Too often as new skydivers, we end up jumping with a small group who we made our first jumps with -- we feel comfortable walking up to them, and asking them to fly with us. This limits our amount of learning and our exposure to the various aspects of the sport.

Skydive Elsinore realized this limitation and began efforts to target new skydivers under 300 jumps and help them to safely discover and succeed in our sport. As part of this effort, Elsinore hosted its second annual Bridge the Gap over the June 15-16 weekend.

The idea behind the event is to help newer skydivers and those just getting off student status make the transition into getting involved with bigger groups and more advanced skydiving techniques. The emphasis for the weekend was all about being a safer skydiver as we start to share the air with larger groups of fellow jumpers. Equally important for the newer skydivers, it gave us a chance to learn about the services the drop zone has to offer, make connections with people in the skydiving industry, and get to know other jumpers at the drop zone.

Bridge the Gap started on Friday night with a seminar by John LeBlanc from Performance Designs.John was available all weekend to share tips on flying, landing, and packing our canopies. A second seminar on Saturday night discussed landings and techniques to keep flying the canopy as we transitioned from air back to the ground. Even the most skilled canopy pilots attended the seminars. Performance Design was kind enough to let John bring a complete lineup of PD canopies for us to demo throughout the weekend.

Saturday started off early as we broke into small groups and met our coaches for the first day. Each group had coaches who worked with either freeflyers or RW jumpers. After debriefing our individual jumps, we debriefed as a group so that freeflyers and RW jumpers could learn from each other’s skydives. As a group, this also gave us a chance to learn about different aspects of our sport. My coach for Saturday was Brett Willard, one of the top up and coming canopy pilots and Freefly coach. He let us know from the beginning that this wasn’t going to be a weekend of coaching. What we were really working on was getting comfortable in the air and learning to be safer skydivers. Brett and RW coaches Lou Ascoine and Tammi Retting spent Saturday fine tuning some of our flying techniques and teaching us how to make the most of our skydives.

The day closed with pizza, beer, and a seminar – all included as part of Bridge the Gap. We all had a chance to talk about what we learned during the day and get to know skydivers from the other groups. Sunday’s activities began with a rigging seminar from Greg Beecher, the drop zone rigger. He went over things we need to check on the rig every weekend before putting our rigs to bed for the week. On Sunday, the coaches switched groups so that each group was able to work with a different set of coaches, giving us a chance to meet more of the experienced jumpers at the drop zone. Chris Fiala, who runs the free fly school at Skydive Elsinore, fine-tuned some of the techniques Brett had been working on with us the day before.

The biggest thing I learned at Bridge the Gap, is that experienced jumpers are eager to help out those of us just getting started. I look forward to flying more with Brett and Chris, and all the other jumpers I met over the weekend. I feel much more confident approaching other jumpers and asking to join in a jump that is being planned. I also learned a lot about my equipment and how to spot potential trouble on the ground rather then getting surprised in the air. Skydive Elsinore had a chance to show off its top-notch facilities as it brought together industry leaders, excellent coaches and local support personnel. I will be signing up for more coaching jumps from the Freefly school at Skydive Elsinore and am looking forward to a great summer of skydiving at Southern California’s friendliest drop zones. Events like Bridge the Gap are a great way to help new jumpers break into the sport and a great opportunity for drop zones to increase the skydiving family by ensuring that newer jumpers feel secure in knowing that the drop zone is their second home.Details from the Event Staff
Skydive Elsinore’s second annual Bridge the Gap event proved once again to be a great success. The event was attended by 35 jumpers ranging in experience from 11 to 300 jumps, with most from the Southern California area but some traveling from Arizona and Texas.

The coaches for the event were highly accomplished competition team members, coaches, and instructors in formation skydiving, freeflying, and canopy swooping: John Hamilton, Mike Inabinet, Tammi Rettig, Jaqi O’Bryan, Lou Ascoine, Bryan Harrell, Chris Fiala, Wyatt Drewes, and Brett Willard. Special guest John LeBlanc from Performance Designs returned to the event this year, providing great seminars and information to skydivers of all experience levels. In addition to the two seminars on wing loading and landings, he provided one-on-one assistance with landings, packing lessons, and fielded a slue of questions.

Throughout the day, the coaches covered a broad curriculum of fundamental information: basic safety (a big topic), preparing and executing a successful skydive, the mental approach to skydiving, learning through positive debriefs, and information on where you can go to get further help to improve your skydiving skills, get assistance with gear selection, or any other question that may arise. Elsinore offers a full spectrum of skydiving instruction and coaching, including Freefall Tech (advanced individual coaching), freefly coaching by Elsinore Eclipse, canopy coaching by Elsinore Evolution, RW coaching by Elsinore Matrix and Adrenaline, advanced RW skills camps, and free basic skills camps every weekend.

The event closed with a drawing for prizes donated by sponsors. Prizes included coach jumps from Elsinore Matrix and Elsinore Eclipse, and discounts off gear from the event sponsors: Performance Designs, Ground Zero Paraphernalia, Larsen & Brusgaard Sky Systems helmet, Sun Path, and Tony Suits. Go Fast Sports provided plenty of Go Fast energy drink to keep everyone going.

Bridge the Gap is not the only effort made by Skydive Elsinore to lend a helping hand to the future of our sport. The DZ has been conducting free basic skills camps for novice jumpers over the past two years, focusing on the basic elements of 2 way and 4 way. The camp is led by Michael James and coaches are members of Elsinore’s competition teams, offering a high level of quality instruction.