posted Mar 4th, 2005 - The FSL Shamrock Showdown 2005 continues to grow. NSL and Skydive DeLand counted the number of teams that are expected to compete on March 19 - 20 and arrived at the number of twenty teams at this point. The Southwest Skydiving League and the Georgia Skydiving League have also scheduled meets for the same weekend. It will be the first weekend of the 2005 season with synchronized events.

NSL and SkyVenture are in the final stage of putting together the NSL SkyVenture Competition for this year's events. It took a little bit longer this time since SkyVenture Arizona will most likely join Perris SkyVenture and SkyVenture Orlando for the popular handicapped competition. The joint effort of the three SkyVenture wind tunnels would give the winning teams more choices where to use the provided free tunnel time.

The NSL SkyVenture Competition began with only SkyVenture Orlando offering free tunnel time as prizes at the NSL events all over the country. SkyVenture Orlando and NSL later extended the competition and included the international leagues in the race for SkyVenture certificates.

Perris SkyVenture joined forces with SkyVenture Orlando for the 2004 season and offered the winning teams the option to use the free tunnel time at a west coast location. SkyVenture Arizona is expected to be up and running early enough to join the NSL SkyVenture Competition this year. The details are in the works.

However, the cross-league competitions will be exciting in any case, with or without tunnel certificates. The March 19 weekend might even be the most spectacular event of the whole regular 2005 season. It happened by coincidence that the Florida Skydiving League, the Southwest Skydiving League and the Georgia Skydiving League scheduled events on the same weekend.

Four of the best six AAA Class teams in the country will compete at the Shamrock Showdown in DeLand. DeLand Majik, the Golden Knights, Team Fastrax and DeLand Fire are on the list of teams for the FSL meet. Both Airspeed line-ups competed at the first SSL 2005 meet, the Valentine's Meet in Eloy. Hopefully, Airspeed Odyssey and Airspeed Velocity will also compete at the second SSL meet in Perris on March 19. The synchronized competition draw would make this event a most realistic test for this year's U.S. top contenders at the beginning of the year.

The FSL Shamrock Showdown brings in additional international flair. Sinapsi PD has become one of the top contenders for the 2006 medals at the world meet in Germany and will show in DeLand where the team is at this point. The national teams from Germany (EADS), Belgium (Hayabusa), Norway (Arcteryx), Denmark (Danez) and Sweden (42) complete the field of the mini world meet in DeLand.

The event management in DeLand will make efforts to give all teams as much credit as possible for making this event so attractive and exciting. The opening ceremony will once again take place at the DeLand Holiday Inn Convention Center. It will include the introduction of the participating teams to the competitors, the public and the local media.

The introduction of all teams will also feature the competition draw and the announcement of the jump order. The NSL applied a new and exciting way to draw the sequences for the jumps for the first time at the NSL Championship 2004 at Fantasy of Flight. Each team was welcomed and introduced on the stage. The team members were then asked to manually draw one round of the competition class the team had signed up for. The complete competition draw was then printed out and posted on the NSL website. The same procedure will be applied on March 18 at the Holiday Inn DeLand.

The actual competition will begin next morning with the first take-off scheduled for 8:00 a.m. Goal is to complete at least six rounds on Saturday and finish the official NSL/FSL meet. The Shamrock Showdown will not be over then, it has always been an optional 10-round competition from the very beginning, and it has also included the "Skins Game".

The rules for the Shamrock Showdown's Skins Game are quite simple. All teams can win prizes for the highest scores of each round. Prizes are given to the winners before and after handicap. All competition classes are included in the prize giving. There are also prizes for the overall winners of each class.

The first three rounds of the meet do not offer any prizes. These rounds will be used to determine the handicap for each team. The first round of the Skins Game is round four. Teams have never even thought about scoring low in the beginning to receive a higher handicap. This would take them right out of the competition for the overall prizes.

The cash winners of last year's Skins Game included Sinapsi PD ($500), Genesis ($500), DeLand Majik ($500), Optic Nerve ($350), Norgies Oestra Aera Majik ($100), FSC JAMMM ($100), 4tunates ($100). Several other teams received additional prizes. Each registered team for the FSL Shamrock Showdown 2005 will also receive a free set of NSL Gloves (four pairs). The value of this special gift alone exceeds the team registration fee of $100 for the event.

The meet will be completed on Sunday around noon if the weather cooperates. DeLand Majik member Solly Williams plans to repeat what was already started at the Shamrock Showdown 2004. Teams and competitors joined after the conclusion of the 4-way event and made some big ways. Williams' goal is to make the Shamrock Showdown a most exciting competition and fun event at the same time. Local, regional and even skydivers and competitors from other regions are still forming line-ups for the FSL Shamrock Showdown 2005. Registration is possible until the morning of the first event day.

The NSL News will be on site and update the website with scores after each round. Stories, pictures ad NSL-TV will follow.