Prize Giving

Congratulations to all of the winners of the Belgian Nationals/Ager Open.... and especially to my guy with his first podium finish ;-)

 Overall winners:  1st Place - Gordon Rigg, 2nd Place - Eduardo Oliveira, 3rd Place - Glen McFarlane

Belgian winners and the new Belgian Champion, Tom Haagdorens!

Catalan winners!

Rigid wing winners!

Sport Class winners!

Thanks to those crazy Frenchies who are always the life of the party, and a certain Brit team leader, we had a great celebration that stayed mostly in control ;-).

Much needed rest days

The last three days of the Belgian Nationals/Ager Open  were cancelled due to crappy east wind on launch.  We took good advantage of rest days and had some fun in some of my favorite Ager fun spots. 

Of course, the river gorge to the west of takeoff will always make me think of Luis.  It's so sad not having him, but I love having all the good memories of his joyfullness and that great smile on his face. For me it was a bit of a memorial going to the river, packing on the silky mud, hiking up through the gorge and swimming in the ice cold water.  

Yesterday we spent at the lake in Ager watching the boys (and girls) do their diving tricks.  Great fun!!

Firsts

Great day for firsts yesterday!

Glen was first into goal...for the first time in an international competition!  Go baby!! Although he didn't win the day (he took the first start and Andreas, 5 minutes or so behind him, took the second start), it's got to be cool coming into goal without a bunch of other gliders sitting there already. I'm so tickled for him.  The international competition circuit seems to suit him well and I have a feeling we'll be back in Europe next summer ;-)

Glen has now worked his was up to third place overall and first and second (Gordon and Eduardo) may be a ways ahead of him, but they're not out of reach.

The other fantastic first yesterday was Johana's first goal.  Johana is a fairly new Swedish pilot and this is her second comp ever.  Her first was last week at the Dutch Nationals in Laragne.  It's unbelievably heartwarming to see someone into goal for the first time, all the pilots on the ground screaming and hooting and hollering at her, Johana jumping up and down with this enormous smile on her face.  Seriously, it's one of the coolest things about competition and I'm sure every pilot reading this can remember his or her first time getting into goal.  When we lose beloved pilots like Luiz, I always spend several days wondering if what we do is really worth it.  Days like yesterday make me remember that it is.