Feels like Home

Well, it’s not flyable in the UK – the weather just isn’t very good. It seems to rain on and off and the wind seems quite strong at times. Can’t really say I’m overly surprised – I hate to say it, but English weather has lived up to its notorious reputation.

I really like England though – it’s really quite charming. The people are nice, the countryside is beautiful, and the narrow streets and old buildings are just well, very European. It really is different from Canada…in some ways good and in some ways, not so much. I have to admit that I miss random Canadian things like our big stores, modern houses, traffic signs that are actually in understandable English, general over-consumerism, and maybe just the familiarity. Not to say that England doesn’t have some of these things – it’s just different, and I’ve always been a proud Canadian.

Not surprisingly then I’m a touch homesick – I miss my family, being with friends, the warm summer weather, and the mountains. I don’t think about it too much, but when I do I really do miss everything and everyone.

John and Izzy are great and have made me feel really welcome and have introduced me to gourmet cooking in the home. Thankfully John and I get along very well (usually making fun of the things me or he says) so although we’ve spent a lot of time together, and even survived 20 hours together getting back to the UK from France, there are always plenty of laughs.

Tomorrow’s my birthday…wow. It’ll be great to party it up English-style. Although nobody’s telling me what the exact plans are, I’m guessing a bunch of us will go to a pub and I’ll end up having too much to drink. I really don’t like making plans to drink excessively, but I haven’t been completely inebriated since January, so if that’s what ends up happening, I won’t be too upset. Yeah, justifying drinking is a bad sign, but if it’s your birthday, well, that’s reason enough for pretty much anything. :)

I’ve already decided that this is my slack week, and next week will be full of flying. It’ll be great!

UK Arrival

After a full day's worth of travel, I've made it to the UK. The drive was long, but John was good company and we made it here in one piece.

Here are the last 2 pictures I took of the Dune a couple days ago. Notice the smudge by the beach...

I'm sooooooooo tired - I'll say more tomorrow.

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!

Lucky Flying Pants

Yesterday was the most perfect day at the Dune – I flew all day long! I woke up and put on my lucky flying pants (that’s why you see me in flying pictures always wearing the same damn thing!) and sure enough, I flew plenty. British translation: pants = trousers…no lucky flying knickers - yet.

The wind was quite strong, but I’m starting to feel more and more comfortable with this, and rarely are things ever out of hand. I was even complemented on my glider control by an instructor from another group – yay!

In fact, I’m beginning to really like strong wind. It’s fun kiting my glider sideways up the Dune, skiing my way up when I can. I’ve already improved on pushing forward in strong winds during launch and I really enjoy breaking from the pack and just flying all over the place. I’ll go to one end of the Dune, soar a bit, come back and topland, kite my glider sideways up another part of the Dune, fly out, do some wingovers or pitch oscillations (feels like a roller coaster ride!), scratch my way along the bottom, soaring near the beach, and do it all again. I’ve quickly realized that sticking to making endless passes along a ridge is not my thing at all – I think my attention span is much too short for that.

Signs of a paragliding junky

It was a bit of a circus last night when one particularly disgruntled pilot who didn’t bother to fly and instead chose to drink all day, decided to be especially rude and verbally abusive to some of the other pilots – especially me. I will admit that I did feel a bit threatened by him, but I think the other pilots felt it moreso and therefore took a lot of precautions so that I wouldn’t get hurt. It’s really good to know that you have people around you who care and look after you. My strategy today is to avoid the guy the best I can today and keep my mouth shut as much as I can. In a battle of wits, well, this guy wouldn’t have a chance in hell against me so why waste my breath? The misery in his life is something he’s mostly created for himself and nights like last are just adding to his problems...

On a brighter note, this morning the winds are very strong, but the sky is blue with some nice puffy cumulous whizzing by. If the winds die a bit, we’ll be flying all day again – can’t wait!

Nutella

------------The following has absolutely nothing to do with paragliding--------------

My flat mates for this week were interesting people; a father and daughter who are in the cider making business with the dad having a bit of a wacky personality and sense of humour. Sharing a mobile a home-like structure with 2 people is cramped enough, but somehow we managed to survive with the 3 of us sharing living quarters that seem customized for dwarves. Anyway, I went to the campsite store the other day to buy some food, and because I haven’t had a chocolate fix for some time, I spent a lot of time looking at sweets. A jar of Nutella caught my eye, but I remembered the sugar content of that stuff and how I can’t seem to stop eating it once I start, but I gave in to my urge anyway and bought a jar. Over the last few days my Nutella supply seemed to slowly decrease, and I suspected my housemates were quietly eating it when my back was turned. A couple nights ago my suspicions were confirmed when I noticed someone used a steak knife in the jar, while my preference is to use a spoon. A couple guys and I made jokes about it on the side and laughed at how even when I’d put the jar behind other food, it was always found and emptied some more. The farmer and his daughter left for home early this morning, and my funny feeling about the Nutella jar on the previous night was confirmed: this morning my Nutella jar was missing. Those bastards stole my Nutella! We all laughed at the ridiculousness of the idea of eating and then actually taking someone else’s Nutella jar but they must have felt pretty sorry for me because they knocked on my door shortly after with a brand new jar in their hands – YES!
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So yeah, it’s not flyable right now.

Last night was fun though – during the day I ended up walking the entire length of the dune at the top, and then taking the beach route on the way back. Took me a couple hours, but it was great! The sea breeze then kicked in later on, and I had a really fun time kiting my wing all over the Dune. I got really good at it and started skiing, and kiting it sideways up little dunes. I got in the air and did some pitch oscillations (very fun when you’re so low) and crabbed along the ridge when I felt like it. The wind was very strong, and many times you thought twice about inflating your glider when it was on the ground, and when you looked around, you could see that others were contemplating the same. My launching in that kind of wind needs some work, as I have a tendency to be pulled backwards when I face forwards, but I recognize my problem is that I still maintain brake pressure when I’m leaned forward, so I definitely need to work on that.

Other than that, things are good. Of course I wish the weather were better, but the weather in the UK right now is apparently crap, so I’m not missing anything. Hopefully it’ll improve for next week. I think I’m leaving France Monday night, so hopefully I’ll get to soar the Dune at least once more…

The Perfect Storm

In typical paragliding vacation fashion, the weather has turned to crap – it’s either raining or too windy to do fly, or when it is “flyable” the wind is so light, top to bottoms with a whole lot of hopping down the dune is the best one can do.

The internet connections out here were almost non-existent for a few days, so I’ve actually kind of lost track of time. I don’t really know how long it’s not been flyable for, and I just kind of whittle the days away doing well…nothing! It was a very unusual feeling there for those few days – when you run a business and suddenly you know there’s nothing you can do about it, you forget about it. I kind of liked that! First time in 4 years I could fully forget about it…

Anyway, now that the internet’s back, it’s back to business, and even when there is wind out on the dune, I play around a bit. I flew Tom’s wing for a bit, (pilot I met in Lanzarote) which was a great experience. This wing (a DHV I Sky Fides II by Sky Paragliders) practically launches itself, and just kind of floats overhead without almost any pilot input. WOW! Carrying it back up was so much easier than my Apco too, but no need for jealousy because:

MY WING CAME! MY WING CAME! MY WING CAME!

Yes, you read that right – after 4 weeks of being in transit, my new wing has safely arrived at home. Nevermind the fact that I’m in France right now – I’m just happy that it made it. There’s actually a chance that I might be able to borrow a Rush during the time I’m in the UK, so things look like they’ll work out. And even if a Rush specifically isn’t available, I might be able to fly something that’s a step up from what I’m flying now – yay!

A few of us were in the bar the other night when we could see a storm approaching in the distance. The lightning started to get more and more intense, and the idea (perhaps stupid!?) came up that we should go to the Dune to get a closer look. So, Tom and I ended up walking close to 20 minutes to the Dune while lightning flashed about 4 times a second while I tried to take pictures. The storm got closer and closer, and being around so many trees was pretty unnerving, so eventually we chickened out and ran back home although not without stopping once more for some pics. Not 30 seconds after I closed the door to my place was there an absolute deluge of rain and marble sized hail combined with huge gusts of wind – exciting!

Here are the pics – they are completely unedited except for sizing.




One of my philosophies: Don’t wait for excitement to find you – seek it yourself.

Another Good Day at the Dune

Yep, I was right, I flew yesterday. The tandem pilots and I checked things out again after we gave the wind some time, and sure enough it was soarable. It was very nice – lots of people in the air, and plenty of adventure.

It’s interesting flying with tandem pilots as the amount of wake turbulence is a lot more than you’d expect, so it’s good to be cautious. They obviously fly faster, so they tend to creep up from behind and then pass, which is fine, but then suddenly you’re dealing with the crappy air they create. I actually had a good 20% deflation at one point, which I easily pumped out, but hah, that woke me up from peaceful ridge soaring! There were a couple thermals pushing up against the ridge every once in a while too which I thought was quite fun. I like the feeling of straight up – it’s great!

I soared for a good 40 minutes and then I got bored, so I decided to land. My landings were great, but I had a hard time getting off the dune again with the wind so strong. I just find pushing forward (even with zero brake) hard. I must have looked pretty ridiculous pushing forward almost on my tiptoes with a harness that rides up, gaining ground ever so slowly. Oh well, I think it looks worse (and a lot less comfortable) when men have to do it!

When I landed, the tandem pilots (whose passengers took pics of me) warned me about a guy with an American flag on his helmet – they said that he didn’t know his ridge rules, and to stay away if possible. So, I launched again, soared some more when I heard some whistling coming from behind. I turned around and jumped a bit in my seat when I saw the Yank passing me pretty far on the right. It was a bit odd that he was flying right out of the lift band and over some tall pointy trees, but I kind of shrugged and just turned the other way.

The wind picked up and a couple times I had zero ground speed, and even travelled a bit backwards. On that particular part of the dune, you really don’t want to land because it’s super-steep, and there are kind of bushy areas with snakes. And at high tide, well, the beach isn’t much of a landing zone either. So, I got out of that somewhat pinned position, flew faster, and went to land.

The wind ended up dying, but it was a really fun day. That’s exactly what I wish every day were like….I’m still waiting to gain like 1000 feet of height above the dune and do something fun to bring the wing down, but I’ll stay patient. The internet connection out here has really been annoying me lately, hence the infrequent blog postings, but other than that, things are good. I’m itching to get to England to look around, but I’m not sure if I’ll ever be at this particular part of the world again, so I’m just enjoying where I am.

A Good Day at the Dune

Yesterday was great because I finally got some decent flying in, apart from that ridge soaring flight that seemed like ages ago.

The day started off very windy, so while most of the pilots did took their club pilot exams, 3 of us went to a little town, walked around a bit and had some really good ice cream. Who knew that ice cream could come in 98 different flavours including curry coconut and chilli chocolate? It was good to spice things up a bit from just sitting on the beach waiting for the wind to change, wittling the hours away.

We came back and the Dune had plenty of people flying around doing wagga, and attempting to soar (although it wasn’t quite conducive for that). The instructors got their wings out because they felt it was too strong for us, and did some playing around themselves.

The wind dropped by a couple knots and everyone got their wings out. My first flight was kind of crappy – nothing special really, but from then on I had a blast. The wind was extremely strong the higher you got, so I would soar the lower part of the ridge, do some bobs by pressing the brakes and then do some wingovers when I felt like landing. SOOOOOO much fun. At the bottom, I’d kite the wing up, and do it again. At one point I must have been in the air for a good half hour within maybe a 100 meter radius crabbing back and forth, or almost just sitting idly in the air. That’s what it’s all about….

I must say that my launches kicked ass, even that kind of wind. The Dune is great because if it’s super-windy, you just bring up your wing and let yourself ski towards it. Of course you can do this on things like gravel too, but on the sand it’s so nice and smooth. Ahhhh. It was nice too just having the confidence to fly that sort of wind and know what to do if things went awry. The instructors helped out the beginners, while I played around a good half kilometer or so away. Nice to know that I didn’t need babysitting.

Today things look really good again. The wind is straight on the Dune, but a couple tandem pilots and I just went to look at it, and it was too light for our taste. The group from last week left today, and a larger group will be here for this week. I’m pretty sure I’ll get some flying in today and next week looks good, so I’m pretty happy about that. Sunshine + flying = :)

French Adventures

Man, oh man, what an adventure I had getting out here to France. Without boring you all to bits, I’ll sum it up in a paragraph:

My flight from Toronto to Heathrow was delayed and the plane almost left without me, on the plane I got zero sleep thanks to babies crying and a kid fascinated with the overhead light switch, in Heathrow the line to clear customs was over an hour and a half long, when the bus from Heathrow arrived at Gatwick airport there was a lineup from inside the terminal snaking all the way out the doors. This two hour line ended up being for checking baggage as the carousels were not working properly, and my flight to Bordeaux was therefore delayed by 3 hours. This was by far my most exhausting travel journey ever, but I met some great people along the way, and arrived here, with my bags, in one piece!

The Dune itself is well…massive! The weather is hot but the sun reflects off the dune making it even more of a scorcher. The Brits I’m flying with are great (God I love the English!) and so far things have been going pretty well.

Yesterday I soared for about 45 minutes and just spent some time messing around with my glider on he dune. The wind was a consistent 25-30 k’s which made it perfect to muck about.

The two flights I had yesterday were somewhat uneventful, as ridge soaring tends to be. I think soaring-wise I did well, and although there was plenty of “traffic” to watch out for, I just anticipated what others would do and felt confident cozying up as close to the ridge as possible.

On my landing during my second flight I thought it would be cool to fly downwind as far as possible, and then spin the glider upwind at the last second. Well…I waited a touch too long upwind and ate sand on that one, but hey, where else would you want to practice this stuff? I’ll have this move down-pact by the end of next week.

The sea breeze right now is a touch too strong and a bit scattered, so we’ve taken a break from the sun and will be back at the Dune in a bit. I’ll have more adventures to recite soon, I’m sure.

Last Post before France

This time next week I will be in putting to practice mon Francais and since I'm leaving Friday morning, I figured a final blog posting out of Canada for the month of June would be appropriate.

I don't remember how many insane hours I will be travelling to get to France, but it's a lot - something like 30. I'm planning my nap times already, although things will likely change en route. I will be a zombie when I finally get to Bordeaux, but if it's flyable at the Dune, well, you can bet I'll be doing that right away.

So yeah, I'll be tired as hell when I get to France, but I'll deal with it. I worry a bit about British Airways giving me a hard time again for being over the baggage limit - we'll see if this second time around I can get away with the innocent ignorant blonde routine. I really don't care anymore if I have to play that card - it's a choice between trying that or paying a couple hundred bucks for being over the baggage limit...now all I have to do is learn how to cry at will. KIDDING!!!

That martial arts showdown at the casino the other night, was um....interesting. Why anyone would pay to see 2 guys beat the living shit out of each other is a bit beyond me. It was almost barbaric, and I can't say I support grown men acting like caged animals pouncing on one another and finishing each other off via direct punches to the face. I wouldn't say I was grossed out or had my eyes closed the entire time or anything - it just all seemed unnecessary. That being said, I will admit that when one of the organizers of the event introduced me to the "guy who's job it is to clean up blood" I did start to feel a bit queasy. My last night at the casino is one I won't forget - I went out with a bang just as one of my favourite managers promised.

Unfortunately this trip already seems like bad timing business-wise, so it'll sure be interesting to see how much work I can actually get done overseas. The last 2 weeks have had a fair bit of excitement in that area, and now I keep telling everyone how things will have to be "on hold" for at least the next couple weeks. Less than ideal, but what's one to do? Who the hell does business in the summer anyway?

So I'm half done packing, and I'm ready to get on that plane Friday morning. I think I had my first completely paragliding-related dream last night; I remember being in Golden with a bunch of other pilots, and Will Gadd was there talking about clouds. In the dream I finally made sense of thermals was excited to fly, although I kept worrying about bumming out in the wilderness. Hah, that's not too far from the truth. Although with this trip, thankfully, that possibility doesn't really even exist.

Anyway, this will officially be my longest trip ever (3 weeks was the previous record), so this vacation will be an experience to say the least. I still hope to get the following out of it: lots of airtime (20 hours would be nice...), mastering ridge soaring and top landings, and I'm still hoping for that 10 k flight out in the UK. Ok, maybe I'm being optimistic about the latter, but it COULD happen!

As per standard protocol, I will update my blog as often as possible while I am away. My fantasy is to have cheap wi-fi out in France - then it'll be like I never left - lucky you!

Happy flights to you all meanwhile.