posted Jul 6th, 2017 - Czech 4-way competitor and organizer Jan Klapka started the World Tunnel League (WTL) with the first years of regular European Tunnel League League (ETL) indoor meets at the Hurricane Factory years ago.

After a long history of Indoor Cloud League participation, Florida Skydiving League teams and competitors eventually joined the WTL this year, when iFLY Tampa had opened the doors with a 14-foot flying chamber.

It was probably only a matter of time when the Northern California Skydiving League would join the World Tunnel League with indoor meets, as Lori Connor has been serving the NCSL 4-way community with indoor and outdoor meets and additional events for a few years, including the NCSL Tunnel Kickers and Indoor Cloud League competition. She hosted the first indoor meet last month at both ICL hosting sites, iFLY Sacramento and iFLY SF Bay, and a total of 11 teams posted their scores for six of the ten June sequences.

The Florida Tunnel League will be next with the first scores for the ten July sequences at iFLY Tampa.

World Tunnel League - June 2017		1	2	3	4	5	6	Total	Avg
Rank	AA Class	P,11,15	A,O,21	J,18,Q	7,9	K,6,14	B,D,E,G	Total	Avg
1	DeLoreans SFBay	17	21	19	24	17	31	129	21.5
2	DeLoreans Sacramento	17	23	17	23	18	30	128	21.3
3	Meta4	16	18	17	20	16	28	115	19.2
4	4Tune	10	13	13	15	12	18	81	13.5
5	Agave Maria	4	12	6	15	6	16	59	9.8
Rank	A Class	P,H,9	A,O,6	J,Q,G	7,9	K,6	B,D,E	Total	Avg
1	Err Speed	15	11	10	10	7	18	71	11.8
Rank	Rookie	O,F,C	A,E,N	J,Q,G	P,L,O	K,M,F	B,D,E	Total	Avg
1	Rookie Team Three	22	12	14	14	-	-	62	15.5
2	Rookie Team One	14	14	11	12	-	-	51	12.8
3	Goldi-Docks and the Bear	15	11	12	9	(19)	(16)	47	11.8
4	Option 3	15	6	12	12	(18)	(15)	45	11.3
5	Rookie Team Two	11	7	10	8	-	-	36	9.0

The AA Class was the most competitive category at the first NCTL meet, with a total of five teams on the leaderboard. Lori Connor's own team, the DeLoreans, attended both events at iFLY SF Bay and iFLY Sacramento with two different lineups.

The SF Bay lineup (Lori Connor, Volker Haag, Ian Pedowitz, Don Burnette) won by one single point (129 - 128) over the Sacramento lineup (Lori Connor, Jason Russell, Matt Stephens, Steven Walker).

Lori Connor and Volker Haag have been team mates for the outdoor lineup of the DeLoreans last year and again at the May meet of the Northern California Skydiving League 2017. Ian Pedowitz and Don Burnette then joined the DeLoreans for the first WTL meet at iFLY SF Bay.

Don Burnette returned to indoor competition from a "tunnel flying hiatus", and Lori Connor hopes to see much more of him at future NCSL/NCTL events.

May 6th, 2017		1	2	3	4	5	6	Total	Avg
Rank	AA Class	7,19	G,O,D,F	Q,13,14	J,21,9	K,C,1	20,E,A	Total	Avg
1	DeLoreans	9	17	7	10	10	9	62	10.3
2	Turn & Burn	7	11	4	10	-	-	32	8.0
Rank	A Class	7,19	G,O,D	Q,F,21	K,N,6	H,C,9	E,A,J	Total	Avg
1	Sparkle	5	5	-	-	-	-	10	5.0
Rank	Rookie	K,N,B	G,O,D	Q,F,M	P,E,L	H,C,K	E,A,J	Total	Avg
1	8-Armed Skytapus	4	3	4	5	-	-	16	4.0
2	No Belly Stars	3	4	6	-	-	-	13	4.3
3	Goldi-Docks and the Bear	3	3	0	1	-	-	7	1.8
4	Airstream	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

The Sacramento lineup of the DeLoreans consisted of other members of the outdoor team. Lori Connor and Matt Stephens had competed together at the NCSL outdoor meets in July 2016 and May this year. The complete lineup (Lori Connor, Jason Russell, Matt Stephens, Steven Walker) spends time together regularly at the monthly iFLY Sacramento Tunnel Kickers and submits scores for the AAA/AA sequences of the Indoor Cloud League.

Meta4's ICL lineup usually includes Deanna Frank, Julius Frank, Ethan DeLano and Jessica Lee. This time, Don Burnette took the second player coach slot, as Deanna Frank was not available. Lori Connor said that she is expecting more to come from this team at the World Tunnel League events as well as at the NCSL outdoor meets.

A Class team Err Speed had John Verley, Lisa Larkin and Ron Ashcraft in the lineup who are also regulars at iFLY Sacramento's monthly ICL events. Scott Rainey joined the team for this competition and saw the A Class blocks for the first time.

The internal NCTL Rookie Class competition included five teams. Rookie Team Three competed at iFLY SF BAY on June 14th, where only four rounds were scheduled for this category. Player coach Julius Frank had Achal Asawa, Ron Ashcraft and Michael Stevens in his lineup. Achal Asawa and Ron Ashcraft know each other after several NCSL Tunnel Kickers in higher categories and supported their new Rookie Class team mate Michael Stevens.

Rookie Team One was in 2nd place after four rounds, followed by Goldi-Docks and the Bear who competed at iFLY Sacramento.

The Goldi-Docks lineup included Kristen and Justin Breaux who had competed for their team at the NCSL outdoor meet in May. They attended the NCTL meet with Calli Waltrip who they know from the monthly iFLY Sacramento Tunnel Kicker and ICL events.

Option 3 had player coach Julius Frank in his second lineup, together with Val Ryabov, Mika Mietinnen and Michael Stevens.

NCSL Co-Director Maria Garcia-Sheets managed the NCTL meet at iFLY SF Bay, while Lori Connor was in charge at iFLY Sacramento. She was excited about the outcome of the first WTL meet in her territory:

"Big thanks go to both tunnels for being awesome hosts, the coaches, the players and to the new teams. A special thanks goes out to Kurt Gaebel, founder and leader of the National Skydiving League, whose passion for 4-way is endless and whose efforts in managing both the Indoor Cloud League and now the World Tunnel League (plus NSL 4-Way Outdoor, 4-Way Indoor and news coverage worldwide) provide this wonderful playground of 4-way for us that we enjoy!"