The 2012 Easter weekend saw Bloem’s Skydive Central host their FIRST ever Wingsuit course presented by Frederik Potgieter, made possible by the Sport Skydivers Association Wingsuit Committee.

There was a lot of interest but unfortunately only 2 members were cleared to attend the course, one having the 300 jump waiver.

Etv filming for a documentary about wingsuiting

(Photo courtesy of Marie Nel)

The course included theoretical and practical elements as well as a supplementary instructional Wingsuit dvd and the next day our new flockers took to the skies with confidence. Safety and correct equipment was emphasised and the new jumpers deployed and landed their square canopies without any incident.

In total, 32 successful Wingsuit jumps were done, with Jackie Schoeman completing his 5 progression jumps with flying colours and both him and Francois Krös doing their first 3-way flocks at the end of the weekend.

There was tremendous interest and numerous requests from other local skydivers who just didn’t have the required minimum jump numbers to attend the course this time round. Hopefully Jackie and Cois will keep the interest levels high and encourage those coming through the ranks to give Wingsuiting a try. An invitation has been extended to both to join us at JSC shortly to further assist with their development. A HUGE thank you goes out to Skydive Central and especially to Christine Daffie, Sonja Botha and CI – Chris de Jager for all the arrangements, organisation and hospitality. We hope to Flock in Bloem again soon and assist in growing the Wingsuit discipline even further.

Karen Fourie with Jackie Schoeman

(Photo courtesy of Frederik Potgieter)

Frederik Potgieter with Jackie Schoeman

(Photo courtesy of Karen Fourie)

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Comebacks, Dark Horses, Suspense and Sunshine

Another skydiving season drew to a close in May with SA Nationals 2012, hosted this year by Pretoria Skydiving Club. Beneath uncharacteristically sunny skies, teams spent the week battling it out for titles in Formation Skydiving, Artistic Events, Canopy Piloting and Accuracy Landing.

In addition to the FAI events (Formation Skydiving 8-way and 4-way Open, Freefly Open, Canopy Piloting Open and Accuracy Landing Open), we have a number of non-FAI events which serve as skills development, preparation and feeders for lower experience participants into the FAI Events.

All events and categories are contested by teams with varying motives, levels of seriousness and energy. This makes for a vibrant, diverse competition site, kept familiar and informal by our small competitive population. Most competitors enjoy the week spent with friends and rivals, alternating daytime strategizing and plotting with evening beer and braaivleis together.

Gold medallist, Serafim Fernandes (left) and Constant Benade (right) doing Landing Accuracy

Dewaldt Smit  preparing to land after a successful skydive

The most contested event at SA Nationals is the FS 4-way Open event, and this year didn’t disappoint. For starters, Voodoo, who for many years kept the trophy out of everyone else’s reach, andthen skipped Nationals 2011, returned this year with a small change to their line-up, having replaced Amy Kirtland with Dennis Parker in Point slot. Voodoo found their groove ahead of the pack once more, flying into 1st place with a 16.4 average. The rest of the 4-way Open pack emerged less predictably, making for a close and exciting competition from beginning to end. AppChat SAVOLO, a new team of familiar faces, using either a “right-place-right-time” or a “persistence prevails” strategy scooped up Amy Kirtland in the 11th hour to fly Point in the newly formed team and arrived at the meet without a known average and therefore no expectations. The Dark Horse of the meet, AppChat SAVOLO took silver with a 14.7 average, with no close rivals behind them, but impressing themselves and spectators by beating Voodoo’s score on one round and matching them on 3 others. Not bad for a new team and certainly the closest we’ve seen to Voodoo for a long time. I think everyone, perhaps mostly Voodoo, is looking forward to some closer competition and more pressure at the top of the log in the future.

Third place went to G4B, who also arrived without expectations, after a year of no training at all. Throughout the meet we saw really close competition and several ties between G4B, Nashua and newcomers to the open category, Vertical Xcelleration (VX). VX started competing in 2011, winning the 4-way Novice and continuing as a team into open. A year of hard work and smart training was showing throughout the meet and VX finished round 9 ahead of Team Nashua by 1 point. Not only was 4th place on the line, but another title and some great prizes too.

The first and second placed competitors in the South African Skydiving League (SASL), which culminates with SA National each year, were Mark Broomhead (of Team Nashua) and Yolandi van den Berge (of VX). Separated in weighting by 0.02 points, it would all come down to which one of their teams beat the other at Nationals 2012, the final winner of the league walking away with a free Aerodyne sport canopy of their choice, a Larsen & Brusgaard Viso II altimeter, and a custom made Bev Suit. While the second placed individual still wins a Larsen and Brusgaard Optima II audible altimeter, the first placetitle and prizes are well worth the effort!

VX’s dedication and faster flying was up against Nashua’s smoother, cleaner flying, years of team mate familiarity and general competition experience. Everyone was glued to the scoring screens.

The final outcome of 4th place in Nationals and 1st place in SASL was down to the wire. Not just competition results mattered, but the single, final round was to be the decider. And experience finally showed who was boss. With Nashua having finished their round 10, VX knew the score to beat. Perhaps VX was also a little distracted by their unexpected proximity on the scoreboard to G4B – something they never even considered they could achieve before, but alluring for the ambitious newcomers to the category.

So it wasn’t to be for VX and Nashua’s BMT secured their 4th place in the end and with that Mark Broomhead won SASL Season III. I don’t think we’ve seen the last of VX by a long shot and we’re all excited to see what they bring to next year’s Nationals as we grow our 4-way Open category and see more teams performing in the 10 plus averages.

Well done to all teams and competitors. I chose to tell the big 4-way story but every event has its close battles and if you haven’t been to Nationals to be a part of or just witness it in whichever discipline you’re passionate about, you are truly missing out.

Good luck to all over the following season – the post-Nationals quiet has descended, but soon the hustling, shuffling, poaching and campaigning will start as teams and individuals build their winning formulae for SA National Skydiving Championships 2013.

Canopy Pilots Chris Teague, Selwyn Johnson and Riaan Bergh showing how it's done

(Photos courtesy of Graham Field, Nicoleen Smit and Michelle Tobias)

Night Jumps and Old Pharts Reunion

What an incredible weekend! From start to finish, everything fell in to place to make for a fantastic celebration!

It all started when we realised that based on club budget, and being located at the far end of the continent, it would probably not be feasible to throw an all-out Boogie for our guava birthday. “Let’s keep it low-key” we said. “What about night jumps” said all the usual subjects who are desperate to get these for license purposes and basically track the moon as a full-time job. “Cool”, said we, “that’s something special at least. Sorted!”

 
Pam Russell with Joan Isham, Bruce Molzen D277 and Colin Beard D245

(Photo courtesy of Ailsa Burns)

Then a few months ago Colin Beard asked when we were having our big party, as the Old Pharts were interested in participating. We gave him the details, and I think I detected a certain lack of awe at the magnitude of what we were planning. But once the ball started rolling, there was no stopping the oldies in their quest to get arthritic knees back in the breeze. Before we knew it, we were up to 8.

So all we needed now was aircraft (we always need aircraft) and decent weather (ditto). NNP has been showing up to the party pretty consistently lately, so no worries there. Mother Nature followed her lead and gave us perfect weather for the whole of the weekend.

Rod Baker D242, ZS-NNP and Colin Beard D245 (Photo courtesy Oliver Nöthen)	Mark Bellingan arrives to join in the festivities (Photo courtesy of Ailsa Burns)

The day was pretty much a standard day except there were two classes running; regular and refresher. Each of the returnees got in one jump and every one was completely amped on landing. Jess Baker on the other hand, was back after a long absence, aged 16 and ready for her very first jump. Her dad Rod had been giving her space in the class and the harnesses but he was in the field ready for her to land. Alister had shuffled the exit order and so Rod had the unexpected privilege of watching her jump three times! Luckily everyone performed, so no stress for the “expectant father”.

Night jumps followed day jumps, in the way of nature. The briefing was at 5, the jumps started at 7 and the last person landed at about 9:55pm. As far as we know, none of them were reported as UFOs despite the fact people must surely have been admiring the supermoon directly behind them as seen from town. Small town. Maybe stranger things have happened?

 
A flurry of activity as young pharts prepare for night jumps

(Photo courtesy of Bruce Molzen)

The down side of this is that the “festivities” started late. The up side is that those coming in from night jumps got to see what it’s like when fully 50% of the party is WAAAY ahead of the other half. We started with presentation of certificates, the most notable being a Life Membership for the long suffering (and to be fair long inflicting) Mr Steven Norris.

After that, one of the best renditions I’ve seen by the Citrusdal Male Voice Choir (redubbed the Robertson Male Voice Choir) was performed. Colin started off, hushing the crowd and helping the guys with their harmony. Then it was time for the actual performance. It was as indescribable as usual, but can be found on youtube (link on the Robertson FaceBook page). Midway through the performance, Colin handed the baton to Rod who took over. This was symbolic of the handing over which had happened years ago when Colin retired as Choirmaster.

 
The Choir
Back: Andre d’Argent C1577, Karl Hayden D568, Martin Phelps D755,
Bruce Molzen D277, Marcel Vliegenthart D902
Front: Basil Jones D329, Steve Norris D566, Ari Spanos D338,
Rod Baker D242, Erik Vliegenthart D789, Colin Beard D245

(Photo courtesy of Ailsa Burns)

Then, very belatedly, once the choir was still, Rod announced there would be a new handing over ceremony. To his surprise, Andre d’Argent was called forward and given the sacred stick (in this case a glowstick in a pair of tongs but we’ve been soundly told off about that and it will be fixed). He immediately started on another round, failing initially to gain control of his performers until told the magic words. In a text, the magic words would be rendered as STFU.

With everyone still, he put his own stamp on the proceeding, asking for a high note. He then ran through the usual piece very competently. A good sign for things to come. Luckily our new choirmaster does have some restraint, and stopped short of a rousing chorus of his trademark Engineer’s Song. Another good sign.

Andrea had designed us an amazing cake, which was then brought out complete with sparklers. It was absolutely beautiful and put the cherry on an amazing day!

Needless to say, we do have a birthday every year, and while we might save the night jumps for a different weekend, this event is going to be a fixture on our calendar! Welcome back to the skies to our Old Phart visitors! Please bring your friends next time.

PLEASE JOIN OUR FACEBOOK PAGE FOR ONGOING INFORMATION ABOUT SKILLS CAMPS, RECORD ATTEMPTS, SUPPORTED BOOGIES, OPINION POLLS ETC. http://facebook.com/PASA.SSA.AE

Coaching @ Skydive Robertson: 14-15 April 2012

Skydive Robertson hosted a coaching weekend on 14-15 April 2012. Both Timothy Hutchings and André du Preez coached. The weather was a bit of a problem, being too windy most of Saturday to jump, although some jumps were done early on Saturday. Sunday, only one AE load went up before the wind started howling and the weather came in. So 5 coaching jumps were done in total.

Planned Coaching Clinics

Rob Kruger and Louis Eybers will be presenting AE coaching at Witbank the weekend of the 26th and 27th of May 2012.

Christopher and Julie Teague will be presenting AE coaching at PSC on the weekend of the 16th and 17th of June 2012.

Each weekend is kick-started by a fairly brief but vital discussion / presentation by the coaches on Saturday morning at 7:30am. People who don't attend this might not be able to be accommodated due to limited time and space. If you are interested in attending any coaching clinics, PLEASE PRE-BOOK WITH JULIE TEAGUE (julieteaguesa@gmail.com). It's always going to be first come first served situation in terms of the 50% coaches slot subsidy, and as jumps need to be debriefed etc., approximately 5 jumpers can be accommodated each weekend.

Whilst the AE committee are planning at least 1 coaching clinic per drop zone this year, if you are in need of coaching before then, make a noise about it. If you join our new facebook page you will have access to the contact information of all AE coaches, who you can contact directly to arrange coaching with.

Ranch Boogie

The Ranch Boogie in Polokwane was an incredible experience last year, and we can’t wait to support it from 9 - 12 August this year. We’ll be subsidising 20 slots and will have a coach available for the first 3 days. If you are interested in booking coaching you will need to let Julie know, and also pre-pay your registration fee to the event organisers to secure your place on the rotation.

On the last day, the senior jumpers will be looking to beat the current SA Head down record of 6 docked flyers.

(Photo courtesy of Attie Fourie)

There was an extremely successful judging training course held over Nationals. At the end of the course we had the following new ratings:

FS – 2 FAI and 4 National ratings
Accuracy – 5 FAI and 5 trainee’s
CP – 2 FAI, 1 National and 3 trainees

Well Done to all the successful candidates! It is fantastic to see the amount of judges increasing with each training course.

Congratulations to the South Africans announced as part of the Judges’ Panels for Canopy Piloting, Canopy Formation and Formation Skydiving at the Mondial - Dubai 2012:

Canopy Piloting
Ettienne Bosch
Deborah Seber

Canopy Formation
Agnieszka Solomon

Formation Skydiving
Chanel Robinson
Dirk Venter

Artistic Events
Stuart Robinson

Anyone interested in finding out more about judging can contact Stuart Robinson.

Entrance Fees....

Weekend pass (skydivers and non-skydivers): R300 at the gate

R200 on payfast - go to www.facebook.com/SkydiveDurban for details

Tandem Jumps: R1600

Fun Jumpers Slot rate : R250

Hikes, Horse Riding: Contact Lodge; 082 855 9767

Food Stalls, Bar Facilities on site.

Entertainment.... To be confirmed but should be...

Friday 25th May:
19h00 Inkhonjani No Bheseni
20h00 Violet Somedays
21h00 (to be confirmed (but they’re hot))

Contact: vernon@skydivedurban.co.za

(Photo courtesy of Liam Bartels)

SkyDive Parys, South Africa's newest and undoubtedly most scenic inland skydiving venue will be commencing operations with its opening weekend and party on 16 & 17 June 2012

Situated in the heart of the Vredefort Dome at South Africa's Adventure Capital, Parys, the dropzone is located on the banks of the Vaal River and surrounded by granite outcrops 3km from the town.

The Dropzone is in a unique position in that it has teamed up with the Vaal River Resort Stonehenge In Africa to provide 5 Star facilities for skydiving and adventure seekers both during and after operations. At a later date the Parys airfield will also be used for overflow skydiving events, providing an additional attraction to this fast growing hub of skysports and general aviation.

Skydive Parys' business operators, Capt Aidan Parker and Steven Taylor, have teamed up with one of South Africa's leading Skydiving Instructors and Aviation Personalities, Graham Field who, with over 5600 skydives in 25 years of skydiving experience, will be heading up skydiving operations. Graham is joined by the multi-talented Frederik Potgieter on the full time skydiving staff of Skydive Parys with Danelle Barnard running manifest and office operations on the DZ.

Primarily a skydiving operation catering to the provision of safe and exhilarating 1st Tandem Introductory Skydives, the DZ will also offer an affordable and convenient alternate dropzone for Gauteng based Sport skydivers that is situated less than an hour and 100km from Johannesburg. At this time Skydive Parys is a non-student operation and potential students will be directed to convenient DZs in their areas that we support.

Initially a Cessna 206 will be used for a 7 day a week operation with a larger turbine aircraft being available when increased lift capacity is needed.

For the opening weekend of 16 June we invite all Sport Skydivers to join us for 2 days of skydiving fun with associated activities for the whole family – an Atlas Angel and C206 will be used for these 2 days for this weekend and there will be several accommodation options for those wishing to overnight at this awesome venue. A program of the opening weekend festivities will be posted shortly on the various FaceBook groups and by way of the PASA list serve – Skydive Parys and Stonehenge are also the preferred take-off locations for the local hot air balloon operation so watch this space for specialty aircraft closer to the time ;)

For further information please visit www.skydiveparys.co.za
email mailto:skydiveparys@gmail.com
or call Steven on +27 (0)72 303 9140 or Graham on +27 (0)74 198 0891

The Ranch SkyDiving Boogie and Symposium, South Africa's Premier SkyDiving Event, will be happening from Thursday 9th to Sunday 12th August 2012 hosted by Skydive Parys.

Last year’s event was a great success. We had registrations from 21 different Sport Skydiving Operations and Military Parachuting Units from across Southern Africa.

Two Turbine Atlas Angels flew a total of 90 loads to 12 000ft and 78 members of the visiting public were taken for a tandem introductory skydive. The event also enjoyed massive media support and exposure.

Service providers and suppliers to the skydiving and parachuting world may apply to have their products and services displayed at the event.

All skydivers, parachutists and interested parties are welcome to attend.

Discounts will be extended to individuals and teams for bulk ticket purchases.

This event will grow year on year. Don't miss out!

Details of the event are listed on the www.para.co.za website.

REGISTRATION FORMS WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE ON THE WWW.PARA.CO.ZA WEBSITE FROM THE 5TH JULY 2012.

The Ranch Resort - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ranch_Resort Rock on. Your instigators of fun and excitement… Mike Rumble and Graham Field Mike@Imagineering.co.za Graham@AerialFX.co.za

The J Bay Boogie dates this year are confirmed from:
Wednesday 19 December 2012 till Wednesday 2 January 2013.

Setup and registration will take place on Tuesday 18 December with operations to commence on 19 December 2012.

Please check the events listing on the PASA website periodically – more information will be added as it becomes available…

PASA and the Toggle Times cannot be held responsible for any errors or omissions, due to all content being submitted without verification.