"Tim Mace started skydiving in 1977, and has 8100 jumps. In that time he has competed as a performer in every IPC discipline at World Championship level. He is probably the first person to do this in modern times when so many disciplines are active. He has competed in more than 150 competitions, including 23 First Category Events in which he has obtained 6 medals and placed in the top-ten 16 times. He competed in FAI World Championships in Formation Skydiving in Yugoslavia 1985 and Spain 1989, Freefly and Freestyle in France 2003, Freefall Style and Accuracy Landing in Croatia 2004, Skysurfing in Germany 2006, Paraski in Montenegro 2005, Italy 2007, Austria 2009 and 2011, and Canopy Piloting in Russia 2010. Tim is joint holder of the current 400 person FAI Formation Skydiving Large Formation World Record, and has been on two previous FAI Large Formation records (282 Thailand 1999, 357 Thailand 2004). Tim was also on the team that set the 16-way Formation Skydiving Sequential 12 point World Record in France in 1998.

A Facebook tribute page has been created for Tim.

Memorials are being arranged around the world. Details will be posted on the PASA website once available.

A moment later Jonathan’s body wavered in the air, shimmering, and began to go transparent. “Don’t let them spread silly rumors about me, or make me a god. O.K., Fletch? I’m a seagull. I like to fly, maybe…”

~ Richard Bach, Jonathan Livingstone Seagull

Becoming an AFF in South Africa does not happen overnight. You need to be fully committed. It takes many skydives, currency, 4 way training and years of coaching.

My commitment at PSC has always been 100 percent – it is there that I have been a Jumpmaster, done ISP coaching, helped AFF instructors on the ground with students and attended as many AFF ground courses as I could. I have also made an annual pilgrimage to Florida’s Skydive University and Orlando for wind tunnel coaching by Robert Chromy.

Mike Teague, my CI, has been my mentor and teacher since I started skydiving, through to becoming a jumpmaster and finally, until he prepared me to become AFF instructor. This has been a long journey and I thank Mike for being a great teacher and for all he has done (and continues to do) for me.

James Meyer has always been my AFF instructor mentor. Being around him at PSC over the years has taught me a lot.

For my AFF evaluation and all I learned, I would like to thank NSTO, Mark Bellingan, my CI, Mike Teague, James Meyer, Graham Field and Paul “Simba” Marcellin.

My special thanks to Peter Lawson, PSC drop zone operator and all round great legend of our sport.

Jimmy Parrella, AI85

By Bev Cosslett

JSC in conjunction with the SSA hosted a junior formation skydiving skills camp on 2 August 2014.

The interest in the camp was overwhelming which showed us that there is a desperate need for more camps to be held on a regular basis. We limited the number of participants to 12, so we could make up 3 teams for the day. Each team had one senior jumper who took the teams through their paces.

The day started with an hour’s worth of theory, covering all basics from team dynamics to definitions of slots. Once the skydivers had been allocated into teams based on fall rate, they were allocated slots for the day and started getting one on one coaching in terms of exits and basic 4 way flying rules. Each team completed 4 jumps each on the day and the level of progress increased on every jump. By the end of the day the teams had all waxed linked exits and managed to turn some points.

This kind of skill development is invaluable in bringing new jumpers into competitive skydiving and providing an opportunity to see what can be achieved in a short space of time. We are aiming to get some more teams to enter the National Championships and continue to grow and develop formations skydiving in South Africa.

by Alex Jordaan 

As I write this I am sitting at JFK International airport in New York waiting to board my flight to the Czech Republic for the start of our World Championships adventure. It’s been a frantic few months leading up to this and, barring any surprises, we have everything covered.

After we won nationals in April, the team that consists of Alex Jordaan (myself), Amy Kirtland, Andre Van Heerden, Bailey Edmunds and Warren Hitchcock got together to discuss going to the World Meet in Prostejov in the Czech Republic in August 2014. We had mixed emotions since we had not done much training and our performance level was nowhere near that of Voodoo, the previous national team. We also would have no opportunity to do any training together before the meet so we were faced with a tough decision. International competition experience is valuable and since SAVOLO intends to stick together for another couple of seasons, that ultimately played a big part in our decision to go. Team history and experience will benefit us down the road and will be critical in us reaching our goals.

Amy is currently busy with her MBA and as a result of her schedule is not able to get to Czech until the eve before the competition starts. We decided to do a week of training in Czech anyway under the guidance of Pete Allum who will be coaching us as well as filling Amy’s empty slot and flying Point for us. The team will make the 3.5 hour journey back to Prague the night before the meet to meet Amy and do an hour in the wind tunnel just to get our team flow on a bit and replace Amy’s MBA stuff in her brain with 4-way stuff. Then we head back to Prostejov in the early hours of the morning ready for the meet. It’s not ideal by any means but it’s what we can do and we are South Africans after all so we embrace challenges.

There are only 22 4-Way teams registered as opposed to 38 that participated at the 2014 World Meet in Dubai. The field is strong all the way to the bottom and the competition is going to be extremely tough. We are training and attempting to elevate our performance level by a couple of points and make our presence known.

Besides arranging the training camp we have been extremely busy behind the scenes talking to gear manufacturers, corporates, small companies and basically anyone who will listen to see if we can garner some support for our future plans. We have been extremely fortunate and a number of gear manufacturers were extremely generous and we are proud to be supported by UPT with our new Vector 3 containers, Vigil for our AAD’s, Cookie Composites for our helmets and Investec came on board and gave us some financial assistance for the actual competition registration fees. We have started to build excellent, valuable and meaningful relationships with various sponsors and we are extremely grateful for all the support that they are giving us.

Bailey and Warren have been jumping regularly back in SA, albeit doing tandems and boogies but they are staying in the air so should be ready for the training camp. Andre has been training with a team in the US and has done a number of outdoor and indoor camps so is current and ready. He has been flying in Outside Centre on his US team and flies in the Inside Centre position on SAVOLO but he will adapt to the change quickly and should be performing at full speed by the end of our training camp. I have been doing some tunnel coaching as well as some outdoor coaching to keep current. I am also jumping on a team based in New York and will be joining Andre at the US nationals immediately upon our return from Czech. I’m flying the Inside Centre position while I am Outside Centre on SAVOLO but the change of perspective has been great for me and I feel really good about my mental preparation. We just need to get to Czech and get in the air. We are training for 5 days and will hopefully get 50 jumps in.

Once the meet is over, we head back to Prague to assist Claire King and Dirk Venter with a tunnel camp for a week or so. We are very excited to pass on everything we are learning to everyone else and a tunnel camp directly after the world meet is the best opportunity to do this. There are a dozen or more campers from South African making the trip to Prague so it should be an excellent camp and we are very excited to be a part of it.

The meet in Prostejov in the Czech Republic is underway and a competition update will follow shortly. Our preparation went well and although the weather was pretty miserable for most of the week that we were here we managed to get 23 training jumps in. We had planned on doing 50 jumps for the week which was the number that we felt would get us to a comfortable place for the meet. The plan was to work on exits since the Let (the airplane that is being used in the competition) is slightly different to an Otter and very different to an Angel, and then to do a few draws and make refinements here and there. At this stage it is too late to make any major changes to techniques so our coach Pete focused on the softer skills such as communication, timing, rhythm, good builds and all the finer points which we sometimes neglect in favour of drilling techniques. 3 rounds into the meet I can say that this was a valuable exercise.

We found that exiting the aircraft was much more difficult than we expected. There is a single bar on the outside of the plane and Outside Centre sometimes has a tough time to hold on and pick up grips, especially on Tail. The centre of gravity is just too far back and a proper launch is tough to achieve. We experimented with a few approaches and finally determined that some exits (such as an E) are best launched from inside the plane with OC standing close to the door and Point and IC quite far inside the plane. A lot of teams seem to be exiting like this. Some exits enable OC to be outside which Warren appreciates since the camera slot is pretty windy if there is no-one up front to break the air a bit. The Let has a lot more air than an Otter due either to run in speed or the prop wash or both so getting settled on the outside is somewhat of a delicate process.

Surprisingly we found that jumping with Pete yielded a few observations that we had not made before. With Amy in the team we always try and do the techniques which we have been coached. Pete allowed us to experience small changes to some of our techniques, some of which felt really nice. We subsequently explored these a bit further in the tunnel in Prague the eve before the competition and ended up making a couple of small changes here and there, despite my previous statements that technique training was over at this stage.

So we met Amy and Warren and Meggan at the wind tunnel in Prague on the eve of the 24th. They had all just flown from South Africa via various routes. Amy and Warren put on their best (tired) smiles and we jumped into the tunnel for four 15 minute sessions each. We did 4-way and Warren worked on his freeflying since we needed someone to rotate with us. As expected we were rusty as a team and we tried to go way too fast and it was pretty messy. This continued into the second session, despite our intention of slowing down and flying cleaner. We then did a full B slot session with Alex and Amy switching slots on the top pair and Andre and Bailey switching slots on the bottom pair. This was a very successful session and we felt a bit of rhythm finally starting to creep in. Our fourth and final session we were back in A slots and it went much better taking into account that everyone was pretty fatigued at this stage.

After the tunnel sessions we jumped onto the train and made the 3 hour journey to Prostejov. We arrive at about 04:00 in the morning, grabbed a few hours of sleep and were at the DZ by 09:00. The team had received brand new Vector containers from UPT and Amy and Warren had not yet jumped their new gear so we planned on doing a couple of jumps just to get familiar with the gear, the DZ and each other in the air. We ended up doing 3 jumps and then finishing early so that we could get a good night’s rest before the first round the next morning. We actually planned to do just 2 jumps but the final jump we funnelled the exit which was the first time it had happened so we repeated that exit one more time just to remove the doubt that it had sown. Success was had and training was done and it is time for the meet. 

The competition started out pretty wet and cloudy on August 26th, 2014. Despite a long day on the DZ waiting for the weather to clear the organisers were determined to get the competition underway so right at the end of the day we were rewarded and the airplanes were in the air and it was on. All teams completed round 1 and a few teams started on round 2 when it was finally ended for the day. It was good to be on the score board. We approached round 1 pretty conservatively and launched an E (Meeker) exit which flew pretty well. We kept it smooth and controlled and were satisfied when we landed. Some might say relieved. Round 1 is always a tense experience and while I don’t think we felt overly nervous there was definitely some dry mouth when we landed. That is after all why we love competition so much. We called it a day, excited for more of the same the following day.

We woke on day 2 of the meet to a message from the organisers that although the weather was clearing the grass runway was too waterlogged to allow the airplanes to take off. We remained on standby for a few hours at the hotel until we were finally released for the day. It was surreal to be outside in gorgeous weather and not be jumping.

Day 3 was much better and we managed to get 2 rounds in before being released for the rest of the day. We approached these 2 jumps in a similar manner to the first jump and were, for the most part, smooth and controlled. We did incur a deduction on round 2 due to a missed grip in the centre which caused the rest of the team to move on to the next point. This could have been avoided by slowing down a bit and making sure that the grips were there before picking them up. Competition urgency sometimes causes one to get a little too eager and we hoped that this would be a lesson for us and we would avoid similar penalties in future rounds.

The sun rose on day 4 to reveal a magnificent day, and we would finish the meet which meant completing between 5 and 7 rounds, depending on whether we made the semi-finals and finals and got to participate in round 9 and 10 respectively.

We exited an M (Star) on round 4 and due to the unfamiliarity of the airplane we had a glitch which caused Amy to sub-locate her shoulder and, as she would later learn once she was back in SA, tear the cartilage in her shoulder. We are not sure if she struck the airplane or if we just launched a poorly configured formation. We managed to salvage the exit even though at least 3 of the team members were upside down at one point. We also picked up a penalty later on in the jump due to a bit of eagerness and jumping the key. This jump would set the tone for the day and our lack of training together and the disadvantage of the new aircraft started to become apparent.

Amy is a badass and she sucked it up and that was the last we heard from her about her extremely painful shoulder.

Round 5 was an anomaly. We had a sketchy O exit but afterwards we seemed to have levels throughout the jump. This was hopefully going to be a great round for us since it was pretty fast but since I (Alex) was feeling particularly heavy this jump the precision was just not there and there were a number of times that we were almost on top of one another. This is quite unusual for us and seemed to be quite inexplicable. The result was that we did not take advantage of the faster sequence of the round and teams that were close to us easily outscored us.

Doubt was starting to creep in.

We seemed to start to get it back together in round 6. A somewhat successful 8 (Canadian Tee) exit and an ok jump. We felt good about it and smiles started creeping back in.

We opted for a safe P (Sidebody) exit on round 7 which again, inexplicably resulted in 4 bodies rolling around on top of one another. We have exited this formation many times and regard it as a safe, conservative option. The aircraft was quite different from anything we had previously jumped since the door was situated differently and the run in speed and prop wash was a lot faster than we were accustomed to. Add to this our lack of currency as a team together and the smallest errors manifested in the worst possible way. The remainder of the jump lacked our regular flow and although we all know to disregard the previous mishap and just to continue with the jump in our normal fashion we all seemed to be rushing a bit. Formations were wide and communication was low.

On round 8, which was our final competition jump, we tried an ambitious exit since we felt that we had nothing to lose and we all felt that we could pull it off. Our setup configuration in the door was unlike anything we have done before and it turned out that we would have been better off trying this in training at least once, since it was a challenging exit for Tail which ultimately resulted in Bailey getting stuck in the door and exiting last instead of first. The jump was ok, and we landed with smiles on our faces, not because we were super happy with our performance, but because we knew we had learned so much form the experience that was going to be very valuable later on. Plus we love jumping together and despite performance disappointments we have the best team in the world in our opinion.

After the meet we reviewed our approach and it turned out that most of the teams were taking a far more conservative approach to exits, either launching the same single exit on every jump or by taking cross grips or modifying the other exits to make them stronger. We also moved some of our exits entirely inside the airplane which certainly changed the dynamic of our exit, and the small changes which we felt that we could assimilate pretty easily proved to have large ramifications. These were all great learning experiences and overall we were happy with what we did. We made some decisions based on this going forward which will only make us stronger! More on this in part 4 :-)

Continuity is king. You can take 4 extremely good flyers and put them together in a team and that will not necessarily translate into a winning combination immediately. It took the Belgian team Hayabusa 12 years to win the 4-Way Formation Skydiving World Championships. At the recent USPA Nationals held in Chicago a team called AAARSpeed made up of 4 current and previous Arizona Airspeed members, all previous world champions came in 7th with an 18.4 average. Talent and experience are important. Continuity and training and currency together are more important. The previous South African National team and current British National team Voodoo are an excellent example of what a long period of time together can produce.

For that reason SAVOLO has taken the decision to keep the same team together as far as possible. It’s often tempting at the end of a season to go your separate ways and try and create a new team that might do more and do better. The smart move however is to keep the same team together and take advantage of the learning and experience that has already taken place and build on that. In our case this means making some sacrifices, specifically with regard to our timeline. Since the team member schedules have not lined up for the past couple of seasons it has been difficult to do much training. We have been sticking together though and attending nationals, going to competitions, doing the odd training camp here and there and basically just building some history together. Hopefully this will pay off.

So why are we doing this? We feel that SA formation skydiving needs to take a step forward, to get back to when we were a featured name in competitions. The rest of the world has collectively improved significantly over the last decade, largely through access to technology, and we want to finally bridge that gap. It’s an ambitious undertaking and requires a huge amount of dedication and almost certainly a fair amount of luck.

In order to achieve this we have to train. A lot. We have a lot of low hanging fruit we can pick that will bump us up a few points but then it’s a slow, hard slog for each point from then on. Probably between 100 and 150 jumps per single point average. So according to our math we need between 400 and 500 jumps and 30 to 40 hours of tunnel time, over a condensed period of time. Training is not restricted to jumping only and there is a lot that needs to be done in-between camps also.

Due to work and school schedules we can only start towards the end of next year. So that would mean cruise control for a bit while we each follow our own personal development plans. Then the team plan is to do 3 training camps of 100 jumps plus along with 3 tunnel camps between December 2015 and April 2016 all in Eloy, Arizona under the guidance of Thomas Hughes, so that we arrive at SA Nationals trained and ready. Then one more major training camp between nationals and the 2016 World Meet (assuming we win nationals of course) and that should put us in a good position to perform our best and achieve our goals. We will need to fit in a few competitions between now and then also.

It’s a bold plan. It’s 2 seasons of jumping condensed into one season and means about 3 months of jumping over a 6 month period. It’s semi-full time pretty much. It’s what is required to take SA skydiving back to where it was and it deserves such an attempt. If we fail at it then hopefully the next team coming through will pick up and build on what we learned. During this time we will pass back as much info and as much knowledge as we can to SA skydivers since there is no point in a single team working towards this and then leaving a void behind them. Our development plan will certainly be as important as our training plan because that’s how we as SAVOLO have always been and how we will always be.

Alex obo SAVOLO=

SAVOLO’s competition jumps can be viewed here. 

By Claire King

Early September saw the completion of another fantastic tunnel camp to Prague.  The group of 25 or so in total, started as 15 campers, 4 coaches, 4 patient partners and 1 baby on the way. 5 days later after 40 hours of tunnel, about 85 Becherovkas, 2 engagements and some ser-i-ous dance moves, this group of awesome flying humans left me on another post-tunnel-camp high.  What a privilege it is to enjoy the transformation of so many skydivers and watch the level and size of SA’s Formation Skydiving grow before our eyes in a matter of days.

And this is the joy of tunnel; from first-time flyers to repeat offenders and our incurably addicted regulars (you know who you are!), nobody escapes the tunnel unchanged.  Until I’m all grown up (I can dream), I have no idea when it stops being a transformation.  But so far, we all transform on every tunnel camp.  No exceptions. It’s simply marvellous.

This camp started gently as campers and coaches trickled in individually over a few days.  As usual, some arrived early to take in the beautiful city of Prague before the camp got started.  The coaches arrived last, all coming directly from the World Championships in Prostejov, Czech Republic.  By then most of the campers had found each other and started the serious business of approving the local beer (which really is that good). 

On day 1 we gathered in the hotel lobby to make our way to the tunnel together.  And the counting began.  This was our biggest camp yet and I am still not completely sure how many of us there were, but I have new respect for cat herders and nursery school teachers.  Lucky for me, nothing achieves focus in a skydiver like the prospect of airtime, so I soon realised that counting is unnecessary – anything lost will miraculously find its way to a wind tunnel before its next scheduled flight.

Tunnel is like a fatty-mirror.  It identifies your faults, magnifies them to life–size and slaps you in the face with them.  This painful and necessary part of learning is how we improve so fast in a tunnel.  You can’t hide from your weaknesses.  You can’t hide from your coach who continues to wave signals and corrections at you.  Fortunately, by the time you’ve gathered sufficient skills to foxtrot across the tunnel to punch your coach in the nose, you’ve also begun to notice significant enough improvement in your flying to tolerate their constant haggling and settle for a small group voodoo ritual with the other campers after hours.  Once again, however, good fortune saves the coaches from certain voodoo death that evening: For those campers who are not too exhausted to bother with fire and dolls, find themselves distracted by beer and Becherovka, the hellish local Czech spirit that I can only associate with burning insides, hangovers and absurd social media photographs.

The skills curriculum for first time campers covers general formation skydiving movements, teaching campers efficient FS body positions and techniques for each. These are individual skills.  They form the basis of your entire skydiving career and support every form of skydiving you pursue – from 4-way competition to big way records to hanging out with friends in the sky.  It’s good to have fun but it’s much, much more fun when you’re good and these basic skills make you more fun in the sky equipping you to actually do what you envisioned for your jump.

These skills are revisited with returning campers too, reinforcing good muscle memory and adding nuance, power, precision, finesse, additional tricks and tools to your existing skill set as you develop.  As one level or dimension of a skill becomes more instinctive to you, you add the next level or dimension.  It is a continuous path of challenge and as experienced flyers you continue this iterative pattern of reinforcement and addition.

The learning process is infinite but our budgets, sadly, are not.  So we seek the right balance for each camper, between their personal ability, progress, camp goals, motivation/energy level and available air time.  Based on these and their feedback, they’ll move on to 2-ways, 3-ways and 4-ways with coaches and other campers.  Most of all we try to keep it interesting, challenging and fun.  Every task we give them has been carefully planned (late at night, when you’re postponing the building of the afore-mentioned voodoo doll for an extra hour of blessed sleep).

Day 2 of this camp found everyone fresh & keen; as day one started late and more campers allowed good breaks between sessions.  We continued with individual skills for most while the more advanced flyers focused on skills and drills geared for their 4-way slots.  As the camp progressed, so each camper moved at their own pace toward their personal camp goals, working on their flying skills in the relevant context for them - Cat II FS coach ratings, 4-way, competition, even licence and boogie readiness (yep – tunnel even gets you to those beach landings faster).

By day 4, everyone was beaten into submission.  Tunnel gluttony had taken its toll on energy levels (who ever said no to a 2-way invitation? Nobody, ever, that’s who) but the frustration of day 1 for some, and hump day 3 for others, had been replaced by a certain confidence in their own abilities and determination to achieve the tougher challenges before home time.  This stage inspires such pride and happiness in us as coaches, as campers finally start to notice the scale of transformation they have achieved. This keeps me coming back and makes it worth every ounce of time energy and expense.  Skydiving is about so many things for a coach.  For this coach, sharing, teaching, learning and developing together with friends is perhaps the biggest (Ok, it’s a close second – I like being coached even more ;)).

The camp finished off with a 2-way meet to put skills to good use, reminding everyone (coaches and campers) that no matter how well we fly, a brain meltdown is still the ultimate destroyer.

The adventures will fill Facebook posts for months (what happens in Prague does not, in fact, stay in Prague), the new friendships and teams will last for years, but the skills you learn on your first structured tunnel camp will change your skydiving forever.

Getting a piece of the action

We believe there is only one rule of tunnel: always get a coach who specialises in the skill you want to develop.  We run regular camps with the overarching goal of affordable development for South African FS jumpers and we generally plan them around an existing trip to manage the costs.  But there are many tunnels, many camps and many coaches out there for every budget and experience level.  If you find yourself near a tunnel or an opportunity arises, get a coach.  And if you don’t know who or how, contact us and we will help you find someone appropriate there. 

For more information on getting onto a tunnel camp, contact the SSA FS Committee.

Chris Teague and Jean-Jacques Wallis will be representing South Africa at the 5th FAI World Canopy Piloting Championships being held at Skydive City, Zephyrhills, Florida from 1 to 7 November 2014. Join us in wishing them safe, fast and long swoops.

Results will be available here once the competition has started. 

The World POPS Meet and Championships is a meeting of POPS from all over the world. Previous meets having been held in Australia, USA (Florida), Spain, Jordan, Canada, New Zealand, Switzerland, USA (Arizona), Italy, the Netherlands and now, for the first time, in South America.

The World POPS Meet and Championships are an unofficial World Championships for POPs and SOS in six disciplines. In addition the 3rd Encuentro de los Siglos will take place. This is the most important meeting for Parachutists over 40 years of age in Latin America.

• FS 4 way National Teams
• FS 4 way Scrambles
• FS 8 way Speed star
• Classic Accuracy
• Sport Accuracy
• Hit & Rock

All competitors must be members of their National POPS organisation. Proof of such membership will be required; either by a membership card or confirmation (in person or in writing) from the respective National Top POP.

For more information visit the website.

The weekend of 28 – 30 November, sees the 6th annual tonto Boogie being held at JSC, in honour of the late Eric “tonto” Stephenson, who passed away in October 2007. As he was a pioneer in the development of wingsuit flying in South Africa, the main event of the boogie will be wingsuit flying in all its different shapes and forms, although all other disciplines will be catered for as well.

This year, we’d like to get going as early as possible on the Friday (28 Nov) in order to get a proper boogie vibe going, and loads will be available from early morning, depending on demand.

As always, Taya Weiss will be load organising and this year the focus will be on developing solo skills/progression as well as presenting opportunities for more advanced wingsuit flyers. These will include: XRW, Artistic Wingsuit Flying (ACRO), 4 way Wingsuit Sequentials as well as a possible attempt at setting a new SA large wingsuit formation record.

To get as many as possible new wingsuit flyers involved, a wingsuit first flight course will be held at JSC in October. Persons interested in attending this should contact the SSA WS committee for more info (see MOPs for minimum requirements).

Squirrel will once again sponsor some generous prizes (last year they gave away a 50% and 20% off vouchers for a new Squirrel Wingsuit!)

This promises to be a hugely entertaining event with lots of quality skydives from various disciplines! Bruce and Tammy will be providing live entertainment for a legendary after-party in the bar on the Saturday evening.

The National Champs for accuracy landing for 2015 (under the portfolio of SAP (Style, Accuracy and Paraski)) is being held on the main beach at Jeffreys Bay, immediately ahead of the start of the J-Bay Boogie in December this year.

For the first time in many years we are taking a competition right out into the public domain and not hiding away at some dusty DZ.

In effect we are offering you – yes YOU! – the possibility to become a hero, a medaller, a national champion (or a super pipe) in front of an adoring crowd on one of the most iconic beaches of the entire surfing world.

Can you possibly say no?

More information will follow in the weeks ahead, but for now please note these key details:

1/ Eligibility

This competition is open to:

• All B-licence and above
• All A-licence with a signed approval from your CI

2/ Dates

• 18 and 19 December – immediately ahead of the Boogie start
• (reserve day is 20 December)

3/ Equipment

• You do NOT need a specialist accuracy canopy to compete
  [With my own eyes I have seen international competitors using student canopies (e.g. Skymaster) at world champ events. (they did not win, but they hit the target)]

• Speak to your club equipment officer about borrowing / hiring a student canopy so that you can participate in this fun event. 230 sqf and up will be good.

4/ Price

• Registration Fee for the event is R500.00. This includes:
  • FREE registration to the J-Bay Boogie
  • T-shirt
  • Prize giving
  • Immense prestige
• Jumps: R 199.00 each
  • Intention is to run the comp over 10 rounds
  • Depending on attendance we may have a cut at Rd 6 and Rd 8
  • You will only pay for the jumps that you do
  • Exit altitude 2500’ – 3000’

5/ Aircraft

• The Boogie organisers are arranging 2x C182s for this event (2x if required)
• These aircraft are perfect to lift us to accuracy altitude above the beach in quick time

6/ Showcasing the sport

This is a superb opportunity to showcase our sport

To the crowds on the beach it is effectively multiple demo jumps which for them is intriguing and exciting. The landings are soft and controlled and this is attractive to non-jumpers who get a feeling of confidence that they can participate in the sport.

In addition accuracy comp is intuitive to understand and therefore crowd participation in the scoring can be expected.

The more participation we can have at an event like this, the more fun we all have and the more interest we develop in our sport. It is for this specific reason that we decided to run the comp at this exciting venue

It is looking good that we will have at least one mainstream sponsor to back the event

Feedback:
Please email to Simba if:

1. You have any questions at all

AND

2. If you intend to register for the event.
    [By dropping us a mail we will get a feel of the logistical requirements]

Rock ‘n roll!!

SAP Committee

‘Twas the night before Christmas when all up the coast,
Jumpers were pondering what they’ve enjoyed most.
The 4-ways or 6 ways, the 8s, 9s or 10s?
The free FS coaching or zoo loads with friends?
The freefly the wingsuits, the wicked beach landing?
The parties that seldom leave anyone standing?

Its then that they saw it’s too soon to decide.
 Because Christmas is only halfway through this ride!
From 20 December to January 4
You’ll get what you’re craving and most likely, more.
Come Cessna’s come PAC, come one and come all.
Join us and answer this skydivers’ call.

Skydivers country-wide – along with a few imports - are gearing-up for another J-Bay jaunt and there is no reason to believe it will be anything less than EPIC. Year by year, EP Skydivers builds on this Boogie – the Boogie that sponsors coaching, prioritises sports and development, and now is even hosting Accuracy Nationals ON THE BEACH as pre-Boogie Cocktails! Seriously, EP – it just gets better and better.

What: The J-Bay Boogie

When: 20th Dec to 4th Jan with Accuracy Nationals on 18th-19th December as a Boogie Warm-up (Registration fee covers both events!!)

Where: The beautiful Paradise Beach in Jeffreys Bay – yep, even Accuracy Nationals will be on the beach.

Who: YOU, of course, and our ridiculously fun hosts, EP Skydivers

Contact: James (Boogie details) / Claire (FS at the boogie)

Come and experience the unparalleled hospitality of EP Skydivers at their notoriously wicked annual beach boogie.

From December 21st, Dirk Venter & Claire King, joined by Bailey Edmunds, will be at your beck and call as FS coaches and load organisers. EP will again be covering all the FS coaches’ slots (like you need more reasons than 2 weeks of jumps, beach, sun and parties). We’re on a Formation Skydiving Binge, and we want you to join us. A PAC 750XL will be flying and we’re going to fill it with FS! Yes. Again.

Whether you’re after 2-ways or 12-ways, novelty sequences, coaching or some competition, come out to J-Bay and show yourself. We want to fly with you all!

We can jump with you or assist you on the ground.

We’re calling on PASA jumpers from all levels, goals and interest groups to come and show us what South African skydiving is about at The FS Boogie of the South African Skydiving Calendar.

https://www.facebook.com/events/1504240289833348/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular#

Some of last year’s JBay boogie here and here

Suppliers & Manufactures of fine Skydiving Equipment

Need Skydiving Gear?
New or Second Hand
Reserve repacks and repairs

Accessories:

Jumpsuits, Parabags, Packing mats, Helmet Bags,
Altimeters - Wrist mount & Audible, Helmets,
Hook Knives, Goggles, Skydiving Videos/DVD's, Skydiving T-Shirts

Visit our Shop

138 - 7th Ave
Edenvale
Gauteng

Contact: Manuel Cordeiro

Website: www.icarus.co.za

Email: manny@icarus.co.za or icarusaw@global.co.za

Telephone: 011-452-8858 / 083-252-8720

No sh!t, there I was, PASA Renewal time, hastily ticking my discipline boxes to get legal by Saturday. I know what I like to do – or to be more honest, I know what I’d like to be able to do (my “aspirations to skills” ratio leans heavily toward “aspirations”), so the job is easy and before I can say “Dibs on first load”, my renewal is complete.

But what have I done? In principle, I’ve just allocated my money somewhere. I have told the SSA to spend my SSA fees on disciplines XX (eXceptionaleXits) and PP (Perfect Phlying). In reality I seem to be getting something very different. Returning to my unfortunate “aspirations to skills” ratio, I am terrible at XX and I look forward to improving at the next SSA skills camp.

These are just examples.  The point is, are you ticking for the right reasons and are you benefitting from those ticks?

• What are you getting for your money (every tick is money awarded)?
• Does you discipline committee actually do anything? 
• Are you supporting your committee by evaluating their actions, reading their reports and feeding back to them so they know if they are doing a good job or not and if not, where they need to improve? They volunteered to do the job but deserve your support and feedback on their initiatives.
• Are you assisting a good committee by funding jobs well done or enabling a lazy discipline committee to kill your discipline by doing nothing and demanding nothing of the committee, all the while sending funds their way?
• Are you actively voting in a committee or just relieved it isn’t you?
• Is your committee making an effort? Are they raising additional funds or finding alternative ways to grow and develop your discipline (fund raisers, low/no cost events, DZ support)?  Or are they complaining that there is not enough money to do anything so the “plan” is to carry the funds over to the following year? Not good enough. The committees are obliged to spend their development budget in the discipline. This isn’t a retirement fund; it’s a development fund. Spend it before it appears you don’t need it and it gets allocated elsewhere.

Don’t be that lethargic bystander who doesn’t care. You’re a member of a beautiful, exciting sport run by a community of passionate volunteers. You’re obliged to do your part to make it work.

Your elected SSA committees have provided the following mid-term feedback reports to keep you informed of how they have been using your funds to develop your preferred discipline/s. The left hand column in each case indicates their original plans in April 2014 while the right hand columns represent actual activity in the past 6 months. We have included mainly the skills development activities here. Committees will present comprehensive feedback for their terms of office at the AGM in the first quarter of 2015.

Members are reminded that you may amend your preferred discipline/s at any time during the year.

Send an email to the admin office to notify them and your preferences will be updated.

PLANNED

ACTUAL

Skills Development Activities

• R5 600 brought forward from the previous financial year for a skills camp in Rustenburg. Due to increased slot rates and lower than expected costs in other areas, the previous committee allocated additional funds to this camp so that 2-on-2 coaching is possible on the 4-ways. An additional R780 is allocated to cover increased slot rates. Total R6 380

• R5 600 spent on Rustenburg skills camp April 2014.

• R6 750 brought forward from the previous financial year for the Novice Team Subsidy. Awarded in March 2014 and earmarked for payment after Nationals 2014 to those teams who abide by the subsidy agreement. An additional R210 is allocated to cover increased slot rates. Total R6 960

• No suitable teams were identified and this will carry over to the 2015 Nationals.

• R6 960 for the Novice Team Subsidy. Awarded in March 2015 and earmarked for payment after Nationals 2015 to those teams who abide by the subsidy agreement.

• After 2015 Nationals.

• R6 960 for Shake-The-Bag event combined with a 4-way skills camp to be held at JSC. This is a skills weekend aimed primarily at novice and intermediate 4-way flyers who are looking to meet and greet other FS flyers to form new teams with. It will be held a couple of months after Nationals when budgets have recovered and FS flyers are motivated to start planning and training for the new season. The funds will be put toward coach slots on the lower-experience teams who still need senior FS flyers for productive 4-way but are ready to start competing and looking for team mates. Coaches will coach, jump where necessary and assist with matching and introducing FS flyers appropriately.

• Planned for end September or October 2014.

• R2 900 for a Large Formation Skills Camp at JSC to add specific and general big way techniques (think 50-way and bigger) to the skills set of all levels of FS flyers. The large formation will not actually be formed but the skills will be taught and practised in a simulated and realistic environment given the aircraft and altitude limitations.

• R3 360 spent on 4-way novice skills camp @ JSC instead of big way.

• FS Cat III days – self -funded. We will offer and organise an experienced Cat III base of senior, current FS flyers for Cat III attempts, on request and subject to support. The student will cover the base’s slots, an expense we found they are happy to do for the guarantee of skills and reliable base.

• On-going. As required by members. No funds needed.

• C-Licence 8-Way days - self-funded. The FS Committee will organise 8-ways for ready FS flyers who need the C-Licence requirements on request and subject to support. The system of an experienced base to fly and coach during the day and rotating docking positions for participants will be used again. Participants will cover the costs of the coaches’ slots. 

• On-going. As required by members. No funds needed.

• R3 500 for a Money Meet early 2015 with prize money, Both 2-way and 4-way will be included and all experience levels will be catered for, live judging and a prize giving at the end of the weekend. This may leverage off or be combined with SASL. DZ to be confirmed.

• Planned early 2015. 

• Remaining funds to be allocated to ad hoc events as opportunities present themselves during the year.

• R1 620 paid for 4-way novice skills camp at PSC. Another 4-way novice skills camp planned for Witbank during Oct/Nov. Estimated spend R3360.

Sponsorships

• SASL Sponsorship R3000 – FS has a long term strategy to partner with SASL in building competitive formation skydiving, increasing competition opportunity and growing the discipline.

• The SASL is taking a break so these funds will be applied to other development.

PLANNED

ACTUAL

National Championships

R2 250 to be spent on Nationals.

R729 budgeted for medals assuming a full complement is used across all events.

No Nationals held for 2014.

Nationals 2015 being held in December 2014 - to be paid from 2015 funds.

Medals used to be replaced to ensure full complement for 2016 Nationals - to be paid from 2015 funds.

PLANNED

ACTUAL

Equipment

• Depending on discount and foreign exchange rate, the purchase of a 2nd Wingsuit to update the student large Wingsuit is planned.

• R500 is budgeted for repairs, if needed.

• R5 803.49 paid for Squirrel suit.

• R130 spent on repairs.

Skills Development Activities

• At least 4 skills camps are planned for the year (tonto Boogie, Robertson, Xmas in July @ Rustenburg, J-bay Boogie). This may change, depending on where interest is shown. To include coaching slots and potential travel costs. Depending on the discount on the new Wingsuit we will be able to do more paid coaching slots and skills camps. If the new Large Wingsuit suit is too expensive to purchase this year, we will carry over at least 60% of the budgeted funds to the following year’s budget and thereby be able to buy a new Wingsuit in the 2015-2016 year.

• R1 000 paid for travel costs to send a coach to assist with skills camp at Rustenburg.

• R810 paid for a skills camp at Pretoria.

After 5 years of sustained awesomeness from competitors, sponsors, DZs, supporters and the SSA, the SA Skydiving League is taking a little sabbatical to regroup and recharge and will return with renewed verve and vitality for another season in a year or 2.

We hope you’ve enjoyed it as much as we have and hope our incredible sponsors have seen results from their generous support.  It has been such a rewarding project. Thank you all for making it so!

Hopefully it will inspire more regular competitions around South Africa while we’re taking a break. Keep competing and keep progressing – and when nothing is happening, make it happen!

And now we’re off to brew some fresh ideas and new projects.

Watch this space...

Game ON!
The SASL Committee

Allan Banfield, D182, has written an interesting photo essay about the road to SA’s first 10-man star which will be published as a serial over the next few issues of the Toggle Times.

Members interested in the history of SA Skydiving should check out the HOSAS Facebook page.

In the next issue... "The challenge is taken up in South Africa"

Members who recently applied for membership, new licences or ratings, please be aware that industrial action may result in postal delays of up to several weeks.

SAPO Press Release - 17 September 2014
Mail delivery in Gauteng and the Western Cape is delayed by unprotected industrial action at mail-sorting centres in Cape Town, Pretoria and the greater Johannesburg area. The SA Post Office estimates that mail in the Western Cape is delayed by roughly four working days, while mail in Gauteng is delayed by several weeks.
The delay in Gauteng is the result of a previous strike from which the production environment had not yet recovered from a previous strike.

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