Australian History

Home Up Australian History World CRW History CRW Results World Meets

 

Oz CRW Awards
Oz Teams
Hall of Fame
About the Author

    Australia has a proud history in CRW. We have won and hosted World Championships and have often placed in the top 4 nations at the highest level of international competitions. We have also held the World Record for the largest formation, and some of our jumpers were a part of the current World Record 70 way. Our most recent competition result was a 4th place in Rotations at the 2004 World Championships in Rijeka, Croatia.

    Historically, the volume of competitors in Australia is relatively low, but the quality of competitors is high

Australian Historical Timeline

Milestones

Date

Event Comment
1980 First CRW competitions. 2 Way Rotations won by Bruce Towers & Peter Knobbs. 4 Way Speed won by Bruce Towers, Peter Knobbs, Geoff Holmes, and Dave McEvoy.
1980 - 29 Dec First 8 Way Formation. Stack (?) built at Corowa by Michael Hughes (pilot), Ray Curry, Tony Duckworth, Tom Honan, Paul Osbourne, Paddy McHugh, Bruce Towers, and Ian Ladyman.
1980 - 30 Dec First Australian CRW Crest. Michael Hughes is issued the first Australian Canopy Relative Work Crest. He is CRWC 1.
1980 - 29 Dec First 9 Way Formation. Stack (?) built at Corowa by Michael Hughes (pilot), Ray Curry, Tony Duckworth, Tom Honan, Paul Osbourne, Paddy McHugh, Bruce Towers, Ian Ladyman, Doc Henderson, and Alan Stevens.
1981 - 6 Jan First Bi-Plane Docked. Achieved by pilots Gary Claridge and Dave Hancock at Corowa.
1981 - 8 Mar First Time for 5 Rotations. The 4 Way Rotations team of Mark Morgan, Andy Pine, Ian Ladyman, and Ian Higgie, make 5 Rotations on a jump at Elderslie.
????? 4 Minute Rule for Rotations. ?????
1981 - 8 Jun Australian Record - Rotations. The 4 Way Rotations team of Ray Curry, Andy Pine, Ian Ladyman, and Mark Morgan, establish an Australian Competition record of 4 points at the Elderslie 21st Birthday Competition.
1981 - 21 Jun First 4 Way Diamond.
Built at Corowa by  Ray Curry
Mark Morgan Andy Pine
Ian Ladyman
1982 First CRW National Championships. Rotations event held only.
1982 - 3 Jan Australian Record - Rotations. The 4 Way Rotations team of Ray Curry, Mark Morgan, Ian Ladyman, and Gary McMahon, break the Australian Rotations Record at the 1982 Australian Nationals at Corowa with 14 points. 
1982 - 15 Apr Australian Record - Rotations. The 4 Way Rotations team of Ian Ladyman, Mark Morgan, Ian Higgie, and Gary McMahon, break the Australian Rotations Record at the 1982 Pacific Championship at Matamata with 15 points. 
1982 - 27 Jun Australian Record - Rotations. The 4 Way Rotations team of Ian Ladyman, Mark Morgan, Ian Higgie, and Tony Jackson, break the Australian Rotations Record at the Australian East Coast Cup at Toogoolawah with 18 points. 
198 Australian Parachute Team. CRW Rotations team "Crooze" (Geoff Little, Paul Flippo, John Greig, Chris Fowler) achieve 2nd place at the 2nd WC-CF in France.
1982 - ?? Aug World Record - Rotations. "Plane Scared" from New Zealand (Ian Ladyman, Mark Morgan, Ian Higgie, Gary McMahon, Tony Jackson) & "Crooze" from Australia (Geoff Little, Paul Flippo, John Greig, and Chris Fowler), achieve a World Record of 21 points in 4 minutes working time at the World Cup in France.
1982 - ?? Aug Best Time in 8 Way Speed. "Plane Scared" from New Zealand & "Croozing" from Australia build the fastest 8 Way Speed formation of the meet with a time of 63 seconds. This was later equalled by the USA team.
1983 CRW Book Published. "CRW Basics to Secrets of Plane Scared" published by expatriate New Zealander, Ian Ladyman.
1984 - 31 Mar World Record - large formation. A 21 Way Plane large formation was built. It was sponsored by Bush Pilots Airlines for the opening of Cairns International Airport.
1984 - 8 Sep Australian Record - large formation - night. a 13 Way large night formation was built.
1984 - 13 Oct 3rd WC-CF at Toogoolawah. The 3rd World Cup - Canopy Formation, was held at Toogoolawah in Queensland. The winning team in this "Philips World Cup Challenge" was the "Budweiser" rotations team from the USA. Team France made a new World Record of 50.77 for 8 Way Speed using Contact mains. A speed stack and landing competition was held after the official CRW competitions.
1984 - 13 Oct Australian Parachute Team. CRW Rotations team "Crooze" (?????) achieve 2nd place at the 3rd WC-CF in Australia.
1986 - ?? 1st WPC-CF at Gatton. Gatton, in Queensland, hosts the 1st World Parachuting Championships - Canopy Formation.
1986 - ?? Australian Parachute Team. CRW Sequential team "?????" (?????) achieve 3rd place at the 1st WPC-CF in Australia.
1986 - ?? Australian Parachute Team. CRW Rotations team "?????" (?????) achieve 4th place at the 1st WPC-CF in Australia.
1986 - ?? Australian Parachute Team. CRW 8 Way Speed team "Early Openers" (?????) achieve 3rd place at the 1st WPC-CF in Australia.
1988 - ?? Jan First 16 Way Diamond. The first large offset formation in Australian CRW history was built at Toogoolawah using X228 mains.
1988 - ?? Australian Parachute Team. CRW 8 Way Speed team "Early Openers" (?????) achieve 2nd place at the 2nd WPC-CF in France.
1988 - ?? Australian Parachute Team. CRW Rotations team "?????" (?????) achieve 8th place at the 2nd WPC-CF in France.
1990 - ?? Australian Parachute Team. CRW Sequential team "?????" (?????) achieve 5th place at the 3rd WPC-CF in Thailand.
1990 - ?? Australian Parachute Team. CRW 8 Way Speed team "Early Openers" (Greg Roberts, Greg Hays, Paul Flipo, Eros Batello, Andrew Preston, Brad Turner, Paul Cohen, Andrew Whitten, David Bailey) achieve 1st place at the 3rd WPC-CF in Thailand.
1990 - ?? WORLD CHAMPIONS - GOLD. "Early Openers" (Greg Roberts, Greg Hays, Paul Flipo, Eros Batello, Andrew Preston, Brad Turner, Paul Cohen, Andrew Whitten, David Bailey) become Gold medallists and World Champions by winning the "World Parachuting Championships - Canopy Formation - 8 Way Speed" event.
1992 - ?? Australian Parachute Team. CRW 8 Way Speed team "?????" (?????) achieve 4th place at the 4th WPC-CF in China.
1992 - ?? Australian Parachute Team. CRW Rotations team "Precision Collision" (Glen Bolton, Peter Brierley, ?????) achieve 7th place at the 4th WPC-CF in China.
1994 - 8 Oct 5th WPC-CF at Kooralbyn. The 5th World Parachuting Championships - Canopy Formation, was held at Kooralbyn in Queensland.  Team France made new Rotations record of 21 points using Rubis 150 mains. In 8 Way Speed France made a Kite formation in record time, 29.28 seconds on their Rubis mains. US jumper Sharon Shumway was the first female competitor who owns CF competition record. Their team "Plane Crazy" made 13 points in Australia. They used Express mains.
1994 - 8 Oct Australian Parachute Team. CRW Sequential team "?????" (?????) achieve 5th place at the 5th WPC-CF at Kooralbyn, Australia.
1994 - 8 Oct Australian Parachute Team. CRW Rotations team "?????" (?????) achieve 5th place at the 5th WPC-CF at Kooralbyn, Australia.
1996 - ?? Jun Australian Parachute Team. CRW 8 Way Speed team "Xtermin8" (Andrew Whitten, Greg Hays, Paul Cohen, Tom Begic, Tony Smith, Jon McWilliam, Ben Nordkamp, Steve Jones, Brett Higgins, Steve Melchior (team manager)) achieve 4th place at the 6th WPC-CF in Indonesia.
1996 - ?? Jun Australian Parachute Team. CRW Rotations team "?????" (Anthony Dorney, Andrew Daniels, ?????) achieve 12th place at the 6th WPC-CF in Indonesia.
1996 - ?? Jun Australian Record - 8 Way Speed. "Xtermin8" (Andrew Whitten, Greg Hays, Paul Cohen, Tom Begic, Tony Smith, Jon McWilliam, Ben Nordkamp, Steve Jones) break the Australian 8 Way Speed Record at the 6th WPC in Indonesia with a time of 42.61 seconds.
1996 - 6 Sep World Formation Record Participants. Brett Higgins and Jon McWilliam are a part of the new world formation record of 53 parachutists, made in Kassel/Calden, in Germany.
1997 - ?? Australian Parachute Team. CRW ????? team "?????" (Andrew Whitten, Andrew Preston, ????? achieve 3rd place at the 4th World Cup-CF in the USA.
1997 - ?? Bronze Medal at World Cup. CRW ????? team "?????" (Andrew Whitten, Andrew Preston, ????? achieve 3rd place at the 4th World Cup-CF in the USA. ?????
1997 Air to Air Video Introduced. Air to Air Video is finally introduced for judging purposes in Canopy Formation competitions. This ends a long era of ground to air judging.
1998 - ?? Jan Australian Record - Sequential. "El Borracho" (Andrew Whitten, Paul Cohen Tony Smith, Dave Salisbury, Brett Higgins (video)) break the Australian Sequential Record at the Australian Championships with 5 sequences.
1998 - ?? Australian Parachute Team. CRW Rotations team "Crimson Mist" (Matt Berens, Ralph Presgrave, Dan Corboy, Rob Douthat, Jaak Saega, Shane Sparkes).
2000 - ?? Jan Formation Record Attempts. Following the Nationals at Toogoolawah, there were a number of attempts made at the large formation record. Although larger formations were built, they were not completed and hence do not count as official records.
2000 - ?? World Championships Omission The 8th WPC held at Immola, Finland, is the first ever WPC where Australia does not field a team. Hairspeed declined the first offer and Crimson Mist declined the subsequent offer due to team finances. 
2001 - ?? Australian Record - Rotations. "Hairspeed" (Andrew Whitten, Archie Jamieson, Ben Nordkamp, Wayne McLachlan, Brett Higgins (video)) break the Australian Rotations Record at the Australian National Championships at Toogoolawah with 15 rotations. 
2001 - ?? Australian Parachute Team. CRW Rotations team "Hairspeed" (Andrew Whitten, Archie Jamieson, Ben Nordkamp, Wayne McLachlan, Brett Higgins (video), Jack Surawski (team manager)).
2003 - ?? Sep Australian Parachute Team. CRW Rotations team "Crimson Mist" (Matt Berens, Ralph Hamilton-Presgrave, Tom Begic, Daryl Davison, Mitch McMartin (video), Fiona McEachern (team manager)) achieve 6th place at the 10th WPC-CF in France. The team train out of a Twin Otter at Quantum Leap Skydiving Centre in Sullivan, Missouri, USA. They are coached by Fio Antognini and Jim Cowan.
2003 - ?? Sep Australian Record - Rotations. "Crimson Mist" (Matt Berens, Ralph Hamilton-Presgrave, Tom Begic, Daryl Davison, Mitch McMartin (video)) break the Australian Rotations Record at the 10th WPC in France with 16 rotations.
2003 - 29 Nov World Formation Record Participants. Brett Higgins and Andrew Preston are a part of the new world formation record of 70 parachutists, made in Lake Wales, Florida, USA.
2004 - ?? Sep Australian Parachute Team. CRW Rotations team "Crimson Mist" (Matt Berens, Ralph Hamilton-Presgrave, Tom Begic, Cameron Cooper, Mitch McMartin (video), Rob Simunic (team manager)) achieve 4th place at the 11th WPC-CF in Croatia. The team train out of a Porter at The Body Flight University, in Reggio Emilia, Italy. They are coached by Fio Antognini.
2004 - 22 Sep Australian Record - Rotations. "Crimson Mist" (Matt Berens, Ralph Hamilton-Presgrave, Tom Begic, Cameron Cooper, and Mitch McMartin (video)) break the Australian Rotations Record at the 11th WPC in Croatia with 17 rotations.
2005 WC 2005 Chief Event Judge. Lindy Rochow-Williams is announced as chief event judge of the 2005 World Cup of Canopy Formation. This event is to include the new discipline of 2 Way Sequential.
2005 - 1 April Oz CRW Website Established. The OzCRW website is developed by Tom Begic. Whilst focused on Australian CRW, OzCRW is the worlds most comprehensive information resource about all aspects of CRW.
 

Hit Counter

 

Home Up Contents Site Admin Feedback Search

This site is developed and maintained by Tom Begic. Send mail to Tom with any feedback.
Copyright © 2005 OzCRW. Last modified: May 16, 2005