Natisha skydives head first into new speed record

Ashley Schipper

If jumping out of a plane to skydive wasn't exhilarating enough, imagine falling head first and aligning your body to its straightest position so you can reach maximum speed.

That's a reality for Bundaberg-born Natisha Dingle who has beaten her own speed skydiving record at the weekend's 2022 Australian Skydiving Championships.

Speed skydiving is a competition in which the goal is to achieve and maintain the highest possible terminal velocity.

It was developed in the late 1990s and is the fastest non-motorised sport on Earth.

During the last speed skydiving round of the 2022 Australian Skydiving Championships, Natisha clocked 488.21 km/hour, which beat the previous record of 483.61 km/hour she set just a few days prior.

“Speed Skydiving is when your objective is to fall as fast as you can by making your body as streamline as possible,” she said.

“This is usually achieved by going head first.

“We use a Flysight which is a GPS measuring device which records data.

“The highest vertical speed is what the jump is scored on, it's the fastest three seconds over an allocated height window.”

Natisha was born in Bundaberg and often comes back to the area and its surrounds to visit family between her speed skydiving endeavours.

It's a sport that Natisha said she had been perfecting ever since she became interested in skydiving at just 15 years old.

“I saved all of my money from working after school and then asked my mum if she would drive me to the skydiving centre on the weekend,” she said.

“Because she had taught me to save for what I want and value money, she could hardly say no when I gave her $300 cash!

“I'm so glad she said yes, I have been hooked ever since. I have always loved competing so this was a natural progression for me.”

Since then, Natisha has continued to develop her speed skydiving skillset and currently lives at Skydive Ramblers in Toogoolawah, training most days.

She said she was over the moon with the weekend's competition results.

“I broke my own record three times in the last three years, I managed to break it twice this year and on my last round I flew 488.21km,” Natisha said.

“I am very proud to hold this record.

“I have been accepted to compete in Arizona in October this year so I am looking forward to making the record an official world record.”

Natisha said learning the ins and outs of speed skydiving posed some challenges and there was always a risk involved after each jump out of the aircraft.

“It's very important that you are confident on your belly and are able to make a quick recovery for deployment in case you become unstable,” she said.

“I spend a lot of time training, trying to perfect my position and maximise my speed.

“So essentially it takes a lot of time and money. I look after my body by getting regular physio and I also prepare mentally with meditation.”

While it's hard work becoming Australia's fastest female speed skydiver, Natisha said she loved every minute of it.

“I love the limitless feeling that anything is possible,” she said.

“Skydiving truly is living in the moment, nothing else enters your mind except what you are trying to achieve.

“People always say you come to skydive and stay for the people. It really is a very inclusive and accepting community and I feel extremely supported.

“I have made many life long friendships over the years and I wouldn't change that for the world.”

Arizona is the next destination on Natisha's to-do list and is where she hopes to conquer the world record.

She said her speed skydiving success was thanks to many people in her life.

“I am so blessed to have an amazing team of sponsors behind me,” she said.

“My first sponsors were Get Chopped , this really changed my mind set and the reality that this is achievable and I will be forever grateful for their belief in me.

“I now also have the support of the Australian Parachute Federation, SQPC, Job Connect, Skydive Ramblers, HyEnergy Solutions, Downward Trend, Optimise Health, Velocity Sports Equipment and Deem Flywear.

“Without the support I wouldn't be able to have so much time off work to train. I am so grateful for each of you.”

Photos: Skydive Ramblers
Mason Corby

Businesses called to take part in new Childers Trail

Georgia Neville

Local businesses are being given the chance to showcase unique offerings as part of a new Childers Trail initiative, to be launched as part of the upcoming Childers Festival.

The initiative aims to highlight Childers artists and businesses who are providing an exclusive opportunity for people to purchase a product or take part in an activity only available during the Childers Festival.

Council’s Arts, Culture and Events portfolio spokesperson Cr John Learmonth said the fantastic initiative would assist in showcasing the unique offerings of Childers businesses.

“Childers is a town full of talent and surprises, so this initiative provides the opportunity for our local artists and businesses to showcase something special to those visiting during the Childers Festival,” Cr Learmonth said.

“I encourage as many local businesses as possible to support this and come up with their unique product to be involved in the trail.”

One local artist Sue McCloy from Sue’s Secret Serenity is already on board with the initiative, offering unique cane fire painting lessons.

“For many years, the Childers Festival has been drawing crowds to our region from miles around and this trail provides the perfect opportunity for visitors to see what we have to offer and hopefully build up and create ongoing interest in our businesses and the town of Childers,” Sue said.

“I was excited to be a part of the Childers Trail, as I have recently launched my business “Sue's Secret Serenity”, of which art therapy and making art for fun are a big part.

“The cane fire tours are one of the major featured activities on offer over the weekend and I thought I could bring some focus to the tours by providing my Cane Fire Painting Workshops.

“I feel that this is a wonderful way to showcase some of the businesses and activities available for the visitors to participate in at the Childers Festival.”

Sue’s workshops will cater for a range of abilities, with three different designs suited to both beginner and experienced artists.

“I have created three cane fire paintings that are good for beginners and experienced artists alike and will make a great souvenir of their time in Childers,” she said.

“I will be showing some footage of one of the cane fire burns to show the participants what a burn looks like and allow them to understand the intensity and movement of the flames and incorporate that into their paintings.

“I am looking forward to meeting new people and sharing the experience of creating a piece of art they can be proud of and perhaps igniting a flame within them to continue having fun with art.”

You can find out more about participating in the Childers Trail by contacting the Bundaberg Regional Council events team here.

STALLHOLDER APPLICATIONS STILL OPEN

Applications are still open for stallholders as part of the 2022 Childers Festival which will see around 300 stalls line the streets and performers entertaining the crowds on Sunday, 31 July.

For those wishing to take part in the stallholder process at this year’s Childers Festival, applying is simple.

Applicants are asked to head to the website, fill out the form and upload all relevant documents.

Those who live in the postcode of 4660 are eligible to receive a 50% discount on stallholder fees.

Expressions of interest applications are open until Friday 15 April, with stallholders to be notified by Friday 22 April.

You can find out more about Bundaberg Regional Council's Childers Festival here.

In our Garage: Maurie West’s Messerschmitt

Paul Donaldson

Maurie West’s distinctive Messerschmitt is a rare convertible design which the manufacturer introduced when it could no longer build planes.

Over the past five years Maurie has lovingly returned the unique vehicle to its original glory.

Q. Tell us about this unique little car:

A. The vehicle’s a Messerschmitt KR 200, built in 1958. We've had it since the early sixties, the family has.

It was restored probably five years ago, back to its original state.

The car was originally bought, and we used it for a bit of promotional stuff way back with the Stanley Golden Fleece era.

It was used promotional when the car got put into a shed and virtually got destroyed being in the shed, not covered, roof leaked and everything else.

Then quite a few years ago now we decided to do it up and to the state that it is now.

The car is fully original, we brought it back to original status, how it was kept and as it should be.

Q. Why did you decide to restore the car?

A. The reason it was restored was a phone call from the Messerschmitt Club down south, wanting to know whether we had this particular vehicle.

An old mate of mine was here when I got it out of the shed, and he said, why don't we get it going?

It ended up at full restoration back to bare metal.

Q. How many hours do you think you have spent on restoring the vehicle?

A. The hours spent on the vehicle was not kept as a record, we did it all for love, really.

From the original result of the vehicle where it ended up at, and to see the finished project, it was just fantastic.

It is hard to believe how good it could come back.

A lot of the parts were brought out of England, although it being a German background vehicle.

There's a massive club in England and to get the snakeskin interior, that's in it, we had to order especially.

Q. What engine is in the car and how does it drive?

A. It's a single cylinder 2 stroke.

To get it to go forward, you turn the key, and the motor starts in forward direction.

To get reverse, you switch it off, push the key in and start the motor in reverse. Being a two stroke, it will start in reverse.

You get four forwards and four reverses.

Q. Tell us about the unique design:

A. All of the controls are original in it, except for the gear knob, it was like a pool ball and we decided to do something different, just for our touch of what we've done to the vehicle.

A lot of the parts were left over from the Messerschmitt planes as they weren't allowed to build aeroplanes after the war.

It's not as unique as one would think to the fact of Messerschmitt, there's quite a few around in the Sydney, Melbourne metro areas.

But as far as convertibles, there's fewer of them around.

It's from the Messerschmitt plane design factory, and that's where the design came out of, from not being able to build planes, to a little economical commuter around after the war.

It's very much a head turner.

Q. What else have you collected over the years related to the Messerschmitt?

A. I was very fortunate before a gentleman, one of our customers, passed away that he gave me the brochure for the Messerschmitt, unfortunately, it's in German.

Q. How do you get into the car?

It's actually a three-seater.

It's very unique, the side actually lifts up, the seat, lifts up in the air, slides up in the air. You sit on it and you slide yourself down, then you close the top on it.

And that's what I love about it.