Dude

Dude - this guy is one of us.  He's not a punk-ass rich kid from a powerful political dynasty, like, yeah, you know who.

What's different about him?  Well, just take a look at the picture, he's saying "I work for you."

I don't envy him though, as he is inheriting the biggest flocking mess in the world - left by, uh, yeah, you know who.

Ned Kelly's Helmet

I saw Ned Kelly last night, staring Heath Ledger.

It was really cool seeing the Australian landscape around Victoria, and also the cockatoos, kangaroos, and wombat's (didn't actually see a wombat, but they were eating wombat stew...)

The helmet (at left) was part of Ned Kelly's home made iron armour made from heating plow shares and hammering them to shape around a green log.

During his last stand against the 100 or so coppers, he donned his armour and walked straight at them while firing his weapons.  The dents in the helmet were made by bullets is my guess, must have really rung his ears...

Meltdown - Time to Drop Out?

I think it's pretty safe to say that the people responsible for the global economic meltdown don't give a shit - they are sipping cocktails on their mega-yachts anchored just off shore of their newly purchased private islands. One thought for you, I hope you step on a Scorpion fish!

On the bright side, it's a great time to take a vacation - the dollar is strong in places like Australia and Mexico. Beer is still twice as much in Oz as the US, but Australian wine is pretty cheap. Ok, we've covered the important stuff, like beer, wine and exchange rates, let's move onto to paragliding.

Important stuff first, does anyone have a Boom 5 (with the 2008 line set) they want to sell me? I'm kind of broke because I haven't had a job since October 2006, but I got a few dinero's. Second, does anyone want to buy my boom sport for cheap? How much you ask? Well that depends on the selling price of the Boom 5, of course...

Someone reading this probably muttered "get a job scumbag" and just so you know, I've been trying but the economy is in the tank - and most jobs suck anyway - I mean, who really loves their job? If you love your job, let me know what you do because I need some ideas.

I can't even get a shitty job. But that's ok, because shitty things happen at shitty jobs, like when I got the end of my finger chopped off in this piece of machinery on my 3rd day on the job in a factory a couple years ago...

Hey man, this is it!

Olive Oil

The olive oil has gone cloudy - when this happens, it means the paragliding season is over.  Of course you can still fly here in Portland, but fall has arrived in a big way and the good flying has shifted to other parts of the world, like Oz.  

Speaking of Oz, the Canungra Cup just finished.  They had 5 tasks in the 8 day comp.  The conditions were challenging - really weak and cloudy and reports of flying in the rain even.  You can read more about the comp on Benn's Blog.

Stay Tuned, Stay Warm, and Stay Safe!

Task 3 - Chelan Open

The last task of the 2008 Chelan Open was a huge triangle - 73 miles (118 km) to be exact. Conditions were really good, light wind, Cu at 11,000 ft, and it was cold aloft, 35 F...

Dean Stratton won the day, completing the course in 3:48. That put his average speed at 30.5 km/hour, that is fast! My flight was a little slower (way slower) it took me 5 hours and 42 minutes to get home... and I was really lucky on course, 2 very low saves and for the final glide, we had to cross over the rim of the Columbia gorge, which I cleared by a mere 25 feet... and then had to ridge soar with tons of bar to get across the river and to goal at the soccer field.

I was way under-dressed and spent a lot of the day shivering like mad. This flight was the biggest triangle I've ever done, and the longest I've been aloft - 7 hours.

So we only had 3 tasks, but they were all good ones. Chelan is a great place for XC when it's on, and it was on for the last day.

Results are here

Over and Out!

Task 2 - Chelan Open

Blown out today, but tomorrow looks great.

Yesterday we had a 68 km task going straight to Okanogan. The field split into 2 right at the start, the upwind group crossed the river and the downwind group took the direct line. The downwind group was the larger one.

The direct line had some tough spots right after the first glide - the lift was broken and drifting hard, I was one of the people to sink out at the airport, so I can't tell you much about the task except that Cherie Silvera won the day.

41 in goal, 985 points for Cherie. Mike Steed is first overall.

Stay tuned.

Task 1 - Chelan Open

Good flying conditions today gave us a 58k task out to Sims then to with goal at Leahy. Gotta love these 2 waypoint tasks!

The view over the butte looking back at lake Chelan was priceless... One day I want to fly the mountains here, but yesterday we flew out over the flat, dry wheat fields which are famous for their huge dust devils.

The sky got shaded by high cirrus at the Sims waypoint and a lot of us got low for the first time on the course and the wind was strong down low so it was a slug fest for those of us not shifting gears or just getting lucky.

If you got to Sims high, you turned downwind and had goal on glide... If you got low at Sims, it called for some desperate and creative moves, as Josh Cohn demonstrated by turning towards goal without tagging Sims and getting a low save that put him back up high but half way to goal, so he had to slowly push back into the wind for a long time to get the Sims turnpoint and then blast downwind to goal... Desperate and creative and in goal...

Results are here

Shifting gears was the game at Sims.