Vana Parker did not have the greatest start into her skydiving career when she made her first jumps in South Africa. In her first year of jumping, she had a bad landing accident where basically her ankle needed rebuilding. She remembers that the doctors were thinking about amputating it initially. She had six surgeries over the years, and her ankle is now fully fused:

"I can’t run any longer and sometimes need to slide landings in. I have spent a lot of time in pain and can really appreciate how difficult life can be for some people."

Despite the tough start it was only the beginning of a 30-year skydiving career, which is far from being over. She soon joined her husband's South African 4-way team Bailey 5 (Bailey Edmunds, Dennis Parker, Colin Rothman), which was re-named to Voodoo in 2010.

Vana and Dennis Parker spent only two years together in 4-way, as Dennis Parker stepped back when Thiago Gomes, future Arizona Airspeed member, joined the South African lineup in 2004 and competed with Bailey 5 at the world championship in Croatia 2004.

Croatia 2004 turned out to be a lasting memory for Vana Parker, as she explained in her profile keynotes. She was 20 weeks pregnant when she landed in a working quarry after Round 8 at the outdoor world championship. She remembers it actually as the funniest moment in her long skydiving career.

Vana Parker continued with Voodoo until 2015, even after the Parker family had moved to Great Britain. Her husband Dennis Parker was back in the Voodoo 4-way lineup in 2012, and they spent the last three Voodoo years together. Vana Parker's main mentor, Gary Smith, was player-coaching the last Voodoo lineup between 2013 and 2015.

Vana Parker connected with 4-way Women team NFTO after moving to Great Britain, and it did not take long until she joined the lineup in 2015. Her former player-coach team mate Gary Smith was also working with NFTO, and the 2016 lineup (Vana Parker, Anna Hicks/Lea, Ane Brentford, Maria Russell, Simon Brentford on camera) won the first FAI medals for the British delegation in 4-way Women at Skydive Chicago.

Sian Stokes joined Vana Parker, Anna Hicks/Lea and Kate Lindsley in 2018, and the new NFTO lineup turned bronze into silver in Australia 2018. Eventually, Vana Parker, Anna Hicks/Lea and Sian Stokes won FAI outdoor world championship gold medals with Catherine Anderson and Simon Brentford on camera in Eloy 2022.

Winning the FAI 4-way Women gold medals in Eloy 2022 was not necessarily the biggest accomplishment for Vana Parker and NFTO, even though it was Vana Parker's favorite competition. NFTO 's all-female lineup also won British national championship titles twice with 1st places on the AAA Class leaderboard. Vana Parker, Anna Hicks/Lea, Sian Stokes, Catherine Anderson and Simon Brentford on camera defeated Satori XL by one point in 2018 and Chimera with Julia Swallow for Catherine Anderson in the lineup after a tie-breaking procedure in 2021. It were the only two times when a British 4-way Women team won the national outdoor championship titles, which is also unusual worldwide.

Vana Parker explained that the situation for British teams is different compared to national teams in other countries like in the USA and France: "NFTO was fully self-funded in 2022. Every member of the team put in as much as they could. Anna and I decided that we would pay for all the skydives, tunnel time and coaching. I had to sell a house to pay for it. It was a massive commitment. But it means that you are more focused and more driven."

However, winning the world championship title in 4-way Women paid back at least a little bit. Vana Parker now does a bit of keynote and motivational speaking in the professional business world.

Vana Parker was back with NFTO in 2024 and attended five indoor and outdoor competitions with changing lineups. Then they competed in 4-way Open at the FAI Indoor World Championship 2025. Pete Allum joined Vana Parker, Anna Lea and his former Satori XL team mate Julia Swallow at Paraclete XP. It was the only NFTO competition this year so far.

The Parker 4-way family has been growing in the meantime. It was no big surprise that the youngest family member, Tano Parker, subscribed to the plans and the demanding goals of 4-way team Kairos.

He has grown up in the Parker 4-way and 8-way family world, where mother Vana Parker is still NFTO member and competed once again for the British delegation at the indoor world championship at Paraclete XP. Tano Parker's new team has similar plans in the longer term. Kairos finished already in 3rd place at the national outdoor championship that his mother missed this year.

Vana Parker's son Tano is not the only successful example for her efforts and goals to bring formation skydiving competition to more people. She wants to help develop new participants in general, as she mentions in her own NSL Profile keynotes. That and more competition is what she dedicates her next ten years to.