posted Sep 25th, 2014 - The AAA Class field at the UK Nationals 2014 included a new team - even though it was not really new. Voodoo had attended several national championships in Great Britain before (2009, 2010, 2012, 2013). However, Voodoo was the South African national 4-way team at those events and competed as a guest team.

This year, Vana and Dennis Parker and David Sumter had officially retired as the South African national team after having been living in Great Britain for several years. In fact, they were now eligible to win the UK Nationals and qualify as the British national 4-way team.

The three South Africans, who competed the last time for their original homeland at the Mondial Dubai 2012, recruited a British top 4-way competitor, Liz Matthews, for the lineup at the national championships, and UK videographer Dave Head was filming the team.

UK Nationals 2014		Rd. 1	Rd. 2	Rd. 3	Rd. 4	Rd. 5	Rd. 6	Rd. 7	Rd. 8	Rd. 9	Rd. 10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	B,O,7,22	20,J,10	9,M,E,18	12,2,Q	N,P,F,13	4,G,19	A,6,H,C	8,L,D,15	14,16,3	5,1,17	Total	Avg
1	Voodoo	20	15	24	16	24	18	26	17	16	19	195	19.5
2	Vision 99	20	16	22	16	22	16	22	17	16	18	185	18.5
3	Kaizen	21	15	23	16	20	17	24	17	15	16	184	18.4
4	4mula	16	15	19	16	23	16	21	17	15	16	174	17.4
5	Bodyflight Isis	18	15	21	13	19	17	22	17	15	16	173	17.3

USPA Nationals 2014		Rd. 1	Rd. 2	Rd. 3	Rd. 4	Rd. 5	Rd. 6	Rd. 7	Rd. 8	Rd. 9	Rd. 10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open Class	L,F,3,D	8,C,Q,A	9,G,11	P,1,B,H	16,N,15	6,K,J,19	13,14,17	4,O,20	21,10,22	7,2,12	Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	33	31	27	32	24	24	19	22	19	21	252	25.2
2	SDC Rhythm XP	31	26	23	27	21	19	19	19	17	18	220	22.0
3	Golden Knights	29	24	23	27	19	22	15	20	16	19	214	21.4
4	Carolina Turbo XP	28	26	23	27	17	22	17	20	15	18	213	21.3
5	DNR	28	21	20	27	16	19	16	18	15	16	196	19.6
6	Voodoo (UK)	25	23	19	22	17	20	14	17	15	16	188	18.8

Erik Vliegenthart is actually Voodoo’s regular videographer, and he was back in the lineup when Voodoo competed a few weeks later at the USPA Nationals 2014. The lineup had another change, as coach and former South African fellow citizen Gary Smith took Liz Mathews' Center Inside slot. Voodoo's UK lineup won the national championships without too much trouble and is now officially the British national 4-way team in the Open Class for the 2015 season.

Voodoo's US lineup had the opportunity to take on the best unofficial US amateur team, DNR, and finished eight points behind in 6th place after a good competition.

Both teams missed the 20-average mark, which has been on Voodoo's goal list for the 2014 season.

The competition draw at the UK Nationals made it easier for the British national teams to score higher than at the FAI World Championship of Formation Skydiving 2014, and Vision 99 (16.4 - 18.5) and Kaizen (16.1 - 18.4) took advantage of the opportunity. The 1st place at the UK Nationals was also the first national 4-way title for Liz Mathews, who has been competing on the top level of British 4-way competition for a long time.

The draw was different for Voodoo at the USPA Nationals, where the results of the US national teams (Arizona Airspeed 25.3 - 25.2 and Golden Knights 20.4 - 21.4) indicated a slower draw than the one at the UK Nationals.

Voodoo had also made approx. 60 training jumps with Liz Mathews prior to the UK Nationals, while Gary Smith joined the team at Skydive Chicago, where the weather did not allow any training jumps before the competition began. the 20+ average will be back on the Voodoo list for 2015...