Well it’s all over and this will be my last post.

Thanks to all those who have left positive comments about my blog.  I’ve never done any sort of writing before and I have to say that, weary, dirty and tired though I was at the end of each day I have thoroughly enjoyed tapping away on my laptop each evening.  It was a kind of release from the day and it’s nice to see that quite a few people have enjoyed reading my rantings. (more…)

For my last blog I thought I’d talk about the ‘S’ word.  That thing that paragliding competitors never really want to address.  Safety. (more…)

Well we’ve come to the end of the 11th Paragliding World Champs.

I’ve just got back from the closing ceremony and need some kip so I’ll just report briefly here that Andy Aebi from Switzerland won the event to become World Champion and Elisa Houdry from France becomes the Female World Champion. (more…)

Well I had my first really bad day of the competition today when I ran out of time to complete the task.  In short, I bombed out.

After walking for an hour to find a road during which I got fairly lost I grumpily presented myself for the GPS download, was rude to the Meet Director about the task setting, ate alone under a private black cloud at the taco van and am now sulking in my room and refusing all callers. (more…)

The end of the competition is in sight with only two task days left to go.  This is a good job as exhaustion is rapidly setting in amongst quite a few of the competitors.

For those reading this blog who think it must be a fantastic jolly to come away to nice country like Mexico to go flying for two weeks with all your mates I have to say  ‘yes, it is’, but it’s also a marathon of ups, downs and physical and mental exhaustion as well. (more…)

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 which would not look out of place in a gay club just isn’t dignified. (more…)

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. (more…)

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 memory.  In the event the Organisers decided to take us all to launch and to hold a ceremony there followed by a fly back to Valle de Bravo with flowers supplied to everyone so they could drop them over the place where he lost his life. (more…)

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. (more…)

Some of you may have already heard that Stefan Schmoker, one of the Swiss Team Pilots, sustained fatal injuries during today’s task.

Stefan and the rest of the field were flying in a perfectly normal place where we fly every day and nobody was on the bar or pushing hard near the ground.  In fact we were all soaring a ridge a kilometre or so from take off trying to gain height a few minutes after the start of the task. (more…)