posted Sep 30th, 2010 - The NSL News has covered the unofficial category of the "amateur teams" for a long time, as a part of the World Championships of Formation Skydiving as well as the USPA Nationals.

There is no definition for this category, and it is impossible to draw a clear line between weekend amateur and real professional competitors. However, there is still a difference between the top teams and full time skydivers and the other passionate competitors who spend a lot of time and money to become as good as they can be according to their limited efforts.

The NSL News has tried to honor those "amateur" teams and competitors who never end up on the top of the leaderboards, as they have decided to have 4-way training and competition as a hobby and not a profession. However, the best "amateur" teams are posting impressive scores and deserve attention. This year's winner at the USPA Nationals 2010 was DeLand Shmeland XP.

USPA Nationals 2010		Round1	Round2	Round3	Round4	Round5	Round6	Round7	Round8	Round9	Round10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open	16,21,11	3,L,K,10	6,22,1	12,20,4	Q,M,2,N	H,D,9,G	19,5,13	F,E,17,O	C,8,7	A,18,14	Total	Avg
6	DeLand Shmeland XP	15	17	13	13	21	28	15	30	17	12	181	18.1
7	Speedy Kids XP	14	16	14	14	23	23	15	24	17	13	173	17.3
8	Founding Fathers	13	15	14	13	21	20	17	27	16	13	169	16.9
9	Amphibious Attack Tigers	12	16	14	12	18	25	16	27	14	14	168	16.8

USPA Nationals 2010 - 4way Open Class: Unofficial Amateur Championship

Shmeland's 18.1 average secured the 6th place in the Open Class competition. SDC Rhythm XP was the next team up and out of reach with a 20.5 average. Rhythm was still a part of this unofficial category in 2009 and won the amateur title with exactly the same meet average last year. Rhythm then decided to go full time and is now trying to win the Open Class one day.

Speedy Kids, Founding Fathers and Amphibious Attack Tigers battled with Shmeland for the amateur title this year. The AAT lineup included three Mass Defiance members who are still holding the record amateur average at USPA Nationals.

Ben Liston, John Silva and Brian Stephens had posted a 19.3 average at the USPA Nationals 2007, together with John Rees who is now a USPA National Judge and evaluated the competition jumps of his former team mates at this year's event. They all kept their eyes on the scoreboard wondering if somebody would get close to the record average this time.

USPA Nationals 2007		Round1	Round2	Round3	Round4	Round5	Round6	Round7	Round8	Round9	Round10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open	11,6,K	12,E,C,A	18,17,F	4,8,P	M,20,D,9	19,16,5	B,3,O,G	13,H,2	7,22,15	N,21,L,J	Total	Avg
7	Mass Defiance	18	20	18	18	25	16	22	19	15	22	193	19.3
8	FooZa	18	18	20	16	23	16	24	17	16	22	190	19.0

Mass Defiance was pushed to the record average by FooZa in 2007. Two FooZa members, Sally Hathaway and James "Bu" Klinge, were back with Shmeland this year to win another unofficial amateur title.

Jim Klinge had won hist first amateur honors with Phugoid and a 15.7 average at the USPA Nationals 2005. His team beat Perris Fury by one point that year. XL's John McIver was filling in for Chris Farina at Fury's first USPA Nationals.

Sally Hathaway was competing with the US national team Synchronicity at the same meet, 4-way world champion in the female category at the World Meet 2004 in Croatia. She had outscored all other "amateur" teams with Synchronicity in 2003 and 2004. Mass Defiance was the USPA Advanced Class champion in 2005.

USPA Nationals 2005		Round1	Round2	Round3	Round4	Round5	Round6	Round7	Round8	Round9	Round10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open	2A 19	F20 D 9	C21 N 11	15M 8	46 P	51 H	227 12	3K 16	E17 14	1318 J	Total	Avg
7	Phugoid	18	20	12	15	16	16	12	16	17	15	157	15.7
8	Perris Fury	17	19	17	15	13	14	14	15	17	15	156	15.6
9	Perris Synchronicity	16	19	17	15	15	15	12	15	17	13	154	15.4
9	Mass Defiance	19	19	16	15	15	15	12	14	15	14	154	15.4
11	Dallas Thunder	15	19	15	16	15	15	13	15	16	13	152	15.2

The third Shmeland member, Center Inside Rodney Cruce, came into the same amateur championship picture at the USPA Nationals a year later. He and Jim Klinge were now FiaZco team mates, and Rodney Cruce won his first amateur title.

Mass Defiance had now moved up into the Open Class competition, as the USPA Advanced Class champion is required to do. The same MD lineup finished right behind FiaZco with a 16.7 average.

Sally Hathaway was once again competing with Synchronicity in 2006 and finished with a 15.9 average behind her two future Shmeland team mates.

USPA Nationals 2006		Round1	Round2	Round3	Round4	Round5	Round6	Round7	Round8	Round9	Round10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open	1319 17	N21 14	7M 8	9K 10	B22 H 3	420 16	G6 1	12F 2	JL Q P 18	EO 5 D	Total	Avg
8	FiaZco	15	14	19	18	17	14	17	16	23	23	176	17.6
9	Mass Defiance	15	14	19	16	14	15	14	15	22	23	167	16.7

Shmeland's fourth team member's story begins in 2007. Ari Perelman trained and competed with Teiwaz Tempest in 2007 and then with the same lineup for Sebastian Tempest in 2008. Tempest did not compete at the USPA Nationals 2007, where Mass Defiance scored the record average, and then posted scores on the Open Class leaderboard in 2008.

Tempest's 17.1 average would have won the Advanced Class gold medals that year, which went to CSC Rhythm XP (16.9) instead. However, Ari Perelman still ended up behind Jim Klinge and Rodney Cruce who competed with Inept (17.4) in 2008.

Arizona Divewerkz posted the highest amateur average at the USPA Nationals 2008 (19.0) and came closer than any other team to Mass Defiance's 19.3 record average. Mass Defiance witnessed AZDW's challenge with Dennis Rook for Jim Rees in the lineup.

USPA Nationals 2008		Round1	Round2	Round3	Round4	Round5	Round6	Round7	Round8	Round9	Round10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open	2,10,15	F,C,3,H	J,O,4,N	20,M,E,11	13,12,L	9,A,19	18,22,D	21,17,P	6,14,Q	B,1,G,7	Total	Avg
8	Arizona Divewerkz	15	25	23	19	17	19	16	19	16	21	190	19.0
11	Spaceland Directe XP	13	22	22	17	16	22	14	19	17	18	180	18.0
12	Inept	14	19	22	19	12	22	14	16	16	20	174	17.4
13	Sebastian Tempest	13	22	21	17	16	17	12	16	17	20	171	17.1
14	Mass Defiance	15	23	22	20	13	23	15	17	18	1	167	16.7

Only Sally Hathaway and Ari Perelman then competed in 4-way at the USPA Nationals 2009. Sally Hathaway helped out for Spaceland Blue who needed an alternate for Becky Brocato.

Ari Perelman teamed up with three of his Dallas Rogue 8-way team mates and posted a 17.1 average with the Amphibious Attack Tigers, exactly the same average as with Sebastian Tempest in 2008. Two of the Attack Tigers, former Mass Defiance members Ben Liston and Brian Stephens, watched SDC Rhythm XP's last attack on their amateur record average in 2009. Rhythm won the unoffical amateur title but missed the 19.3 mark.

Rodney Cruce competed only in 8-way with Dallas Rogue and was in the same lineup with his Shmeland team mate Ari Perelman for the first time. Jim Klinge competed neither in 4-way nor in 8-way and was eager to come back in 2010.

USPA Nationals 2009		Round1	Round2	Round3	Round4	Round5	Round6	Round7	Round8	Round9	Round10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open	13,20,18	D,10,3	16,15,K	G,Q,L,8	B,17,21	A,N,H,P,O	1,14,M	19,12,J	5,11,C	22,9,E	Total	Avg
6	SDC Rhythm XP	13	17	16	20	18	35	15	13	17	17	181	18.1
8	Amphibious Attack Tigers	14	12	14	18	19	30	17	15	16	16	171	17.1
9	Spaceland Blue	14	14	14	19	17	26	16	14	16	16	166	16.6
9	Sebastian Tempest	13	17	16	17	18	28	15	14	16	12	166	16.6

DeLand Shmeland XP started the 2010 season with Michael Biederman in the lineup. Jim Klinge, Rodney Cruce and Ari Perelman knew that he would only be available for a limited time and made plans with Sally Hathaway for the second half of the season.

Solly Williams was coaching the team from the very beginning this year, and Shmeland with Michael Biederman posted a 14.4 average after the first part of the training at the FSL Shamrock Showdown 2010. By the way: the same Shamrock Showdown also featured Rhythm's first meet with the new lineup and a real Mass Defiance reunion with the original lineup.

Several weekends and additional wind tunnel training followed with Sally Hathaway and Solly Williams, and the progression between the first scores on the Shamrock leaderboard and the results at the USPA Nationals was impressive. Shmeland's 18.1 average did not beat MD's 19.3 record average, but it was another great result for a lineup with weekend amateur competitors.