posted Jun 21st, 2016 - Last weekend's outdoor meet of the Florida Skydiving League brought back Simba to Skydive DeLand. Simba attended the team's second meet this year after the 2016 start at the May competition.

Florida's summer weather allowed only the completion of four rounds this time, as the usual rain and thunder storms in the afternoon interfered with the skydiving operation. Simba had completed all six rounds in May.

It was exactly the same Simba roster that came back last weekend and finished with a new outdoor team record average and a new highscore for a single round. Simba had posted a 15-pointer for a sequence with only random formations (D,E,H) in May and added three points for an 18-pointer in Round 3 (O,K,P) on Saturday. The completed four rounds included the same number of blocks (four) that the 6-round meet in May had brought to the A Class teams.

June 18th, 2016 FS4				1	2	3	4	Total	Avg
Rank	A Class			6,4	B,E,21	O,K,P	7,C	Total	Avg
1	Simba	US	FSL	6(-1)	12	18	9	45	11.3
Roster: Naila Novaronti (P), Robert Chromy (OC), Trevor Cedar (IC), Rodrigo Espinosa (T), Luke Evens (V)

May 21st, 2016 FS4				1	2	3	4	5	6	Total	Avg
Rank	A Class			21,M	B,G,8	J,4	O,A,C	D,E,H	P,F,6	Total	Avg
1	Simba	US	FSL	10	8	8	12	15	11	64	10.7
Roster: Naila Novaronti (P), Robert Chromy (OC), Trevor Cedar (IC), Rodrigo Espinosa (T), Luke Evens (V)

Naila Novaronti from Indonesia initiated the Simba project in 2014 when she visited DeLand for one of her business trips. Pam Manos had the Outside Center slot when Simba competed for the first time in the Rookie Class, together with Nick Utton and Rodrigo Espinosa.

The NSL Championship 2014 was weathered out after three rounds, and Simba completed the team's first six meet rounds at iFLY Orlando when the championship was continued with an indoor competition.

Simba's 2014 lineup finished with a 15.2 indoor average, and only the well trained DeLand 3D lineup was ahead in the Rookie Class. 3D had player coach Robert Chromy in the roster, who would eventually switch sides and guide Simba into the A Class competition world.

NSL Indoor 2014				1	2	3	4	5	6	Total	Avg
Rank	Rookie			D,H,N	A,O,K	P,C,L	Q,E,F	B,J,M	E,J,C	Total	Avg
1	DeLand 3D	US	E	18	19	15	25	25	23	125	20.8
2	Simba	US	E	11	13	13	19	20	15	91	15.2
3	Instructions Not Included	US	E	10	9	7	8	13	13	60	10.0
4	Vidiots	US	E	3	6	5	4	2	4	24	4.0

It took another year before Simba would come back in the A Class of 2016. DeLand 3D had disbanded, and Naila Novaronti asked Robert Chromy to join her lineup, together with a second player coach, Trevor Cedar, while 2014 member Rodrigo Espinosa was back in the lineup.

Robert Chromy was also the first player coach for SDC Rhythm XP when the team project was launched in 2007 and Rhythm competed in the AA Class. Rhythm then continued with Brian Ball after the first year and when the team moved up into the AAA Class.

It did not take Robert Chromy very long to bring Simba up to speed in the A Class and beyond the 10-average benchmark. New FSL team DeLand Kickers had no chance to keep up, not yet...