posted Sep 2nd, 2012 - The Northwest Skydiving League community held their portion of the NWSL/FSL - Seattle/Orlando tunnel duel on August 21st at iFLY Seattle. NWSL Director Deb Correia reported that she headed into this session with almost an entirely new group of people: "Since there were not a lot of experienced 4way competitors, coaches Carolyn Chow, David Zhang and Dave Correia encouraged people to push themselves to participate at a higher level to encourage learning and fun instead of staying in a comfort zone. Everyone stepped up to the challenge!"

With only nine participants and three coaches, each group did four 2:20 flying sessions with only one repeater. The NWSL lineups didn't have an opportunity to improve their scores with a second attempt at iFLY Seattle. Deb Correia said that the player coaches were challenged too: "With the Rookie Class divisions allowing two coaches and the upper levels only allowing one, it also meant that the coaches took turns flying back-to-back sessions, and so the teams changed throughout the session."

Only NWSL team Sinner G once again scheduled their own tunnel time and provided videos and scores in the A Class and in the AA Class last month.

August 2012		AAA Class	AA Class	A Class	Rookie AAA	Rookie AA	Rookie A	Total
Rank	Teams	B,5,7	P,D,6	B,P,7	A,D,F	M,B,P	M,E	Total
1	NWSL/iFLY Seattle	23	14	17	13	9	12	88
2	FSL/iFLY Orlando	28 (-2)	24	14	14	14	11	105

Deb Correia was pleased to have two former 4way competitors join the NWSL community this time: "Martin Fox hasn't jumped for 10 years, but after getting his first taste of tunnel flying in July, he was excited to participate in a 4way competition. Steve Platt has jumped sporadically over the past few years, and this was only his second time in the tunnel."

She also mentioned new participants coming from the freeflying community: "Jeanna Lee is a very experienced freeflier who wanted to get her RW on, even doing slot switchers for the AAA Class competition. Jesse Brown also does more freeflying and has very little 4way experience, but he was more than willing to do some vertical flying to rock the 6s (Stardian - Stardian)."

Completely new NWSL participants were Heather Metz and Erin Wenzel who both have very little tunnel and skydiving experience. Deb Correia said that they both did extremely well in the Rookie Class division "with very calm flying and discipline all around".

Jay and Kelli Alspach returned from the July competition and brought their A game, as usual, Deb Correia added: "When iFLY Seattle opened one year ago, Jay and Kelli definitely were rookies, and both have improved dramatically. Their skills are a testament to the progress that can be made by flying consistently in a wind tunnel."

As a very special treat, NWSL player coaches David Zhang and Carolyn Chow had the opportunity to fly the AAA Class sequence with Hannah Betts and Christy Frikken, who were in Seattle to train in the tunnel with their team, Perris Wicked: "They were psyched with how they did and reported that it was a super fun chance to really work the 5s (Opal - Opal) and fly fast and awesome 4way. Carolyn and David had just completed an intense 2way competition organized by Christy Frikken the half hour before they flew 4way. Who knows how much higher their score would have been if they were flying fresh...?"

The Florida Skydiving League community still won the August showdown at iFLY Orlando, and Ari Perelman's AAA Class lineup outscored the NWSL team. The report from Florida will follow later. The game is tied after two months, and the draw for September has been posted.