia have switched their slots of Inside Center and Tail. Jeff Smith returned as the Outside Center to complete the team.

Early training was tough this year, as the Vengeance trips to California found rain instead of sun. However, this is a building year for the team, with a lot of determination and a little bit of fun, okay - a lot of fun.

Sponsored by Skydive Elsinore and coached by John Hamilton, Vengeance started out into the second NWSL meet with a bang. The score of 18 points for Round 1 was the team's record high. The 11.3 average after six rounds was also well above the team goal for the weekend. With one more month until the USPA Nationals, the Vengeance momentum will probably continue. Two more weekends of team training and one more NWSL meet will help building the strength of the team for an expected exciting 4-way competition in the AA/Intermediate Class in September in Perris.

NorthWest Express 4 consists of Kimmy Kaplan, Ty Graven, Joe Helfer, Tyree Wilde and JJ on video. The AAA Class team attended its second meet, this time out of a Grand Caravan. The increase prop blast of the Caravan and unuasual jump runs did not seem to bother the NW Express4 AAA competitors.

Did we mention, it was a sunny and gorgeous day for the meet?

Ewenamitt (you-name-it) was the only A Class team and competed with Harry Waller, Corey Parker, Autumn Wood, Mie Ross and Kevin Crosby on video. This was Mie's second time to jump with a pick-up team in a 4-way competition. She had great and funny comments for the 4-way community after this event:

"I found that the hardest thing in being on a pick-up team is to name your own team. We ended up calling ourselves Ewenemitt (you-name-it). We have never jumped together before, but thanks to Harry’s coaching and advice, we were turning points! It was so much fun learning new stuff and techniques that I never thought I could do. I am not a casual skydiver, but it sure makes me want to do more of the competition stuff. Even if you are not interested in competition, I totally recommend the experience of 4-way competition in pick-up team. You will have so much fun."

At the end of the day, all teams watched their jumps and congratulated each other since everybody had a first place in each division... Cheryl McClure and her 1-week old baby took care of the judging duties. Tyson and his staff kept everything running with no hitches. I am looking forward to returning to Snohomish next year. See you all on September 20th at Skydive Oregon for the next NWSL meet.

Blue Skies, Harry Waller, NWSL Director

The scores of the NWSL meet will be added later today.