Airspeed Vertical takes Gold in NSL Valentine's Meet at Skydive Eloy

The 4-way competition of the Valentine's Meet at Skydive Eloy in Arizona is already completed. After six rounds, Airspeed Vertical took the first place, three points ahead of DeLand PD Blue. The Golden Knights Gold team took third place. The second Airspeed 4-way team Zulu finished fourth, two points ahead of Elsinore 4.

These five teams entered the Open Class competition and are expected to compete for the medals at this year's U.S. Nationals. The biggest surprise of the meet was the performance of DeLand PD Blue. The former Genesis turned from a weekend team into a full-time team after last year's nationals. Blue represents a new generation of young competitors challenging the world champions from the West coast.

The big scramble inside the Airspeed squads had obviously a much bigger impact on the current performance than was expected. The distance between Blue and Airspeed was shortened from 2.5 average at the nationals to 0.5 at yesterday's competition. Blue is highly motivated after becoming full-time skydivers and will probably enjoy a huge confidence boost after this meet.

While the skydiving world is still expecting the Airspeed world champions to keep the U.S. title in Arizona, DeLand PD Blue is eager to bring it back to Florida where it used to be years ago. It seems as if all the top teams are competing on the same playing ground at the beginning of the season. Only 0.7 average is separating the Golden Knights, Blue and Airspeed Vertical.

Only one of the top teams was not on site: FX just started training with new team member Dave Timko. It will be interesting to see at what level and point they will enter the playing field.