Freefly Skills Camp : 6 – 7 February 2010, Johannesburg Skydiving Club
By Brendon Delate, D868

The long awaited freefly skills camp with world class freefly coach Jean-Philippe has come and gone. The camp was agreed by all to be a resounding success with all participants learning a lot, progressing their skills, and having loads of fun in the process.

To have a freeflyer of JP’s calibre in South Africa has been quite an experience. The knowledge and skills he brought with him ensured SA’s freeflyers were always learning the latest and best techniques. We had freeflyers of all levels participating in the camp doing everything from their first freefly attempts right through to Cat 3 jumps, head down and big way tracking jumps.

The camp kicked off on Friday night with a freefly seminar covering some of the basics, freefly progression and freefly safety. Both Saturday and Sunday had the first freefly loads going up at the crack of dawn with the coaches keeping everyone busy all weekend long. It was really great to see the improvement in skills over the 2 day camp.

The response and turnout for the skills camp was incredible and is definitely a sign that freeflying in SA is growing. To give an idea of the turnout for the weekend, here are a few figures:

• 18 Freefly coaching loads were done
• 74 Freefly slots on Saturday
• 68 Freefly slots on Sunday
• 19 People were involved in the camp including the students, local coaches and, of course, JP

Read more about the next big freefly event of the year later in this issue. The next one is going to be even bigger and better.

Blue Skies,
SSA AE Committee

Brendon Delate, Brendon van Niekerk, Marais Badenhorst, Jean-Philippe

Marais Badenhorst, Jean-Philippe, Brendon Delate, Brendon van Niekerk

(Photographs: Rob Kruger)