I love talking with skydiving students and hearing about their excitement, fear, wonder and amazement. Nearly all of them say how the sport is “so much more” than they ever imagined. The only thing I love as much as talking to students is listening to students talking to each other.

The other day I was hanging out at the Perris Valley Skydiving School. There was a guy in his mid-thirties getting ready to do Level 4 speaking with a gal in her mid-twenties who had finished AFF and was going up to do a first solo. He was really nervous about the jump so she was talking him through it. Everything she said was spot on. With sincere passion and enthusiasm, she went through a step by step explanation of everything he should expect, providing him with a perspective that calmed him down and built up his confidence. He listened to her every word, awestruck like she was an expert. And she was! She had just done the exact same jump. She knew how he felt and exactly what he needed to hear. It’s quite possible he got as much out of her coaching as he would have a more experienced jumper or even an Instructor. She was coaching him, mentoring him and she only had 8 jumps!

This reminded me of when I first started jumping. There were a couple of experienced skydivers living near me in the OSU Dorm. These guys were real skydivers, not first timers. They were experienced jumpers who knew the ropes and how everything was done. They were so good. How could they not be, they each had close to 30 jumps. I thought they were heroes!

No matter where you are in your skydiving progression, you’re somebody’s mentor. You probably don’t think of yourself as a mentor and might not even want to be one. But, at some time over the course of your day at the drop zone, you could easily find yourself speaking with a less experienced jumper. You may only have 30 jumps but to someone with 5, you’re amazing! By sharing your thoughts and experiences you could have a huge impact in helping them progress and grow, and not just as a skydiver but as a human being. As young jumpers, we remember those people who made a difference for us. And in remembering how they helped us, it makes us want to do the same with younger jumpers when we have the chance to. And even if you’ve only done two jumps you still have something to offer to the younger jumper with one!

This is one of the most beautiful things of our sport. We’re all students and we’re all mentors. Even with 26,000+ jumps and 37 years in the sport I often find myself as a student again. Every time I’ve put on a wingsuit, been grabbed by our local free flyers for a jump, listened to our Canopy Coaches or heard Christy Frikken (one of my students) coaching 4-way, I learn a ton. In this sport, you’re never too experienced (old) to be a student. And you’re never too young to be a mentor. I highly recommend taking full advantage of being both.

Blue skies,
Dan BC

Check out Dan’s book, “Above All Else” here!

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DZ News

P3 Events Great Success!

P3 TRIFECTA WAS ANOTHER BIG HIT! I’ve watched this in Formation Skydiving, FreeFlying, Wingsuits and CReW. No matter what discipline you enjoy, few things are as much fun as putting together a big group of friends and aiming to share that magical moment when a large formation completes and everyone is “in”. You can feel the electricity in the group when it happens.

P3 “Perris Performance Plus” was first formed in 2001 to guide jumpers through safely learning the art, and experiencing the fun and teamwork, of doing “big ways”. Each spring P3 holds the May Trifecta with three back to back events, the Big Way Camp, 100Way Training Camp and Spring Fling. This year P3 welcomed more than 140 jumpers from 24 different countries to Perris. Their jump numbers ranged from 120 to 10,000. Many started off never having been on anything larger than a 6way, others had World Records under their belts.

After 3 days of the Big Way Camp even the least experienced of us were consistently building smooth (most of the time) 36ways and doing it while flying in many different positions. At the 100way training camp each person had the chance to fly a different slot every day on 60ways designed to look much more like 100way formations.

The 60way Spring Fling team did several incredible formations. On some jumps even doing 2 formations with everyone dropping grips in between. It was awesome!! Everyone learned heaps and became much more confident doing large formations. Good times were absolutely had and all made new friends they’ll cherish forever.

Many of the group came for all three events!! I really don’t know how they can pull that off but they did. If you’re interested in being a part of the P3 family please join us for these upcoming events. For more information and to register go to www.p3skydiving.com

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Upcoming P3 Events

P3 Events

November 16 – 19, P3 16 to 60way Sequential

February 22 – 25, P3 16 to 60way Sequential

May 3 – 6, P3 Big Way Camp

May 10 – 13, P3 100 Way Training Camp

May 17 – 20, P3 Spring Fling

June 21 – 24, P3 Power Play

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DZ Events

JUNE 23, 24, 25 FF CAMP AND CALIFORNIA STATE FF RECORD TRY OUTS
Get ready for the CALIFORNIA STATE FREEFFLY RECORD 100-WAY – November 9-12

World Champions and all around good guys, Travis Fienhage and Andy Malchiodi have made breaking records a hobby.  From November 9th – 12th, they plan on killing the current California State FF Record by doing a 100-way. Skydive Perris is planning to use as many of our fleet of Skyvans as we can to help make it happen. Travis and Andy are collecting the best of the best freeflyers for this one.  If you’re not one of the best yet, you can be by November!  They’re holding FF Big Way Camps throughout the year to get you ready.  Camps are scheduled at Perris on June 23 – 25 and November 7 & 8.

 JULY 1, SLIP & SLIDE BOOGIE

You’d think by now I’d know better. But there I was, minding my own business, when Matt Blank, Mike Naddor and Sean Devin came over to my office looking like mischievous kids who just came up with an idea but didn’t know if they should share it because they might get in trouble. I took one look at them and told them to go away before they even spoke. They weren’t going to make it that easy on me. “What do you want to do now?” I asked them not really wanting to know. And the answer was: “Ok, check this out. We want to build a slip n slide in the skyvan, grease it up and go sliding out the back with 10way trains. What do you think?” It was one of the dumbest ideas I’d ever heard, and I’ve heard a lot of dumb ideas. Somehow, the next thing I knew, I found myself wearing nothing but a bathing suit and sliding down a greasy slip n slide out the back of a skyvan with 9 of my closest friends! And it was a blast!! So we’re doing it. The first Slip n Slide Boogie. Come join in the fun of one of the all time dumb ideas!!

JULY 1, MARK AND DARRYLD 40ISH WAYS
Mark and Darryld are known for creating a high stress, high-pressure environment where everyone fears making a mistake, NOT!!! This is the perfect way to get introduced to big way skydiving. You’ll have a blast and a chance to learn from some of the best organizers in the world.

AUGUST 26, SCSL 4WAY MEET
Get ready for the Nationals!! 4way Teams, this is the chance to hone your skills, fine tune your game, and get ready for the Nationals. And to do it at the Nationals location, out of the Nationals airplanes!! Competition preparation doesn’t get any better.

SEPTEMEBER 16 – OCTOBER 1, USPA NATIONAL SKYDIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS
If you’ve never been to the Nationals you’re definitely missing out. There are divisions for all experience levels in all the freefall events. A few teams are competing to win. But most are competing to be a part of the most amazing experience you’ll ever have in Skydiving. If you have been to the Nationals before, we know you’ll be here because you just can’t miss it! (This will be my 34th Nationals!) Even if you’re not competing you’ll want to be at Skydive Perris to see the “sport” of skydiving at its very best.

WS ACRO, Registration Sept 16, Competition Sept 17 – 19
WS PERFORMANCE, Registration Sept 17, Competition Sept 18 – 20
FREEFLY/FREESTYLE (AE) & 4WAY VFS, Registration Sept 20, Competition Sept 21 – 23
2WAY MFS, Registration Sept 21, Competition Sept 22 – 24
SPEED SKYDIVING, Registration Sept 22, Competition Sept 23 – 24
4WAY FS, Registration Sept 24, Competition Sept 25 – 28 8WAY FS, Registration Sept 25, Competition Sept 26 – 29 16WAY FS, Registration Sept 27, Competition Sept 28 – Oct 1 10WAY FS, Registration Sept 28, Competition Sept 29 – Oct 1

DECEMBER 27 – JANUARY 1, PARTY IN PERRIDISE

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Tunnel Training at Perris

There is no question that wind tunnels have dramatically changed skydiving training .  In the past the biggest challenge of learning to fly was building muscle memory.  How much muscle memory could you possibly build when you jump like crazy all weekend and only get 10 minutes of actual freefall time?  And only seconds of that working on a particular skill.  Now with wind tunnels you can learn a skill and get 10 minutes of repetition in 20 minutes!

Most of us don’t fly in the tunnel to become great tunnel flyers.  We use the tunnel to become great skydivers!  The Skydive Perris tunnel is right on the drop zone.  At Perris you can do your tunnel training, walk out of the chamber, call manifest and be on a 15 minute call!  You can take everything you’ve practiced right into the air!

No matter whether you’re working through AFF or training to win the US Nationals, the best way to maximize your training is to build the skills in the tunnel and then get on the next load.  Skydive Perris is one of only three DZs in the world where you can do this.  To find out more about how to maximize your tunnel training contact Derek Baxter at email hidden; JavaScript is required.

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International Skydiving Museum & Hall of Fame

It’s finally happening!!  Skydiving inspires. It is the embodiment of adventure, daring, athleticism and prevailing in the face of adversity.  Though most people will never make a skydive, they can still revel in the amazing achievements of our sport.  They will be able to do just that in the Internationals Skydiving Museum and Hall of Fame.   The Museum and Hall of Fame will be located in Orlando, Florida in a high profile location fronting on Interstate 4, the primary highway that connects Tampa to Orlando and Daytona Beach.  It will be a two-story facility, 30,000sqft, loaded with interactive exhibits and experiences and co-located with an iFLY 16-foot vertical wind tunnel!

Skydive Perris has long been a supporter of this project and we are so excited to finally see it coming to fruition.  Please go to www.skydivingmuseum.org to learn more about it. You’ll be amazed and proud for what it planned.

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2017 AFF Gradds & New A-License Jumpers

On behalf of the Perris Valley Skydiving School, we’d like to congratulate all those who graduated AFF and/or earned their A-licenses this year!

AFF Grads

AFF Graduates
Yasir Alani	Yi Chang	Luke Jarvis	Steffen Priller	Daniela Garcia Torres
Gerrelaine Alcordo	Weixiaohang (William) Chen	Sangyun Kim	Nirmal Purja	Cory Vancraeynest
Daniel Aurand	Byron Collins	Charles Leonard	Edmund Robinson	Thomas Walker
Alberto Banegas	Cameron Cruz	Ian Louth	Cheryl Rodriguez	Joshua Waschak
Evan Berle	Eric Davis	Thomas (Jackson) Lindley	Jessica Rosa	Andrew Watson
Alexandre Blum	Scott Dye	Kevin McCoy	Volodymyr Semenov	Dayne Weyer
Eirik Bogsnes	John Eldridge	James Mcdaniel	Sequoia Schmidt	Dominic Williman
Alexa Bowen	Dustin Esswein	Carly Mcgee	Andrew Schutz	Chengkai Zhang
Matthew Boyko	Jayme Gates	Mathew Morales	Sheldon Stenquist	Colin Ziegler
Randall Burford Jr	Sven Haltmann	Chris Mulattieri	Tyller Stoetzel
Randall Burford Sr	Tyler Harrison	Naila Nazer	Joseph Sullivan
Michael Caponnetto	Walt Holloway	Brad Needham	Emily Swickle
Megan Caron	Jeremy Horner	Jordan Pass	Kristina Theroux

A-License

A- License Graduates
Yasir Alani	Jennifer Corso	Charles Leonard	Steffen Priller	Cory Vancraeynest
Daniel Aurand	Mathew Demyers	Zichao Lin	Cheryl Rodriguez	Thomas Walker
Alberto Banegas	Jesse Gould	Connor Lundy	Jonathan Schiralli	Andrew Watson
Alan Biggs	Sven Haltmann	Kevin McCoy	Sheldon Stenquist	Brett West
Bonnie Brint	John Hart	Carly McGee	Emily Swickle	Chengkai Zhang
Carlos Ceron	Coty-James Hietanen	Grant Overmire	Hazel Tan
Guangsu Chen	Noah Kawasaki	James Parker	Kristina Theroux
Weixiaohang (William) Chen	Sangyun Kim	Jacob Potts	Daniela Garcia Torres