posted May 5th, 2009 - New meet dates have recently been added to the NSL Calendar of Events for the 2009 season. There are currently 90 4-way competitions posted, and the 2009 schedule is not even complete yet. Some of the latest meet dates came from the Northern Plains Skydiving League.

While Nick "Junior" Grillet just completed his first meet with his new team Elsinore BTE at the season opener of the California Skydiving League in Elsinore, his father Sandy Grillet posted the 2009 schedule of the Northern Plains Skydiving League and invited the skydivers of the region to attend the meets. He had a serious reason for the delay:

Welcome to the NPSL 2009 season

"Well, we finally have a schedule for the 2009 season.

First, I want to thank you for your patience. I have been having tons of internet and computer problems. My CPU has been locking up on me and, as most of the time, it was while I was trying to access my emails. I have responded to some of you, but I know that e-mails from many of you were lost, and I have no way of retrieving them. This has been going on for 6 weeks...

I finally broke down and bought a new CPU and got it up and running the other day only to find over 120 e-mails to respond to, not including the spam. I had to give priority to my business e-mails first, and now I am back on line. If you have sent an e-mail in the last month that I did not respond to, I'm hoping that this schedule will address your concerns and questions. If not, please send it to me again. I'm sorry for the hassle.

I know that some of you don't like the idea of running meets on the holiday weekends, while others absolutely love it. As you know, in past years I have worked hard at avoiding the holidays. However, this year, due to various complications, I've decided to try it, and I hope it works out for everyone, and I know you will try to make it work if you can."

The Northern Plains Skydiving League has the tradition of inviting high-profile coaches for the events, and Sandy Grillet continues with this tradition once again for the meets of the 2009 season. Robert Chromy comes back for two events, and Spaceland Force XP member Thomas Hughes visits the NPSL region for the first time, as Sandy Grillet explained:

"I chose the July 4th weekend because I have been trying to get a certain coach for the last couple of years, and that is the only weekend he can attend. His name is Thomas Hughes. My son, Nick, thinks he is currently one of, if not the best skydiver and coach in the world.

I've been following his career since he was a tunnel rat with Eliana Rodriguez and Kyle Stark, and I'm glad I was finally able to get him as a coach."

The NPSL Director attached Thomas Hughes' biography to the message with the 2009 schedule and the invitation and mentioned that it did not even include his latest team project with Spaceland Force XP. Sandy Grillet gives the new world class team great chances for this year's top spot in the USA:

"His bio is attached, but it doesn't include his most recent team for 2009, which is Spaceland Force XP, with Shannon Pilcher, Ian Bobo and Gary Beyer - very possibly our next US and World Champions..."

The NPSL schedule can be found at the league page and includes four meets. The last meet is the NPSL Championship 2009. Slipstream is the defending champion in the AAA Class. The passionate 4-way fan Sandy Grillet competes every year with his own 4-way team Microburst/Microbeer.