posted Feb 12th, 2011 - The official part of the Valentine's Meet 2011 is over. It's a 6-round meet usually, and the teams received their medals and gifts in all competition classes at the end of the day.

However, the AAA Class teams have already completed eight rounds, and two more are on the agenda tomorrow morning. The judges have not looked at Rounds 7 and 8 yet, and the NSL News had time to catch up with Arizona Airspeed's and France Aerodyne Maubeuge's videos of Rounds 5 and 6.

There is not a lot of time for editing more videos and uploading them, along with quick and short updates. It's a fast pace in Eloy, and the NSL News tries to keep up. Alright, admittedly it doesn't help much if the NSL News reporter is also competing... However, more videos were promised, and they are now available.

The first video provides some feedback by the Airspeed members in a live NSL Talk after the completion of Round 8 on Saturday. Airspeed is currently standing at a 27.2 average after six rounds, which is not that far behind the indoor average at the Paraclete XP Indoor Skydiving Championships 2011.

Comparing the indoor and outdoor scores was a part of the conversation. It was also interesting to hear what Mark Kirkby, the only continuing member of the 2010 lineup, had to say when the NSL News asked the direct question how he feels about the new lineup compared to the previous one.

Of course, it was difficult for him to comment on this topic, as it was difficult to ask this question. However, the facts and the numbers allow the assumption that the new lineup may be ahead of the previous one early in time.

The vidoes of Rounds 5 and 6 confirm this situation. France Aerodyne Maubeuge had good jumps, and Airspeed was still simply better and faster. There are other reasons for the great performance, which are not directly related to the new lineup only. The Airspeed members said that they trained really hard in the weeks leading into the Valentine's Meet 2011.

The hard work pays back, obviously. It was interesting for French national coach Marin Ferre to see how far behind his team is at this point in time. It did not bother him much at all. He has been in the business long enough to know that things can change all the time.

He and his team now have the opportunity to evaluate the situation after the Valentine's Meet 2011, and there is enough time to train and come back with a completely different performance at the Shamrock Showdown 2011. However, first there are two more rounds tomorrow morning.