posted Nov 29th, 2004 - SkyQuest 2004 was the fourth time that the event was held at Fantasy of Flight, this year on November 18 - 21. It was also the fourth time that the NSL Championship was a part of SkyQuest. The NSL Championship was held for the first time in 1998 at Skydive DeLand between the three league champions from Georgia, Texas and Florida. The NSL Championship continued to be hosted by Skydive DeLand in 1999 and 2000.

SkyVenture Orlando and the NSL moved the NSL Championship from DeLand to Fantasy of Flight when the owner of the theme park and museum in Polk City, Kermit Weeks, opened the Fantasy of Flight doors for a skydiving event in 2001. Considering the great potential of the new host, SkyVenture's founder, Bill Kitchen, and NSL President Kurt Gaebel expanded the NSL Championship to a skydiving event of a larger size and created SkyQuest Florida together. SkyQuest 2001 included the NSL Championship, Kaleidoscope Dives, Fantasy Swoop, Accuracy Challenge and a CReW event.

The inaugural 2001 event was already a great success, the Golden Knights won the first NSL Championship at Fantasy of Flight. SkyQuest 2002 fell victim to inclement weather, there was hardly any skydiving at all that year. However, the NSL teams completed one round, and DeLand Majik took the NSL Shugar Cup from the Golden Knights.

The weather was much better in 2003, and each of the four events (NSL Championship, Kaleidoscope Dives, Fantasy Swoop, Accuracy Challenge) completed the planned schedule in time. DeLand Majik defended the NSL title after ten rounds in the AAA Class, while the Air Force (Colorado Skydiving League) won the AA Class competition and Victims of the Wind (Northwest Skydiving League) the A Class medals.

SkyQuest 2004 was almost too good to be true. The same four events (NSL Championship, Kaleidoscope Dives, Fantasy Swoop, Accuracy Challenge) did not only complete the whole schedule, the groups even had enough time and weather to make some extra jumps. This happened due to a very smooth operation, even though a new event had been added to the SkyQuest 2004 agenda.

Team Elite, organised and guided by veteran big-way organiser Guy Wright and his associate Louis Tomasso, joined SkyQuest 2004 after Wright had offered his services and following to the SkyQuest management. SkyQuest discussed the addition with other event managers, Fantasy of Flight and jump plane operator Paul Fayard who promised to provide enough aircraft and master a larger event.

The 40-way group merged easily into the whole SkyQuest operation and came out as a great addition to the 2004 event. Guy Wright's group made some practice jumps on Thursday and completed 15 jumps from 15,000 ft. and one jump from 20,000 ft. between Friday and Sunday. The quality of Team Elite's sequential 40-way skydives was on a very high level, while the group organised itself very efficiently and smoothly on the ground.

The success of Team Elite's 2004 appearance at SkyQuest motivated Guy Wright and Louis Tomasso to begin making even bigger plans for SkyQuest 2005 before this year's was completed. The SkyQuest management and Team Elite will soon begin to discuss the options for next year's event. Pictures of Team Elite's skydives will be posted at the SkyQuest website as soon as they are available. The team roster of Team Elite 2004 included Sally Burgess, Stefan Burstrom, Christian Chandler, Bruce Chapman, Chantale Comtois, Roger Cunha, Jack Donovan, William Engel, Charles Finley, Nathalie Gaudreault, Paul Gemmell, Glenn Giamatti, David Gifford, Jon Griggs, Janel Hale, Gregory Hannaford, Mark Izzo, Hansson Jerker, Virginia Kuhlmann, Marylou Laughlin, Cara and Lisbeth Laurent, Aleth Matrone, Sarah McCarthy, James McCormick, Tom McLaughlin, Michelle Nelson, Jeffrey Nickolson, Mike Oolman, David Parody, Ed Pawlowski, Lori Pittenger, Gary Pond, Russell Racey, James Rees, Hollie Reno, David Rucker, Jane Seibert, Steve Tambosso, Graham Wendell, Steve Wertheimer, Steven White, Bob Wooten, Mary Wright.

BJ Worth organised the Kaleidoscope Dives 2004 once again and had increased the size of his beautiful formation sequences to 125-ways. Three Casas and two Twinotters, loaded with a lot of oxygen, brought the Kaleidoscope Divers ten times to the jump altitude of 17,000 ft. and dropped them six times from approx. 20,000 ft. Spotting expert Roger Ponce de Leon knew the event site so well after four years of SkyQuest participation that the large formations were right on top of Fantasy of Flight every single time.

However, the larger size of the formations and the more sophisticated sequences of the Kaleidoscope Dives 2004 made it more challenging for BJ's group to show the same high-level quality of the past years. The Kaleidoscope Divers, used to very successful dives and increasing quality of the jumps over the years, were also challenged by randomly inconsistent plane positions at exit time. BJ and his team captains worked very hard to maintain the quality. It took great team work and patience to finish the Kaleidoscope Dives 2004 with a great last jump from 20,000 ft.

Chris Hayes from DeLand organised the Fantasy Swoop this year. He continued the tradition of excellent event management. Lyle Presse set the first wet courses at the Fantasy of Flight ponds in 2001. Peter Allum took over in 2002, and Kamuran "Sonic" Bayrasli managed the event in 2003. Sonic then handed the Fantasy Swoop over to Chris Hayes and showed off his excellent skills as a participant at SkyQuest 2004. Hayes set the challenging courses for this year's event and completed a very successful event already on Saturday. More Fantasy Swoop 2004 information and pictures will be added soon.

Last not least, the NSL Championship attracted a selected group of 4-way teams to the 2004 event and concluded the 2004 season of the National Skydiving League at SkyQuest 2004 with great 4-way competition. Arizona Blade of the Southwest Skydiving League won the NSL Shugar Cup in the AAA Class after a very impressive 2004 season. The NSL News will soon follow up with an interview of Blade's front piece, Natasha Montgomery and Thomas Hughes.

Elsinore Equinox and Carolina Ice gave each other a great competition in the AA Class. The Carolina Skydiving League team won the gold medals, NSL AA Class trophy and free SkyVenture tunnel time with an 11.1 average after ten rounds. Carolina Ice finally finished the 2004 season with the much deserved reward after the bad luck at the USPA Championship 2004.

The competition in the A Class was probably the most exciting part of the 4-way event. GT Airlock of the Georgia Skydiving League and FSC JAMMM of the Florida Skydiving League exchanged blows round by round. At the end, the Georgia Tech team finished one single point ahead of the FSL team from Lake Wales and won the NSL PD Cup of the A Class. The NSL News will follow up with more details of the 4-way competition in the next days.