posted Feb 27th, 2010 - The NSL News reported on 9 February 2010 that Carolina Turbo XP, formerly known as VTSD, continues and moves up into the AAA Class competition this year.

The short and very impressive 4-way career of Doug Barron (Outside Center), Joey Coffineau (Inside Center), Andrew Happick (Point), Ben Worrall (Tail) and James Sides on camera included gold medals at the USPA Nationals 2009 in the AA/Intermediate Class and at the Collegiate Championships 2009 for Virginia Tech in the A Class.

The same lineup will now take on the AAA Class dive pool, and the first serious test is coming up soon.

Carolina Turbo XP will compete for the first time this year at the FSL Shamrock Showdown 2010.

The NSL News had already mentioned earlier that the team members are really aiming at the very top level of 4-way competition, and they are currently carefully preparing their own moves into full time skydiving positions.

Former Georgia Tech students Shannon Pilcher and Ian Bobo showed how to do it when they moved from Georgia to Florida in the 90s to pursue a full time skydiving career with team Genesis. Eventually, they became 4-way world champions in 2006 with DeLand Fire.

The NSL News found a few videos of DeLand Genesis at a Florida Skydiving League meet early in 1998, which might be encouraging for other teams with the same goal...

SDC Rhythm XP made the same move already this year, and Carolina Turbo XP may be the next one soon.

Turbo opened the 2010 training season with a few outdoor jumps at Skydive Carolina earlier in February. It was the first training opportunity this year, as the winter weather in North Carolina did not allow much jumping. However, the Turbo members were glad to finally get back into the training regimen.

Later this month, Doug Barron and Ben Worrall both got their tandem ratings, while Andrew Happick finished up everything necessary for his coaching ratings. Tail Ben Worrall explained that this is an exciting part of the Turbo plan:

"We're really excited about this, and we're looking forward to getting into instructing when we're not training."

Very soon, former Georgia Tech 4-way world champion Shannon Pilcher will connect past and future when he will be coaching Turbo at the Paraclete XP wind tunnel.

This camp is coming up at the beginning of March. The team is looking much forward to this new experience, as Ben Worrall said:

"We'll be flying a few hours coached by him, and it should be a great experience for all of us."

The Turbo members will use their experiences shortly after that, as they will be conducting their first own tunnel camp at the same place on March 14. Ben Worrall said that they already have a few participants, beginners and more experienced 4-way flyers, who want to learn from the 4-way shooting stars.

Carolina Turbo XP's first competition in the AAA Class will follow right after the tunnel camp with the Shamrock Showdown in DeLand. Ben Worrall said that his team is very much looking forward to the first outdoor competition this year and being in the mix with the best teams in the world.

It would be no surprise if Turbo already posted very respectable scores in DeLand and then worked on the pursuit of the next USPA gold medals in the AAA/Advanced Class. It would the first time that a team wins the AA/Intermediate Class, moves up into the AAA/Advanced Class and wins again next year.

In the meantime, Turbo is working on the team website, which will offer more information on a regular basis.