WINGSUIT SKYDIVING

J-Bay Performance Flying & Formation Camp 2016

Skydive Jurien Bay hosted the inaugural J Bay Performance Flying & Formation Camp in June 2016 an event aimed at bringing everyone together to learn new techniques and push their bodies and wingsuits to new limits.

The 25 participants were spoilt to have world renowned wingsuit flyer and coach, Jarno Cordia (Netherlands) join the camp to coach and organise. Supporting Jarno were local wingsuit coaches Scotty Paterson and Jack Rolliston.

The original concept for the event was to run a small camp to introduce wingsuit performance flying (XRW, flocking, acro, back flying, head down carving) to the west coast skydivers but as interest grew the event also grew with the addition of a performance flying competition added to the mix.

The skill and experience levels of participants ranged from only 20 wingsuit jumps all the way to people that have 1000+ wingsuit jumps. Everything was included in the camp, from XRW at the start of the week to flocking, acro, back flying, head down carving and of course Performance flying.

The competition side of things consisted of 3 rounds with a total of 3 jumps per round. In the 3 jumps of the round the goal is to be going for time, distance or speed. Time was calculated by the amount of time participants could stay in the competition window, being 3000 meters to 2000 meters. Distance was calculated by how far one could travel over a horizontal distance in the comp window. Speed was calculated by the average horizontal speed one would reach in the comp window.

First place in the competition went to James Nowland, who really came out of nowhere with his Vampire Sukhoi. Second and third places going to Jack Rolliston and Guy Hanby.

The camp was a fantastic opportunity for people who are competing at the Performance flying World Championships in Z-hills in November 2016. With Jack Rolliston and Guy Hanby representing Australia, Jarno Cordia representing Netherlands and Udit Thapar representing India all breaking personal best scores in their quest to be on the podium later this year.

Participants consisted of skydivers from WA, the east coast of Australia, India and even the Ukraine.

The massive success of this event is a credit to Skydive Jurien Bay that provided the facilities and resources for this awesome week of fun and learning. Thanks must also go to the Australian Parachute Federation that provided funding for this event. Without the support this event would not have been possible.