posted May 15th, 2023 - The Texas Skydiving League had a slow start into the 2023 season. League director Scott Latinis reported from Texas that four teams showed up on Saturday, one in the AA Class, three in the Rookie Class. He said that strong winds kept them on the ground on the first weekend day.

The AA Class team and two of the three Rookie Class teams came back on Sunday, even though AA Class team The Sufficients were now missing one of the team members. Scott Latinis himself was there to help out: "They scraped the bottom of the barrel for a replacement and found me..."

He said that later the team's videographer had to sit down after Round 4 due to a minor leg injury. The two Rookie Class teams added another round and then called it after another member of one of the teams broke his ankle. Scott Latinis tried to take this with humor too: "Gotta be tough to compete in Texas..."

Teams in Texas have the next opportunity to follow up on the 2023 season opener at the Pre-Nationals on the July 15 weekend. Spaceland Houston is again the host this year. Nine teams, including Skydive Midwest NEXT and XPG4 participated in the NSL Pre-Nationals 2022, which included other hosts in different parts of the United States on the same weekend.

San Marcos Showdown 2023		1		2		3		4		5		Total	Avg
Rank	AA Class	9,1		J,19,A		4,B,H		21,P,F		20,22		Total	Avg
1	The Sufficients	6		8		8	-1	10		-		32	8.0
Rank	Rookie	A,D,C		J,M,G		B,L,O		P,K,D		H,F,N		Total	Avg
1	4 Cunning Stunts	3		1	-1	4		0		7	-1	15	3.0
2	When Sheep Fly	0		0		4		1		5		10	2.0

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Texas Skydiving League - San Marcos Showdown

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In the meantime, Lori Connor, director of the Northern California Skydiving League (NCSL), has continued with her preparations for the season opener and comeback next month. The NSL News reported on May 5th how she started with indoor training camps for potential NCSL 4-way competitors.

She followed up this month with "Team for a Day" skills camp held at SkyDance Skydiving. It was the first outdoor event of 2023 following the NCSL's comeback path after a 3-year hiatus. NCSL Director Lori Connor organized the skills camp by encouraging participants to register individually. She put together five teams in a traditional 4-way scrambles format attempting to balance skill levels in an effort to achieve the highest level of learning and success.

Each team was guided through the day by an assigned NCSL coach from a lineup of highly experienced 4-way and 8-way competitors. Coaches Deanna Frank, Julius Frank, Matt Stephens, Tamara Bartlett and Anderson Briglia spent the day sharing their experiences and knowledge with the assigned participants by engineering, creeping, practicing exits, and debriefing their lineups.

Many of the camp participants said that they learned a lot. One participant commented that he had no idea how he would learn so much by flying with the same team all day in the same slot. It was a brand new experience for other participants, as well, and Lori Connor hopes that the skills camp sparked an interest in learning more about 4-way and team training.

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Northern California Skydiving League Outdoor Skills Camp: Coach Julius Frank with Lukasz Weber, Kevin Gini and Oleg Pryadko, videos by Chris Peterson and Esther Park - Coach Deanna Frank with Jodie Bowen, Anna Maria Gonzalez, Reed Lawson, video by Brian Naiman - Coach Matt Stephens with Jeff Brundage, Steve Mason, Kyle Rhoades, videos by Michael Gregg, Esther Park, Sean Horton

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In the spirit of the mixed-level format, several other experienced 4-way competitors participated and helped create a great learning experience as a whole for all teams. The five teams completed all of their scheduled four jumps, and the coaches and a few of the more experienced participants added an 8-way jump at the end of the day.

Lori Connor said that she could not have organized and run this event without assistance from Maria Garcia Sheets: "Maria assisted with prep work by putting together the teams' sequences, and she also created an introductory hand-out explaining 4-way training and competition. She manifested the teams the entire day and ran the video board. A huge thank you to Maria for all her help in keeping the teams organized, on loads, and with assigned videographers."

She also said that the skills camp would not have been complete without the videographers: "Monkey Horton, Esther Park and Michael Gregg made a commitment to the teams to show up and provide outside video for their slots only. In addition, SkyDance's Brian Naiman and Chris Peterson graciously and willingly flew on camera for the teams on multiple jumps throughout the day. Thank you so much for all of the video support."

Lori Connor can expect an exciting upcoming NCSL comeback season after the successful indoor and outdoor skills camps: "A big thank you to SkyDance for hosting the Team for a Day skills camp. Not only did SkyDance provide fast lifts to altitude in a Blackhawk 850 HP Caravan, but they also generously sponsored the event by offering 12 free slots for the coaches and discounting 28 additional slots for coaches and videographers both to help keep the costs low for camp participants. Thank you for helping make the first NCSL event of 2023 become a great success."

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Northern California Skydiving League Outdoor Skills Camp: Coach Tamara Bartlett, with Jeff Jensen, Brian Fairhurst and Sam Semashko, video by Sean Horton - Coach Anderson Briglia with Kiran Shivaram, Kenya Colon and Enkhzorig Batzorig, video by Chris Peterson, Michael Gregg, Esther Park

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