posted Mar 19th, 2008 - The NSL News will still be busy for a while with the aftermath of the FSL Shamrock Showdown 2008. However, other events have been taking place in the meantime, as many teams of the leagues prepare for the beginning of the 2008 season.

The Ranch Skydiving League has already posted its competition schedule with six different events. The popular 4-way Social has been the first event for the RSL teams and competitors for several years. This time, it is scheduled for April 5 and brings together the regional skydivers for a networking and planning session. Five RSL meets follow between May and September, including the NSL Playoffs weekend on September 20 - 21.

Ranch Fallout member Bob Schuyler will manage the RSL 2008 season and continues with the work that Ranch Pulse member Roger Cunha has done for the Ranch Skydiving League in 2007. He informed the NSL News recently that his team successfully completed the first Ranch Rookie Class tunnel camp at Skyventure New Hampshire:

"The camp went very well. We had nine rookies. The experience level reached from still being AFF student to 280 jumps. We worked with five rookies per day, which allowed each one to have their own personal coach for the entire day. One participant, Tom Peterkin, did even both days."

The Ranch Fallout members, Dave Bauer, Dave Grabowski, Kim Schuyler and Bob Schuyler, were coaching the future Rookie Class competitors, assisted by Tanya Hannington of the Ranch skydiving school. She contacted and motivated most of the rookies to sign up for the camp. The Ranch Fallout members donated their time and efforts for the camp.

The participants were Denny Acosta (75 jumps), Francesco Cipollone (270 jumps), Steve Dunson (12 jumps – AFF student), Tom Peterkin (5 jumps – IAF student), Kathy Carey (38 jumps), Rainier Rodriguez (150 jumps), Nelson Strauch (37 jumps), Paul Tuthill (73 Jumps), Frank Zaverl (280 jumps).

Bob Schuyler provided a report of the progress for the NSL News:

"They all enjoyed it and made great progress with their basic skills. Tom Peterkin was the most improved participants since he flew on both days. He is still an IAF student, but he learned to do all the basic stuff, plus some super positional moves and verticals. In his last few turns we did some 3-ways and a 4-ways with him, and he did great.

It was also the first tunnel coaching experience for Ranch Fallout, as Bob Schuyler explained: "Our team also learned a lot about teaching rookies since it was our first experience with coaching at a tunnel camp rather than being coached. We put the plan together based on what we have learned from all the different coaches (Shannon Pilcher, Ian Bobo, Kirk Verner, Bob Healy, Robert Chromy, Alex Pincus, Jim Reese, etc) that we have had over the last four or five years."

The success of this tunnel camp inspired the new coaches to make plans for more tunnel training: "We have plans of doing another Rookie Class camp sometime in the near future, probably late in April or early in May, but it has not been finalized yet. Our weekend schedule gets very busy with team training starting in April."

The RSL Director finished the report with credit for the staff in New Hampshire and the next plans for his own team: "Rob, Laurie, and all the tunnel rats at Skyventure New Hampshire were great. Next, we will be back to Paraclete on March 22-23 for a few hours of team training."