World Parachuting Championships - Dubai Mondial 2012

In addition to the FAI events being contested, a demo event for Speed Skydiving (a non-FAI event) and Para-ski (FAI rules adapted to allow the skiing component to be completed on the indoor ski slope and the accuracy component on a flat surface) was added. This brought the total number of competitors in all events to almost 1,600!

 

After a rainy start (yip - to water the desert, just schedule a skydiving competition!), blue Dubai skies dominated a meet that was beyond description. There is so much to say about it that it cannot be condensed into a single article. And half of what we experienced under the hospitality of Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, you probably wouldn’t believe anyway. He is the competition sponsor, owner of three world-class drop zones and the man who is boldly determined to realise our dream of exposing and sharing this amazing sport with the world and give our athletes an environment in which to excel beyond their wildest dreams. All I can say is that it was bigger, better and more breathtaking than his previous competitions I have attended - and am still raving about.

 

So I decided to narrow the focus here to the personal perspectives of some of our South African athletes. We had representatives in Formation Skydiving (FS) 4-way and 8-way, Canopy Piloting (CP) and Landing Accuracy, as well as in the Speed and Para-ski demo events. This event was important for South Africa in many ways, the most significant being the milestone achieved by Serafim Fernandes, who has just become our first black representative at a World Parachuting Championship.

 

Our athletes did fantastically, in particular, Christopher Teague, the current South African Canopy Piloting Champion, who placed 15th overall (out of 135 competitors). This earned him a much-coveted invitation to compete in the World Games in Cali, Columbia, in 2013. CP is the only parachuting discipline included in the World Games and an important event for exposing skydiving as an air sport. Chris is a second-generation skydiver and although his dad, Mike, has been the Head of Delegation for the Dubai Parachuting Championships for the last few years, this was Chris’s first competition in Dubai. As the only South African who qualified to attend the World Games, the spotlight and pressure will be great and he is hoping to find a sponsor to assist him to train and represent South Africa at the Games. Skydiving is expensive to compete in at world level, but the spectator pull of CP gives sponsors better exposure than some of the other disciplines, so we’re confident we’ll see Chris in Columbia.

 

We are also really proud of our National 4-way FS team, Voodoo. The team members being Vana Parker, flying outside centre, Dennis Parker on point, Colin Rothman in inside centre, Dave Sumter as tail and Erik Vliegenthart on camera. Voodoo has dominated 4-way in South Africa for many years and this season has come back in force after some renewed focus, a change in coach and some team member switches. Voodoo placed 11th, with an average of 17.9 over eight rounds. This is the highest average ever achieved at a First Category Event (World Cup or World Championship) by a South African 4-way FS team!

 

The journey is always best described by the traveller and this is what tail Dave Sumter had to say about this World Parachuting Championship experience, the climax of their 2012 season (including 8-way, since our 4-way was on the 8-way too).

 

"Man, it feels good to be training again. This year, Voodoo 4-way changed camps from ‘The Untrained’ to the ‘Trained’ - and what a good feeling it was. For too many years we were unable to train seriously - only doing around 50 to 100 jumps a year, and languishing at a 16 average for what felt like forever. This year our circumstances changed and we decided to bang out a big year with six training camps (350 jumps and 12 hours of tunnel). Our goal was to lift our average by two points to an 18 average, and put us a step closer to the milestone 20 average that so few teams reach. We hit this goal in Dubai with an official 17.9 before the ninth round cut, and an 18.6 over the full 10 rounds.

 

"Becoming a trained team again has given us so many positive experiences. We met teams training throughout the year, made new friends, felt the camaraderie of real ‘earned’ competition, and experienced fear, disappointment and joy like never before. When you work hard for something, everything starts to feel a little more important. We treated this world meet like it was our last (we treat every one that way), with it being Dennis’s ninth, Colin’s eighth, Vana’s seventh and my fifth. We were also joined by Erik on camera, and Amy Kirtland, Paul Leslie-Smith and Emile van den Berg for 8-way (all with a bunch of meets too). Bailey Edmund's junior joined us for his first world meet - and I’m guessing not his last. Ivan, the previous owner of Empuriabrava, taught Brett Shaw some bicycle tricks that ended badly, and so Brett had to sit this meet out. He was missed!

 

"For Team Voodoo, we experienced all the emotions of real competition at a whole new level. Being an amateur team, we’ve never really trained to a high level before. The beer guzzling, slightly over-weight and mentally
ill-prepared old Voodoo team had to go.

 

This year we made a major effort around fitness, weight loss and mental preparation. Our camps had us giving up beer and getting eight hours of sleep a night. Dennis was handed a weight belt for the very first time and Vana did half a training camp with a broken toe. Ligaments were tweaked, backs were pulled out and ankles were sprained and operated on. Between camps we trained hard, counted calories and spent time preparing ourselves mentally for the precious 350 seconds of free-fall we would have to score 180 points. We also started begging our partners to forgive us for the 60 days away from home.

 

"It was a journey that gifted us experiences we’ll never forget. Our camps overlapped with many other teams making a hard push for Dubai. We shared plane rides in Empuriabrava with the French, Belgians, British, Italians and Swiss. And we also bumped into the Swedes, Portuguese, Danes and Norwegians in the tunnel. With Gary coaching both Hayabusa and Voodoo, we were fortunate to train alongside the Belgium boys over multiple camps. It was a special experience seeing real athletes train hard in the sport we love so much. We saw some of their ups - ripping training jumps at speeds never achieved by any other team before. And some of their downs - the boys battling injuries and fighting desperately to stay in the game. We’re so proud of what these guys have achieved this year having seen first-hand all the hard work they’ve put in. They’ve inspired us to start to think like athletes - even if age and genetics are not on our side. They finished second in Dubai, narrowly missing the top spot on the last round. These guys have the potential to push FS to a 30 average at a world meet - I hope I’m there to see it if they do.

 

"Apart from Belgium, we’ve made new friends in other teams too. We had fierce competition from teams like Norway, Australia, Spain, Great Britain, Denmark and many more. It’s hard to describe the feeling of real competition unless you’ve experienced it. It’s a feeling where you want to beat another team really badly, but where you also want them to do well (just not too well). They’re your rivals, but they’re your friends too. You feel sorry for them when they do badly and you’re genuinely happy for them when they do well. And of course you want to take every opportunity to score more points than them.

 

"At world meets, teams compete against their own averages and sub-competitions take place between teams at every level of the scoreboard. This year Voodoo raised its fight a little higher on the scoreboard. Our fight this year was for tenth spot. We had a great fight with the Australian, Swedish and Austrian teams for this spot. These guys fielded great teams this year, with Oz and Sweden beating us to ninth and tenth spots by four and three points. Fortunately this year we didn’t take a beer wager with the Ozzies - although it looks like they were drinking like girls anyway. ;-)

 

"The French were predictably magnificent, taking first in the Female category, third in the 4-way Open and second in the 8-way. We shared many plane rides with them in Spain, and so it was great to see their training pay off. Manu, on the French 8-way, has the biggest laptop I’ve ever seen, clearly for playing games and not for watching 8-way videos. You could watch their jumps on an iPhone and still score every point. We had a friendly wager with the Norwegian team too. We’ve seen this team train really hard this year and have met them many times in previous meets. We were delighted to be at a high-enough average to be able to compete with them in 2012. Although they compete in the Female category, they do the same jumps, so scores can be compared. They beat us on some rounds and we beat them on a few too. By round seven, our total scores were dead even. We had a good final round and finished just two points ahead of them. The bottle of champagne they bought us never tasted better! They ended up finishing third in the Female event and earned themselves some shiny new bronze medals. Well done Polaris!

 

"It’s incredibly rewarding seeing people who share a passion for the same sport taking similar journeys. Some journeys are more intense, such as the Belgians’s. Some are on par and some are slightly less intense. All are fuelled with the same desire to do well, to impress and improve the performance of the flag they carry. The more intense the journey, the greater the emotions that are felt on competition day. You know you’ve done everything you can to be prepared, but you also know that it only takes a millisecond of lost concentration to cost your team valuable points. I can easily say that I’ve never been more nervous on round one before. You’re 10,000 feet above water about to exit the airplane, and you know that the first 100 milliseconds out the door can destroy your jump if you make a mistake. Your heart pumps like never before, and all you can do is breath, calm yourself down and tell yourself you’re going to rip it. Everyone in the team experiences these heightened sense of emotions. It was impressive how the team calmed the minds and exited the plane at the right arousal level for each jump.

 

"For Voodoo, the next journey begins. How do we get to a 20 average? The emotions will run deeper. Fear and nervousness will sneak up on us in new ways. Mistakes will cost us more. We will hold each other more accountable and expect more from each other. We will bash heads more, we will feel disappointment occasionally and we will experience the joy of doing better skydives together. We couldn’t do this if it wasn’t for the support of our loved ones. We disappear for 10 days at a time, leaving families behind. They sacrifice holidays for us, we miss important events and we’re not around to help with important stuff. We owe them a lot and will never take their sacrifices for granted, said Dave."

 

Although we only had space here for a couple of athletes, South African skydiving is looking stronger than ever on all fronts and sport skydiving is enjoying exposure and growth that promises some exciting times ahead. Whatever next?

 

dinFO

Mondial: An international sporting event comprised of World Parachuting Championships in all IPC competition disciplines (except CP and Para-ski, which may be included or excluded at the option of the organiser), taking place concurrently in the same location. Source: FAI Sporting Code, Section 5.