posted May 27th, 2011 - Yesterday's NSL News update from Brazil included a revisit of the Valentine's Meet 2011 and brought back to attention an interesting situation at the same event.

The colorful Teiwaz West lineup had Samer Haija and Nick Grillet join forces for some 4-way fun. Nick Grillet is usually in the Tail slot, and Samer Haija has mostly been the Center Inside in his career. Both had been a part of the NSL News coverage when SDC Rhythm XP had a tryout event for the open Tail slot in December 2009.

The NSL News reported live from the Paraclete XP windtunnel when Nick Grillet, Samer Haija and Thiago Muradas were under the Rhythm microscope. Coach Kirk Verner was supervising the tryout event, and Thiago Gomes was eventually selected as the new Rhythm Tail.

SDC Rhythm XP had a successful 2010 season and continued with the same lineup this year. Nick Grillet spent the 2010 season in his Tail slot with the Speedy Kids from California who finished in 7th place of the Open Class competition at the USPA Nationals 2010 with a 17.3 average. Samer Haija had a quiet 2010 season.

Nick Grillet went for the next tryout project when Mark Kirkby recruited the new lineup of Arizona Airspeed. He ended up as the official Airspeed alternate and moved to Arizona at the beginning of this year.

The Valentine's Meet 2011 brought the 3-way of the Rhythm tryouts back together in the Teiwaz West pick up team: Nick Grillet, Samer Haija and NSL News reporter Kurt Gaebel. Brianne Thompson on Saturday and Anneliese Peterson on Sunday filled the open 4th slot, Nick Daniel was on camera.

Valentine's Meet 2011		Round1	Round2	Round3	Round4	Round5	Round6	Round7	Round8	Round9	Round10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	18,N,9	20,6,5	11,O,7	15,13,P	21,L,D,C	G,F,M,K,4	A,3,22	10,19,H	14,2,B	1,E,17	Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	25	23	27	23	30	36	23	21	21	21	250	25.0
2	Aerodyne Maubeuge	26	19	26	21	27	35	24	19	18	19	234	23.4
3	Russia Black Cat	17	14	16	12	21	20	13	16	15	14	158	15.8
4	Brazil X-Dogs	15	11	16	11	17	16	14	13	9	12	134	13.4
5	Teiwaz West	15	10	15	9	12	16	10	10	-	-	97	12.1

The video of the eight meet rounds show Nick Grillet, Samer Haija and the other Teiwaz West members rarely in the same slots. The 4-way meet fun excluded creeping and included slot rotation at each member's pleasure. Nick Grillet and Samer Haija enjoyed the fun weekend competing together after the previous meeting at the Rhythm tryout.

Airspeed alternate Nick Grillet will not have the opportunity this year to challenge SDC Rhythm XP with Thiago Gomes in the Tail slot, as he still needs to be patient until an Airspeed slot may open up one day. Rhythm will try to close the distance to the top US team in the meantime.

Arizona Airspeed won the Valentine's Meet 2011 over the French national team Aerodyne Aerokart Maubeuge, and veteran Meet Director Bryan Burke brought up an interesting aspect of the Valentine's Meet history. He thinks that the winner of the Valentine's Meet has always won the next World Championship of 4-way Formation Skydiving, with only one exception. But that's for another story, and there is some fact checking to be done...