Belgian Nationals - Laragne

Today is day 2 and still no task.  The comp officially started on Sunday, but it was thunderstorming all day long so there was no hope of a task.  One cool thing was the lightning that was striking all around and even hit a tree in the landing field camping, debarking a stripe down the side.  Apparently, a VW belonging to one of the pilots that was parked near that tree will no longer start up.  

Today we have Mistral...or some other very strong wind.  It's been gusting to about 65kph.  The sky always looks gorgeous here when the wind blows.  I was told today that Mistral always blows for 1, 3 or 5 days.  Pedro says it's been blowing for two months :-/.

In other bad news, it might rain again on Wednesday.....and Matjaz ran over his helmet.

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun!

I haven't had this much fun playing in the sand since Rainbow Beach!  The girls and I (and Kenny too) spent a few days at the dune last week and although it was nearly as overrun with jellyfish as Annecy, we loved it.  The dune is an awesome playground for hang gliders and paragliders, kite fliers and anyone who wants to get some sand between their toes.  It looks a bit like a giant rectangular (sloped) sandbox - about 500 meters wide by about 3km long - with an almost perfect rectangular footprint. Like Rainbow Beach, it's ideal for launching and landing over and over again - that's my favorite party anyway.  Jorj preferred to skim the dune, dragging her feet and hands to draw pictures in the sand.  

There's a flat area where you walk in that's perfect for glider setup.  Then you just walk out to the edge and off you go!

 

Thanks to the right wind conditions and the overall shape of the dune, for the most part the paragliders fly in one area and the hangies in another - there's a bit of mixing at the start, but they seem to be much more skilled pilots than most of those we came across in Annecy.  

It's all over....at last

I have to admit, I'm happy it's over.  Not happy in the normal, tired, feeling slightly accomplished way, but in the seriously "just glad it's finished" way.  I didn't have an aspirations of being world champion or even making the podium, but I sure hoped to be better than 2nd to last....ha ha ha.  

So, it's time to go back to the lovely, relaxing free flying with friends, followed by a few smaller comps (the Belgian Nationals at Laragne, the Italian Nationals at Cucco and then the British Nationals back at Laragne again).  My honey will join me for the comps and that makes me happy.  

Here are some pictures from the closing party Friday night and the prize giving on Saturday.  

Women's World Champion - 2014

How gorgeous is our new world champion!  Giant congratulations to Yoko and team Japan.  I'm so pleased for her and proud to have her as a female representative of our sport.