Repetition, repetition, repetition.
When you can ride C-More while thinking about work, you're undeniably ready for A-line.
I remember when they rebuilt Crabs, and my internal monologue went full Karen, "That's insane! People will die!", yet here I am.
I'll echo ReductiMat, if you are able to spend a lot of time in Whistler, that is by far the best/safest/easiest way to progress in jumping. I got back into mountain biking a few years ago at 35 (used to ride as a kid but never much of a jumper). Within a year I bought a DH bike and started riding at Whistler a lot. I took a few weekend camps which they don't seem to run anymore unfortunately, where you had the same coach for two full days. One of those years me and the other guys in the group just said we wanted to be able to clear A-line so we spent the entire weekend working up to it, first dialing in technique then just lapping either following the coach or he would follow and watch us. It made such a difference...
A-Line was as far as I got, even then I never cleared the left side jump after the rock drop, and I _barely_ backsided the GLC jump and moon booter. It was just volume of riding and slowly progressing when feeling good and getting comfortable with the speed that did it for me. I've never actually crashed on a jump trail (knock on wood) although I had a few scary nose dives over the years.
Funnily enough, the last 3 summers I've only done a handful of park days (young kid, sold DH bike) I've regressed and struggle to clear the bigger stuff on A-Line now. I just don't ride jumps that size/speed trail riding cuz I ride solo often and don't want to risk injury in the woods (bike park is different w/ professional medical staff).
I also agree if you clear C-more easily you are ready for A-Line.
I'm happy to hear from so many people in the same boat! I got into mountain biking 3-4 years ago (I'm 52 now) and am really happy with my progress except for jumping. I had a couple bad crashes in the second year that lowered my risk tolerance a lot and I'm still coming back from that. Every year we go to Hornby Island for a week or two in summer and while most of the trails there are super mellow, there is one jump line (with a few skinnys) called Yer Mom that I vow to ride all the jumps on (and I'm not even including the offside trail gap jump that cuts off right at the bottom)...And every year I ride the same smaller subset of the easier jumps on this line but can never get myself to try some of the "bigger" ones (The first one and last 3). Some day maybe!
A couple notes: Please don't go to Hornby to try this line for the first time this year - the local volunteer rescue service has had to deal with a uptick in serious calls recently and with all the Covid precautions it is putting a strain on this team and could potentially affect trail access if this continues. I doubt I will ever ride the first gap jump; it just seems like it would take more speed than I could get in the limited run in. All the others seem to only require a moderate speed from seeing others do them and appear to be completely do-able but I just can't commit :(
I do look forward to being able to ride in Bellingham, WA again some day. Galbraith offers some of the best options for progressing jumping skills south of WBP and, up until Covid, I was discovering more and more places there to hone my airtime skills. I think this is one of the big issues with North Shore riding - other than Boogie Nights there really are no easily accessible blue or black level jump lines.
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