skyXtreme - National Skydive League

This page will be updated at least once a week with the latest news from the National Skydive League. Special thanks to Kurt Gaebel, founder of the league and webmaster of its web site.

September 19, 1999
The draw for this year's U.S. Nationals is on the faster side. It would not be very surprising if many of the teams came up with new record scores. Round five with five random formations is a real "burner". Not only that this is an only-randoms sequence. But the sequence also has a good flow. France, watch out! Team Maubeuge is holding the current world record with 36 points in time. But there is a very good chance that one of the top teams in the Open Class field will break this record in round five. Airspeed, Purple, FX, Norgies, XL and the Golden Knights all have the potential to beat the 36 in this round. Maybe we will know more by the end of the day.

read more
on NSL's website...

Check out OmniSkore's U.S. Nationals
Coverage Schedule and Competition Results.

NSL Vector III September 9, 1999
Relative Workshop created this NSL Vector 3 together with NSL director Kurt Gaebel. Gaebel has been jumping it already for a couple of jumps, and has been getting a lot of compliments for the design. The idea of creating an NSL Vector came with the latest replacement of Gaebel's older Vector 3. Manufacturer Relative Workshop and Gaebel both liked the idea and went ahead with it.

Since the National Skydiving League has been considering the launch of the NSL Shop for a while, the NSL Vector may become one of the very first items on the list. The NSL Shop would only offer a very limited line of special NSL products, but it has been not much more than an idea so far. The season is keeping the headquarters too busy to start other projects. Time will come for the NSL Shop.....

September 6, 1999
So far six teams are qualified for the National Skydiving League Championships 1999. DeLand Genesis for Florida, Convergence for Texas, Mr. Pink for Georgia, Hinckley Mock4 for the Midwest, Fast Fourward for Virginia have all completed their league seasons as the best team before handicap in the Open Class. Ranch Air Traffic still has the last season meet to be completed this weekend. However, the RATs cannot no longer be caught by any other team, regardless of what happens at the last meet. The Missouri Skydiving League will finish the season next weekend. No MSL team has qualified as of yet. The Northeast Skydiving League still has to find a way how to determine their best team. Only the best teams of each league before handicap in the Open Class can qualify for the NSL Championships 1999. Some leagues may have other teams winning the overall handicapped class of the league. But only the best team of each league will travel to DeLand in November to represent the league and compete for the NSL medals.

September 2, 1999
Convergence won the Texas Skydiving League championship for 1999. The last season meet was as dramatic as they come.... Convergence, the defending champion, was challenged by Terminal XTC who had improved their meet average from 9.7 at the first meet to 10.3 at the second meet, and then 12.0 at season meet three. Convergence had scored 10.3 - 10.3 - 11.0. After meet three, Convergence knew that the last meet would be tough with XTC on the way up. The winner of the last meet would be the 1999 champion. After two rounds at last weekend's final meet, both teams were tied with 20 points. In round three, both teams scored nine points in time. But XTC lost two points due to a penalty. But they started right away to fight back, gaining one point in the next round (14-13). Convergence stayed just one point up, with two more rounds to go. Convergence proved nerves of steel. Both teams again scored the same number of points in both remaining rounds. XTC could not gain the so much needed one point to force a jump-off. What a race!
Mr. Pink won the Georgia Skydiving League championship. Six teams are already qualified for the NSL Championships 1999 (see: NSL 1999 Preview). This and more at the NSL website.

August 30, 1999
Ground Zero is planning for an attack for the upcoming meet. The Ranch Skydiving League team has consistently been improving over the whole season. They started training and competing in Florida last spring, then continued at their home turf in New York/New Jersey. Ground Zero competed at all four Ranch Skydiving League meets this season. Currently they are in third place with 25 league points, just two points behind the leader Otis with 27 points. The strongest RSL team, Ranch Air Traffic, is in second place with 26 points in the overall handicapped class. The last season meet this weekend will complete the final race for the RSL Championship 1999. Ground Zero, who has been competing in the Intermediate Class, is well prepared and confident. Drew Lipinski, the team videographer, took the beautiful shot of Ground Zero's team formation on the frontpage.

August 29, 1999
DeLand Genesis developed a team strategy for the 2000 season almost by coincidence. It happened this year that the team had a quite good stretch of training sessions during the Florida winter season, the busiest time for drop zones in Florida. At the end of the winter season, it becomes more difficult to fill the big jump planes all the time. The intensity of a daily team training schedule naturally slows down. When the competition season started (Florida Skydiving League, Americas Cup tour), the meets started to take away many of the weekends. The Genesis members are all still working full-time jobs during the week, cannot compensate the training schedule by training on many week days. Recently, the team hardly trained at all, but competed at each meet available. The funny Genesis slogan "Don't Train - Go Compete" came up. But this unplanned system was obviously very successful. The Genesis' scores have consistently been going up. The success of this season caused the team to start considering a similar strategy for the 2000 season.

August 26, 1999
The Mile-High Skydiving Center in Colorado will host a 4-way competition which will be a test-run for the possible start of the Colorado Skydiving League in 2000. Keith Walter and Jeff Sands are organizing the event in the beautiful mountain region near Boulder on September 11th. Keith Walter came up with the idea to check out the potential for a skydiving league in his region. He contacted the NSL headquarters for more information and started to work on his project. The meet in September will start at 7:30 am and finish after three rounds. The costs for the meet will be $300 per team, including registration and jump tickets for the three rounds(five slots). The teams will have to cover the fee for the videographer if any. Teams should bring their own videographer, but additional video staff will be available.
The competition jumps will be judged by USPA Mountain Conference Director Bill Wenger. The competition draw will use the whole dive pool, and a handicap will be assigned to each team. There are currently two active 4-way teams in the Colorado league region which are training for the U.S. Nationals. The handicap system will move other pick-up teams and participants to the same scoring level. Walter will give all participating teams a handicap for the first round using the Americas Cup system to determine the experience level. Walter is emphasizing that he would like to test the potential for a possible league with this meet and that he wants to offer the skydivers in the region a fun activity. More information can be found at the Mile-High homepage. Contact: Keith Walter and Jeff Sands.

August 23, 1999
Hinckley Mock 4 is the Midwest Skydiving League champion 1999. The last season meet at Chicagoland Skydiving had four teams competing. Def Con 4 won this meet with a total of 71.2 scoring points after handicap and a 7.5 raw average. Mock 4 placed second with a total of 69 scoring points after handicap and a 11.5 raw average. Mock 4 won the overall class championship and is the highest scoring team of the Midwest Skydiving League, as well. They have qualified to compete for their league at the National Skydiving League championships 1999 in November. Congratulations, Mock 4. All the scores and more meet information is posted at the MWSL homepage.

August 18, 1999
SkyVenture has joined the group of NSL sponsors who will provide this year's championship award ceremony with prizes. Bill Kitchen, inventor of the SkyCoaster and the SkyVenture wind tunnel in Orlando, will give away one free hour of flying time in the tunnel to one of the registered NSL teams. This prize has the value of $450.00 which is the normal team rate for one hour tunnel time. Since the first three teams will receive cash prizes from the NSL jackpot, the team placing fourth will have the first choice from all other presented prizes. The tunnel hour will most likely be the choice to go for.
Three teams (Chain Gang, ZSpot and Tonic) are currently fighting for the bronze medal and approx. $600.00 prize money. The team that ends up on the thankless fourth place after the race at the final season meet this Sunday at Skydive City may now receive valuable compensation if they choose to fly in the tunnel.
SkyVenture was the major event sponsor for the National Skydiving League Championships 1998, getting great media exposure at the event. They also sponsored the Florida Skydiving League with the scoreboard last season. The same SkyVenture scoreboard has still been travelling from meet to meet this whole season. The free tunnel hour for the award ceremony is Bill Kitchen's support for the NSL this year. Blue Skies - Go Compete, Dark Skies - Go Tunneling

August 16, 1999
Skydive Sebastian is counting down the days until the nationals. In the drop zone bar, a big drop-down calendar is showing the big number of days remaining. Some projects are in the works: owner Andy Grimwade is adding a beach and a tiki-bar to the facilities. Yes, there will be a beach at the drop zone, but it will be only the sand portion of a beach... and then there is the tiki-bar with a couple of palm trees around, giving the dropzone a nice Carribean atmosphere. Hopefully, the missing part of the beach will also be missing during the competition: the water.
Skydive Sebastian is also considering running a pre-nationals competition on Labor day weekend if there is enough interest. Interested teams can get in touch directly with Andy Grimwade. Chris Wagner will be the meet director for this year's nationals. Chris is another brother of the Wagner family with Tim and Ted of Omniskore. He was a world champion with the Golden Knights in 1985, 1987 and 1989, and he is still in the army. This means that there will be a big family reunion at the nationals. All three Wagner brothers will be busy at the same place and at the same time.

NSL - Calendar
09/11-12/99	Missouri Skydiving League	Archway Skydiving	Season Meet 2
09/11/99	Colorado Skydiving League	Mile High Skydiving	Test Meet
11/6-7/99	National Skydiving League	Skydive DeLand	NSL Championships 1999

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	National Skydive League

Vol. 1 - September 1999 / English Edition	The Magazine from Skydive World