posted Nov 27th, 2006 - NSL-TV featured the first two parts of an interview with three DeLand Groove members, Gary Smith, Shannon Pilcher and Ian Bobo, with stories on November 9 and November 12. The first part of the interview covered the team's line-up at the USPA Nationals 2006 and the history of the two pieces, then the Groove members discussed the meet management of the event in Eloy in the second part.

The third and last part of the interview has now been uploaded and can be viewed by clicking here. Gary Smith, Shannon Pilcher and Ian Bobo now provide an outlook into the 2007 season from their perspectives and share with the NSL audience their own experiences as of the value of competition practice.

The NSL News story on November 14 went back to the beginnings of team DeLand Genesis and found out that the team's line-up with Shannon Pilcher, Ian Bobo, Kyle Collins and David van Greuningen attended a total of 11 competitions in 1998 and a record number of 16 competitions in 1999.

Ian Bobo confirmed in the interview how valuable the competition practice was for the later success of the team and its individual members. He called it the "round one experience", which allows a competitor to begin a competition with confidence and without anxiety.

The formula that Ian Bobo uses is quite simple: the more you compete, the better you get. He does not think that a team can hide as the "Dark Horse" and come out with a surprise these days. The teams need the competition practice, and the performance at the meets puts the scores on the public leaderboard.

However, there are exceptions, as Ian Bobo pointed out the French national 4-way team at the World Meet 2006: "You can put together world champions in a team, and they will not need that much competition practice to make it to the medal positions."

Gary Smith does not expect any surprises at the international competitions next year: "The USA and France will always have top teams, there will be no more soft world meets. Russia seems to have a world class team at any timne, as well."

DeLand Groove's Center Outside, who has won the 4-way competitions at the USPA Nationals every year since 2003 and the gold medals at the last two world meets (Croatia 2004 with DeLand Majik, Germany 2006 with DeLand Fire) sees Fastrax and Airspeed Odyssey as the US top contenders in 2007.

However, he still hopes that the east coast will put together a strong team once again. He may join Shannon Pilcher and Ian Bobo at the swooping events if a top 4-way team does not materialize, he added jokingly.

Shannon Pilcher provides his thoughts of the "new 4-way generation", which includes teams like Perris Fury, Elsinore Gravity and Mass Defiance. He said in the interview that the wind tunnels help to accelerate the progression and improve the skills level of the new generation.

However, he also mentions that there is the seasoning of a competitor, and a certain experience level is necessary to get to the very top level of 4-way competition. As his long-time teammate and friend Ian Bobo confirmed later, Shannon Pilcher also mentioned that there are enough meets these days to gain the necessary competition practice.

He also remembered that DeLand Groove and Perris Fury were in the same jump plane at the USPA Nationals 2006 and gave the Perris team credit for its impressive performance. The video of the whole interview can be viewed by clicking here.