[lunarhighway]

i skip gears all the time. in fact i rarely use all the gears in sequence, and i've found that of the few occasions when i drive another car this does not cause any problems other than that is quickly shows the difference in gearing

i usually do 1->2->5
this will quickly get me up to 50km/h to merge into traffic from standstill at junctions etc than lift of the throttle using the momentum to overcome this power drop and than keep a steady speed if that's the speed limit or slowly accelerate on to 70km/h in practice this makes me accelerate about as fast and steady as other cars, but giving me enought "emergency"power in the first half and going wot with low revs in the second half.

as for strain on the gears... try to be gentle with the clutch, let it catch before applying power again, as the greater difference is rmp will cause slightly more friction, but as you'll shift 25-50% less than when using all the gears one might wonder if you don't actually save the clutch this way...

as long as you're not grinding the gears and if feels right, you should be fine.