Inside the movement at Go Fly Club in Boituva, Brazil – originally posted by CYPRES blog
Skydiving has a mix of written and unwritten rules, plus plenty of mysterious territory to navigate while developing your skills. Modern training and progression structures give general targets to aim for, but wherever you jump, there’s often a lot you simply have to figure out along the way.
Boituva, Brazil contains, when taken as a whole, a gigantic skydiving operation with many moving parts. Over time, professional skydiver and CYPRES athlete Martina Bombicini, along with Marcela Prado and Rogério Menezes of Go Fly Paraquedismo (tandem operations) and Go Fly Club (school and progression area), saw an opportunity to create something many dropzones would benefit from: a dedicated space for female skydivers of all levels to support one another.
Here, Martina tells the story of how Go Girls came to life.
Movement
Go Girls is a step forward toward a place in skydiving that we had already been moving toward naturally, simply through our position in the sport. It began as a way to offer coaching events and progression opportunities for female skydivers, but the deeper idea was to create a place where we could bring our energy together and help each other grow with the right kind of support.
We have regular events and coaching, but Go Girls is not a team. We prefer the word movement. I think that’s the right word.
A Real Space
We wanted to create a physical area that female skydivers could use together. Yes, there is an element of the Go Girls office acting as a private and safe space, but more than that, it’s about connection.
Skydiving has many boys and not so many girls, and we thought it would be powerful to build a place that female skydivers could truly occupy. There was a small, unused room in the Go Fly Club area. At first, we had to sell the idea, but once it started to take shape, it worked really well.
Rogério (Martina’s husband and owner of Go Fly) has been incredibly supportive and has done so much to help us integrate Go Girls into the dropzone. We made some changes and turned the room into a welcoming place — somewhere to store gear, teach, debrief, drink coffee, and escape the heat with air-conditioning.
We started with just four or five girls. Things grew very organically, and now we have around fifty regulars who come here to learn and fly.
Photo by Joel Strickland
Resources Beyond Coaching
Through years of skydiving and working both in the tunnel and at the dropzone, we noticed that more and more people — especially women — were coming to us for answers. That need became a big part of why Go Girls exists.
The dropzone environment, and the sport in general, can be challenging whether you’re new or experienced. Finding your way in skydiving often has as much to do with connections as it does with jumps or events themselves.
Yes, we offer regular coaching in the sky and in the tunnel, but we’re also here for anything else someone might need. Word has spread, and girls know how to find us now, but I also make a point of introducing myself to students starting AFF or to new jumpers arriving in Boituva. From the beginning, they have my contact details and access to our group chat.
We believe these connections are critical. When they’re in place, you begin to see more opportunities opening up ahead of time.
(As if to underline this point, during our conversation a Swedish visitor wintering in Boituva walks into the room, asks for help with some banking administration for her accommodation, gets the issue sorted quickly, and leaves again.)
What’s Next
Go Girls is based here in Boituva. Alongside regular coaching and tunnel days, we host an event every two months, aiming for a balance between structure and organisation while keeping things genuinely fun.
This year we’re also launching a new event called Vertical Girls. We wanted to offer something with a bigger goal to work toward. This month marks the first event, and we’ll begin training to set a new female vertical record — first in Brazil, and then beyond.
Boituva is our home, but we’d love for Go Girls to travel more and share what we’re building. We’re already talking with friends about an event in Europe this summer, possibly in Sweden.
Progress
Even after just the first couple of days observing Go Girls in action at Boituva, it’s clear this approach makes a meaningful contribution. The small, thoughtful physical space isn’t exclusive, but it acts as a subtle priority area where women naturally gather and occupy space together within a traditionally male-dominated environment.
No other communal areas have been compromised to create this space, so nothing is lost elsewhere. It works. It feels good. And you can sense the difference it makes in the atmosphere.
