posted Feb 21st, 2011 - The NSL News goes back once again to the Valentine's Meet 2011, which was the last competition with live coverage.

The X-Dogs from Brazil and Teiwaz missed the spots on the podium, however, they were a part of the AAA/Open Class competition in Eloy. Teiwaz is a team name that has been on many leaderboards, mostly on Florida Skydiving League events in the past years, but also at several USPA Nationals, including last year's at Skydive Chicago.

In fact, it was the second time at the Valentine's Meet that Teiwaz appeared on a west coast leaderboard. The first time was in Perris 2000 when the original Teiwaz lineup (Mary Inhoffer, Pamela Geoffrey, Mark Stose, Kurt Gaebel) won gold medals in USPA's Advanced Class competition. Meet Director Ian Mackenzie did not like the long name that the pickup team presented at registration. Teiwaz West came up next, as Nick Grillet (40) and Kurt Gaebel (4) had already their Teiwaz numbers as earlier club members.

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

All team members have been around 4-way competition for a while and did not want to sit out at the Valentine's Meet. Airspeed alternate Nick Grillet recruited former Spaceland Blue member Brianne Thompson and Samer Haija, founder of the Colorado Skydiving League and former Arizona and Spaceland Directe member, to join the competition.

Airsped videographer of the meet, Niklas Daniel, was filming Teiwaz West at the same time, and former Blue member Annie Peterson, who competed with Alpha Armada at the Dubai Championship 2011, filled in for the last two rounds when Brianne Thompson was not available any longer.

The Teiwaz West procedures for jump preparations and execution fit well to the Teiwaz philosophy on the east coast events. The fun factor dominates, and the creepers are a painful nuisance that need to be avoided as much as possible. In fact, no Teiwaz member ever touched a creeper during the Valentine's Meet...

This made it much easier for the NSL News live coverage, as the reporter did not have to spend too much time for the jump preparations.

The Teiwaz West lineup also added another fun factor to the eight rounds, which has been applied here and there randomly on the east coast. The team members switched their slots after each round, as the two videos of Rounds 1 and 7 indicate. The new video clip also provides some footage of the same jumps from different perspectives. Teiwaz West obviously did not take the scores too serious.

In fact, the Teiwaz mission fits well to recently popular 4-way projects where teams and competitors commit to a limited time, such as a Team for a day or for a weekend or for a meet. The hard-core competitors can always commit to more anyway, while there is still the option to simply enjoy a day or two with like minded skydivers. Teiwaz now recruits for a lineup or two at the Shamrock Showdown 2011...