posted Oct 24th, 2006 - The 8-way competition has started in Eloy. The field is naturally much smaller than it was in 4-way. The 8-way competition at the USPA Nationals is mostly a fun event where 4-way competitors usually form 8-way line-ups on site. There are obviously exceptions.

Arizona Airspeed is a very well trained 8-way team, as the world knows. The 2006 season was an 8-way year for Airspeed since the team had to represent the USA at the World Meet 2006 in Germany. There was not much time for 4-way training in the Airspeed quarters this year, as the results of the 4-way competition show.

The 8-way line-up has changed, too. Kirk Verner left the team after the World Meet in Germany, moved to North Carolina where he works for Tim D'Annunzio, founder of the 8-way team Paraclete XP. It is no surprise that Kirk Verner's name now appears in the Paraclete line-up.

Todd Hawkins fills Kirk Verner's slot for Airspeed. He was already in the Airspeed 8-way line-up of 2003, before he had to take a long break due to an accident. He recovered amazingly well and has already been jumping for a while. He competed in 4-way with the Arizona Razor line-up.

There is no doubt that Airspeed will walk away with the 8-way title this year. There used to be competition in 8-way for Airspeed when the Golden Knights still had an 8-way line-up. The good old days of this annual battle are far gone, and Airspeed is currently the only world class 8-way team in the USA.

Paraclete XP is only an 8-way team and has also a training schedule. The training plan does not compare to the Airspeed agenda. However, Paraclete XP is not a pickup team. The team's 2006 line-up is even more a list of celebrities and VIP's, as it was already in Perris 2005 when Charlie Brown, Scott Rhodes, Paul Raspino and Chris Talbert had joined the team.

This year, there are other former world champions in the Paraclete XP 8-way team: Jack Jeffries, Dennis Rook, Charlie Brown, John Eagle, Dan Brodsky-Chenfeld and Kirk Verner. Father and son Tim and John D'Annunzio complete the line-up. Chris Wagner is the alternate.

There are other exceptions besides the pickup teams and the two trained 8-way teams. Three different line-ups from Perris were put together and guided by Perris Fury members, and the NSL News will follow up on this topic.