posted Oct 5th, 2018 - The wait will soon be over at the FAI World Meet 2018, and the showdown will begin with Round 1 on Sunday morning.

The weather has not been supportive for last-minute training on Saturday, which will be over at noon. The opening ceremony is scheduled for the afternoon, followed by the competition draw. Then the teams at Gold Coast in Australia will have to be ready to perform in an unusual and exciting environment.

The rookies at a world meet don't have other previous experiences, while most of the world meet veterans are facing a new situation. The South African team Meraki has four world meet rookies in the lineup, with Bailey Edmunds guiding the team into his own 4th FAI World Championship of Formation Skydiving.

The NSL News reported on 26 August 2018 that Savolo will not be able to compete for South Africa this year, after attending the world meets in 2014 and 2016. However, South Africa will be represented once again, this time by Meraki, a new team that was formed only this year.

FAI World Meet 2018			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open Power Ranking		TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	Total	Avg
1	NMP-PCH Hayabusa	BE	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2	Arizona Airspeed	US	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
3	Aerodyne Realfly	FR	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
4	Qatar Tigers	QA	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
5	Echochamber	SE	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
6	Satori XL	UK	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
7	Amnesya	IT	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
8	Evolution	CA	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
9	Airbus FSZ Saar	DE	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
10	Tanay Wolves	RU	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
11	Rotor Out	AU	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
12	Airheads	CH	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
13	CTR Optimum	BR	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
14	Papea Masculino	ES	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
15	Out of the Blue Project 20+	NL	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
16	Meraki	ZA	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
17	Adventure Flyers	PY	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
18	New Zealand	NZ	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
19	Japan	JP	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
20	Cyprus	CY	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

Meraki is a brand-new team made up of friends who share the 4-way passion. The lineup consists of two married couples who see the team also as "couples therapy". However, the Greek team name "Meraki" actually has a passionate meaning: doing something with all your heart, with love, soul and complete devotion.

The opportunity to go to the world meet was presented to Meraki at the beginning of August when it became clear that Savolo would not have a lineup for Australia. Meraki was not prepared for the surprising opportunity and needed some time to come to a decision. Finally they agreed to attend the biggest skydiving event in the world that only a few people on the planet get to experience. Meraki committed to wholeheartedly taking on the challenge.

South African teams don't have a lot of meet opportunities. In fact, there is only one, the national championship. Team member Bailey Edmunds, who is a former Savolo member, said that his team was aware of the challenges: "We knew that we would face fears like: Will we be ready? Will we embarrass our country? Would others think we don’t deserve it? Will we make South Africa proud? All pressures that four out of the five team members have never had to face."

Bailey Edmunds himself has the experiences of three world meets (2012, 2014, 2016) and knows what it takes to get through the ten meet rounds under pressure. He still believes that the mental attitudes of his team mates towards this challenge are positive, humbling and dedicated: "We have given every ounce of energy and effort that we possibly could in preparation for this world meet."

He explained that his team would creep and walk skydives midweek between busy work schedules from the day they decided to go, and Meraki devoted every weekend they could leading up to the event to train as much as possible: "We've put in maximum effort to prove that we are worthy and that we have done our very best in the short time we've had to prepare and make South Africa proud."

He added that Meraki has also been humbled by the amount of support the team has been given by Skydive Pretoria (Peter Lawson, Billy Sharman, Angie Sharman):

"Without their constant support to ensure that we could be on every second load, even when there weren't enough jumpers to keep the PAC flying, shutting it down for us to pack, prep jumps and keep us going, we wouldn't have managed to fulfill our commitment. They even held a fundraiser on our behalf, which highlighted the amount of support we truly have from our fellow South African skydivers, and for that we are truly thankful and blessed."

The FAI World Meet 2018 will be the first bigger international competition for Outside Center Carmen Edmunds. She has a total of 1200 jumps, 340 in Formation Skydiving. Her role models are David and Andy Grauwels both, and she is obviously a Hayabusa fan, not only after the coaching by David Grauwels with her previous 4-Way team.

Ian van den Berge has the tail slot, and he will attend his first world meet, as well, with a total of 2500 jumps. Bailey Edmunds said that he is an AFF instructor, FS coach and ensures "that the team is never left without a drink at the bar". His wife Yolandi van den Berge is the Meraki Point at her first world meet. She has 1500 jumps and teams up with Carmen Edmunds for the all-female front piece.

Edmund Bailey said that his all-male rear piece has to be on their toes all the time: "Their FS bad-assery pairs well, and let's be honest - it was always going to be the wives against the husbands, so it seems fitting that they pair up as piece partners."

Bernard Janse van Rensburg is on camera for Meraki, and he will be filming his ten first world meet rounds. Meraki found him this year filming a novice 4-way team, and they were impressed by his footage. He has 700 jumps, with this year being his introduction to Formation Skydiving videography. Edward Bailey said that his team did not wait long to ask him to join the team: "We snatched him up immediately! Berns shows an eagerness to learn and figures stuff out faster than most! We are so happy to have him on the team and hopefully support him to peruse an amazing cameraman career."

It will be show time very soon for all teams in Australia. Saturday brings the opening ceremony at the beach to the teams, followed by the competition draw.