posted Jul 27th, 2011 - Hot. That's the first thing that comes to Northern Plains Skydiving League Director Mike Betz's mind when he thinks about the 2nd meet of the 2011 season on the July 16/17 weekend: "With the temperature in the high 90's and the humidity not too far behind, even the devil was crying for air conditioning..."

However, much like the first NPSL meet this year, this meet started out on a very long weather hold. Fortunately, Mike Betz had invited British 4-way world champion of 2008, Hannah Betts, to help all seven teams dirt dive their jumps. Some teams took advantage of the downtime and worked on all six rounds with her, as they were not going to be able to return for the 2nd day of the meet.

NPSL - July 16th, 2011		Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Round 5	Round 6	Total	Avg
Rank	AA Class	H,7,19	C,J,11	K,P,G,21	M,8,15	L,F,6	9,18	Total	Avg
1	HTH	13	11	14	11	12	8	69	11.5
2	Airborne Illness	9	7	9	7	8	7	47	7.8
3	Free Radicals	6	5	7	3	8	4	33	5.5
4	D Bags	3	-	-	-	-	-	3	3.0
Rank	A Class	H,7	C,J,19	K,P,G	M,8	L,F,6	9,21	Total	Avg
1	Random Blocks	4	4	-	-	-	-	8	4.0

NPSL 2011 - July Meet

Written by Mike Betz

Starting around 3 PM, many teams gave up on the weather and departed for their air conditioned homes, while others succumbed to an early beer light. Naturally, this caused a break in the weather and the teams that stuck it out were able to start jumping around 5:30 PM.

With NPSL veteran Miles Hubbard cracking the whip, the home team, Free Radicals, got a big jump on the competition and completed three rounds before sunset. Random Blocks' patience also paid off and they were able to complete two round before even the sun couldn't take the heat anymore. Random Blocks Kristina Kiefer's main also called it a day and she had her first cutaway. Beer!

With darkness quickly approaching, many of the remaining competitors took a run at the MN state record RW formation, which unfortunately fell just short of closing the first point.

Sunday morning started off looking much better until I opened the door of my motel room. Immediately, my sunglasses fogged up from the humidity. Fortunately, in addition to the heat and humidity, we had some sunshine peeking through the clouds.

While many of us slept in or made our way to the Drop Zone, Free Radicals worked with Hannah Betts to dirt dive and complete Round 4. HTH was the next team to get started and keeping an incredible pace, they were able to complete all six rounds of the meet just prior to a thunderstorm that ended the day's jumping. Airborne Illness also got an early start on the day and finished all six rounds.

The only other team left, the DBags, lost a team member and had another sleep in. They didn't get their first jump in until just before noon. Fortunately, Al Bevier stepped up to brave the heat and sub for the DBags who completed Round 1 and geared up for Round 2 only to go on another weather hold.

Peeling off our wet jumpsuits, we surrendered to the heat knowing there wouldn't be time to catch up to Free Radicals, Airborne Illness, or HTH, the only three teams to finish the meet. I'm embarrassed to admit it, but a 90-year old woman doing her first tandem made as many jumps as I did on Sunday. Hats off to the three teams who displayed noteworthy toughness and discipline to complete all six rounds.

I think all of the teams that finished six jumps are winners for their perseverance. In terms of scoring though, HTH continued their winning streak and won the AA Class competition with an impressive 11.5 average. Airborne Illness improved the 7.3 average at the June meet to 7.8 and Free Radicals also finished on the virtual podium with a season high 5.5 average. Random Blocks completed two rounds in the A Class and totaled 8 points.

Many thanks to our visiting coach, Hannah Betts, who entertained and educated all of us for two long hot days. We are glad we were able to expose Hannah to something they don't have in Perris - humidity. Hopefully she also enjoyed all of the up close and personal exposure to our state bird, the mosquito... They tried to fly off with her no less than twice. We wanted to keep her too!

Westside Skydivers, our gracious hosts, also deserves a huge thank you. They did a phenomenal job keeping their tandem schedule light, so they had enough room to get two teams on each load. We really appreciate the planning and organization by DZ Operator Joe Johnson, as well as the manifest girls, Sam, Kristin, and Adam. Hopefully the weather is more cooperative when we return to Westside in two weeks for our 3rd meet of the year. I definitely look forward to jumping there again July 30-31.