Will Delmas see a new national record set in its skies this weekend?
Delmas, Mpumalanga (28 August 2025) – On Saturday and Sunday, all eyes will be on the skies above the tiny town of Delmas, where 30 of South Africa’s top skydivers will attempt to set a brand-new national record.
The event takes place at Skydive the Ranch on 30 and 31 August, and if they pull it off, it’ll be one for the books.
The goal is to have 30 skydivers link up mid-air to form a single shape, known as a formation. It may sound relatively simple, but it’s one of the most technical challenges in the sport.
To make it happen, three planes will take off together. Once at altitude, the jumpers will leap out in quick succession, race towards each other in freefall, and try to form the planned pattern before it’s time to deploy their parachutes.
If successful, they’ll beat the existing national record of 24 jumpers, which has stood since 2017, the Roodepoort Record reports.
The attempt also follows hot on the heels of another massive achievement earlier this month, when a group of South African women smashed a 30-year record by building the country’s largest all-female skydive formation, which also went down at The Ranch.
Not stopping there, they went on to set a second national record by completing a two-point 15-way sequential formation. In skydiving terms, that means 15 women linked together in freefall to form one shape, then broke apart and rebuilt into a second shape, all before it was time to open their parachutes.
This weekend’s upcoming record attempt is being led by coaches and organisers Brad Curnow, Warren Dent and Mohan Chudalay, with cameraflyer Stevan Boskovic capturing the attempt for the official record.
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Spectators are also invited to come and watch. There will be a spitbraai, a play area for kids, and an afterparty. You can find out more about that here.
Here’s to (hopefully) a brand-new South African skydiving record!
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