posted Aug 7th, 2015 - Last weekend's AA Class competition was not as close as the duel between H4O in Ireland and Perris Quattro in the AAA Class. However, three AA Class teams were close enough to take turns in claiming and tying highscores for the six meet rounds.

Team Name of the Northern California Skydiving League eventually finished in the top spot, four points ahead of Southern Mix of the Southern Skydiving League. Team Name competed with the same lineup that recently competed for iFLY SF Bay's Indoor Cloud League team and became a part of the Sun Path Products NSL News story on August 3rd.

The competition for the 2nd place had an interesting aspect, as it was also a 1-point battle between the two player coaches. Paraclete XP's John D'Annunzio competed for Southern Mix, as the story on August 4th mentioned, while Counterpoint FX had former Verve XP member Don Burnette in the lineup. Both teams posted significantly higher meet averages than earlier this year, and John D'Annunzio won by a single point.

August 1st, 2015				Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Round 5	Round 6	Total	Avg
Rank	AA Class			2,14	D,1,K	B,H,4	18,L,M	13,N,Q	C,G,E,7	Total	Avg
1	Team Name	US	NCSL	7	11	13	7	10	14	62	10.3
2	CSC Southern Mix	US	SSL	8	11	11	9	7	12	58	9.7
3	Counterpoint FX	US	NCSL	5	10	13	9	8	12	57	9.5
4	SA Platinum	US	SSL	5	5	9	8	6	11	44	7.3
5	Airscrewz	US	SCSL	4	8	7	6	5	6	36	6.0
6	Ballista	IE	INT	5	5	8	4	5	7	34	5.7

NCSL Director Lori Connor reported a very busy day for the DZ in Lodi and for herself between running the event and competing with Counterpoint FX: "It was also a Red Dogs day at Lodi along with a multitude of tandem students wanting to make their debut jump out of the plane, so the day was definitely bustling with activity. The teams had no problem getting their jumps in though, with very little wait between loads, due to the Parachute Center pulling out its third Otter. An Otter was pulling up every 7 minutes to load – very nice!!"

Her job began very early and was related to an underlying topic at this meet: team videographers: "We had seven 'new to us' camera flyers all wanting to become involved with the NCSL."

When Lori Connor showed up at the DZ at 8 AM, she was confronted with her first hurdle of the day, learning that her team’s new videographer Mike Hockenberry showed up at the DZ even earlier to deliver the news of an injured back and his being unable to fly.

NCSL August 1st, 2015		Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Total	Avg
Rank	A Class	2,7	D,K,F	B,H,4	L,M,6	Total	Avg
1	Semaphore	5	9	7	8	29	7.3
2	Flair Flare	2	3	3	4	12	3.0
Rank	Rookie	O,J,A	D,K,F	B,H,P	L,M,A	Total	Avg
1	Team Karl	5	2	4	3	14	3.5
2	Team Jerry	4	1	2	3	10	2.5
3	Team Sergei	1	1	1	0	3	0.8
4	Team John	1	0	1	0	2	0.5

That was a problem, as obtaining requisite videographers for the NCSL events has proven to be the most challenging aspect of event organization for Lori Connor this year. However, she was able to tap into the talent pool at the Lodi Parachute Center, and it didn’t take long for Cam Lopez to step up and agree to fly with her team Counterpoint FX for the six meet rounds.

Lori Connor said that other NCSL teams were also enjoying the talent of the Parachute Center’s video crew – Team Jerry with Walker Mackey and AA Class Team Name with Larry Gallusha. It was not too long ago that one of the NCSL skills camps was cancelled due to the lack of videographers.

It turned out just fine this time: "So with all of that said, very special thanks go out to our returning NCSL camera flyer, Nick Armstrong, along with the new NCSL camera flyers – Mike Hockenberry, Cam Lopez, Larry Gallusha, Jeff Bodin, Silky Johnson, Christian Trefault, Walter Mackey and Emmanuel Labadie, for showing up, stepping up and supporting us!! It’s not a 4-way team without you!"

Bryan Siepert judged all meet videos in the favorite Judge’s hangout in Lodi, the air conditioned Red Line Team Room, which he shared with Craig Stapleton and other CRW team flyers. Last not least, Lori Connor honored the host: "Thanks to Bill and Kathy Dause who worked tirelessly to manifest the teams and the other mass of flyers and for running their third Twin Otter to ensure our loads were all timely. Thank you so much for supporting the NCSL and being a host DZ!"

At the end of the day, after the Twin Otters were put away, the eight NCSL teams held their awards ceremony, and Lori Connor celebrated the happy end: "All of us came together to support each other and to acknowledge the efforts of all the teams. The meets have proven to be a nice bonding experience for all of NorCal’s belly flyers to come together and have fun, while enjoying a friendly competition. It was a super fun day."

The last NCSL meet of the 2015 season is next, as Lori Connor announced: "Stay tuned for the NCSL’s next announcement for Meet # 4, which is the California Championship occurring on September 12th!!"