Voodoo 8-way Team Prepares for Skydiving World Championships

The team, consisting of Dave Sumter, Colin Rothman, Dennis Parker, Brett Shaw, Emile van den Berg, Bailey Edmunds, Paul Leslie Smith, and myself, with Erik Vliegenthart on camera, has approximately 30,000 jumps and 160 years of combined skydiving experience. Six members of the team were in the Voodoo Project 8-way team that went to the World Championships in France, in 2008, so we had a great base to work from. In preparation for the big event, we arranged a week of jumping training in Spain, in September.

 

Empuriabrava Skydiving Centre, Spain

Empuriabrava is the largest skydiving centre in Europe. It operates two aircraft every day and brings in additional planes for events. The facilities are great with large packing and dirt diving areas, team rooms for analysing video footage and debriefings, and easy access to world-class coaches. We chose Empuriabrava for our training camp for several reasons. Firstly, the centre operates a Twin Otter aircraft, which is the same type of plane being used for the Skydiving World Championships in Dubai. Secondly, the weather conditions are usually good for skydiving so it's possible to do as many jumps as you like. Thirdly, for its logistics. And lastly, its social appeal. This drop zone has been a favourite destination for South African skydivers for many years, so we know where to stay, eat and buy food, and it also helps having a good network of friends there.

 

Team dynamics

As Colin was unable to attend the 8-way camp due to work commitments, we asked Ivan Coufal to fill his slot in the team. Ivan grew up in South Africa and started skydiving here. He then moved to Spain in his twenties and became part owner of Empuriabrava Skydiving Centre. His is a real skydiving success story!

 

We travelled to Spain with two parachute harnesses each, so that we could do 'back to back' loads in the plane. This means you can board the plane as soon as it lands, rather than waiting for the parachute to be repacked. Travelling with skydiving equipment is always nerve-wracking as most airlines do not allow you to take it on as hand luggage, and there is always the risk that it does not arrive. Bailey experienced this firsthand as his luggage was delayed in Dubai, so he spent the first day jumping with a borrowed jumpsuit and parachute.

 

Coaching

Pete Allum helped us with coaching for the camp. Although he is a specialised 4-way coach he was able to help us out with the engineering of the jumps and general team coordination. With 8-way skydives there are always a few different ways that you can plan each jump. The problem comes in when all eight members of the team contribute to that planning - which can take hours.

 

A coach takes over all of this planning and is able to clearly see the best angles for the formation builds. ‘Herding cats’ is the description that comes to mind when trying to organise eight skydivers. Pete would have a plan for the day and give everyone timings of when to be there and what he or she needed to do.

 

The most visible improvement Pete helped us with was the ‘exits’ from the plane. The Twin Otter has a big door so it is possible for all eight people to hold onto each other when leaving the plane. The difficult part is getting the team members to skydive in their own space and on the same level as the rest of the team. Pete was not able to make the first day of our camp as he was in Italy coaching another team, so we worked hard on the exits on our own. Within minutes of watching our video footage Pete identified a couple of seemingly small improvements that fixed the exits for the rest of the camp.

 

A typical training day

 

07h00: Wake up

Head to the drop zone via the supermarket for lunch supplies, grabbing a ‘Café con leche’ on the way.

 

08h15: Planning jumps

We all meet at the skydiving centre for a 'dirt diving' session, and then plan three different skydives for the first jumping session. To get a realistic view of each skydive, ‘dirt diving’ is practising the sequence of the formations on creepers (rather like large skateboards). This is physically quite hard, uncomfortable work and we aim to be as efficient as possible on the creepers. As soon as the creeping is done, we stretch, prepare our equipment and get kitted up for the jumps.

 

09h00: Take off

We climb into the plane, and as it climbs to 13,000ft we spend the plane ride visualising the jump as some of the 8-way jumps are quite complicated and every jump requires concentration. The Twin Otter takes 24 skydivers at a time and there would often be one or two 4-way teams, the 8-way, fun jumpers, and a tandem or two. All the teams are visualising their jump, so they tend to be quiet. However, the fun jumpers and tandem passengers are in the plane to have fun and understandably want to chat, laugh and even sing. This can be quite distracting when you are desperately trying to remember your own jump.

 

On a jump run a series of lights indicate the exit point and we climb out of the aircraft. For an 8-way, we have five jumpers and the cameraman outside the aircraft and three inside the door. Our goal is to have all nine leave together and transition smoothly into the jump sequence. We have a timed exit 'rock' to achieve this. After the jump we use a specific landing order to ensure we land our parachutes next to the hanger as safely, but as quickly as possible. We take off one rig (parachute harness) and leave it for the packers, pick up a second rig, walk through the next skydive and then literally run to the waiting plane.

 

After three jumps we have approximately 40minutes to debrief the skydives by watching the video footage and identify improvements so they can be repeated, or prepare another three jumps for the next cycle.

 

On a perfect weather day we would land our twelfth jump at around 16h00, and then meet for a detailed debriefing session in which each jump is watched, dissected and discussed. We will also look at areas of improvement and points to remember for the next block or formation.

 

17h00: All done for the day

Different teams have different regimes for the end of their day. Although we are disciplined, we use the time to remember that skydiving is fun and a training camp in Spain is a time to enjoy. So we'll have one or two beers at the Drop Zone bar and then head into town for dinner before heading back to our rooms for an early night.

 

After six days of training we managed to do 52 jumps, despite some bad weather. Bailey did his 1,000th skydive and was treated to the traditional cream pie in the face celebration. The quality of the skydives was higher than expected, leaving the team very motivated and looking towards the world champs.

 

What next?

Inspired by some great skydiving during the jump camp, Voodoo8 had an additional wind tunnel training camp at Bodyflight Bedford in mid October. The five-and-a-half hours of flying in the wind tunnel gave us the opportunity to break down and practise the particular moves of each formation.

 

In addition to the camps, personal training and preparation needs to be done by each team member as it's really important that everyone maintains or improves their personal fitness levels, incorporating cardiovascular and strength training. Some of the faster-falling team members will also be looking to lose some weight, to make it easier to free fall at the same speed as the rest of the team.

 

Skydiving is 'mind work' and remembering the intricacies of each skydive is one of the major hurdles to overcome. Therefore, it's critical that everyone spends time visualising the different skydives and thinking about their moves in each jump. At the time of going to print Team Voodoo was in a good place heading into the world championship in November, in Dubai.

 

dinFO:

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