posted Mar 5th, 2024 - Family members sharing the passion of 4-way Formation Skydiving training and competition has always been an interesting topic for the NSL News. By nature, the group dynamics of teams in this sport are quite similar to other relationships, as team members often spend whole days, weekends, or even longer together in a challenging and fascinating environment.

Training and competing together with family members has taken place on all levels of teams, from the recreational level up to the very top. The Belgian Grauwels brothers David and Andy have won four 4-way world championship titles together, Martial and Marin Ferre from France one in 1999. The Canadian Lemay family of father Michel with his three sons (Evolution) have been the topic for the NSL News numerous times.

4-way family relations in the sport are even more exceptional if the lineups consist of a complete family, and there are not too many examples for that. The Canadian Lemay family could be the only one in the history of the sport, even though the Canadian Bisson family (4Astrophe) has been only one family member short of a complete lineup. It was not a big surprise that the lineup of a new team at the Paraclete XP Indoor Championship 2024 caught the attention of the NSL News in the run-up to the event. The list of registered teams included the Kantrud's Kannibals, and all team members had the same last name.

Paraclete XP Indoor 2024		1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	A/Beginner Class	7,M		J,2		K,P,A		21,E		F,19		C,O,8		Q,D,G		4,6		H,L,9		N,B,2		Total	Avg
1	Kantrud's Kannibals	24		14	-1	26	-2	16		16		16		19	-2	13	-1	14	-4	13	-3	171	17.1
2	Bootie Exposure	17		12		19	-4	15		14	-1	14		19	-1	11		18	-2	14		153	15.3
3	Spinning Roombas	21		14	-1	15	-1	10	-3	13		14		16	-1	11		14	-2	11	-3	139	13.9
4	Texas Tumbleweeds	13	-2	10	-1	15	-1	13		12	-1	9	-1	16		10		14	-1	11	-1	123	12.3
5	CT True Blue	15	-2	8		11	-2	14		14		12		11	-1	8	-1	10	-2	9		112	11.2
6	Classless	10	-2	3	-5	8	-4	8	-2	10		7	-1	8	-4	6	-1	9	-4	10		79	7.9
7	U Come, Usee, Uconnquer	2		0		1		2		0		0		0		0		0		2	-1	7	0.7

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Kantrud's Kannibals - Bootie Exposure - Spinning Roombas at the Paraclete XP Indoor Championship 2024

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The NSL News had the team naturally on the list of topics for the indoor championship at Paraclete XP, and it was not too difficult to find them eventually. They were on the top of the 4-way Beginner Class leaderboard after Round 1, and they maintained this position all the way through the award ceremony.

In fact, Kantrud's Kannibals dominated the 4-way Beginner Class competition almost as much as Arizona Airspeed in 4-way Open and the same way as CSC Constellation did in 4-way Intermediate. They claimed or tied eight of the ten highscores and finished 18 points ahead of the team in 2nd place.

Six of the seven teams in the 4-way A/Beginner Class were new on any leaderboard, including the winner. Only the complete CT True Blue lineup had competed at the SkyVenture New Hampshire Tunnel Fest 2024 in January, together with a different Chicken Bolts lineup.

However, Kantrud's Kannibals came well prepared to the Paraclete XP Indoor Championship, as the competition videos are showing, even though the family team started from scratch not too long ago.

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NSL Live Talk with Kantrud's Kannibals - Team Story and Bloopers

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The NSL News met with the team at the end of the first competition day, after they had won six of the seven rounds and tied the last one of the day. They were 19 points ahead of Bootie Exposure in 2nd place by then.

It was a good time for the interview with the team. They lost the second day to Bootie Exposure by three points, after several point deductions. They could afford it, and the Kannibals were still in great spirits after the completion of all ten rounds. However, the conversation took place after Round 7, and it included the team story, which began almost exactly a year ago.

Last year's indoor competition at Paraclete XP was already over when the Kantrud's Kannibals story began. Team coach Adam Mahan had competed there with AZ Aardvark in 2021, 2022 and 2023, visiting from Arizona, together with their own coach, former XPG4 member Irina Meshcheryakova. Father Dave Kantrud said that he did not make the cut for Adam Mahan's AZ Aardvark lineup, so he asked his daughter Cassie and son Connor to launch their own team project, together with his wife Tanya. The video of the team story is featuring the beginning of the training. Less than a year later, they won their first competition with a 17.1 average. The Kantrud's Kannibals will probably continue with outdoor 4-way, as soon as 17-year old Cassie Kantrud will be ready later this year.