The Cue??

Driving down to the Ridge

At Goal

US Nationals- Day 1

They called a 78 mile downwind task today in pretty stong wind. I think a lot of people were not exactly expecting a task as it was averaging 25mph. But, they pulled one off.

I am driving back from goal now with Jonny, Kevin, Brett and Dustino. All made goal except Dusty, he was a bit short. Looks at this point like Curt won the day and probably Oleg second. I'll get the top 10 on when I get a chance.

Everyone is saying it was a pretty rough day. Kevin says he was in the roughest thermal of his life today. Hard to imagine....Florida is not supposed to be like this. Jonny was chased away (at goal) by a lady waving a broomstick at him. I guess the organizers didn't secure the goal field in advance.....ooops :-(

I'll post some good pictures when I get home tonight!

More Manilla Photos

They held the paragliding pre-worlds here a month or so ago, so the road is nicely graded (although still quite steep) and Godfrey completely covered the west facing launch with astro turf. It's really nice and if the flying is no good, pilots could have a game of extreme football.

I had a really great flight on Sunday - and that was very welcomed after such a bad flight the previous day. They guys called a triangle task to the west, south and then back to Manilla and I just had a couple of hours cruising up and down the ridge and back and forth into the valley. I'm loving the glider (mine isn't finished yet, but I borrowed Gerolf's) and I could nearly fall asleep in the new harness....its so comfy and cozy ;-) The landing field at Godfrey's leaves a bit to be desired though. I had one of the roughest, wildest landings of my life and until the last 5 seconds, I was sure I was going to slam into either a barbed wire fence or tree. I'll remember to land someplace else next time! Anyway, here is a shot of the landing field from above and some pictures of the nice launch.

Sunset Flight at Manilla

We arrived in Manilla late in the day Friday and it was a bid windy for my taste so Gerolf had a little sunset flight and I just enjoyed shooting video of the kangaroos on the drive down the hill. (Can't post videos unfortunately ;-)

Sunset at Manilla

New Dive Buddies

Made some great new friends from the UK on my final dive trip last week. It seems the people traveling alone (all four of us) seem to gravitate toward one another. It was great and I hope to keep in touch with all of them.

Me and My Dorky Dive Master at the Reef

Pretty Aussie Training Hill

Mr. Gin

Jonny Launching a Paraglider at Beechmont

Back in Oz

Well here I am back in Australia. Not much to report really, but I have to post something to hush the constant complainers ;-) I've been doing little more than enjoying the Australia scenery (as seen in this photo). I've been beaching and shopping and even working a bit. I accidentally ended up at the Marti Gras parade on Oxford Street Saturday night. I didn't know there were so many gay people in all of Australia. Anyway, it was probably a good parade, but the streets were lined with people standing on little plastic stools that were for sale on every street corner, and so I couldn't see much of anything.

My glider and harness are still being built, but I hope to fly a borrowed glider at Stanwell Park soon. I will also take a little trip up to Cairns to do some diving, probably next week or the week after.

The Latest Toy

Well, I decided to come home for a little bit, get away from the Southern California fast life ;) There is surely nothing nicer than waking up to the sound of Dragonflies!! It was pretty overcast, so I didn't fly today. But, Joe convinced me to go out with him and see if we could get a bit of road rash. After my little desert tuck-n-roll, I figured, why not, I heal quickly ;-)

We have this new toy, and I've forgotten what it's called already, but it is something like a skateboard that has been cut in half so that each leg/foot can move independently. You just put each foot on its own metal plate with wheels. But, unlike skateboard wheels, they aren't side by side for stability, they're inline, like inline skates. So, it takes quite a lot of coordination and a strange sort of sweeping action with the back foot to get moving. They tend to try to force you into the splits ;-) and are pretty unstable, so I was suprised to come home tonight with no road rash whatsoever. I first thought it might be simpler if they just had some straps to go over the top of your feet. But, you see the first time you lose control that the ability to dismount quickly is key!

Here are some shots!

The Mount

Its a lot harder to get onto that you would think. The plates don't balance flat, so you have to either tip them up as you're starting off, or you have to have something to hold on to.

And here's one of the expert.

....and the dismount

I'm such a klutz!

Mojave Airplane Graveyard

The desert is by far the coolest thing this town has going for it. My parent's house is kind of on the edge of town, so it only takes a few blocks of running before I am out into the desert chasing jackrabbits through the sagebrush. I have been running nearly daily. It seems there's not much else to do in this town and I am still determined to lose that belly ;-)

Lancaster is the nearest normal sized town and I discovered on the first trip there (its about a 40 minute drive) that the airplane graveyard that Alex and I had so much fun visiting several years ago is no more than 15 minutes from Cal City. We were chased away by a security guard who called us "complete idiots" for not noticing the sign that said "Absolutley NO Pictures." Although he threatened to, he didn't take away our cameras, so we came away with some real close up shots of very large airplanes. Turns out, we were complete idiots because neither of us noticed the sign, even though it was quite obvious when he angrily pointed it out to us. Anyway, it's not exactly a graveyard. What I am told is that it is more like a parking lot for commercial airliners that are not currently in use. That makes more sense as many of them looked rather new and in good shape.

We get a gorgeous sunset nearly every night. Here's one taken from the back porch of mom and dad's house. Sometimes I feel like I moved from one bubble to another being here in our own little world. Mom and dad bought a house right in the middle of where everyone else is building their's. GW's is just across the street, along side Charles' (one of JB's co-workers at Sportvision). Dale (one of JB's childhood friends) is building his house right next door to mom and dad and Mark (my baby brother) is building his second one about 2 blocks away. JB's is apparently fairly close too, but I haven't been offered that tour yet.

They said "California is the place you ought to be"....

So I loaded up the suitcase and I move to California....City that is!!

Ok, a certain dork was complaining that I hadn't updated the blog in ages and he was sick of seeing pictures of girls flying in dresses. So, here I am with nothing to say and very little to even show. The point of the blog was to post pictures of my travels for the family to see. Well, here I am with the family! I doubt they want to see pictures of it. So, I'll have to make some stuff up!

Anyway, California City isn't a total hellhole. The Mojave Desert is kind of cool if you can get a little bit outside of town. There are Joshua Trees all around. From the time I used to rock climb in Joshue Tree National Park (pre hang gliding, of course), I have always thought they were the most beautiful desert trees, in a bizarre way. Apparently they are native only to the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts. Here's a really nice shot of a Joshua Tree - not mine, I just found it on the internet.