posted Aug 19th, 2004 - The 3rd Northwest Skydiving League Meet was held on August 14 at Skydive Snohomish. A temporary flight restriction was issued Friday afternoon until Saturday morning due to the President visiting our area. So teams were unable to practice on Friday. We were concerned about whether or not we'd get to start early enough on Saturday to complete the meet. Luckily the restriction was lifted right on time, and the sky was clear.

Seven teams showed up for the competition, and Skydive Snohomish brought in Kapowsin's Otter to accommodate the number of teams along with the 56 tandems on their schedule. All teams were able to finish the meet on Saturday, a first for this season, despite a brief downpour that only lasted for a couple of minutes. The rain caught some teams in the air. Tye Graven had to wring out his canopy before he packed it!

The biggest competition was in the AA Class with three teams. Two of these teams were pickup teams composed of experienced 4-way competitors who haven't been training this year. The third team was the only trained team, Elsinore Vengeance, and managed to come out on top with a total score of 49 points, in spite of a bad round five. The Rusty Devils consisted of Art Bori (prior NWSL Director), Ken West, Deb Henry and Kimmy Kaplan and ended up with 44 points. Wrong Hole competed with Steve Splatt, Tye Graven, Kimberely Smith, Keith Ragusa and finished with 35 points total.

Two pickup teams competed in the Rookie Class. For their first meet, the Guys & Dolls, consisting of Autum Woods, Sharon Glaeser, Bob Cerelli and Kelly had an impressive showing with a total score of 51 points. Otter Slaughter didn't fare as well and scored a total of 8 points. This team was the only team that had to land in the alternate field due to the C-License requirement for landing at the airport. Even though Otter Slaughter's score wasn't that high, Paul, Kevin and Mia commented on how much they learned by jumping with Eric Rushing who served as a player coach for the team.

The other two classes each had one team competing, with Blala in the AAA Class and a total score of 46 points. Blala had not been able to make any jumps together since the last Meet in Molalla. Sparkie Doyle flew into PDX Friday evening, drove the four hours to Snohomish, made six jumps on Saturday and then had to drive back to PDX and fly back to work. Thanks for the extra effort, Sparkie.

Chasing Tail competed in the A Class and finished with a total of 36 points after a great meet. With the aid of several AAA and AA Class competitors the team worked out some exit problems and managed to average six points per round - the best effort to date. Chasing Tail members reported a difficult meet for the team: "Lisa (Point) competed with a pulled muscle in her shoulder, but still flew all six jumps while diligently icing the injured shoulder between the jumps. Corrie (Tail) took a foot to her jaw while exiting the Murphy Flake in round five. Fortunately she was wearing a full face helmet, and while painful, Corrie wasn't seriously injured and landed without incident." Even with that frightening event, the team managed to pick up four points in round five. Chasing Tail's plan for the NSL Playoffs 2004 is set: "We plan to first heal the bruises and sore muscles, and second: focus on our exits with the goal of breaking 40 points for the meet."

The meet went smoothly, with unusually warm weather for the NorthWest. It stayed clear except for a brief storm. When we opened the Otter door for round three, snow and hail swirled into the Otter. It appeared quite surreal, covering our rigs white, but quickly changed into a short but heavy rain in freefall. I was soaked while flying my canopy, but the rain passed by the time we landed and got under cover.

We were all really impressed with the drop zone, the friendly people and the beautiful scenery. It set the tone for a great meet. Special thanks go to the camera flyers, Troy Ketsdever and Scott Callantine for doing double duty, and to Kelly Green- Honigbaum from Arizona for traveling the farthest. DZ Manager Tyson Harvey was very helpful, this was his first time hosting a Northwest Skydiving League event. The Seattle SkyDivers hosted a free barbecue for the competitors, fun jumpers and staff members after the meet, and everyone watched the day's competition video on the big screen TV. We had a great meet and hope to see everyone at Skydive Oregon for the NSL Playoffs 2004 on September 11.

Meet story by NWSL Director Harry Waller