The 2009 US Paragliding Nationals begins with the first of two events at Dunlap, California, from 27 April - 2 May, 2009 and round two then takes place from 16 - 22 August, 2009 at Salt Lake City, Utah.
Get more information here for the Dunlap round and here for the Salt Lake City round.
Last week we were riding the waves, this week we ride the thermals with a video from Robbie (Depecherob) showing why Oludeniz is regarded as paragliding paradise. Oludeniz (Fethiye-Antalya) is on the Southwest coast of Turkey and I believe that the launch site, Babadag Mountain is the highest mountain in Turkey.
There's also plenty of activities on the ground and tourists frequently say it is the best holiday that they have ever had.
Hundreds of pilots from more than 35 countries and countless non-flying family members and friends, will be gathering in Fethiye, south west Turkey, on October 15, 2008 for demonstrations of paragliding, skydiving, base-jumping, hangliding, para-motor flights, remote control plane shows, microlites, hard core acrobatic competitions and accuracy landing competitions,
The four-day International Ölüdeniz Air Games Festival runs October 15 through 19 and expects 5,000 paragliders to participate in the free flight from Babadag to Ölüdeniz during the festival, making it a major world paragliding event, second only to the French festival.
The Mount 7 flying site in Golden, BC, Canada, has hosted hang gliding and paragliding pilots from all over the world. Mount 7 and the Columbia Valley have become justly famous amongst the flying community for incredible thermal conditions and excellent cross-country opportunities.
rwgreen12 posted this great video of hangliding and paragliding at Mount 7 and I reckoned that it makes a nice end of week video.
But there is much more to enjoy in the Rocky Mountains and Golden BC, which straddles the junction of the Columbia and Kicking Horse Rivers, is now a central hub for numerous mountain activities. Kicking Horse Mountain Resort features incredible verticals for skiers in the winter and mind-blowing downhill trails for mountain bikers in the summer. A gondola operates all year so there is easy access to the summit.
Dan(M7action) has posted this video of himself and a few pals having a little fun and demonstrating an alternative way of getting down the mountain.
Kicking Horse River flows through downtown Golden and is described as an unforgetable white water ride but that can be the subject of another end of week video. Don't want you guys overdosing on adrenalin.
Take a look at our article on Paragliding holidays for the joys of getting a bird's eye view. Even someone that has never flown before can enjoy a tandem flight with an experienced pilot.
Diving takes us into a different world, liberated from the pull of gravity, but those that enjoy the freedom of the sky, harness gravity to soar like birds.
Nearly 100 entrants from 15 countries will be coming together for the first International Art Parachute Festival from March 1 to March 6, 2008 in the beach resort of Nha Trang; the capital of Khanh Hoa Province, Vietnam. The event is being jointly organised by Vung Tau Intourco and the International Parachute Association.
Speed riding is a mix of skiing and paragliding, a bit like kiteboarding on snow. It was popularised by a group of French paragliders and is said to be the fastest way to get down a mountain, at least in one piece.
It still seems like a pretty extreme way to get an adrenaline rush though. World champion Liox Jean-Albert, saw in the new year at a New Zealand Hospital after crashing at Treble Cone a few days earlier. He had been hoping to compete in the New Zealand Airgames.
Pilots from around the world are gathering for the 2007 World Hang Gliding Championships, which runs August 7-19 in Big Spring, Texas, USA. Over 150 pilots will be competing, with launches expected to be at noon during each day of the championship.
The 10th FAI Paragliding World Championships gets underway today at Manilla, Australia, 24th February - 9th March 2007. Manilla 2007 will be the first ever Paragliding World Championships to be held in an English speaking country and pilots from 45 countries will be competing.
Manilla offers a variety of landscapes including a series of wide flat and narrow river valleys, rolling hills and plateau country, low ridges, lakes and a volcanic feature with a peak at over 1400m. It’s only after flying 50-100kms out, depending on direction, that you get pure text book flatlands as far as the eye can see. There are static Google pictures on the event web site.
Conditions can vary from strong but smooth 5-8m/s 3500m+ blue days with 20km/h of wind drift, to easy cruising classic 3-5m/s days with clouds made in heaven, and right back to light scratchy 1m/s inverted tests of patience with winds in different directions at a few levels and a constant issue with bombing out. Miscalculated long glides, blue holes or bad tactics in sink zones often result in disappointing bomb outs but also amazing "low saves". The latter have almost attained legendary status in Manilla, as most that visit will find out. A moon shot climb up to 3000m which started from a little beep at less than 30m over the ground just before landing can be one of the most rewarding thermals a pilot can find – it’s the stuff of bar talk long into the night (of course the low save height gets lower and luckier with each beer)!
Mind you, these stories will now pale into insignificance, following last week's experiences. German, Ewa Wisnierska, 35, ranked number 1 in last year's world championships in Brazil, was sucked into a storm, which catapulted her upwards at speeds of up to 20 metres per second to a height of almost 10,000m; that's higher than the peak of Mt Everest and about the cruising height of a jumbo jet. Pounded by hail, almost struck by lightning, and covered in ice, she became unconscious but her kite continued flying in the storm system for 40 minutes before she came round and was able to pilot her craft to a safe landing. Her ground crew found her, about 60km from the launch site, still covered in ice.
Regrettably, Zhongpin He, a 42 year old, Chinese paraglider from Beijing who was sucked into the same storm, was not so lucky and he was found dead on Thursday, a day after the incident. A post-mortem has confirmed that he died after being struck by lightning. Zhongpin was well liked and respected in the paragliding community and the Chinese national team have withdrawn from the event out of respect. Ewa has made a full recovery and will be competing.
A daytime webcam has been provided on Mt Borah to view the championships.
