posted Aug 7th, 2011 - The Northern Plains Skydiving League finally had good weather for a whole meet as teams and competitors returned to Westside Skydivers for the 3rd meet of the year.

Many of the teams took advantage of a beautiful Friday evening and the Grand Caravan to get some practice jumps in.

Most notably, Fourcast had a 33-point practice round. Was this possibly a sign that they would end HTH's long winning streak? NPSL Director Mike Betz reported from Westside Skydivers.

July 30th, 2011		Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Round 5	Round 6	Total	Avg
Rank	AA Class	19,1	A,P,O,11	N,15,C	2,D,13	J,H,L,F	E,14,7	Total	Avg
1	HTH	10	14	10	10	20	12	76	12.7
2	Fourcast	9	14	9	9	19	10	70	11.7
3	D Bags	7	7	4	4	9	6	37	6.2
4	Free Radicals	6	8	4	4	8	6	36	6.0
Rank	A Class	19,F	A,P,O	N,C,G	2,D	J,H,L	E,7	Total	Avg
1	Baby Beavers	3	3	1	2	3	6	18	3.0
2	Random Blocks	0	1	3	1	2	3	10	1.7

NPSL July Meet

We knew we were in for a great weekend, when over beers on Friday night, a pizza took on the shape of a cross. Several of us observed that if you stare at it long enough, you can see the face His Hugeness, HTH's Andy Junghans.

Despite Friday evening's shenanigans,some teams took up DZO Joe Johnson's offer to get the meet started at 7 AM. Before most teams rolled in around 8 AM, both Fourcast and HTH had a round under their belt and more importantly, one less round to do in the heat predicted for Saturday afternoon.

Since we didn't have a coach for this meet, most other teams hastily prepared for their first round and were wheels up by 9 AM. The manifest at Westside Skydivers did a wonderful job once again and had the teams pre-manifested in every third or fourth load keeping the pace quick. In the AA Class, the jousts for first and second place, as well as third and fourth place were closely contested with HTH maintaining a 2-point lead over Fourcast during their first three rounds, while DBags and Free Radicals were tied after Round 4.

In the A Class the Baby Beavers jumped to an early lead which they maintained through all six rounds as they won the competition with 18 points and a 3.0 average. The Baby Beavers had a father/daughter combo with Megan and Todd Lundsten, however, Megan's sinuses forced her to retire for the day and HTH's camera man, Nick Halseth, stepped up to fill in. As the day progressed, HTH outscored Fourcast in each of the final three rounds to win the AA Class competition with a total of 76 points. Fourcast finished second with 70 points, and the DBags finished just one point ahead of the Free Radicals with 37 points.

Even though most teams finished all six rounds by 7 PM, the meet was far from over. Jumpers got together a sweet 9-way to celebrate Miles Hubbard's (Free Radicals) 15,000th skydive! USPA Regional Director Merriah Eakins, who also does camera for Fourcast, was onsite to present Miles with his 216-hour/9-day freefall certificate.

The jump was special all the way through, a beautiful female flashed the jumpers as they taxied down the runway, several points were completed, Dave "Proz" Prozinsky took out the crowd while landing, and the pilot topped it off with a picturesque sunset flyover. The requisite pie was brought out, however, it is unclear who got more pie on their face, Merriah or Miles?

The festivities continued well into the evening, as several jumpers remained behind braving another night in Winsted, MN's version of the Bates Motel, to do 8ways on Sunday. Even with beautiful weather, the meet would not have been successful without the great preparation by DZO Joe Johnson and the magical girls at manifest: Kristin, Adam, and Sam.