posted Apr 6th, 2026 - The scheduling and separation of major indoor and outdoor activities, including FAI/ISC events, are largely driven by formation skydiving training and competition cycles in the Western and Northern Hemispheres (America, Europe). However, the sport is equally active in the Southern and Eastern Hemispheres (Australia, Africa), where teams face the added challenge of adapting to an opposite training and competition calendar.

Despite these difficulties—and often significant travel distances—teams from Australia and South Africa have remained consistent participants at world championships and World Cups. South Africa’s long-time national champion team, Voodoo, eventually relocated to Great Britain, and team member Vana Parker has since competed for the British team NFTO at world championships and World Cups. Meanwhile, 4-way legends Gary Smith and Silvanus (Solly) Williams made a similar move from South Africa to Florida even earlier, going on to become 4-way world champions for the United States in 2004 with DeLand Majik.

InTime operators Dirk Venter and Claire King, both originally from South Africa, have also been contributing updates to the NSL News, sharing the latest scores and information from their home country, where the national outdoor championship concluded last week.

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Participation of Australia and South Africa in 4-way Open at FAI World Championships

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Voodoo last represented South Africa at the world level in Dubai 2012. They were eventually succeeded by Savolo as the country’s national 4-way team, making their first appearance at an outdoor world championship in Prostejov 2014.

Savolo also had to manage the demanding transition between international indoor events and South Africa’s outdoor championship schedule. They returned to represent their country again at Ottawa 2016 and maintained their top position in South Africa through to last week.

Savolo was founded in 2012 by Alex Jordaan, Amy Kirtland, Bailey Edmunds Jr., and Dirk Venter, with Warren Hitchcock on camera. At the time, they were unable to challenge Voodoo, as long as their rival’s founding member, Colin Rothman, continued training and competing with his own team. This dynamic changed when Voodoo transitioned to Great Britain, while Colin Rothman remained in South Africa. He eventually joined Savolo in 2018, after the team had already established itself as the dominant force in the country’s 4-way competition. Since then, Alex Jordaan, Amy Kirtland (now Ashford), Bailey Edmunds Jr., and Colin Rothman have consistently won national championships—most recently last week, with Riaan Bergh on camera.

South African Outdoor Nationals 2026		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	D,O,C,17	12,9,Q	4,G,N,E	H,15,13	J,L,B,18	A,1,8	19,2,20	F,7,P,11	6,K,M,16	22,3,10	Total	Avg
1	Savolo	24	16	19	18	20	13	15	21	20	13	179	17.9
2	Aerium	15	12	14	7	13	12	11	11	13	10	118	11.8
3	Korowai	8	10	8	7	10	8	8	8	8	8	83	8.3
4	STR4	10	7	10	8	5	10	7	10	8	5	80	8.0
Rank	A Class	D,O,C	9,Q	4,G	N,E,H	J,L,B	A,8	19,2				Total	Avg
1	Sweet Treats	4	3	4	8	7	6	-	-	-	-	32	5.3
2	Unrehearsed Velocity	8	4	1	5	4	4	-	-	-	-	26	4.3
Rank	Rookie	D,O,C	Q,G,N	E,H,J	L,B,A	F,P,K	M,A,J	N,E,Q				Total	Avg
1	Fall Guys	4	2	4	5	7	8	-	-	-	-	30	5.0
2	Wee Wee's Angels	2	3	1	1	3	5	-	-	-	-	15	2.5
3	Volantes	3	3	2	2	1	2	-	-	-	-	13	2.2

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Savolo at the South African Outdoor Nationals 2026

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Original Savolo member Dirk Venter informed the NSL News that the same lineup has finally achieved a long-standing goal that Colin Rothman had pursued for many years. The 17.7 average posted by DeLand Equanimity at the national championship in 1997—featuring future DeLand Majik world champions Gary Smith and Solly Williams—had remained the South African record in 4-way Open at this event ever since.

DeLand Equanimity went on to win FAI bronze medals at the world championship in Turkey in 1997 with a 19.3 average, while the 17.7 stood as the highest scoring average ever recorded at a South African national championship. Last week, Savolo finished with a 17.9 average, finally surpassing the nearly 30-year-old record.

Dirk Venter added that the event featured a strong FS 4-way turnout in South Africa. The competition was held in Robertson, in the Western Cape winelands: "It was nice to be in a beautiful part of the country for the Nationals." Colin Rothman was also honored at the event with the donation of a new 8-Way Intermediate Class trophy bearing his name, in recognition of his long-standing contributions to South African formation skydiving. There now appears to be a question mark over his 4-way future, as Dirk Venter noted. However, he may yet set a new target—such as matching or exceeding DeLand Equanimity’s 19.3 from Turkey in 1997. Beyond that, even the 20-point outdoor average could be within reach.

FAI World Meet 1997			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		13,Q,D,9	5,K,F,12	1,14,22	H,M,11,7	A,E,3,G	15,18,3	20,L,23	O,19,4	17,10,J	6,C,21	Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	US	26	20	18	23	27	15	20	16	21	24	210	21.0
2	France	FR	25	19	17	22	25	16	20	21	20	21	206	20.6
3	DeLand Equanimity	ZA	25	20	16	20	20	15	17	20	21	19	193	19.3
4	Russia	RU	24	18	17	17	23	14	12	19	17	19	180	18.0
5	Sebastian XL	UK	24	17	14	21	19	13	16	19	15	18	176	17.6
6	DeLand Norgies	NO	20	14	12	18	20	12	14	17	16	18	161	16.1
7	Switzerland	CH	21	15	13	17	18	13	14	16	16	16	159	15.9
8	Australia	AU	17	17	14	17	19	10	14	17	17	16	158	15.8
9	Spain	ES	21	16	13	13	19	13	14	16	18	14	157	15.7
10	Daedalus	DE	19	14	13	17	20	12	12	16	15	17	155	15.5
11	Velox	SE	19	11	12	16	18	11	13	17	16	-	133	14.8
12	Japan	JP	19	13	11	15	19	11	11	17	14	-	130	14.4
13	Italy	IT	19	11	11	15	18	11	12	14	12	-	123	13.7
14	Monkey Circus	AT	19	13	11	8	16	11	14	17	13	-	122	13.6
14	Finland	FI	19	12	13	13	16	12	10	16	11	-	122	13.6
16	Belgium	BE	18	13	12	14	14	10	13	14	11	-	119	13.2
17	Hungary	HU	15	12	11	14	17	9	10	14	15	-	117	13.0
18	Canada	CA	18	12	12	10	15	9	7	15	13	-	111	12.3
19	Netherlands	NL	17	11	10	9	15	9	12	12	13	-	108	12.0
20	Croatia	HR	17	11	10	11	15	9	9	9	-	-	91	11.4
21	Brazil	BR	14	8	11	14	11	9	9	13	-	-	89	11.1
22	Luxemburg	LU	12	10	10	11	11	8	10	13	-	-	85	10.6
23	Mexico	MX	13	9	9	11	12	8	10	12	-	-	84	10.5
24	ProDytter	DK	15	12	0	10	13	6	11	12	-	-	79	9.9
25	Czech Republic	CZ	14	6	9	7	12	9	9	12	-	-	78	9.8
26	New Zealand	NZ	12	8	8	9	11	8	8	10	-	-	74	9.3
27	Lithuania	LT	10	4	6	9	9	5	9	9	-	-	61	7.6
28	Slovakia	SK	8	9	7	5	10	6	7	8	-	-	60	7.5
29	Ireland	IE	7	7	9	7	5	7	8	9	-	-	59	7.4
30	Israel	IL	10	8	9	4	9	3	5	9	-	-	57	7.1
31	Portugal	PT	12	4	7	3	9	6	8	7	-	-	56	7.0
32	Poland	PL	6	6	3	3	9	6	2	7	-	-	42	5.3
33	China	CN	8	2	5	5	3	2	6	4	-	-	35	4.4
34	Venezuela	VE	6	0	5	6	4	1	6	6	-	-	34	4.3
35	Turkey	TR	6	7	3	4	0	2	6	3	-	-	31	3.9
36	Indonesia	ID	0	5	7	7	2	0	4	2	-	-	27	3.4
37	Cyprus	CY	2	0	0	1	2	3	4	2	-	-	14	1.8
38	Korea	KR	3	0	0	0	1	1	3	2	-	-	10	1.3