posted Aug 20th, 2007 - The 2007 upswing of the Florida Skydiving League continued last weekend at Skydive City in Zephyrhills. The hot August summer meets in 2006 and 2005 had attracted only three teams both times, while eight teams showed up in the morning last Saturday, three local teams from Skydive City (Dreaded FooZa, Z-Team, Rock - Paper - Scissors), two teams from Skydive Miami (ZT Mal4mationas, Miami Vice), two Teiwaz line-ups and FSC Wind Damaged from Lake Wales.

Dreaded FooZa finished the 6-round meet with an impressive 20.0 average and consists of a high-profile line-up. Player coach Joey Jones is a former DeLand Majik 4-way world champion of 2004 who has not been on a new top team ever since. He has been busy as a player coach in different line-ups and works in military skydiving training as an instructor.

The NSL News had covered his last FSL appearance when he jumped with DeLand Black Magick, a 4-way team with world-class freeflyers, at the FSL June meet in 2005.

The next NSL News story included Joey Jones at the Malevsky Cup 2006 when he filled the vacant Point slot for Team Thunder after Kelley Fredrickson injured her knee.

His new job with Dreaded FooZa is targeted at the USPA Nationals 2007. Jim "Bu" Klinge (Tail), Steve Johnson (Center Outside) and Sally Hathaway (Point) hired him for a few training camps.

Joey Jones said that his team will probably have completed 100 training jumps by the time of the September event at Skydive Chicago.

Joey Jones' rear piece partner is Jim "Bu" Klinge who competed with Team FiaZco at the USPA Nationals 2006 (17.6) after a similar team project. He also joined several Teiwaz line-ups at FSL meets of the 2006 and 2007 season.

Center Outside for Dreaded FooZa is Steve Johnson who was Jim Klinge's FiaZco teammate last year.

Sally Hathaway completes the highly competitive line-up in the Point position. She was training and competing with the US national team of FAI's female category, Synchronicity, for several years and won gold medals at the world meets in Spain 2001 and Croatia 2004.

Joey Jones was Synchronicity's coach in 2001 and for a few more years before Dan BC took over in 2004.

The Dreaded FooZa line-up has now lifted each team member up to a new scoring and performance level, except player coach Joey Jones.

The 20.0 average last Saturday came after the faster first six rounds of the meet. However, Dreaded FooZa will surely try to maintain the same scoring level throughout the 10-round meet in Ottawa.

The other two AAA Class teams at Skydive City came from the unlimited Teiwaz line-up, which currently consists of 39 different players in the 9-year history of the team. Both line-ups, Teiwaz Young and Teiwaz Old, included once again new players.

Teiwaz Old members Bob Byrne (Center Outside), Rodney Cruce (Tail) and Kurt Gaebel (Point) welcomed Ari Perelman in the Center Inside position. Ari Perelman had his first Teiwaz showing already at the FSL July meet where he competed with Teiwaz BU (Thiago Murradas, Jim Klinge, Rodney Cruce, Ari Perelman) and posted a 13.3 average.

Ari Perelman's 14.4 average last weekend is a new record average for him and came after a challenging 12-jump day at Skydive City.

He was also filling an open slot in the same position for the other Teiwaz line-up, Teiwaz Young (Kris Byrne - Center Outside, Chris Ash - Tail, Thiago Murradas - Point).

Teiwaz Young also offered an opportunity for the new Teiwaz member Chris Ash who is actually flying the Tail slot for Tunnel Chaos.

His team did not attend the meet at Skydive City, and he used the opportunity to challenge his skills in the AAA Class competition. Tunnel Chaos trains and competes in the AA Class.

Teiwaz Young with Chris Ash in the Tail position finished the 6-round meet with a 13.5 average, and the competition draw included sequences with memory for both pieces. Tunnel Chaos' best result in the AA Class this year was a 9.4 average so far, and Chris Ash will bring back a lot of helpful feedback to his own team. Chris Ash's Tunnel Chaos teammate, videographer Louie Palomares, filmed both Teiwaz line-ups in Zephyrhills.

The regular FSL teams in the AA Class, Z-Team and FSC Wind Damaged, posted new record scores, as well. Both teams broke through the 10.0 average benchmark for the first time. The Miami line-ups kept up and also finished with new team records. The NSL News will follow up with more details of these teams and their results.