Yesterday’s blog entry was headed, ”if only it were always this easy”, and today I can ascertain that this is not the case. We had a 6km exit cylinder around the launch, and there was great cloud suck up until around 5 minutes before the start gate opening – then it died on me, and [...]

Today we had to do Team Photos at launch. Now, I understand why we have to do these for sponsors and as a record of our participation in the event and, of course, I’m only too happy to pose for the cameras.  However, squeezing a portly 41 year old man into a white lycra top [...]

It is with the great sadness that we have to report the loss of two of paragliding’s most accomplished and respected brothers, Stefan Schmoker and Philippe Nodet. On Friday 30 January, during a task in the paragliding world championships in Mexico, Swiss team pilot and world championship contender, Stefan Schmoker, suffered a cravat from which [...]

Some 97km race to goal today, with a 1km exit cylinder around B03, the little volcano SE of launch. Not many clouds today, so the start gate waiting was less stressful, with less people suffering reduced visibility. After the start we had to come back to the piano landing, then straight out into the flats [...]

I sometimes wonder if I’ll ever get the hang of this paraglider racing malarkey. Today was a typical example of the highs and lows you experience on a World Championship task which ended in a sort of a high – getting to goal – and a sort of low – doing it too slowly.

There was no task today. We found this out as we presented ourselves at 9am for the transport to launch.  At the team leader’s meeting earlier in the morning a request had been received from several teams to have another day of rest due to Stefan’s accident on Friday and to dedicate this in his [...]

The latest version of the Mantra R series of competition wings from Ozone, the R09, is currently in action at the 2009 Worlds at Valle de Bravo. They are in the capable hands of Charles Cazaux, Jamie Messenger, Anders Baerheim, and of course British Champ Russ Ogden, among others. www.flyozone.com

The Felix Rodriguez Pro Model wing is now available in its second version, for 2009. The original FLX proved itself on the Acro World Tour and also in the hands of many expert pilots, and now the FLX.2 is born. Felix spent an additional year of prototyping and trimming with Dav Dagault, and he says [...]

Ozone’s popular (and best selling) professional tandem wing, the Magnum, is now available in a smaller 38m size, in addition to the standard 41m. Ozone has refreshed the top surface design and color palette for 2009, and says that the 38m is their answer to lighter pro pilots, or anyone who wants an excellent performing [...]

It’s rest day as we are half-way through the World Championships and after 6 days of flying coupled with the dreadful accident yesterday pretty much all the pilots were happy to spend the day loafing about reading, emailing and having very long lunches.

French national team member and PWC veteran, Charles Cazaux, has now joined the Ozone team of international competition pilots. Charles has a great deal of high level competition experience behind him and Ozone say they are “very excited to see what he can do with the new R09 Open Class competition wing, which he says [...]