posted Oct 3rd, 2011 - The NSL News visited the Northern Plains Skydiving League last weekend for the last meet of the 2011 season. Cold but beautiful fall weather welcomed the teams and the NSL News at Skydive Twin Cities in Baldwin, Wisconsin.

It took both weekend days to complete the meet since many tandem passengers used the great weather conditions to get in the air for the first and maybe second time. Host DZ and NPSL Director Mike Betz had originally planned to have a Twin Otter available to accommodate the additional competition activities.

Unfortunately, the Twin Otter had mechanical problems that could not be fixed in time, and Skydive Twin Cities managed to handle the very busy two days successfully with the PAC.

NPSL 2011 - October		Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Round 5	Round 6	Total	Avg
Rank	AA Class	4,7	Q,1,2	18,13	G,M,15	P,20,K	B,19,A	Total	Avg
1	Fourcast	11	9	7	8	10	14	59	9.8
2	D Bags	4	4	6	4	7	6	31	5.2
3	Those Guys	5	3	4	4	4	5	25	4.2
4	Airborne Illness	-	-	-	-	-	-	0	0.0
Rank	A Class	4,7	Q,2	A,D,L	G,M,6	P,K,E	B,19	Total	Avg
1	Wissota Baby Beavers	5	5	5	5	5	2	27	4.5
2	Plug It In	2	5	5	3	4	5	24	4.0
3	Random Blocks	1	2	3	3	5	4	18	3.0
Rank	Rookie	H,F,O	Q,J,N	A,D,L	G,M,C	P,K,E	B,Q,A	Total	Avg
1	The Four Horsemen	1	0	0	0	0	1	2	0.3

Eight teams signed up for the meet, and seven of them completed all six rounds. AA Class team Airborne Illness eventually felt that they were not ready to go back and compete after the whole NPSL community was recently shocked when HTH member Kaleb Lommen injured himself seriously on the previous weekend in a landing accident. He is still hospitalized and in intensive care.

The other HTH members (Greg Heideman, Andy Junghans, Alissa Olson) also decided to skip the meet as a team instead of looking for an alternate. HTH had already secured the AA Class top position after three first places at the previous meets, as well as Four Shizzle in the AAA Class competition of the NPSL.

That was not the case in the A Class where Random Blocks and Wissota Baby Beavers had battled for the upper hand throughout the 2011 season. The fourth NPSL meet last weekend would be the final showdown for the A Class gold medals this year.

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The Wissota Baby Beavers, whose home is at FS veteran Bob Stumm's dropzone an hour away, came well prepared and even brought their mascot for moral support. The new NSL-TV clip mostly features alternate Jordan "Kramer" Ermer who entertained the whole dropzone for two days without getting tired of it.

The Baby Beavers added significantly to the great meet atmosphere, and Jordan Ermer had his own big share of it. He is a teacher in his other life, and his students must be grateful to have him and his amazing positive energy. The Baby Beavers eventually also gave him a slot in the last round. The guests from Wissota had secured the first place in the A Class competition by then, and Jordan Ermer needed some air time too after the intensive ground work.

The meet day was also the 365th day in NPSL Director Mike Betz' skydiving career. He competed with DBags and has made approx. 350 jumps in those 12 months. Ashley Byrne from Plug it In and Matt Simpson from the Beavers both made their 500th jump during the meet. Andy Clements, videographer for Random Blocks, did the same on Sunday. Congratulations to all, and wishes for a good recovery go to Kaleb Lommen.