posted Sep 9th, 2005 - Perris Synchronicity is the old and new US national team of IPC's Women's Class and will represent the USA for the next two years at the international IPC events, beginning with the World Cup of Formation Skydiving 2005 in Eloy in October.

Kim Glover, Jaimie Johnson, Sally Hathaway and Becky Brocato, filmed by John Lemming, successfully fended off the challenge by Fastrax Select. It was not a walk in the park for the defending world champions of IPC Women's Class. Fastrax Select had trained hard and was very serious with the team goal to win the qualification.

USPA2005 - 4way Women	Rd1	Rd2	Rd3	Rd4	Rd5	Rd6	Rd7	Rd8	Rd9	Rd10	Total	Av.
Perris Synchronicity	16	19	17	15	15	15	12	15	17	13	154	15.4
Fastrax Select	16	17	15	15	15	15	11	14	14	13	145	14.5

The scores between these two teams show on one hand that Perris Synchronicity dominated the competition from the beginning to the end. On the other hand, Fastrax Select proved that the team had the potential to threaten the world champions. Michelle Carlstrom, Tammi Rettig, Jacquelyn OBryan, Kristina Byrne, filmed by Sarah Brownlee, tied the Synchronicity scores in five of the ten rounds and made it at least a competition in this inofficial class.

Perris Synchronicity had to overcome a serious problem prior to the meet in Perris. The team's new 2005 member, Becky Brocato, lives in New Orleans and was at home when hurricane Katrina hit the area last week. Synchronicity did not even know whether Becky Brocato would be able to make it to California or not.

The storm hit her home on Monday, August 29. Becky Brocato was fortunate that her family lives in an elevated area of New Orleans. However, the damage with fallen trees and cut power lines was severe enough to have her and the whole neighborhood trapped in their homes. In addition, nobody knew how to leave the area due to the flooding.

Becky Brocato explained that the neighbors took action by themselves, and they were able to clear the roads enough to make them driveable by Wednesday. She was able to leave her home on Thursday and began her road trip to California where she arrived on Saturday.

Her Synchronicity team mates remember that Becky Brocato was physically and mentally exhausted. The team had planned for some training jumps before the start of the competition. However, they realized very quickly that all that Becky needed was rest. Synchronicity with Becky Brocato recovered early and well enough to make it through the competition and deliver a performance that was good enough to defend the status as the national team in the Women's Class. No doubt that the team and Becky Brocato will never forget this competition.

The NSL News was carefully asking Becky if she felt well enough to speak in front of the NSL-TV camera. She agreed, and teammate Kim Glover helped her through the interview. Becky said that she was still a little bit nervous during the interview. Click here to watch the NSL-TV video.

The NSL News received a letter from Germany earlier this week. Henning Stumpp, team captain of the German national 8-way team FSC Remscheid, explained how the team, the German skydiving community and Germans in general feel about the disaster situation in New Orleans. The German team collected money to help the victims of the hurricane. Here is the text of the letter:

This week have been looking at America with mixed feelings. On one hand, it was exciting to experience the growing anticipation leading into the best USPA Nationals in history. On the other hand, there were the pictures from New Orleans and Louisiana, which took all of our attention, as well, despite our own elections.

Finally, even the most stubborn hard-heads realized that this is primarily a natural disaster with uncounted human tragedies as the result. Thus, some critical initial comments as of the environmental and industrial US policies made way for an impressive campaign to help the victims of the catastrophy.

The German 8-way team has made several trips to the USA for training camps in the past, and we feel connected to our friends overseas. We decided to collect money, as well, and already donated several hundred Euro to organizations that actively bring help to the disaster area.

The meaning of our contribution is not only a financial one. We would also like to express that we understand ourselves as representatives of our country, and we want to show our solidarity with our American friends. We sympathize with the victims, and we would like to show that we are able and willing to offer unconditioned help for them.

I write this to you since i do not know whether or how the American media reports the reactions from all over the world, including Germany. I would like you to forward our message to the American skydiving community if you can. My team's own understanding and sympathy with the victims and their families and friends mirrors the feelings of the vast majority of Germans.

We wish all teams and competitors in Perris a great competition.

Sincerely,

Henning Stumpp, FSC Remscheid, German 8-way