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from now on you can look at more foto'sfrom 'today' on next link :
http://www.flickr.com/photos/doyouwanna-paragliding/
thursday 30th november
Pepe called. Inland he said. Yeah right, with these 40 km eastern winds and the bbc (big black clouds) inland, sure Pepe.
Dudo, Rafa called, what shall we do, is he kidding, does he feel lonely ? It is not his habit to fool around with us, lets have a look.
Once arrived, it looked pretty nasty, but here and there there was a blue hole, ahum.
Rafa, Dudo took off, but soon bummed out.
Then more sun, yes ! Some thermalactivity, so a window of an hour in smooth november conditions. Nice to topland, lovely to flatspin in the thermal. Pepe was flying the Niviuk Hook small and soon was having SAT's on it. Dead easy glider to learn acro with, very easy to handle, he was amazed.
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| Fat dark clouds above take off | Later some sunny spells, gave us room to play. |
wednesday 29th of november
If we have bad weather coming from the north, usually these month november, beginning of december, we have to move down south. Once passing the high mountains of Alicante, we pass the valleys of Orihuela, Crevillente. Strangely enough there winds are usually lots weaker.
Again today were paragliding was done at Carrascoy. Carrascoy will be closed for three months, starting the end of december.
tuesday 28th november
'Murky' or something. I don't know how they say it correctly in English, in dutch it would be 'hij-ig'. Maybe some top to bottoms possible at our higher hills, but nobody comes to Alicante to do top to bottoms. You come down here to fly, not float, to thermal, to better your skills taking off, flying, landing.
So relaxing today, feet up, watching Willy Wonka ! with my seven year old.
monday 27th november
Three girls, five boys and a man (me, Nick) were flying over Palomaret today. Three girls, two of them are married. The one girl who's not married is so cute and nice, pilots are lining up, dying to meet her. Oh, almost forgot to say, she looooooooooooooves flying.
Up to cloudbase, no problem. And it got very cold up there.
Great typical autumn day, thermals up to max 4,5 m/s cloudbase at 1300 m ASL. Later on more grey clouds, breeze coming in and everything dying off. Superb november day.
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| Foto from cloudbase. I spare you the foto that I took in the cloud. | Another pilot trying out the Niviuk Artik dhv2. Probably checking her piggy-bank, to see if she can afford this beauty. |
check this out :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35Su2NwckFw
sunday 26th of november
We wanted to fly at Serella, but didn't. The sky got too loaded. I went home, some pilots went to fly near Calpe. At the coast it was all very sunny.
On the foto, the mountain with the loaded sky, a shame we didn't have the luck on our side today. Because most of the pilots have never been there. Next time.
saturday 25th of november
Just had a phone call from my friend Mirko. They were flying at Calpe this afternoon. Don't know about anybody else. I took a day off, no visiting pilots around.
Worked in my garden this afternoon, after pilots asked me again and again if Stevie Wonder was my gardener .... .
Tomorrow I like to go to Almudaina, La Serella, near Alcoy. Northwestern sites, flying at their best in the afternoon.
friday 24th of november
Morning flying at Morro de Toix. And again we couldn't trust the site. You always have to have your eyes open at this site. Winds can come up just so fast. Or winds can be different as soon as you have 100 m above take off. That's why we are always in contact with each other, and are not eager that visiting pilots fly it without proper briefing.
All of a sudden there was lift everywhere and no clouds forming at all. Sometimes gusts from the west (right from the valley on the picture - this is a southwestern site). Tricky. Proper landing field (nudist beach) is very rotory with these changing conditions. So we decided after the wind picked up to 35 k/h to land at Calpe, flying over the sea. Great stuff.
Once we landed at Calpe beach, we soon judged we made the right conditions and not a minute too early. Waves were forming and kiters were surfing.
No more flying at this site for today.
So we went inland and thermalled on our november thermals in Palomaret. Winds stayed weak, no predicted strong southwestern wind inland. Nice and smooth, little XC to Maigmo all of us.
The usual pilots today, who always fly. For those who were here before you know them : Rafa, Dudo, Antolino, Jose Luis, Pepe, Sayo, Eduardo, me and Collin. Collin who is flying home to England tomorrow. Under his arm, his brandnew Niviuk Hook.
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| Little Xc to Maigmo and back. Rafa and Dudo flying back to take off. | Take off Morro de Toix, Collin following with the Niviuk Hook |
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| Landing after winds got strong on Calpe beach. | Morning view at Morro de Toix. In the distance good old Benidorm. |
thursday 23rd november
Surprisingly good it was today. Morning strong winds in Alicante, but none in the afternoon near Murcia. And the best flying came late in the afternoon, as it is a north-west site we visited.
Finally Collin could fly his brandnew Niviuk Hook in decent conditions and loved it.
It is november, so thermals are not so strong. The later it got the more dynamic it became.
wednesday 22nd november
Same thing, lots of pressure gradient. Too much wind and from the west, which means dry air, sunny. No flying.
tuesday 21st november
Beautiful lenticulares early morning, but that meant we were gonna be grounded today. Strong 60 km western gusts spoiled it. Luckily of course the weather was nice to do lots of other things outside. Sunny most of the time, and nice and warm still.
monday 20t november
Bright sunshine, temperatures 24 celsius, but winds too strong from the west.
sunday 19th november
Tired. Gonna let you enjoy the two foto's I selected of our flying today. Peña Rubia and El Cid.
click on : http://www.flickr.com/photos/doyouwanna-paragliding/
saturday 18th november
We always have fun !
Early morning at Toix,. Some of us flying, but soon too strong to take off. Those who flew had mixed feelings, for most of them it was too turbulent with the westwinds on height on our southwestern hill. Nasty especially when you made the transition to Altea Hills, trying to scratch your way up to Sierra Bernia.
Later in the afternoon heading back home we flew on the cliffs of Cabo de Huerta. Not an official site, but lovely to play on.
friday 17th november
The rain this morning cleared quickly for a bright sunny day, west wind. But too strong.
We took a ride into the Sierra de Aguilas. A very special valley with southern ridges, trying to find a spot to take off from. Maybe in the near future, we can try something out.
thursday 16thg november
Feet up today. Cloudy and rainy all day, southwestern winds.
Thanks Tanyu for sending me this picture down below, soon I'l put it on my gallery. On the foto you see Guy flying over Palomaret with in the distance Maigmo, the first site ever flewn in Alicante, more than 20 years ago.
wednesday 15th november
Reconco, southeast. Jean in the air as first one with his brandnew Aspen2, too turbulent. Lets chill. Somewhat later in the afternoon, thermals, but too light to be good. An hour later, Guy in the air with the sea-breeze giving opportunities to fly the ridge. Last flight was taking off just under the cloud which was almost touching take off.
We flew, had fun, different conditions, not epic but in the air. Ann, who again was keen, had today's best flying in. With her light Ozone Geo she managed to got the best airtime of all of us.
tuesday 14th november
An awesome day of flying, picture taken at 1 pm
An awesome day of flying, picture take at 5 pm
Big inversion early morning. We had to wait for the western winds to get weaker to have more smoother thermals. Very rough at first, hammery thermals trying to get through the inversion and crosswind from El Cid didn't make it easy. Later on the breeze took over, and oh surprise cloudbase was still at 1200 m ASL. Most pilots stayed near the hill, some of them went off XC to Maigmo.
If every day was like this, I'd sell my wife and come down and live here, quote Steve.
Flying today ... it doesn't get much better.
monday 13th november
Day for Carrascoy, Murcia. Arrived by middag and still no wind on the hill. Norhtwestern winds predicted but the weather was too good today, too stable. Inversion all over.
We all flew, but nothing more than 600 m top to bottoms on this mountain. Winds never got strong enough, sun was curtained behind its cirrus most of the time.
Carrascoy, near Murcia
sunday 12th of november
We went to fly at La Serella. A mountain I never been before, just behind Almudaina. Hector, one of our oldest local pilots invited us to fly this one, he told us it was one of the first big mountains he ever flew from. Great, lets go.
Once there, we soon saw there was no proper take off. We asked him where he took off from. There he said, but the trees have grown a bit... .
Vale, ok.
At first winds were too weak to even think of taking off and getting over the grown trees and bushes. But conditions got better by the minute. At 2.30 pm, all took off and maintained height low in the valley. Yes, low in the valley.
But one by one found a thermal and soon all pilots (a dozen) racing to the pilots who found the lift. It was amazing to see the team work, and to see all the pilots getting higher bit by bit. Hard work, until all were above take off.
The site is new to me. It is a bit out of our way, a bit far. But not one pilot was complaining because the flying and the views were epic. Smooth 2 m/s thermals and this going on for more than two hours.
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saturday 11th of november
Palomaret at first, but after some flying it was becoming clear that winds weren't in our favour. Westwind made it pretty 'cabron' as local said. 'Cabron' in this sense meaning nasty. So we stopped flying, because of the risk.
We flew at El Cid instead. 620 m height difference and winds on at take off.
The views from this site are astonishing. Way in the distance in front of us, we see the sun mirrored on the mediterranean, behind us the Alicante mountains. Flying at El cid is always a bit of an adventure. The height, the terrain, the rocky slopes, the valley, the road up to take off.
friday 10th of november
Oh la-lala, ooh la-lala, c'est magnifique...
The perfect mix for a good days' of flying is.
- Alicante sun, great site, thermals, international mix of good pilots, no hassles -
Today we flew at Reconco, early midday, registering thermals 3.8 m/s. It wasn't easy to find the right thermal and stay in them. It was work. But excellent practise for when the conditions are weak. More interesting in terms of learning how to thermal than yesterday, because yesterday the skill was more finding the sink.
It looks like we are heading for a great upcoming week.
thursday 9th of november
A day inland. And a pretty good day. Thermals were there all day long. From 12 am till 5 pm, flying them, cloudbase 1350 m ASL, not bad for a november day eh ?
Thermals up to 3 m/s during central hours. Winds were a bit off fron the east and sometimes gusty. So it was great practice to adjust your turns into the thermals. Heavily inclined thermals at timnes, dead and alive at times. Sometimes broken and all of a sudden blown out, sometimes they were nice and solid.
At the end of the day, clouds came in, lovely cloudsuck. Picture tells you the story, flying at 4.30.
wednesday 8th of november
3 hours flying for Jean with his brandnew Gradient Aspen2, and he's happy with the glider. Agile as the previous Aspen, fast, steers very light, great glide, bit dull looking as all Gradients, but that's just a detail when you are sky high.
Crap day it looked like, but got the window right !
tuesday 7th november
Eastern winds from the med, cold bag of air above us, sea temp still high, we were taught on our meteo-course last month that this would be the perfect mix for a 'gota fria' - which would be translated as 'cold drop'. This happens average wise every 5 years.
Something farmers are begging for, to irrigate their o so dry land. And it happened. All day it rained as it hasn't rained for ages. All over Spain it was raining. Very unsatisfying for visiting pilots, but thursday looks better, then we should have sunny weather and eastern winds.
sunday/monday 5th and 6th of november
Very angry sky. Instability all over and rainy on our mountains. The sea was wild as well, no coastal soaring. Dudo had his first day of kite-surfing, the aternative when winds are strong.
saturday 4th of november
Today we hadn't had so much rain since over a year. Paragliders all sad. Locals all happy and it is the talk of the day. At last the water reservoirs are slightly filled up again. But we need more, lots more of rain. And it is never gonna be solved with the bits of rain we get in Alicante.
Lets hope the fronts pass through faster than predicted, so we can fly this monday again, clear skies and high cloudbase.
friday 3rd november
Rainy all over Spain, and this time as well in Alicante. No flying, just watching paragliding DVD and trying to teach Earl what a thermal, a cloud, a mountain, a tree ... is.
French group is leaving tomorrow morning. Again confirmed they know what 'savoir vivre' is. Nice one guys, hope to see you back and say hello to Ppeixon !
thursday 2nd november
Very cloudy and eatern winds. At first almost calling it a day. But the sun was out just peeping between the grey clouds and we got some very decent conditions at Cabo. That's the point of coming down to Alicante. Or we do fly inland. And when it is crap inland, we still have our coastal sites, where we have windows to fly during the day.
As you can see on the isobarmaps. There is a low above the azores. Lots of rain again over Europe, just not on our coast. The few drops we had this afternoon, just enough to get some dust off the leaves. And we need rain, not when you are here, but when you are not here. This region is becoming a desert, more and more. No more plants grow in the garden, even the toughest trees like Eucaliptus trees are dying.
But of course that way we do have lots of good and dry weather, so we keep on flying all year round.
wednesday 1 november
A day off for everybody, 1st of november. Many pilots chasing the weather. Where was it gonna be flyable. Some up north, some near the coast. We went central, first to Onil, to see what the wind was gonna do. Soon ended up at Peña Rubia, where after an hour of top to bottoms, we finally had a nice window. Some pilots got way above take off, and Juan Pedro made a 15 k XC flight.
After 'casse-croute' by the french, we arrived in Onil, where again we had some late or better early evening flights.
We are closed from :
06 dec till 10th of december 2006
30 dec 2006 till 7 january 2007
06 april till 14 april 2007
Niviuk Hook Dhv 1/2
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I've been flying the Niviuk Hook lately. Dhv 1/2. Soon there will be articles in international paragliding magazines. Comparisons for instance between the Airwave sport3 and the Niviuk Hook.
I tell you, as far as I am concerned, I am pretty impressed with the Niviuk Hook.
Price 2250,- euros (only combined with week DOYOUWANNA, great value)
Niviuk Artik Dhv 2
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| Details, Oliver Nef, designer Niviuk gliders | Straightforward risers, no funny things to pull big ears | Pepe (SAT-team) wingovering the toy |
Loving this glider. Best glider I've flown for years. Read the reviews in different paragliding magazines, like the ones in Parapente Mag (French) or XC Magazine (English). You can't ignore this one.
Niviuk Artik Dhv 2 : price 2345,- euros (only combined with week DOYOUWANNA, great value)
If you want the Artik XP (comp lines), cost 2545 if you combine it with a week DOYOUWANNA.
Book your ticket, let me know what size you want and fly your new baby, it doesn't get much better !
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