Patience Grasshopper...
The weather today is a shit show. My naturally persistent optimism is having difficulty kicking in this morning. A front is pushing through, bringing with it strong winds and cloudy skies – this is the exact image I awoke to this morning. If I end up going back to Canada without one flight out here, I think I will cry. It’s days like this that you reevaluate why you even bother with this sport, when you spend so much time only hoping to fly.
In Canada you think that the flying season is short, and that’s reason enough to complain. The funny thing is though that we’re quite lucky to have a decent sized number of sites to fly, which are usually fairly consistent during the summer months. When I say that, I’m thinking more about the BC interior more than anywhere else, and although it’s a bit of a drive, it’s a great place to fly. These UK pilots who I talk to have also had their share of frustrations sitting on hills for endless hours, waiting to fly. And now here we are, like 3000 km’s from England (ok, that’s only a guess), and we’re all waiting again. Parawaiting truly is universal.
It’s 9:30 am – today feels like it’s going to be a long day. It’s time to make the best out of this disappointing situation.
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So I was right, the shit show continues. We didn’t fly today, but I was wrong about it being a lousy day – it was actually quite fun!
The people you do things with really make all the difference. Thankfully I was paired up with Alistar (Al) as my driving buddy, and he’s definitely the coolest of the bunch.
Married with a pregnant wife, Jane, who’s also along for the trip (although obviously not flying), this guy is fucking hilarious! All day while driving through the desert from one blown out flying site to another, we go back and forth in surfer slang about how stuff is sick, the shit, and how flying in Lanzarote blows. Man, I haven’t laughed so hard so much in years!
At the non-flying sites, we play games with rocks, which today involved taking out our lack of flying on a poor cactus, we trash talk each other with plenty of use of the word “whatever”, and drive 100 kmph on washboard roads that have made our rental car fall apart; the front bumper is loose, the weather stripping hangs, and the front lights are apparently fucked.
When Jane is in the car, she’s right in the thick of it too – it’s great. They make such a great couple – if I ever get married, I want to have as much fun as those two.
The rest of the guys are cool, but don’t have half the energy Al does. Tom took a short drive with us today, and dubbed our vehicle the “party car” while laughing at our absolute absurdity. Mentally, paragliding really tests your patience and sanity when it’s not flyable – you can really start to lose it. It’s great to be able to spend time with people who are like-minded and can lift your spirits, even when they’re covered in shit.
On a lighter note, the forecast looks promising for tomorrow, and hell, even if we don’t end up flying, my time out here is short, so I should try to make each day as good as or better than the last.
P.S. Al took me out for a stick shift driving lesson today, which ended up going fairly well. The smell of the burning clutch was cool.
In Canada you think that the flying season is short, and that’s reason enough to complain. The funny thing is though that we’re quite lucky to have a decent sized number of sites to fly, which are usually fairly consistent during the summer months. When I say that, I’m thinking more about the BC interior more than anywhere else, and although it’s a bit of a drive, it’s a great place to fly. These UK pilots who I talk to have also had their share of frustrations sitting on hills for endless hours, waiting to fly. And now here we are, like 3000 km’s from England (ok, that’s only a guess), and we’re all waiting again. Parawaiting truly is universal.
It’s 9:30 am – today feels like it’s going to be a long day. It’s time to make the best out of this disappointing situation.
----
So I was right, the shit show continues. We didn’t fly today, but I was wrong about it being a lousy day – it was actually quite fun!
The people you do things with really make all the difference. Thankfully I was paired up with Alistar (Al) as my driving buddy, and he’s definitely the coolest of the bunch.
Married with a pregnant wife, Jane, who’s also along for the trip (although obviously not flying), this guy is fucking hilarious! All day while driving through the desert from one blown out flying site to another, we go back and forth in surfer slang about how stuff is sick, the shit, and how flying in Lanzarote blows. Man, I haven’t laughed so hard so much in years!
At the non-flying sites, we play games with rocks, which today involved taking out our lack of flying on a poor cactus, we trash talk each other with plenty of use of the word “whatever”, and drive 100 kmph on washboard roads that have made our rental car fall apart; the front bumper is loose, the weather stripping hangs, and the front lights are apparently fucked.
When Jane is in the car, she’s right in the thick of it too – it’s great. They make such a great couple – if I ever get married, I want to have as much fun as those two.
The rest of the guys are cool, but don’t have half the energy Al does. Tom took a short drive with us today, and dubbed our vehicle the “party car” while laughing at our absolute absurdity. Mentally, paragliding really tests your patience and sanity when it’s not flyable – you can really start to lose it. It’s great to be able to spend time with people who are like-minded and can lift your spirits, even when they’re covered in shit.
On a lighter note, the forecast looks promising for tomorrow, and hell, even if we don’t end up flying, my time out here is short, so I should try to make each day as good as or better than the last.
P.S. Al took me out for a stick shift driving lesson today, which ended up going fairly well. The smell of the burning clutch was cool.
posted by Veronica at 8:25 PM
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