A skilful team of 30 skydivers jumped from three aircraft simultaneously, linking up in mid-air to form the record-setting formation in under 55 seconds.

The achievement broke the previous national record of 24 skydivers, set in 2017. Two records were officially set during the past weekend (September 6 – 7): The Largest Formation General Record at 30-way and the Large Formation Sequential General Record at 2-point 24-way.

One of the organisers, Brad Curnow, said the preparation camps were crucial.

• Read the initial article here: Skydivers aim to break SA Record

“They not only allowed the skydivers to practice the skills that we would need, but they also allowed the drop zone team and the pilots to work out what they would need to do to support the record attempt,” he explained.

Brad highlighted the challenges on the day.

“Remember, for most of the skydivers, this was the largest formation that they had ever attempted. We had trained for this, but it was still a new experience, and we had to adjust to the requirements of a formation this size. This was also the first time that we were flying all three of the aircraft in one plane formation, and that meant that we needed to learn how to make it work effectively. On one of the jumps, before we achieved the record, one of the planes was far away from the rest of the formation, which made it difficult to build the record formation.”

He praised the team’s resilience and said everyone involved showed their grit and continued to bring their A game throughout the day to overcome these challenges.

“We were able to achieve the new record on the fourth jump of the day.”

Photographer Stevan Boskovic also highlighted the dedication of the organisers.

“The time and effort that the organisers put into the people who attended the camps and the record event is beyond measure. It is truly an inspiration to see how they not only broke records but, more importantly, helped skydivers progress confidently and safely exceed what they thought was impossible. The most junior jumper had 173 jumps. Typically, in South Africa, to attempt a 30-way, you would have needed in excess of 600-700 jumps,” he said.

Brad added that the achievement is more than just breaking records.

“I believe that having the courage to be willing to attempt is more important than whether the attempt was successful or not. Even if the attempt had been unsuccessful, we would still have all the benefits of a much bigger pool of skilled and experienced big way jumpers, pilots and drop zone staff, a sense of excitement and belief that we can actually chase ambitious goals, and brilliant collaboration across drop zones to support the project.”