15 Jan 2018

Skydiving or Parachuting can be very scary.

In fact, it is not everyone who can easily choose skydiving as a sport.

It comes with its own risks. One has to have a brave heart to do skydiving.

According to research conducted by James D Griffith and Christian Hart between 1993 and 1999, 241 people died while participating in civilian recreational skydives in the United States.

Despite scary fatalities, one skydiver in Botswana, Lt Col. Cyril Nfila said skydiving was an interesting sport.

Nfila started skydiving in 2002 at Rustenburg Skydiving Club in South Africa, where he also did his first jump.

He joined Botswana Defence Force (BDF) in 1989  and developed interest in skydiving after he was cajoled by his late friend, Garai Makaya.

“I started with Garai and we used to travel together to Johannesburg Skydiving Club and Rustenburg Skydiving Club.

He is the one who really pushed me to start skydiving,” he said.

In 2007, he joined BDF skydiving club and met the likes of Major General Mpho Mophuting, Monyaka Makuyaana, Modise Tlhage, Essop Mokgwathi as friends, who later formed Gaborone Skydiving Club.

“At Gaborone Skydiving Club it was me, Mpho Mophuting, Garai Makaya, Essop Mokgwathi, and George Bogatsu. You know, Gaborone Skydiving Club was started by friends who had the same vision of the sport in the country,” he said.

As time went on, Nfila and his friends were of the view that skydiving has to grow in Botswana hence they formed Parachute Association of Botswana (PAB).

The association was admitted to the then Botswana National Sports Council (BNSC) in 2013.

He said BNSC had given them unwavering support since then.

At first, he said the sport did not appeal to many Batswana, but that has changed as many people want to do skydiving.

However, he said they do not have the capacity to train people adding that it was also expensive.

Quizzed as to how safe the sport is given that most divers have landed on trees and cars, Nfila said skydiving was the safest sport as safey was their number one priority.

“The reason I am saying the sport is safe, is that we wear two parachutes. There is the main parachute that is visible when I’m on the sky and on top of the main one, there is a reserve parachute, which is meant for in case the main one fails, then the diver can easily open the reserve one and safely land to the ground,” he said.

Opening of the second parachute, he said was very simple given that it was something that was taught during the parachuting course at the ground school.

At ground school, he said first time skydivers were taught amongst others, landings, aircraft drills and procedures as well as the exit and arch body position and count.

Still at the school, he said jumpers were also taught techniques of making turns in the sky and how to handle emergencies on air.

“Skydiving is the most disciplined sport, given that if anything happens on air, one has only seconds to act because one will be falling at a speed of around 200 km/h, therefore we don’t allow anyone who compromise safety,” he said.

Again, he said the sport do not condone people, who take alcohol ahead of diving adding that as a jump master, he had to  ensure that discipline was adhered to.

Like any other sport, Nfila said skydiving had its own flair such as formation adding that a formation was whereby multiple skydivers attach themselves to one another by grabbing each other’s limbs or by the use of ‘grippers’ on their jumpsuit while free falling through the sky.

He said the World Record largest freefall formation, which was a 400-way was done in Udon Thani, Thailand in 1994.

To date, the 400-way formation is still the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale(FAI) World Record holder.

In his skydiving career, he said he would cherish the Makgadikgadi Epic, which was also started by him and his friends.

“Makgadikgadi Epic is sponsored by Botswana Tourism and it is growing in leaps and bounds, and thanks to all stakeholders, our events are measured by attendance,.SkyDiving is a crowd puller so most people who attend our events are attracted by parachutes,” he said. ENDS