posted May 5th, 2023 - The NSL News reported on February 15th that the Northern California Skydiving League has a comeback this year. NCSL Director Lori Connor has scheduled three outdoor meets for the 2023 season, and she started her preparations with indoor events at the region's windtunnels that used to participate in the events of the World Tunnel League.

She provided more details of her earlier indoor events this year. The Northern California Skydiving League returned to the region's windtunnels in March with the Skill Rush 4-way event series. The NCSL Skill Rush events are basically 4-way indoor camps in preparation for the outdoor meets at the NCSL skydiving centers.

The SF Bay event was reminiscent of the NCSL Tunnel Kickers held the first few years starting in 2013, where the events enjoyed very large turnouts with sometimes ten teams competing. Lori Connor was glad to see everyone came out to participate in the first Skill Rush event and make it so memorable: “It was very exciting”.

25 participants formed seven 4-way teams at the event on March 15th at SF Bay. They registered separately with Lori Connor, the NCSL Director, who put the teams together based on experience levels, except for Richo Butts' team who registered with a complete lineup.

Lori Connor selected six sequences for the teams to perform, three rounds with only random formations and three technical rounds that included blocks. The teams, with input from their assigned coaches, then selected their preferred sequences.

Due to the number of participants, there were two groups of teams, the first one with three, the second one with four. The tunnel shut down for a few minutes between the two groups for the exchange. Lori Connor and Maria Garcia-Sheets were player-coaching two teams with two participants. Player-coach Anderson Briglia had two teams with three participants.

Lori Connor and Anderson Briglia have known each other since competing together at the NSL World Tunnel League meet at iFLY Ontario in 2019, and Lori Connor asked Anderson Briglia to help her at the Skill Rush event in March. Lori Connor and Maria Garcia-Sheets have been team mates at many events in their early skydiving careers at the Lodi Parachute Center. Lori Connor remembered that they even experienced their first cutaways on the same day.

In preparation for the Skill Rush events, a few certification events were held where participants could obtain the necessary IBA 4-way skill approval, which is now required to be able to perform 4-way at both of the corporate iFLY tunnels in the NCSL region.

Maxim Fedorov, who has been working with Julius and Deanna Frank putting together skill-building sessions at iFLY SF Bay over the last year, held the IBA certification session the Wednesday before the NCSL event with nine participants. Lori Connor organized another small session on the day of the event where an additional three participants were certified. The NCSL event at iFLY Sacramento had a smaller group turnout with a similar format.

Lori Connor was planning to run a few more Skill Rush events in April and May with the hope to see the windtunnels in the NCSL region filled again with skydivers and 4-way fans. The first outdoor meet of the Northern California Skydiving League is scheduled for the June 17 weekend at Skydive California.