Killarney Paragliding Classic 2008

I’m baaaaaacccccckkk!

It’s been a while since I updated my blog, which has definitely been the direct result of laziness and beer. Funny how alcohol doesn’t tend to help with procrastination.

Last week I was in Killarney for the Killarney Paragliding Classic. Flying 6 out of 8 possible tasks made the competition a great success, especially as I think most pilots thought we would be spending a week in the rain. The weather lesson with paragliding is a reoccurring one: it’s always good when you’re not there.

The competition was a good one for me. There were a couple days on launch where had I been there alone, I never would have taken off. But once airborne, the conditions were surprisingly pleasant. Likewise when I found myself going 65k’s downwind, I thought “holy shit” and worried a bit about a safe landing, which thankfully never turned into much of an issue. Once again, this grasshopper learns something new with each flight.


It was a bit hard being consistently at the bottom of the results list each day, but if you go into a comp with the attitude that you’re there to learn and not to place, it makes things a bit easier. Not to say that I was ever happy with this, but I really did do my best. I never once made goal, and never flew particularly far, as the 20k mark was unfortunately something I battled all week. I sure don’t know how to fly flatlands properly, so that’s something I will be able to work on in the next few days when the comp out in Manilla begins.

Overall I expanded my comfort zone and by talking to a variety of pilots and experiencing a new place to fly, had me walk away from the comp pretty happy. A bonus at the end was getting second place in the intermediate (<150 hour pilot) category, even though I placed 52nd out of 57 pilots. Yay, new caribiners was a nice prize.

All in all, I really had a good time. The retrieve team I was on were a really great and fun bunch of guys who reminded me of a bit more of a “hardcore” version of my friends back home. I did however, end up hitching rides back most of the time, not only due to flying 18 or 23k’s or whatever on what was usually a 60-100k+ task and being faced with prospect of spending at least 2 additional hours in a vehicle to fetch the guys, but because our driver was a bit of a menace on the road, which half the time was amusing and half the time was hellish. Memories, memories.

Tomorrow our 12 hour drive to Manilla begins, where again, the forecast doesn’t look particularly good. It’s almost as if rainy season has arrived in OZ, whereas even Bright hasn’t been good flying-wise over the last few days. The couple flights I have had were pretty average (okay, granted I cut one short because of a poor decision), but overdevelopment in the afternoons and generally strong wind conditions have not been ideal for paragliders as of late. We shall see what the weather gods have in store for us over the next few days.

If the conditions are good, my goal is to set a new personal best out in Manilla. I’ll keep you all posted on how that goes.