Scratchy, Scratchy

What a great day! Today I put my paragliding skills to the test and ended up having a day full of flying and more importantly learned a ton!

Boy was it nice and windy! It was a consistent 30k’s today and pretty much smack on the dune all day. Other than being especially careful about not getting blown backwards, midairs (there were at least 80 gliders out flying today), or being dragged, this kind of wind is what you want out here at Dune De Pyla.

My first flight made me mad – I flew out from the Dune, and followed the same path as everyone else, but I sank while everyone else maintained. I tried it again, decreasing the break pressure from minimum sink to shoulder height or so, chose the same line as everyone else with an even worse result. Obvious conclusion: my glider officially sucks. Yeah, yeah, I know I complain about it all the time, but since my new one is waiting for me at home, these complaints will soon come to an abrupt end…

So, I acknowledged to myself that my glider is a piece of shit, but I said to myself that I would make a point of flying especially well today. So, I kited that brick up the Dune, launched, sank again, but this time soared a black smudge just before the beach – maybe 10 yards from the water. I soared the sucker, had my ass drag along the sand a couple times but kept with it, flew maybe 3 feet away from a couple walking by on the beach, and rounded a corner on the dune where some dead trees stick out (affectionately known as the ‘anal intruders’). I then tried ridge soaring the “petite falise” which is maybe 30 metres high, but at this point was only about 5 metres up. I still kept with it, and saw a guy hauling his glider up from the beach, but told myself that there was no way in hell I was walking up the ridge, so I kept scratching along. The guy stopped to look, probably hoping that he wouldn’t be the only one who sank out, but I showed the guy how it’s done: I got myself into the bowl on the ridge which tends to be lifty, turned slightly into it, and then away from it, soaring the ridge itself (if that makes sense) and out I climbed. YES!!!!!

I got about 150 feet above the ridge, made some passes and then came down for a tidy landing. I was so happy! I soared that black smudge by the beach a good 300 yards. You know, it’s one thing to launch from the takeoff spot, round the corner and then ridge soar the petite falise…it’s quite another to skim your ass on the beach, and then get 150 feet above it. So cool!

I didn’t do any wingovers or anything today – I just focused on soaring. Although I tend to find it mostly boring, I think technical soaring is quite fun and engaging and the Dune really is a great place to learn this sort of thing.

Tomorrow I leave for the UK – I’m really glad to leave France on such a high note. Although the weather out here has mostly been crap, on the days it’s been good, it’s been really good. I’ve got in a solid 10 hours airtime out here, and endless hours kiting up the Dune. Considering the slack pace, I’m quite happy about my progress – it’s finally all coming together.

Flying in the UK sounds great, weather permitting of course. They have some funky sites where, for example, you can soar an 8 kilometre long ridge, or fly above a chalky white horse on a hill, or even fly near a prison. John (school owner) said that little cross country flights are very doable, so I’m really excited to try my hand at this again and check out the sites of England while I’m at it. Can’t wait!