posted May 23rd, 2025 - The Northern California Skydiving League is resuming 4-way outdoor competition next month at SkyDance SkyDiving. NCSL Director Lori Connor invites skydivers in the area and visitors once again to enjoy a day of casual 4-way competition and the opportunity of collecting meet experiences.

Lori Connor has also been running popular events of the Indoor Cloud League and the World Tunnel League at iFLY SF Bay and iFLY Sacramento in the past, and she is very familiar with all related indoor and outdoor rules and regulations.

She has been considering for a while the inclusion of the same six categories for outdoor competition that the Indoor Cloud League has been offering for many years. The four traditional NSL categories (AAA - AA - A - RRR) have been ending at the RRR Class level of traditional indoor and outdoor competitions, while the Indoor Cloud League events include two additional Rookie Class categories (RR - R) to accommodate an even easier entry into the world of 4-way competition.

The official NCSL outdoor season begins with the first competition on June 21st at SkyDance SkyDiving. However, Lori Connor invited teams and competitors to an earlier outdoor event at the same location as a reminder that the start of the NCSL 2025 season is coming soon. She had a surprise visitor who celebrated his own first visit at the hosting site of NCSL events ten years ago. Mikhail Markine, Arizona Airspeed's 4-way world champion of 2022 and 2024, offered free coaching and support at Lori Connor's warm-up event for NCSL participants.

Category	AAA/Open	AA/Intermediate	A Class/Beginner	Rookie Class RRR	Rookie Class RR	Rookie Class R
Sequence	5 - 6 Points	4 - 5 Points	3 - 4 Points	3 Points	3 Points	2 Points
Random Formations	All Randoms	All Randoms	All Randoms	All Randoms	M + 2 Randoms	M + 1 Random
Blocks	22	16	8	None	None	None
Working Time	35 Seconds	35 Seconds	35 Seconds	35 Seconds	50 Seconds	50 Seconds
Exit Formations	AAA Dive Pool	AA Dive Pool	A Dive Pool	RRR Dive Pool	RRR Dive Pool	RRR Dive Pool

Mikhail Markine told Lori Connor that his last visit at a similar NCSL event was almost exactly ten years ago at the same place. Lori Connor had invited him to work with the NCSL teams after the completion of the first outdoor competition of the year, and she recalled the event with her own report:

"This last weekend was hands-down the best overall learning weekend the teams up in NorCal have ever experienced! The NCSL brought up Mikhail Markine of Team Arizona Airspeed to spend Friday night with us at the iFLY SFBay tunnel doing 1:1's and coaching four 4-way teams while we were competing for iFLY SFBay at the Indoor Cloud League June event.

"Mikhail also ground-coached eight 4-way teams at SkyDance on Saturday and continued with four full-roster 4-way teams at Lodi on Sunday. Everyone attending any of the NCLSL's weekend festivities expressed that they learned so much from Mikhail and thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to meet and spend time with him. "Saturday's skills camp was set up to be a mock meet which format the teams really embraced. They diligently moved through the NSL's draw for the weekend as if they were attending an official meet. Bryan Siepert judged all of the video rounds and posted scores on the leaderboard for the day. Mikhail prepped the teams by dirt diving, creeping the sequences and helping the teams at the mock-up for their exits. Mikhail also provided valuable debriefing of the video to help the teams prepare for their next round."

---

---

Team 1 - Sylvain Florand, Eric Loofbourrow, Keith Eire, Stig Han, Colby Dixon, Casey Keenan (video), Team 2 - Jim Hopf, Maria Sheets, Gary Danner, Taylor Robie, Michael Gregg (video), Team 3 - Lukasz Weber, Gordon Vaynapel, Virgi Fallsalot, Galilea von Ruden, Erin Spicer (video)

---

Then Mikhail Markine was back last weekend as a surprise visitor, and Lori Connor was thrilled to welcome him again. He told Lori Connor that it had been ten years since he had been at SkyDance. It was in June 2016 when NCSL Director Lori Connor had invited and hired him for coaching in the tunnel and on the ground for the event at Skydance and the next day. It was special then and even more special this time since he showed up for free and just to support the NCSL event. Lori Connor posted her summary of Mikhail Markine's visit last weekend:

"Thank you to everyone who came out yesterday to make the NCSL's season opener a phenomenal success! Despite mother nature throwing a mixed bag at us with some morning gusts, clouds and some sprinkles along with a lot of blue skies and sunshine, the first ever NCSL 4-Way Exit Camp at SkyDance Skydiving happened!

"We had an awesome lineup of coaches and flyers who came out eager to learn and have fun working on their 4-way skills. Lukasz Weber and Sylvain Florand were team captains and guided their lineups throughout the day. By far the highlight of the camp was when Mikhail Markine, formerly with Arizona Airspeed until last year, dropped in to say hello and then spent the day coaching the teams! The expertise he shared with everyone was absolutely priceless and definitely made a day everyone will remember!. A big shout-out goes to SkyDance Skydiving who is always such a big supporter of the NCSL, but this time went above and beyond and agreed to pre-manifest the teams the entire day on every 5th load. This was so helpful to keep the teams flowing through their dives on a busy day at the dropzone. I hope everyone is excited about using their newly acquired skills and is planning on participating at the NCSL's four planned "Team for a Day/Meets" scheduled on 6/21 at SkyDance, 7/12 at Tracy, 8/13 at Byron and back at SkyDance on 9/13."