From Suriname, based in the Netherlands since 1983
Jumps: +3250
Loves: Coaching and inspiring skydivers and non-skydivers. Pushing the boundaries in CF by competing and breaking records, it has to under a certain set of conditions though. . . FUN and SAFE skydives!
Born in Suriname, Henk’s passion for skydiving started when he was watching a demo in his hometown of Nieuw Nickerie. The demo team had travelled all the way from Texel in the Netherlands, might seem like a strange bit of information but for those of you who have read Herman’s bio it is probably no surprise that he was part of that demo team in 1979. Henk started skydiving in 1984 at his home DZ in Eelde while still at high school, he just about managed to finish his engineering studies even if pretty much every spare minute was spent at the DZ.
One of Henk’s main passions is competing within the sport, he has also played a huge part at his home DZ as an instructor, both tandem and AFF jumps, which certainly kept him busy for a number of years. If that wasn’t enough he also setting up his own skydiving school. An adventurous life followed in which Henk organized skydiving holidays abroad and continued to travel around Europe as a freelance instructor.
In 2002 Henk had a bit of time off, well 10 years, when he concentrated on bringing up his own family rather than the skydiving family. During his time off, Henk missed, among other things, a series of world records that the CF world record team set from 2003 to 2007. He quickly made up for this by getting back involved in the CF world. 2-way CF competition and big-way events eventually became his main focus. He became the Dutch Champion and started coaching many other skydiving related things once again.
As Henk’s involvement in big way events returned it was inevitable that he was involved in the founding of the European Canopy Formation team (ECF) in 2015. In the same year he participated in the Australian CF record, a 44-way.
Annual European events followed, and new European records were set in 2016 and 2018. Henk is proud to be part of this crEUw team, as a member of the ECF team. If you are interested to do crEUw, The crEUw team offers CF events and basic CF training courses throughout Europe. As member the world CF team, new world sequential records were broken in 2019 and 2020.
Henk’s adventures continue with the CF Specialist team visiting other countries such as like China and Egypt to perform CF demonstrations. Henk certainly hopes to use this as a platform to complete the circle and inspire the next generation of skydivers as he was inspired by the Texel demo team in Suriname.
Skydiving means freedom and literally being on top of the world. I remember one of my first jumps, being last in the load of the C-182 going to 7.000 ft, alone with Tjipke van Netten, our club pilot. I was just 17 years old and taking control of where and when to exit the airplane, while flying with an open door through the fresh cloudy skies, being one with nature. That great feeling of freedom and being in control has stayed with me during the rest of my skydiving career.
Competition is a great way to work on personal skills. Participating in competitions also makes you meet more people in our great sport.
I love helping students to the next level following just 3 rules. First rule is ‘have fun’ the other two rules, well you will have to come and jump with me!!
Skydiving is also a way of life and being part of a family. Traveling through Florida in ‘94/’95 on my own, I had no problem finding new places to visit, stay and make friends.
Wherever you are as skydiver, just project all skydiving centres and clubs onto the map and you have yourself a pretty nice tour that will take you to enriching your life.
‘Already excited to do CRW? Checkout this CF introduction video or the 2019 experience. ‘
Eat, sleep, skydive!
Please get in touch with Henk directly by mail or facebook.
p.s. occasionally Henk carry’s his freefall rig with him as well 😉
