Not Missing Anything...

Today is day 6 of the Bright 3-2-1 comp – another day, another day blown out.

Bright is an awesome place to fly – beautiful scenery with technically challenging flying – “mountains” (I still consider aussie “mountains” only hills), flatlands, and generally consistent conditions – it’s great. For this comp though, the weather has not cooperated; the guys have had one valid task day so far, and with only 2 days left of the comp, the Bright 3-2-1 hasn’t exactly been a success. If there's a "bright" side to my injury, it's that it saved me $220 in comp fees - ha ha! Bad joke, I know...

Regardless, I’m still grounded and haven’t flown since my really boring and uninteresting trip on launch in Manilla which has caused me my “grade 3” sprained ankle. I’m doing retrieve for a team in the comp instead though, which hasn’t been very difficult, considering I’ve only had to do one pretty easy retrive. But, I’ve still been spending lots of time in the car driving around each day, going to different launch sites, seeing that it’s not flyable, and then coming back again. It's been okay though - getting out of the house is good.

Ankle-wise, after 2 weeks, I’m still on crutches, but I’m FINALLY seeing some progress! I’ve started to weight-bear a bit and my range of motion is coming back – yes! The physio taped my ankle up today so I can start shuffling around with a flat foot, so slowly, my jealousy of other people's healthy left ankles is slowly waning as mine is making comeback! Still, remind me to never do in my ankle again…

New goal: get airborne in the next week with a zero chance of reinjury. It may take some creativity, but when there's a will, there's always a way.

Me in Manilla

I’ve been really bad out here in OZ not taking nearly as many pictures as I should. I’m regretting it already…that being said, I do have some snapshots from Manilla.

I don't normally post too many pictures of me on my blog, but I suppose it's excusable to be narcissictic once and a while. Change is good.

I think I need some tips from Vannah...

East launch at Mt.Borah


Who said to travel light?

Smiling anyway after an extended sleddie - Mt.Borah in background

Getting ready to launch...

I hope you've all enjoyed seeing these pictures of me...yes, I know I'm an asshole for being able to fly so much over the last couple months and now for rubbing it in with photographic proof, but hey, it's my blog and I can do what I want, including being incredibly immature.

Always have fun - cheers!

Cankles in Manilla

So, I haven’t quite come to terms with not being able to fly and having one totally useless ankle, but somehow the world didn’t stop when I injured myself last week.

After the comp I decided to spend a couple extra days in Manilla where I hung out at the RiverGums Caravan Park with owners Lee and David. If you appreciate good hospitality, a clean and well maintained campground with genuinely caring people, their caravan park is THE place to stay. I can’t thank them enough for looking after me for those few days and I feel incredibly lucky to be part of their family. Thank you both so much again, and please come back to Canada soon!!!

I took some pictures of my ankle about 24 hours after I tripped – pretty, no?



Doesn’t it look like I have a cankle? How funny is that?! And yes, I know my ankle looks bad, but if you’re going to sprain your ankle, I say you should do it properly…!

A Valentines Day to Remember

Task 4
Driving up to launch, I was psyching myself up for a better day. The clouds were looking good and I was ready to set a new personal best. I was excited.

At launch the people who got airborne right away were generally staying up, and some were making a run for it right off the bat. I set up, and after having to move my gear 3 times to different launch sites because of slight wind direction changes, I was finally ready to go. A couple guys went for it, and although not high, they were maintaining. Those of us ready to go were biding our time, knowing full well that in Manilla, it’s easy to bomb out. Picking the right time to launch can be crucial and staying in whatever lift you’re presented with, even moreso.

I fiddled with my glider a bit, and decided that waiting any longer was silly. I was loaded up on ballast, 5kg’s in the front and 2kg’s in the back, ready for a big day. A puff of wind came, and as it did, I reverse launched, and started running down the hill. My glider started to get low, so I accelerated and leaned forward when I suddenly tripped a bit on the carpet and as my ballast was hanging low, down I tumbled. I came to a nice stop with my glider on the side, and as I disconnected my flightdeck/ballast bag and dragged it to the side, I could feel something wasn’t right. I took off my boot, and there it was: a nice swollen ankle. Shit!

The paramedic came, and after stabilizing my ankle and foot, I was carried off into our retrieve vehicle and driven to the Manilla hospital. After some xrays and a quick consultation with a doctor, and a total of 3 hours later, the diagnosis was in: sprained ankle. Not fun.

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So, today is my first full day doing nothing. My ankle is still really swollen and black and blue and I can’t walk on it, so I’m on crutches… Everyone around me has been really great, taking care of me, and fetching this or that as I get to be the baby of the group. Attention is nice, but I wish the circumstances were different!

Yesterday pilots flew 100 and even 200k’s – amazing! I heard of a couple personal bests, and I’m happy for those pilots. Today seems much of the same as again, conditions out here in Manilla look really good. Obviously I’m really bummed that I can’t fly, but what do you do?

The Bright 3-2-1 competition is in just over a week, and I NEED to fly in it. I’m going to take it easy for the next few days, and if the swelling goes down as planned, I will fly again shortly…

Emotionally I don’t think I’ve ever been put to the test so much: constant rumours, alienation and now this, is driving me a bit nuts. I’m happy with the flying out here, but almost nothing else, so it’s been hard. Who I am is constantly questioned, and as I don’t apologize for this or what I do (unless justified), I’m getting tired of the whole situation. I’m certainly tempted to give in and just go home, but hmmmm, that’s not something I think I should have to resort to. Jealousy is a terrible thing.

One pilot summed it up nicely by saying that chaos follows me everywhere. Maybe she’s right, but I never have been one to give up or give in easily, so I’ll try to continue to roll with the punches and push forward – bunk ankle or not.

Manilla XC Open

When we arrived in Manilla for the XC Open, a beautiful cumolous-filled sky greeted us. Manilla itself is a really small town but as with any small town in Australia, the people are friendly. Staying at the caravan park in my very own caravan has been great - why 'rough it' when you don't have to?

Task 1
Tricky conditions in super-light lift. I used strategies from Killarney, and just drifted in whatever I could find...zeros, plus ones, anything on the positive side meant I turned. I did suprisingly well with a distance of 30 k's, which had me place 20th for the day. Not a bad start.

Task 2
Bombed twice, and went up the mountain for the third time with the attitude that another sleddie would be good practice. I ended up finding a +.3m/s thermal that eventually got me above launch height and then over the back. I dribbled along and at the end of the day had an optimized score of something like 10k's. I still placed in the middle of the pack somewhere, so I was happy.

Task 3
On my second flight, the conditions were very strong, and the thermals were being ripped apart by the strong winds. I flew only a few k's along with a few other pilots and we all decked it at the same spot - a spot sort of in the middle of nowhere. Thankfully one of the pilots had radio contact with his team, and I got a ride back on the Polish bus. Results from this day hurt me pretty badly, and I was determined to fly better the next day...

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.