My New Team!

I'm really happy to be part of the German Team for the worlds in Monte Cucco in July.  One of the major reasons for this latest trip to Europe was to meet up with the team and fly together in Bassano.  I have yet to meet Ute, but the rest of us were able to get a few flights together and just hang out a bit in the cold cold air.  They are all extremely sweet and I feel privileged to be part of this team.  The girls have done an incredible job of finding some great sponsors, including Adidas!  I arrived in Munich a few weeks ago and felt like it was Christmas in March trying on all manner of pants, shorts, shirts, jackets, running shoes, glasses and more.  We will definitely be the most well-outfitted team in Monte Cucco!!

Here we are in Bassano...minus Ute who wasn't able to come down.



Regina just off launch


 

And here's a link to the DHV webpage with our bio's and more pictures.

www.dhv.de/typo/Nationalmannschaft_F.3043.0.htm.

 

Running down a dream that never would come to me...

Munich is my favorite city in the world for running.  The path along the Isar river provides tons of good scenery between the cute boys, weird looking ducks and plentiful graffiti.  After helping a friend with a music video he's shooting hoping to win a new Gibson guitar, I grabbed my camera and his skates and went for a late afternoon roll past the biergartens and through the pedestrian tunnels to shoot some of the best graffiti in town.  Because the video shooting took a little longer than expected, (he was too generous with autograph signing, if you ask me), there was little light left in the the tunnel with the most impressive works.  Either way, the Germans do the graffiti thing much better than the Italians.  

Wandering the streets of Venice trying to keep my teeth warm and
searching for decent graffiti. Not much to write home about really.

Midnight at the Oasis

Back in Europe again for a few weeks. I flew into Frankfurt then
train'd/drove to Bassano, Italy for the competition despite warnings
from most everyone that the weather is normally shite this time of
year. It has been, but its always nice to see Italy, even when every
part of me is frozen solid, including the teeth.

The comp here is much larger than I ever imagined. Seems there are at
least 100 hang gliders and as many paragliders too! The sky is full
from early morning till sundown. Today is the 4th day, yet we've had
just one task and that was the first day. Pilots were landing at goal
in pain that day. With the north wind comes high cloudbases and cold
cold cold air. With numb hands and feet coming back to life after
landing everyone was in agony on the ground. The next two days were
flown, but the tasks were cancelled in the end. With just the single
scored task Michi is in first with Primoz second, Balazs third, Robert
Reisinger fourth and Alex Ploner fifth....four out of five Litespeeds
in the top spots!

I was lucky enough to get to fly Carl Friesenbichler's gorgeous all
carbon Litesport. With all that carbon and the nice smoke sail that
thing handles like a dream. I truly believed that I had the most
perfect handling glider on the planet until this...I was wrong. Gerolf
warned me that I would really love the extra sweet handling on this
one but I never imagined it would be so sweet. All I think of now is
how I can get my hands on my very own all carbon, smoke sail Litesport
before the Women's Worlds in July....hmmm....might require staying
home and working for a bit :-/

Duathlon

Once again, Mitch talked me into trying something new (and difficult!) this weekend.  After a 15km run on Saturday morning, I learned I would do an Olympic Duathlon with Mitch on Sunday mornin

g (before heading off to Germany on Tuesday morning ;-).  Turns out it was a blast.  I borrowed a beautiful Litespeed roadbike that fit me like a glove....now I really want one of my own!!  I was pleased to m

ake it through the race without crashing.  I've never been on a road bike before and it was definitely a bit wobbly at the start.  I even pulled off 2nd place in the old lady division (again).

Thanks for twisting my arm Mitch!

Tsunami in Satellite Beach

Watching the news coverage of the 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean, I recall seeing people out on the beach amazed that the tide was out so far, just running around taking photos and videos.  My immediate thought was "how stupid!...how can people not know that a tsunami is coming."  

I came home from a ride on my new bike Saturday afternoon and went to the slider to open it up for some fresh air.  There were dozens of people out on the beach (my beach is usually fairly empty) and to my horror the tide was unbelievably, unnaturally low....so low that the rocks I've kicked a few times while wading way out into the surf were completely exposed.   Instant panic!  I ran to the television and switched to the local news channel.  I really 

thought there was a tsunami coming and I was soon to be washed away!

Well, I feel pretty stupid now thinking back on it, but it truly was an amazing site.  Apparently this is something that has happened before, last time was back in 1993 and it is caused by very high west wind for an extended period of time (I also heard people saying it had something to go with a low pressure system that was coming through, but that didn't make much sense to me).  Unfortunately, seeing all those rocks out there makes me think I might never try to surf here again.  It is a little disturbing to see what lies just beneath those pretty waves out there.  

The last phote is what my beach normally looks like.

The Most Adorable Boy on the Planet...

...my nephew Max!