posted Aug 29th, 2005 - The USPA Nationals in Perris are already in full swing. The results of the classic disciplines, Accuracy and Style, are posted, the newer Sport Accuracy competition must still be going on. Monday and Tuesday are off days in Perris. Canopy Formation competition will begin on Wednesday, the artistic events start on Thursday and are scheduled to be completed on Sunday. The whole next week belongs to Formation Skydiving competition, and 4-way kicks off the most popular part of the USPA Nationals on Monday.

Jimmy Hayhurst won the Men's Accuracy competition with 2 centimeters (18 participants), Cheryl Sterns took the first place in the Women's category with 3 centimeters (seven participants). The Golden Knights won the team event with 3 centimeters (five teams). Jimmy Hayhurst and Cheryl Stearns won the Style competition, as well, and then naturally took the gold medals in the combination of both events.

This week is the last training opportunity for the Formation Skydiving teams. Several teams are already in Perris to get used to the meet environment, most of the teams will arrive on the weekend and try to make a few training jumps on site. The NSL News will move from Florida to California on Saturday, and the live coverage will begin right away.

In the meantime, the NSL News will begin with previews leading into the 4-way and 8-way competition. New NSL-TV was also uploaded over the past weekend, and the NSL audience has one more opportunity to watch two top contenders of the upcoming 4-way competition.

Airspeed Odyssey and Arizona Divewerkz both attended the NSL Playoffs 2005 on August 20 - 21. The new NSL-TV videos feature round one of the playoffs. Airspeed Odyssey is one of the six top contenders in the AAA/Open Class competition and completed six nearly flawless rounds on the playoffs weekend.

Craig Girard, Eliana Rodriguez, Andy Delk, Brian Johnson and Will Pesek finished with a 20.3 average after six rounds, left their sparring partners from Airspeed Velocity far behind, took the first place in the AAA Class and also maintained eligibility for NSL awards of the 2005 season after attending two meets of the regular season and the playoffs.

The 20.3 average does not sound like it could win the AAA/Open Class competition next week. However, a closer look at the competition draw and the quality of the six rounds changes the perspectives for Airspeed Odyssey. The 20.3 average stands for the first six rounds only, and the faster rounds of the playoffs began with round seven. There is a very good chance that Odyssey's meet average after ten rounds would have been closer to a 22.0 average than to a 21.0 average. Airspeed Odyssey simply confirmed what many expect: serious competition for the USPA gold medals next week.

Arizona Divewerkz did the same thing in the AA Class competition, which is identical with USPA's Intermediate Class dive pool. The 12.2 meet average after ten rounds confirms where Murel Addison (Outside Center), Annaliese Peterson (Inside Center), Blane Boynton (Point), Paul Gatling (Tail) and Kelly Green (Video) see themselves next week in Perris: competing for the USPA gold medals.

The 12.2 average on the playoffs weekend set Divewerkz tied in first place of the national AA Class rankings. Carolina Ice shares the top position with the Arizona team. Cross Keys of the MidAtlantic Skydiving League holds the third place after the playoffs. However, Cross Keys won the 10-round playoffs competition by three points over Divewerkz with a 12.5 average. The heat is on in the AA Class. The NSL News will also follow up with a AA Class preview. Enjoy the new NSL-TV videos.