posted Dec 3rd, 2009 - Last not least, there was also a AAA Class competition at the NSL Championship 2009. The PD Ninjas and a second Teiwaz lineup, Teiwaz Falcon, competed for the NSL Shugar Cup this year.

Both teams consisted of 4-way competitors who had already been in one or another Teiwaz lineup before this meet, with only one exception on Friday and Saturday, and a few more exceptions on Sunday.

The Teiwaz Falcon members (Jim "Bu" Klinge - Center Outside, Bob Byrne - Point, Rodney Cruce - Center Inside, Robert Chromy - Tail) have all attended several FSL meets in various lineups in the past years. The PD Ninjas had one member who made all ten rounds and had never been on any of the Teiwaz lineups before, NPSL Director Sandy Grillet.

Sandy Grillet's son Nick had put together the PD Ninjas as a surprise for his father. The godfather of the Northern Plains Skydiving League has always competed with his own lineups at the NPSL meets in the past years - but never in the AAA Class with the whole dive pool.

In fact, Sandy and Nick Grillet had even competed together for their home team Microburst years ago. The NSL News mentioned Nick Grillet already before he joined the 4-way competition at his father's league. The story covered the 4th meet of the Northern Plains Skydiving League in 2001 where the NSL News reported from the competition site:

"The judging trio was randomly assisted by Grillet's 16-year old son Nick who is already very familiar with the 4-way business. Grillet jr. proved his educated eyes by keeping up with the judging veterans."

The NSL News recorded the first meet where Nick Grillet finally competed for Microburst in 2004.

It took only a few years until Nick Grillet decided to dedicate his whole life to skydiving. He did not have to twist his dad's arm to get the support...

He moved to Florida where he had accepted a job offer by Performance Designs. He was already close friends with PD Factory Team member Shannon Pilcher who became his mentor and eventually his room mate, too.

Of course, it did not take too long until he joined a Teiwaz lineup for the first time after moving to DeLand. Now he had made the move up into the AAA Class dive pool earlier than his father.

He became more serious and committed to 4-way competition when he joined Elsinore BTE in 2008, as the west coast team was also training. Teiwaz is only a team for the meet days. He continued with Elsinore BTE this year and finished with a 15.1 average at the 2009 USPA National Skydiving Championships.

Nick Grillet is ready to make the next step now. He signed up for the SDC Rhythm XP tryout next week. The NSL News will follow up with more information of this upcoming event at the Paraclete XP wind tunnel.

There was one more thing to do for him before possibly taking on the next 4-way team project. He had plans for his father and began to prepare the AAA Class competition with the PD Ninjas at SkyQuest 2009.

It was supposed to be a surprise for Sandy Grillet. However, it became increasingly difficult to keep it a secret as the meet came closer. His dad eventually found out about the plans and had enough time to prepare mentally for the upcoming challenge.

Gilles Dutrisac, another PD employee, and Chris Ash, both Sebastian Tempest members in 2009, completed the lineup of the PD Ninjas. Thomas Hughes and Shannon Pilcher took turns filling slots on Sunday.

The lineup was obviously strong enough to push Sandy Grillet to his limits, which was Nick's plan, and his father did extremely well. The videos of the first five rounds have now been uploaded, together with the videos of Teiwaz Falcon. It already shows how well the PD Ninjas did with Sandy Grillet in the driver's seat.