posted Oct 15th, 2004 - The Grand Prize of the Southwest Skydiving League seems to become a very enjoyable award for the winner of the AAA Class, Arizona Blade, and of the AA Class, Elsinore Equinox. SSL Director Pamela Stevens recently explained to the two teams what to expect.

The SSL Grand Prize goes to the winning teams of the two SSL classes over the whole season, and it includes sponsorship by the Southwest Skydiving League to compete at the NSL Championship at SkyQuest 2004 in Florida. As other teams prepare the visit at Fantasy of Flight financially and administratively by themselves, Stevens has taken over most of the work and expenses.

She invited the teams to get ready for the meet in Florida: "Congratulations on winning the first-ever SSL Grand Prize. I am thrilled that we can make this happen. We all survived the US Nationals and hopefully are ready to set our sights on the NSL Championship 2004. As you know, SkyQuest is scheduled to take place November 19-21 at Fantasy of Flight near Orlando, FL."

Stevens will book flights, make hotel arrangements and pay registration fees for Blade and Equinox. She will also pick up the teams in person after their arrival in Orlando and then provide rental cars for the remainder of the trip. Finally, the SSL Director even arranges qualified packing for the actual competition.

The Southwest Skydiving League collected portions of the registration fees at the meets of the regular season to create the funding for the SSL Grand Prize. The hosting skydiving centers, Perris Valley Skydiving, Skydive Elsinore and Skydive Arizona, also contributed additional cash to support Stevens' goal to send teams to the NSL Championship and represent the Southwest Skydiving League at SkyQuest 2004. The SSL Director created the budget for the project, while SSL competitor and board member Steve Miller supervised and checked the SSL accounting.

The result is this great trip for the two SSL teams to compete at the fun event at Fantasy of Flight in November. Stevens has prepared the SSL journey very well. However, she still expects room for improvement and calls this year's award a "possibly experimental SSL Grand Prize".

Experimental or not, it sounds great, and the teams will be thrilled to be treated to this special award, the SSL Grand Prize. The NSL headquarters will make the best efforts to make SkyQuest 2004 a lasting memory for the participants from the Southwest Skydiving League. It will be the first NSL Championship with teams visiting from one of the strongest leagues in the country. Welcome to SkyQuest 2004.