posted Apr 17th, 2006 - The second meet of the Florida Skydiving League 2006 season was hosted by the Florida Skydiving Center in Lake Wales. The host of the USPA Nationals in 2003, which was completely wiped out by the hurricanes in the summer of 2004, is still in the re-building process and uses the same alternate location as in 2005 until the new hangar with brandnew facilities will be built.

Seven teams attended the only 4-way competition last weekend, four teams in the AAA/Open Class, one team in the AA/Intermediate Class and two teams in the A Class. The field of teams included international line-ups and well known names. Several competitors of the meet in Lake Wales will also travel to the World Meet in Germany this year.

The national 4-way team from the United Kingdom, the British Army team with its new name "DeLand Brits", used the FSL meet for competition practice. Aaron Faith (Tail), Dane Kenny (Center Outside), Al Macartney (Point) and David Tylor (Center Inside)traveled from DeLand to Lake Wales to attend the competition. The team's videographer, Spencer Hogg, kindly provided his services also for Skydive City's line-up in Lake Wales. The NSL News will follow up later with a special update after the UK team's performance last weekend.

Not only the DeLand Brits have already travel plans to Germany this summer. The line-up of Punky Guppy included Sinapsi PD's Tail, Pete Allum, in Punky's Center Inside position. The other four team members were all from the Netherlands and interrupted their DeLand training camp for the competition in Lake Wales.

Paul Hofstee is a member of the Dutch national team, Punky Fish, and Marc Hoornweg is the alternate for his team. The NSL News reported last year that alternate Marc Hoornweg already had to fill a slot for Punky Fish once, and he was eager to do his job properly.

Marc Hoornweg is also an advisor to the Formation Skydiving Committee of the International Parachuting Commission (IPC). Punky Fish members had put together a training camp in DeLand with different player coaches as a part of the Punky Fish 4-way project. Marc Hoornweg used this opportunity to get ready for an always possible job as the alternate. Pete Allum was the player coach in DeLand and Lake Wales.

The international field was completed by the Bad Boys from the Czech Republic. Tomas Berouscek (Tail), Jan Klapka (Center Inside), Vaclav Prokos (Point), Jaraj Sonlaitner (Center Outside) and Miroslav Slansky (Video) also used the event in Lake Wales to add competition practice to the current training camp in DeLand and at SkyVenture Orlando.

The team's coach, Robert Chromy, who was born in the Czech Republic and speaks the language fluently, competed with Teiwaz Lake Wales at the same time. The Bad Boys' line-up also included the organizer of the newly formed 4-way league in the Chech Republic, Jan Klapka.

NSL President and Teiwaz member Kurt Gaebel and Jan Klapka attended a competition together for the first time. They will continue to discuss the progress of the European Skydiving League while the passionate Chech 4-way competitor and director is still in Florida.

FSC Wind Damaged completed the team's second meet of the 2006 season with the same line-up, which does not include a player coach any longer. Last year's player coach, the Canadian Bruce Robertson, was replaced by Mario Luppa in the tail position with the beginning of the 2006 season.

Mike Green (Center Outside), Joel Kmetz (Center Inside)and Martin McKerrell (Point), have returned from last year's line-up. The FSC Wind Damaged 2006 line-up also includes a new team videographer. Jerry Whitledge has committed his services to the team from Lake Wales and enjoyed the experiences of his first competition as the videographer for the team last weekend. FSC Wind Damaged improved the meet average from 7.8 at the Shamrock Showdown to 8.2 in Lake Wales.

Skydive City's team with Paul Bartkus (Tail), Carrie Bramlet (Point), Leslieann McCormack (Inside Center) and James Saine (Outside Center) had no changes in the line-up. The team is still looking for a videographer and happily accepted the offer by the DeLand Brits member, Spencer Hogg, to cover the video slot in Lake Wales.

Skydive City improved the meet average from 6.3 at the Shamrock Showdown to 6.7 last weekend. However, the recent scores do not really reflect the team's progression yet. The performance over the six rounds in Lake Wales was much more consistent and much cleaner compared to the season opener in March. There is more to expect very soon from Skydive City's A Class team.

The competition from Zephyrhills has put pressure on Skydive Miami's team, ZT Mal4mations. The Miami team with the regulars Gary Hansen (Center Inside), Ana Sang (Point), Lance Smith (Center Outside), Dutch Vandervelt (Tail) and Alex Batista (Video) had no problem dominating the A Class in Florida last year.

This has been different at the beginning of the 2006 season when Skydive City came to the first two meets with a strong line-up. Miami's Center Outside, Lance Smith, was not available last weekend, and coach Pamela Manos took the slot. The results in Lake Wales were exactly the same as in DeLand at the Shamrock Showdown after six rounds: a total of 27 points and a 4.5 average. This means that the Z-Hills teams has increased the distance between March and April, and ZT Mal4mations might have to look for a way to catch up. The first round of this meet's NSL-TV will be uploaded later today.