So what went down? There was a welcome increase in Freefly competitors this year, especially in the Intermediate category. Big up to the AE committee for putting in the effort to revitalize this side of their discipline and are now starting to reap the rewards. Two Open Freefly teams competed for the title, which this year went to Free Radicals - Brendon van Niekerk, Pierre Badenhorst and André du Preez (camera).

We saw the usual strong competition on the Formation Skydiving front with the 2-way open event standing out as a highlight for the high speed performances achieved. When a 20 average is only good enough for 4^th place, you know you’re looking at some fast skydives. It was great to see the senior jumpers embracing this fun event in addition to their main events. In the words of Amy Kirtland of the winning team (after posting another score of 34 points!), “To answer your question from earlier, yes, you can get dizzy in freefall”.

CP saw a slightly smaller than usual entry, but some of our usual suspects graced the pond - Selwyn Johnson returning from Australia to support the competition and give Chris Teague some good competition, but not quite enough to take the title from him. Chris is now in training for the World Games, having qualified for the very prestigious world-wide selection through his fantastic World Championship performance late last year. This also led to a much-needed sponsorship for Chris and we are really excited to see how he does in this exclusive event, open by invitation to only the world’s top, top canopy pilots. 

A notable increase in the “Classics” (Style and Accuracy) entries is hopefully an indication of more activity. This discipline is so accessible to inexperienced jumpers, low cost to start out in it and still offers a huge challenge as your skills and experience grow. We had support from both military and civilian teams this year, making for a great competition, Tim Mace winning both.

Unfortunately, we had no Canopy Formation entries this year. We hope they’ll be back on the cards again soon, especially since the last few years have seen a big increase after the introduction of the 2-Way Sequential event internationally.

And our parting question: Where were you?  Nationals is about challenging yourself and performing to your best, but it is also about having fun, learning, meeting new people and often surprising yourself at what you can are capable of. If you have landed a parachute once, you can enter Nationals. Contact anyone on the SSA Committee to find out how you can be part of SA Nationals 2014 and how to make the most of it.

(Photographs courtesy of Mohan Chudalayandy and Warren Hitchcock)

Wow! What a season, with another close finish determined by SA Nationals results. Ian van den Berge, Yolandi van den Berge and Bailey Edmunds arrived at Nationals with equal points. Left this way, Yolandi as the least experienced of the 3 would have won, but it wasn’t to be that easy.

So, who done it?

Only the previously entered SASL teams at Nationals were eligible for the April entry. Because the number of teams in each event each month determines the number of points, it was not simply about who won, but which event they won that became critical. With more of the SASL season’s 2-ways entered in Nationals than 4-ways, there were more points to be gained by a 2-way win than a 4-way win. This made the already hot 2-Way events - filled this year with some of our best FS skydivers – even hotter as SASL’s must-be-won.

Congratulations to Bailey Edmunds, whose team, Jedi-ish, pulled off a second place in the 2-way Open event, beaten by a non-SASL team and therefore the SASL 2-way winning team. Bailey skidded into his SASL win with 29 points over Yolandi and Ian’s 27 points and walks away almost fully kitted out by prizes. He has won:

• A pair of Blueye Eyewear Xtreme V6 Skydiving goggles
• A Bev Suit
• A Cookie G3 Helmet
• An Aerodyne main canopy of his choice

And last but not least, the fame and glory, a victory dance and a minor hangover from the awards party.

Special mention was made of Team Endeavour for their sportsmanship, spirit, persistence and creativity. For this, Team Endeavour have won a fully paid for 4-way skills camp, to kick start their new season and up their game as they progress to 4-way.

Our Competitors

Of course it would all fall flat without competitors. You guys rock! Thanks for not just competing but for playing the game! SASL combines, attitude, strategy, skills into GAME.

Click here for a SASL Season IV compilation video clip.

Season V – Invitation to the Dark Side

To close of this wicked season, we’ll share a Season V teaser. Of course it will be another hummer, bigger and better, and FS-fantastic as always. But it’s time to share the fun again. The recent local growth in Freefly interest led to requests to return Freefly to SASL. We’re excited to announce that Season V will reintroduce a Freefly event as a test event. If there is sufficient support in Season V, Freefly stays. So spread the word and Freeflyers, support the next season to bring your event back!

Time for a little break – see you again in September for Season V, with fire in your booties and game plan in your pockets.

Game ON!

The SASL Team

The new South African Speed Skydiving national record is 463.80km/hr - set by Tim Mace on 11 May 2013 in Gunzberg, Germany on round 5 of event 1 of the 2013 world series.

That’s the average speed over the course: a 1 km vertical drop from 2700m to 1700m (about 8860ft to 5580ft).

This puts Tim 6th in the world series this year, and 13th in the world’s all time fastest rankings.

Marco Wiederkehr of Switzerland also set a new world record of 531.42 km/hr.

All the results, records and rankings are on www.speedskydiving.eu

The next round is in the UK, 1-2 June, then on to the Czech Republic, 10-11 August.

The following article
was published in the
May/June 2013
issue of
Rolling Inspiration,
a magazine for people
with mobility impairments.

Camp dates: 20, 21, 22, 23 August. Arrive 19^th, fly home any time (pretty sure this is a flight you’ll sleep very well on.)

Recommended time: 2 hours per person at least. You’ll usually fly a bit more than this (see programme below). We will take you for less time, but then you probably won’t get through enough in time to start doubling up time with other campers – depends on your progress, which is very individual. We will obviously customize the camp for your individual needs.

Costs: Of course everything depends on our dear ZAR exchange rates, but you can expect the following approximate costs:

Airfare: R 6 700

Visa: R 900

Tunnel time: R 8 500 per hour. This includes all FS coaching.

Accommodation: assuming you are happy to share, about R350 pppn – including breakfast – at the Duo.

So for a 2 hour camp, you’re looking at about R26 000 per person.

General Value of Tunnel

You can tell yourself that you only skydive for fun, but there is no denying one fact: a skydive where you can do what you’re trying to do is much more fun than a fun skydive where whatever happens will happen – whether horny gorillas, tracking, 4-way record-breakers, or a social jump with your newby friend who is barely stable. It’s more fun with skills.

You can do the maths, but if you’re wondering whether tunnel is worth it: 160 solo skydives will cost you R41000 (assuming 45 seconds of actual working time per skydive). A generous 50 seconds and you’re still looking at R35 000. These skydives have no coach and no camera and most jumpers will probably take about 1 year to do these jumps. Whether you tunnel on one of our camps or with other coaches and other camps, it is absolutely more productive and cheaper than trying to do the same thing on skydives. Having said that, please don’t bankrupt yourself – kick*ss skills are of no use to someone who has to give up skydiving for a year to pay off the debt. So sacrifice some jump budget for tunnel and you won’t regret it, but be balanced about it. Tunnel is super-addictive ‘cos its productive and SO MUCH FUN.

The Tunnel Camp

This is not a profit-making project – it is a project to make affordable tunnel camps for South African skydivers to enjoy their skydiving more with better skills. We have as much fun running them as you (hopefully) do participating so we just try to cover most of our costs to keep them sustainable.

If you have part of a 4-way, the coaches can fly the missing slots with you or – if there are similar level jumpers on the camp -we can pair you up into 4-way with each other if everyone is happy with the group.

Basic Schedule

Tunnel camps take a surprising amount of time. You can expect to do about 15minutes each of flying in an hour session, and about 30min to 1 hour brief before that slot and the same for debrief and recuperation after.  Add in meal times and you actually run out of day fast – even for a fit, returning camper.

We aim for about 1 hour of air time per camper per day for the first time campers. The tunnel will show you muscles you never knew existed – and will then pulverise them – so this sounds easier than it is for most people.

We are strictly bound to our booking times and briefing and debriefing time is imperative for productive sessions, so everything is easy going except the agreed meeting times, which are important. Of course, we’ll eagerly use up your airtime if you don’t pitch up by start time – we’re great that way!!! 

Why Prague

Czech is quite affordable for South Africans – much cheaper than other parts of Europe or the UK. We eat out most evenings, but nobody is obliged to join us. There is a big shopping mall next door to the tunnel, so if you don’t want to eat at the tunnel restaurant (not astronomical for a restaurant, but still restaurant prices, so not cheap) you have easy access to affordable food. We suggest stocking up on snacks and fluids to keep energy levels up throughout the day. Fun gets sweaty!

For more information, contact: Dirk Venter or Claire King

June/July (JSC): FS Skills camp and Cat 3 Day. We bring an FS coaching team of some of our country’s top FS flyers to JSC to assist you with Cat 3 readiness assessment, skilling up and a day dedicated to Cat 3 jumps with these coaches as your base.

September long w/e: Shake the Bag. As spring arrives, so does our excitement for a new season of jumping, teams, competition and discovered talent. Join us for a coached meet-and-greet skills camp aimed at forming new teams and introducing jumpers to the wonderful world of 4-way. Nothing short of an onslaught of coaches and as many motivated FS jumpers we can find. Shake the bag of FS and see what falls out – it could be your next gold medalling 4-way team that you just hadn’t met yet.

September/October: SASL Season V Begins. Join from month 1 to get the best chance of amazing prizes for 3 fun skydives a month.

3-5 October: PSC’s 50^th Birthday Bash. Besides all the other exciting things PSC is planning, some groovy invitational FS jumps are lined up and we’ll dig deep into our box of FS tricks to bring you great FS action all weekend.  Watch the lists and groups as PSC reveal the details.  This is going to be a cracker and FS will be there in force!

November: Money Meet. So much fun last time! This year – in addition to the cash prize for the winners - funds raised will be used for renovating our FS 4-Way Open trophy, which is in dire need of repair after many years of service. Our only concern for this one is matching the success of the last one.

February (Bloem): Skydive Central Skills Camp and Mini Meet. Once you mix Skydive Central, skills camp and mini-meet, you pretty much need no more convincing. Our team of FS coaches are planning to descend on Bloem again and this time we’re hoping to add a little mini-meet to the mix with a SASL draw to get novice-senior combinations into the air and grappling for glory. Bloem teams, this is hopefully your Nationals “Prepper” as you get the next group of Central teams ready for Nationals 2014.

March (Robertson): Robertson Rumble. OK so this wasn’t even our idea, but after many years of ROARING Robertson Rumbles (believe us – it’s so much fun, we pretty much drop everything to be at this every year), we would like contribute something to this wonderful FS event put on by Skydive Robertson. The FS committee will ensure at least one coach and at least one judge will be there this year to support this meet. Big screens, live system scoring, coaching, competing and whatever else the FS Committee can add to this already epic event.

16 way Sequential Invitational – as soon as we have the lift and the DZ, we’ll invite our top FS jumpers for a day of challenging, quality, sequential 16-ways with other top FS jumpers in the country. 

Let us know

If it isn’t on this list, it doesn’t mean it can’t happen. Tell us what you need and we’ll do what we can to assist.  Let’s make 2013 another FS cooker!

The SSA FS Committee
Claire King
Ian van den Berge
Chris Badenhorst

Each evening will be hosted by one of the SSA disciplines, who will cover a variety of topics and activities. If you’d like to hear about something specific, let the committee know. Otherwise, come along for a sociable evening with friends to talk skydiving, learn something new and perhaps share something useful.

Join us afterwards in the Icarus bar (to hear the real stories and talk rubbish together).

Scheduled dates below – check back on the PASA events calendar for updates.

A number of awards and trophies are presented by the Aero Club at their Annual Awards dinner, usually held in November. All sections of the Aero Club are invited to nominate recipients for Aero Club Silver Wings and Aero Club Gold Wings awards. These are very prestigious awards and nominees must have had a noteworthy impact on their respective sports, and on a national basis.

PASA has a panel, comprising previous winners of the Aero Club Gold Wings award, who consider all nominations received and put forward to the Aero Club those that meet or exceed the following criteria:

• The awards are to be respected for the prestigious accolade that they are.
• The Aero Club is a national body - these awards are intended to be bestowed upon people who have had an impact on the sport on a national basis (not just at one local drop zone).
• Only people who have been nominated by members from more than one drop zone around the country will be considered for the awards.
• Nominations for Gold Wings must be people who have been a force within the sport and on a national basis for a period of at least 10 continuous years.
• Nominations for Silver Wings are for people who have been a force within the sport for at least 5 continuous years and have provided exceptional service or run exceptional projects during that time.

With the above criteria in mind, we ask for nominations for the 2013 Aero Club Gold Wings and Aero Club Silver Wings awards. Nominations must be accompanied by an explanation outlining why you believe this person deserves the award and highlighting their achievements/service. Email nominations or fax to 021-553-3398. Please ensure that the person you wish to nominate fulfils all the criteria listed above. Nominations for people who do not meet the criteria and/or are not accompanied by an explanation cannot be considered.

Nominations will be accepted until close of business on Friday, 26 July 2013. All nominations will be considered by the panel, consisting of Peter Lawson, Manuel Cordeiro, Mark Bellingan, Hugh Newman, Nigel Peart, Chris Dales, Peter Mauchan and André le Roux. They will put the final name/s of those meeting or exceeding the above criteria forward to the Aero Club.

Thank you to all the members who made use of the online membership renewal system. We trust you found it as user-friendly as we’d intended. Further upgrades will follow and, in time, we hope to have rating renewals and new licence/rating applications online too.

2013/14 membership cards have been posted directly to members’ postal addresses. If you have not received yours, please notify the admin office.

Gmail users please note

Members with gmail email addresses are urged to add admin@para.co.za to their whitelist as it seems many of the renewal emails ended up in gmail spam folders.

PASA MOPs

We have spare copies of the PASA Manual of Procedures available for members to order. These are A5 copies, punched and ready to insert into a ring binder. Cost: R60, including normal postage. Email the admin office to place an order. 

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