posted Dec 26th, 2011 - The aftermath of the SDC Rhythm XP tryouts continues with an update from the other top candidate for the Center Inside slot, Chris Farina's former Perris Fury team mate Christy Frikken.

The NSL News mentioned with the last update before Christmas Day that her NSL Profile did not provide much information of her skydiving career before Perris Fury. There is no news in this area, and the profile story still needs an update, however, the Perris Fury time period is probably the most important part of her skydiving career for the NSL News audience anyway.

This time period is not only a Perris Fury story. Christy Frikken launched and managed many other projects which were based on the Perris Fury foundation, most of them together with Chris Farina. In hindsight, it was actually not a big surprise that Chris Farina and Christy Frikken both eventually showed up at the Rhythm tryouts.

SDC Rhythm XP slot or not - Christy Frikken has continued with making plans for the 2012 season in the meantime, and she had an update of one of the team projects that she is launching next year.

The NSL News audience may remember when Christy Frikken joined the US female 4way team for the 2nd Dubai Championship 2011 in January this year. Becky Brocato and Annaliese Peterson had been Spaceland Blue members, the best US female 4way team at the USPA Nationals 2009, together with Erin Murphy and Brianne Thompson. Blue qualified as the national team in this category for the 2010 season.

The US team then won bronze medals with the same lineup at the World Meet 2010 in August. The team disbanded and did not compete at the USPA Nationals 2010 in September where SDC Furies ended up as the highest scoring female lineup.

2nd Dubai Championship 2011		Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Round 5	Round 6	Round 7	Round 8	Total	Avg
Rank	4way Women	P,17,18	M,N,F,3	H,A,6,B	Q,1,C,14	4,10,15	16,O,J,22	K,2,E,11	G,9,8	Total	Avg
1	Aerodyne Deep Blue Defenders	20	26	28	20	15	19	20	21	169	21.1
2	USA Alpha Armada	17	26	30	17	14	19	18	19	160	20.0
3	Russia Illusions	16	21	22	15	9	17	17	17	134	16.8
4	Spain Empuria Gatas	11	14	13	10	10	12	11	10	91	11.4
5	Denmark Lady Vikings	8	13	12	11	9	11	10	11	85	10.6
6	Canada	4	9	8	0	2	7	6	6	42	5.3

However, former Blue members Becky Brocato and Annaliese Peterson recruited Hannah Betts and Christy Frikken to travel to Dubai in January 2011 and attend the 2nd Dubai Championship. Alpha Armada was sanctioned by USPA to compete in Dubai and won the 2nd place and $15,000 with a 20.0 average.

Christy Frikken was available for Dubai since her own team, Perris Fury, did not plan to compete there in January. Hannah Betts, originally from the United Kingdom, was now eligible to compete for the US national team after sitting at for the World Meet 2010. She had won gold medals in the female 4way category with Bodyflight Storm in France 2008.

Christy Frikken and Hannah Betts connected in Alpha Armada and have continued to keep in touch throughout the 2011 season. Now they have once again joined forces for a new team project that aims at forming a top 4way team in the female category.

It is a "double player coach project" where Christy Frikken and Hannah Betts are looking for two motivated female students for a remarkable opportunity. Their concept is to find two highly driven women and bring them to world class speed as quickly as possible. The team will train together for a full year and compete at the USPA Nationals 2012 in Eloy.

Christy Frikken explained that the inspiration for the team came partly from Hannah Bett’s own experience with Storm: "When that project started, two experienced skydivers worked with both Hannah Betts and Sarah Smith when they were newer skydivers. They enjoyed a great deal of success with this model and eventually became world champions."

She thinks that this US based project has even more potential as it is starting with more experienced 4-way athletes who each have years of coaching experience.

The new project also aims at creating a larger field of high scoring female 4way skydivers in the USA, as Christy Frikken added: "The USA has some of the best female skydivers in the world, but because many opt to compete on co-ed teams, the performance on the world stage has not lived up to potential. By providing this chance to bring a couple of fresh faces into the field, the expectation is that the general level will improve."

The first lineup is set up to be a single year project, while Christy Frikken hopes that the concentrated coaching and hard work will produce a group which could become the US national 4way team in the female category in 2013: "If the group achieves an appropriate competitive level in 2012, the plan is to extend it to a long term project hopefully attending the World Championship of Formation Skydiving in 2014."

Christy Frikken explained that the two candidates do not need a lot of 4way experience for this project: "The primary concern is energy, enthusiasm, a very strong work ethic, and skydiving potential." Interested skydivers can contact Christy Frikken directly by e-mail.