New World Title! First-Ever to Paraglide in Ski Boot Liners!
As you can guess from the title of this post, a couple of weekends ago, I believe I may have set a new first in the paragliding community by launching my paraglider in ski-boot liners. Yes you read that right! Also don't forget that I am also probably the first person to fly a paraglider with a "Taco" sign between my teeth. What will I think of next?
Where did this latest feat in pragliding take place? At Panorama Ski Resort - about 15 km's from Invermere, BC. I headed out there for the annual Easter Meet where paragliders get super-cheap lift tickets, launch on the ski hill and try their hand at flying xc or trying to win the spot-landing competition.
On Saturday I was ready to go flying so I rented some ski boots, stuck on my skiis and took the lift up to launch. OWWWEEEEEE! I obviously have something very wrong with my feet as the ski boots I put on were absolutely killing me. The pain was AWFUL! Long story short, by the time I got to launch, my feet had started to swell, and I sat there for the longest time in my socks. I had one launch attempt on skiis, which went, well, pretty badly, so after hitting the ground, like a fussy child, I threw the ski boots off my feet, stomped up the hill in my socks, and thought of a way to launch without those torture devices on my feet. Enter the idea of launching in liners.
I was a bit worried about slipping, but you know what? It worked out pretty good. Here's the video for the Guiness people:
I had a very nice flight and landed with one foot in the target. Unfortunately I didn't win the competition, but it was probably rigged because of discrimination against those who have skiing disabilities, but that's ok.
My next flight was OK, although a storm was rolling in so there was some cloud suck combined with what I thought was rotor sink from one of the nearby mountains. I landed fine, although definitly in a hurry, and some of the pilots who launched after me had an exciting flight pulling Big-Ass Ears, spiralling, etc.
There were no incidences relating to the storm per se, although one unlucky pilot this weekend landed in the trees...twice! Poor guy...
That night there was a nice dinner, a booze-filled party, a bit of dancing, and some instances of overall wackiness on behalf of the pilots. The next day was blown out for flying, although some pilots stuck around to do some skiing or snowboarding. Needless to say I was not one of them!
A fun weekend overall. If you like skiing and like paragliding, the Panorama Easter Meet is for you!
Where did this latest feat in pragliding take place? At Panorama Ski Resort - about 15 km's from Invermere, BC. I headed out there for the annual Easter Meet where paragliders get super-cheap lift tickets, launch on the ski hill and try their hand at flying xc or trying to win the spot-landing competition.
On Saturday I was ready to go flying so I rented some ski boots, stuck on my skiis and took the lift up to launch. OWWWEEEEEE! I obviously have something very wrong with my feet as the ski boots I put on were absolutely killing me. The pain was AWFUL! Long story short, by the time I got to launch, my feet had started to swell, and I sat there for the longest time in my socks. I had one launch attempt on skiis, which went, well, pretty badly, so after hitting the ground, like a fussy child, I threw the ski boots off my feet, stomped up the hill in my socks, and thought of a way to launch without those torture devices on my feet. Enter the idea of launching in liners.
I was a bit worried about slipping, but you know what? It worked out pretty good. Here's the video for the Guiness people:
I had a very nice flight and landed with one foot in the target. Unfortunately I didn't win the competition, but it was probably rigged because of discrimination against those who have skiing disabilities, but that's ok.
My next flight was OK, although a storm was rolling in so there was some cloud suck combined with what I thought was rotor sink from one of the nearby mountains. I landed fine, although definitly in a hurry, and some of the pilots who launched after me had an exciting flight pulling Big-Ass Ears, spiralling, etc.
There were no incidences relating to the storm per se, although one unlucky pilot this weekend landed in the trees...twice! Poor guy...
That night there was a nice dinner, a booze-filled party, a bit of dancing, and some instances of overall wackiness on behalf of the pilots. The next day was blown out for flying, although some pilots stuck around to do some skiing or snowboarding. Needless to say I was not one of them!
A fun weekend overall. If you like skiing and like paragliding, the Panorama Easter Meet is for you!
posted by Veronica at 2:38 PM
1 Comments:
Haha, I still LOVE that taco photo. Burrito burrito!
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