These clouds were getting closer by the end of the day.

Strong Henrik, from Sweden. Big fellow with eskimo eyes, got his Airwave Sport3 out and ran like an athlete on epo, excellent forward launch. I was standing in front of him, had to check all his lines. If something was wrong I was gonna hold him. I was so glad all lines were ok, it felt like a truck was gonna overrun me. Big good old Henrik in the air, hoorah !


We flew at La Zafra, as you can tell by the lonely 'windsock', a very abandoned site to fly. We promis to be back soon honey.

This was today. Low pressure over Spain, occluded front. Rainy, grey sky, nothing to do. Look at the high above the azores.

And this is 24 hours later. A high above us and a low above Iceland. Exactly where everything belongs. Back to normal I'd say.

Although we will not have high cloudbase, we should get some good flying in tomorrow. Fingers crossed.

Grey day in Alicante. No chance to fly, strong eastern winds.

While we have to kill time, packing reserves, chilling, watching DVD's, working on our webpage, our fellow belgian pilots were flying on their dunes.

They couldn't resist sending me their photos and info about their soaring, above the dunes of Bredene. The info from up north Denmark, Norway, Sweden etc... is very little. England no flying news either, I think they do not have the best weather to fly. Our french and swiss, german pilots are very quiet as well.

Ogi, you'll just be arriving in time to have your flights in, to top up your airtime, don't worry, stay fit.

75 km per hour winds at take off, even Jonathan had problems toplanding, he kept on hoovering over the rocks. Full speedbar.

Everybody happy, the whole region. Farmers interviewed on TV, locals chatting in the bars about the precious rainfall we were getting today.

Bt not us, we couldn't do anything but chill today.

Snowy in Spain, all provinces under alert, under a white carpet.

Maybe nothing special for you, but for spanish everything slows down, huge traffic problems, big problems. Winter is hitting us, 4 degrees this morning when we woke up. During the day max 15 degrees, pretty cold in our not so well isolated houses. But a caldo and a carajillo keeps the doctor, the cold away.

On the photo, another try out to find a western site. Not the best this one. I want to try it out though. But the main thing is the nasty climb. Sharp rocks, eroded ground, tricky to walk up.

Big good old Hendrie arrived. It is the first time I saw him with decent pants on, cold eh ?
He usually attracts the whole village, walking around naked. Well naked, I mean when we still have our sweater on, he walks around in shorts and no-sleeve T-shirts, muscle shirt as they say in the US.

Our best sites in the region for this time of the year are closed because of "partridge hunting". And I just read that the prince of Holland, don't know his name but he looks very dutch ...., is visiting us. To hunt partridges ! And you know what ? In his own country Holland, it is forbidden to shoot partridges any more. Sick.

We have to be patient as I said before, but from sunday onwards it looks better again. Onshore winds.

No flying today. Too much wind, yes again from the west.

So I was surfing on the net a bit. Google-ing for doyouwanna for instance, checking if I am still on there.
Luckily I came up first. But next pages were doyouwanna as well. I had a look at them. The main one who called himself doyouwanna was a "pede infirmiere de Paris" - gay nurse from Paris.
Checked his page, his blog, madre mia, good grief !
I have no problem with homosexuals whatsoever, but being related as a paragliding guiding service with a gay meeting service is a bit too far.

No worries, as long as you know my name is Nick----------- just Nick.

Hope to fly this weekend, winds are supposed to die off, and more onshore, which means soaring at the cliffs.

Beautiful weather, but not flyable. At least not in Alicante. Maybe in Murcia Carrascoy, but it is closed for hunting.

So I hope nobody gets out there flying. Because last year it happened with bad bad consequences. The sites was closed not till the end of march, but till the end of july ........

Anyway, weather looks windy till this weekend. All over Spain it is snowing and raining. Not down here, just in Alicante south and Murcia it is sunny.

Keith if you read this, I can get your Vonblon 'Rogallo' steerable emergency chute in time. Give us a shout.

Hi guys and girls, this is my new layout of my diary.
Started it more than two years ago, a dairy with our daily adventures. Doyouwanna in Alicante with lots of you in.
Well, now I heard of the word 'blog' and thanks to my dearest friend señor JOEL, I modernised my dairy 'today'.
Any comments, critics please are very welcome.
Personally I think the 'today' is not that personal looking any more. But hey we all have to move forward haven't we Joel ?.
So here it is, I hope I can provide you with all the news you like to hear about us flying in Alicante.

Today bit lazy. Early morning though looking for a window to fly tandems with business men from Philips. But no chance.
Only in the afternoon things were flyable but possibly not epic.
I was waiting for a call of Swedish pilots who arrived, but in vain.

hasta luego,
Nick

december 2006


from now on you can look at more foto's from 'today' on next link :http://www.flickr.com/photos/doyouwanna-paragliding/

sunday 21st january

Nice and smooth thermals on our southern hill. Although norhtern winds pretty strong up north of Alicante.

Again hours of thermalling for young and old.

And Koen got to Dakar, what a champ.

saturday 20th january

Marginal conditions today. Strong winds on height at Toix, and not too stable conditions at Palomaret. West winds more inland. Rafa, Antolino flew, Pepe acro as well. All at different sites.I had tandems to do. I cancelled them, which is always difficult. But in the end quite happy with my decision, not to bounce around with people, instead of giving them a good dose of our magnicifent sport.Last two days of our ever so long Indian summer, it was 25 degrees celsius today, and blue sky. It all feels weird. Even the most stubborn neighbour is admitting now he hasn't had such a 'winter' in his lifetime. We have those hot days in winter, no doubt. But not like this, having these for weeks and weeks.
Pilots visiting have the time of their life of course. But from monday onwards .... .

friday 19th january

Have you ever walked up a hill with a paraglider on your back for 30 minutes, then doing a top to bottom ? Well, we did ! And it's not the thing you want to do all the time, jesus.
At last I went up to Biscoy, to meet the club of Onil, to go to their weekly meeting at landing field Biscoy. And they always walk up, late afternoon, up the steep hill of Biscoy, matter of keeping up the fitness level I guess. So walked up the steep hill, got out of breath, heart beating fast, and no wind at take off. We knew it was gonna be a top to bottom.Once landed, cheering friends, raising a glass on another accident free top to bottom. Wine was uncorked, cheese and chorizo was served.Although the flying on their weekly meeting wasn't epic, it was something special, mixing with the pilots from the 'north'. For them it is all about 'comradry' (is that english ??).
Fotos, take fron the air, half the group of pilots from the 'north', retro time with this ancient wing in the air, called a "star", born 1988.

thursday 18th january

West wind. Dry air, warm air, but not flyable.
Two happy Norwegian bunnies, Jarn and Iver.
Searching for a western low hill. Take off suitable, but landing auch ...
Shot taken near Elche, Castell del Rio
Koen still in the race, sunday arrival in Dakar.

wednesday 17th january

Lousy day, maybe we are spoiled of course. Some of us toplanded at La Cortina but mainly just bumming out. Early in the afternoon the inversion settled and no more winds. Rafa had a bit of a flight at Toix, but that was it. Jose Luis and Toni at Palomaret, but west.
Maybe best shot would have been Almudaina, norhtwest, but cloudbase so low, doubtful, don't know. Just a lousy day for flying. The weather is too good, inversion, high temperatures, feels lazy.
Koen still on for Dakar. A couple of days ago, he had to beg for some gas, he ran out it said. But here is the real story. His chain broke and got in his back tire, so he fell at 90 km per hour. His tank exploded and he was all covered with petrol. Thank god it didn't catch fire. His lips are fucked by the petrol, his eyes swollen and closed, his faced burned by the petrol. He had to beg to get to the finish, another 21 km. The most he got at one time was a liter and a half. He collected empty plastic bottles, and filled them up with the begged petrol. All bottles in his rucksack. He could start the engine, and reach the finish bit by bit. Each time refilling the remaining useful bit of the tank. He was gonna give up. The last three days he hardly had slept. Doing this all on his own, no assistance, no camper to sleep in at night, no cook, no massage, no nurse.Next day, his steer was shaking that hard, his hands were all cramped, he couldn't stretch his hands any more. he couldn't even use his GPS any more, hurt too much.A Dakar official asked him to see another official right away. He just said 'oui', but he didn't understand what the official just said to him. Koen doesn't speak french, neither english.Luckily half hour later he asked some fellow pilots, what he was being told. He had to see another official right away, or they were gonna take him out of the race.But after some treatment with pills, to get the sickness away of having swallowed petrol, he is still in the race. Sunday he should arrive in Dakar, flying back home to Belgium, to open up his shop.He's my hero.
It's like in our sport, you don't need to be a champion to be a champion.
Koen doesn't speak any french, any english.

tuesday 16th january

Text messaging my friends not to come down to Peña Rubia, winds too weak, it maybe won't be thermic. Gosh, I was wrong. At this northwestern site, it works usually later in the afternoon. Counted on that, but didn't expect it to be so so good. The only reassuring bit was the call from Pepe, down there nearer to the coast he have gusts from the north, pretty weird. Hm, interesting. Meanwhile some cumulus were forming in front of take off, moving towards us.
At 4pm, Jarn took off and it was clear, Peña Rubia was gonna deliver a lovely afternoon of flying.
Look at the pictures that Jose Luis Segorb, Mustang Airwave, took. Over two hours of thermal dynamic conditiones up to cloudbase 1350 ASL, which is appr. 450 m climb from take off.


monday 15th january
Feet up today. Very cloudy, no sun, high pressure, no wind. Siesta. Forget it.Norwegian woke me up, they soared for almost 2 hours at the cliffs of Santa Pola late afternoon. Never call it a day in Alicante, better to be on the outlook all the time.
Niviuk dancing

sunday 14th january


High pressure, foggy at the coast, day one of norhteasternwinds coming in, after a whole week of valley breezes. Could these cold northeastern winds work again, give us the cold air we need to break through the inversion, more inland than Palomaret ? Just like other times before ?
Yes it worked again. Iver (yes, it is his name), Kath, Tim, Phil, Kenny (XC small but XC to the valley of Villena), Jarl and our local buddies from Onil flew at Reconco today. Some of them got through the inversion and climbed up to 1560 m ASL, which means almost 500 m above take off, thermals max 4 m/s.
On our drive towards the hill, we got to clearer air as soon as we passed Maigmo, promising. Near the landing field, already winds from the east, we had activity.When we arrived, Mary Luz had some little thermal activity already at noon. So we prepared for take off. Our skygod Evil from Norway showed us the way. Amazing how he climbed with his UP Summit 3.
Soon after him, Kath with her new Niviuk Hook XS found a new route towards the inversion. Kenny, Phil, and Tim followed. Locals arrived and were pretty amazed about the conditions. Again Reconco was surprising.
Thanks Juan Pedro and others to let us fly at your hill. You'll see us back, and definetely for XC try outs in early spring.

It is 7 pm now, an hour ago, 6 pm, my friend Koen Verburg ran out of fuel in the DAKAR race, 21 km before refueling point, he is hoping for solidarity of other bikers, cars. Fingers crossed. 8 pm : Somebody must have given him fuel. He is racing to finish in time, be careful Koen, he is racing on camel-grass. Camel-grass can be hard as a rock.I know this has nothing to do with paragliding, but Koen is really a good friend.And life is exciting !11 pm : according to the tracking, Koen arrived in bivouac, sleep tight

Not so good today.

We flew top to bottoms near Carrasqueta en then at Palomaret. And this when all our friends from Madrid and some of Valencia came down with their campers to have a weekend of flying.

All week the weather was the same. High pressure, breezes. Today the same. It was on this 'today', on forums, all knew we flew superb this week for wintertime. So all hope was for this weekend, when all had their days off.

But lots of frustration, lots of top to bottoms today, nothing more. The weather was sunny, warm, just like an early spring day. But no cloudbase, too stable, thick inversion, we need bad weather.

Today was a copy of yesterday.

Today was a copy of yesterday. The later it got the better. At first the thermals were like cookies with chuncks eaten off. (norwegian tend to explain our bity thermals in winter this way).

Soon more wind at take off, hazier in the valley, strangely enough it gave us more lift. Visiting pilots from Madrid were dancing the macarena when landing at 5 pm. The could hardly believe this is winter.

Down below some shots of how we flew today. You can clearly see the inversion line again, we were fighting to get over it, and sometimes after some bumpy stuff, we got through it. More easy later in the afternoon, than earlier in the day.
Third and fourth foto is our dear Marcel and in the back Antoniet, owner of the old man's bar in Agost, the place to be after flying !
And Marcel is explaining scotsman Kenny how to pour beer properly, because after great day's flying, beer o-clock !

"I am HOOKed, completely ov ertaken, completely overwhelmed. And she's gorgeous, Beautifully, passionately red, sexy. She moves so smooth, so gracious and fast. And she's mine, my mate, my buddie, my Niviuk Hook. I am on a natural high, ... " quote : Kath after receiving her birthday present

first part of januari 2007

thursday 11th january

A warm winter day again, high pressure over spain, inversion, smog over the city of Alicante.
We left early again to check Peña Rubia, maybe it was gonna surprise us. But it didn't.
It was a lost of time, we should have slept in, enjoyed a huge breakfast and leave for the afternoon. And that's what's gonna happen tomorrow.

At 2 pm, it was the best time to rig at Palo, flying was at its best at 3 pm.
Tim with his Ozone Mojo is getting used to the thermals, his first once since qualified in England, Phil needs to work on his landings, but looks like getting used to his excellent Nova Mamboo. Kenny flies excellent at times and then all of a sudden he dolphins through and around the thermals. And he's way too strong, got to work on his take offs, getting it all more under control.
Jarn is Jarn, very eager turning into every little lift he encounters. His friend needs to rehearse all priority rules for paragliding.
Michael and Bettina were fixing roofs, Marcel and Sonja were on the market.

Dudo, Sayo and Jose Luis, local pilots got to Maigmo and back. Dudo got through the inversion, and was all hyper telling us about the view he had up there, on his radio.
How an old (meaning experienced) pilot still can get so excited about his flying, amazing but not surprising.

It felt good, just had a little flight between doing the retrievals, had to just suss the desire to fly.

It is evening, temperatures are in free fall, after being in their twenties during the day.

You can already see at this pciture that the inversion wasn't gonna let us fly high.

Fighting to get through the inversion all the time. This is Chris with his Mamboo Nova.

Koen is still racing his bike, didn't get to bivouac yet. It is 7.30 pm, he had to ride over 800 km today. On dirt tracks etc... . Yesterday he rode without rear suspension over 800 km, it got bust the day before. And there were no repairs, or spare parts allowed. He must be knackered.
He drove into Mauretania today. Keep it up Koen, you are almost at the finish. I will send him an email again tonight, telling him we have been sitting in our comfortable harnasses, enjoying the views, finishing it off with a rioja vino tinto and a tapa. Keep on going buddy.

wednesday 10th january

Early leave for El Cid. A huge top to bottom, enjoying the height, the views.
From early on it was clear, today was not gonna be like yesterday with its registered (!) 6 m/s thermals. A high pressure, 1025 mb, wouldn't let it happen. Smog over Alicante, car wet early morning, fog.

In the afternoon we drove to Palo, and had some thermals to play with. But they were very small, and left us soon.
Only the guiris (foreigners) and Dudo flew, other local pilots left it for tomorrow.

Greedy Jarl, was too close in his turns towards the hill and kissed the rocks. Luckily for him without injury.
We need some bad weather, some wind, so the inversion is blown away, and we can start all over again.

Not complaining though, sun in the face, 20 degrees, and we had our wings out, groovy.

Koen, my friend, who is competing in the Dakar race with his Honda, said it was very dangerous yesterday, so much dust in the air, he could hardly see where the tricky bits were to avoid. Good luck, Koen !

Had some pilots asking me what kind of a terrain we have down here (I say down here because you are all up there) Well on this photo you can tell our region is very very dry. Picture was not taken today, but it is a shot from landing field looking up at take off. No cactuses like in Mexico, but snakes and scorpions of course. And bulls !

tuesday 9th january 2007

Another blue sky, warm temperatures, flying thermals. Hours of fun.

Dudo, Jose Luis, Rafa up and down to Maigmo, the others cruising around all afternoon.

monday 8th january 2007

Today wind were too strong for flying. West wind, winds we do not like.

And this for different reasons :
- usually linked with a low pressure over the Azores
- air coming in from Castilla la Mancha, no friction is calming down the winds over the plains of Spain
- dry air, blue sky, thermals generating the prevailing wind
When all this comes to our Alicante hills, the winds are strong and gusty.

From tomorrow onwards all week flying I guess, thursday bit strong, should be excellent to soar on the coast for a change.

During the day keeping an eye on the weather and go flying, in the evening an eye on the telly, watching the Paris-Dakar race My friend Koen Verburgh is competing with his Honda 450 CRF X, his second Paris-Dakar. And yes of course, Koen has been in the air with us in Alicante.
Riding the Dakar race was always secretly one of my dreams, knowing that one, would never come true, but now enjoying that my friend is living it ! www.dakar.com

sunday 7 january 2007

Couldn't resist. Back from skiing last night, woke up this morning, blue sky, promising 20 degrees celsius.
Knowing the day was gonna be flyable, and been missing my flying buddies for a week, agreed to go fly at Palomaret.
It was busy, but luckily the thermals got us high, so we could give each other some airspace.

Michael was flying his Skywalk Cayenne, and I am certainly gonna be nice to him and ask if I can try it once. Further lots of Niviuk try outs by local pilots.
No worries Frans, your HOOK is stuck in its bag, ready to be posted to Belgium, congratulations you're gonna love it.

The air was nice today, and it was beneficiary if you knew the site, knowing where the small little house thermals always kick off from.

Cloudbase for some of us was 300 m above the crest, high enough for some to get to Maigmo, but coming back upwind hard to get back and topland.

Antolino, where the hell were you ? Dudo, see you soon ? And where is winter ?

december 2006

saturday 30th dec - saturday 6 january 2007

No update on this today section for a week, we take a break. Thank you for reading this, I hope we can welcome next year and fly together. It doesn't get much better.

Cheers, Nick, Kath y Paco

friday 29th of december

Another good day in Alicante. Thermals, cloudbase, sun, lots of pilots, etc... .

Andrzej was flying his brandnew NOVA Ra, stil bit uncomfortable but hit cloudbase today at 1600 m ASL. Yes, december. NOVA Ra is the new dhv 2 of Nova, the succesor of the Tattoo.

It only has three risers and everything is very thin. The toplines seems to be as thin as dental floss.
Andrzey is a good pilot, you can tell by his handling and flying, but maybe a bit rusty, because living in "not the most exciting" part of the world for paragliding of course, northern Germany.

You immediately notice that this glider is fast, thin, not a beginners glider.

And as I talked to Andrzey about his first flying with this hot dhv 2 wing, he acknowledged he really has to get used to this one. Twice he almost stalled the glider whilst thermalling, and this in our winter Alicante thermals.
He was also not too impressed by its behaviour yesterday, soaring on the cliffs. All of a sudden its performance was not outstanding, compared to some old rags which were flying the coastal site yesterday. And he is a pilot with experience on a Boomerang etc... .

But then again, he managed to be on top of the stack today. He flew his wing for over three hours again, and got to cloudbase, not like all the others.

I flew his wing down, couple of wingovers, spiral dive, and of course it is full of energy.
I just hope pilots will make the right decision about this Dhv 2, it's hot. It is for pilots who fly very very regularly, and this doesn't mean soaring, or three trips a year abroad. I really believe this glider is for pilots who fly very regularly in thermals, all seasons.

There are other dhv2 gliders which could be a much better choice for lots of pilots.

I read somewhere that Hannes himself (NOVA boss) said, the faster you fly this one the better.

thursday 28th of december

Did you close your eyes yesterday, sitting in your office, imagining how it is like to thermal eyes closed ?

Very cloudy this morning, smelled like rain. Inland sunny though, so we left for the mountains. But it was weak and way cross. Still managed to scratch up and top-land a couple of times. It's good not to have it too easy once in a while, you could get rusty.

In the afternoon we decided to have a coffee in the hacienda of Palomaret. Waiting for a phone call of friends, trying the coast out.

I had a whole danish family who loved to fly tandem today. Ah, at last Jose Luis called, winds were more and more one and some were flying top to bottoms. So maybe maybe they were beginners and we could stay up.

Of course you know the story, it became good. We soared until dark on the cliffs of Santa Pola. Doing lots of tandems with the danish family, together with polish pilot Andrjea, good old Allan and sweet little Winnie.

Winds were off to the north, the sky cleared up, all clouds burned off again. Just heard on the news that we had the warmest year in more than a century, today I had my longjohns' on though. Northern winds...

wednesday 27th december

This could be painful, but I am obliged to tell you the truth. I am sorry. With this high over Europe, I do hope you have as a good time as we have now, down here in Alicante.

This is the third consecutive day of fantastic flying in Alicante. The weather is just superb.
Ice-cold in the morning (8 degrees celsius), and 15 already at 11 am, rising until nice and warm this afternoon.

We were early at take off, at noon already. A little breeze was promising a good day. Inversion in the valley, so things had to burn off still.
I had to take off early and fly, because lots of pilots were gonna show up, tandems etc... it was gonna be buuuuussssy !

Biting thermals at first. I flew again without vario. I do this lots of times. For me its more rewarding, climbing in a thermal without electronics.
You know that I guide every day, and you know I love it, don't misunderstand me. But when I am working, I do have the radio, GPS and vario etc... at hand all the time. Need it, for safety, to do my job adequately.

But when I'm free, I like to taste the thermals. I try to sense the difference in temperature, study the terrain, look at the windsocks, spot birds. Try to fly the smooth, tiny thermals without the electronics, without the BEEP. Try it, I think everyone will benefit from it, flying without instruments once in a while. What else I do, and now you are gonna call me completely crazy maybe, but I try to fly a thermal, eyes closed. Yes, of course away from the hill, and no pilots around. Try it !
It is gonna be part of my guiding when you are around, if you want to.
Eyes closed, only sensing the lift through your fingertips, the pressure difference in your glider.

Another nice thing today, were our new pilots, young pilots taught by Raul from Onil. They were present, eager to get into the thermals, eager to fly to Maigmo, first steps to XC flying. There is a drive there, hopefully resulting in good flying next spring. We need those new young pilots, because our top-pilots are losing it, most of them are having their best days behind, I notice.
(oh god I'm gonna have comments tomorrow on the hill, it looks promising again by the way)

Well hey, here's a foto of how the weather looked like in Alicante this afternoon. Picture taken by Kath, in my garden.

tuesday 26 december

Same thing as yesterday. Northeast prevision, but weak. It looked very inverted early morning. We were hoping the thermals would kick through the inversion, so at least we would have some cloudbase. And we did.

We made use of the southern valley breeze to fly thermals at Palomaret.
Boxing day, lots of pilots in the air, too much traffic at times, felt like Palermo-driving. They came from the left, the right, above, under you, not so nice and stressfull at times. Lots of too laidback pilots in the air, not realising they were in the wrong.

Best thing was that Winnie flew her thermals, for the first time after her accident being towed up at home in Denmark. Enhorabuena.

On the 25th of december we flew at Palomaret. We enjoyed 4 m/s thermals and Bruno got to 1550 meter ASL. Most of us made the run to Maigmo and back. I don't know how we deserved it, but it was one of the greatest christmas gifts I ever received. This time of the year, those kind of thermals, that height, all afternoon flying, jesus christ. On the 24th pilots were flying at Carrascoy, Murcia.

sunday 24 - monday 25 december

saturday 23 december

Flying at Hondon de las Nieves. Northern take off, near the antennas. Took some pictures flying ,you can watch them on http://www.flickr.com/photos/doyouwanna-paragliding/

Yes, thermal activity just before Xmas. After a while it got real overcast and strong in the air. Time to warm up with an glass of Orujo in the local bar. See you later Arvind and Paul, Gert, Tom and Tom and Jurgen. Hope to see you again.

friday 22nd december

Northern Alicante bad again, southern Alicante at least bits of sunshine.
There is a high pressure over Spain and we have northeastern winds.

This cold air brings us the moist air from above the mediterrean sea. (sea temp 15 degrees celsius).
Once it hits the continent, it cools down abruptly and results in rain and even snow on our higher mountains. Today more inland, Castilla La Mancha, Don Quichote's land, it was dry and sunny.

And today, yes ! Some flying in Murcia again. Away from the higher mountain ranges near Alicante. We save those for teaching us how to thermal ....

Happy men

thursday 21st december

Today was bad. Blue sky, but windy from the north. We didn't fly, our only hill El Plantio was gusty to fly on. It is the hill very close to the airport, and the times it is flyable can be counted on one hand. When it is pure north, even airplanes are warned to be careful, landing at Alicant airport, so why should we even think of flying eh.

Dates for our spring-roadtrip to the feet of the Pyrenees is set from saturday 23rd of june till saturday 30th of june 2007. More details will follow. We will fly the sites of Ager, Organya and Berga, a roadtrip in spring with doyouwanna. Price will be democratic, as they always are with doyouwanna.
Group will be small, max 6 pilots, so we will be flexible to move from one site to the other. There will be an airport pick-up in Barcelona on saturday 23rd of june. It'll be a non stress flying trip, to the southern hills of the Spanish side of the Pyrenees. You may already let me know if interested, I will sent you more info asap, upcoming days this is.

wednesday 20th december

We didn't fly today. It was raining up in Alicante North, down south sunny till afternoon. So we went to check an alternative site near Torrevieja. A site where only once we flew on. It is not high, but nice to play on when the weahter is bad inland and especially up north.

But winds were totally off, so we couldn't enjoy it.

Day off, raining in Alicante, snow on the mountains.

Site near Hotel Masa international. Yes very low, and almost no landing field, but hey if the weather is bad and you want to play ...

tuesday 19th of december

Forecast, westwinds, veering to north later in the day. Cloudier and cloudier by end of afternoon, early evening. What do you do ? You check your northern sites, cold air from up north, mixed with blue sky, the warm sun. Should function in the afternoon on a northwestern site. So left again for Carrascoy, northwest and high, take off at 1000 m ASL.

Arvid, Andy, Paul, Suby and me. No others interested. Even my german pilots weren't eager to fly today, no idea why, didn't hear from them at all. Maybe enjoyed night life too much, Las Palmeras maybe ?....

It was weak at first, very smooth thermals. Andy showed where they were, just above landing area, in the valley they were. Suby rushed to them with his comp glider. Soon overflew Andy, who was struggling. He thanked Andy for pointing him out the thermal, promising a beer.

An hour and a half later Suby landed, he flew all over in the valley, good day for him. Bit he's another league.

I watched the clouds forming looking up northeast, towards Alicante. These were nice clouds up there, nicer than the ones we had at Murcia. Rafa send a message, Palomaret good. I called and messaged the germans, maybe they woke up by now, and they could fly this hill, which is not such a drive like we had to Murcia. But no sign of them.

Driving back I saw the wonderfull convergence clouds over the southern hills of Alicante. This must have been a good day, surprisingly though with the forecast we had.

Called Rafa, he told me cloudbase was at 1800 m and now he was driving direction Castalla to pick up our buddy Ismael. He made XC. It was only functioning a good hour, but what an hour.

XC around Xmas in Europe ¿ It happens.

Great fun, and a bit nippy at the end of the afternoon.

Bad weather, windy weather upcoming ...

monday 18th of december

Fabulous. Grey in Alicante, even raining early morning. But forecast looked good for southern region of Alicante. So roadtrip to Murcia, Carrascoy.

We took off early afternoon at this northwestern site. First Andy, then Arvid, Paul. Then Johan,me and Tom. When we were in the air, Carrascoy was in its typical mood. The higher you got the more wind was on.
If you have flown this site before, you know it is better not to be too greedy and stay low. Johan did, I did, the others landed earlier.
Full speedbar in my Magic gave me nothing but sink and no groundspeed. So couldn't make it to the proper landing field, and landed in (luckily) not cultivated field. Because farmers down there are not so happy with us, nutters, flying over their orange groves.
Tom, was getting higher and higher. Soon though, we saw him spiralling his Advance Sigma6, to get lower lower lower. Big ears next, anything to get away from this strong winds on height.

After his landing he explained us that he was getting higher, getting less and less groundspeed. Getting more and more higher, eventually flying backwards. Not a good feeling.
Better cafe con leche and wait for better conditions.

And they got surprisingly better, Arvid and Paul, both low airtimers had one of their longest flights late afternoon.

left on foto, Tom high under the cloud, right smoother conditions late afternoon

saturday sunday 16 17 th december

Flying the whole weekend. Peña Rubia, Toix. Not epic, but where in Europe can you fly like this in winter ? I doubt if there is a better place than Alicante.
Tomorrow we are looking at the southern sites of Alicante, Carrascoy, soon be closed for months again. We have to fly that site before Xmas.

friday 15th december

Angry sky. Up north of Alicante, Benidorm, Calpe, Col de Rates, raining. Southern Alicante , sunny, but limited to fly. Winds up to 30 k per hour and very gusty. No chance.

Maybe El Plantio would have worked, this is a small ridge near the airport of Alicante, takes north. Probably to closest site to an airport, appr 500 m from the runway. But couldn¡tmake it today. Sunday onwards visiting pilots again, can't wait.

thursday 14th december

Eastern wind, tried out small alternative hill near Villena. But got blown back, had to land behind the hill, fortunately no harm done.

At the coast early day, soaring possible. But needed a change and drove inland. Alex and friends went to San Antonio, up there as well too strong. Don't know if they flew later in the afternoon.

High pressure, northeastern winds for upcoming days. Sunshine.

wednesday 13th december

Grey day. No flying at all. High pressure, air coming down, bits of rain all day. Relax.

tuesday 12th of december

Northeast, and for days. Today too strong for the coast. Inland at San Antonio. Usually working with this kind of weather. Strong at the coast, high pressure, and cloudbase not too low.
Not the most beautiful site, but works very nice when the sun is out. A 200 m high hill, with football pitches as landing field. Landing fields, which you can't see from take off.

I remember flying this one years ago, with pilots who have flewn it before. So went up, and first one airborne. Soon on the radio :

Nick !
What ?
Whats happening on the landing field ?
What do you mean ?
There is a fair going on !
Jesus.

Luckily on the side of the football pitches there is a huge road on which sides we can land on. Uuuff.

monday 11th december

Early afternoon already a phone call from Rafa Caudete. He is a low airtimer who is crazy about flying. As a young man, he loves to fly every minute possible. So he called early, telling us it didn't look that bad.

Although winds were northeast, which is opposite of what we need for that hill.
It was cloudy enough to fly on the lee-side, the ever blowing breeze did the rest.

Just in case you are looking for a bargain, I got one :

wednesday 6th - sunday 10th december

Roadtrip to Valle d Abdalajis, Andalucia, (more) southern Spain. Left wednesday morning with not a lot of hope to fly well on this roadtrip. But, but, but, .. this is Spain and the sun is sometimes stronger than we think.

Visiting Grananda meanwhile, a must when passing through. The Alhambra, the village surrounding the Sierra Nevada.

Got a call from my friends of our biggest local club Mas7. They were flying on thursday in the Valle d Abdalajis. Blimey. And this when it was still raining, 50 km more north where I was checking the western site of Loja.
On friday too much wind, so all went rock-climbing in El Chorro, famous in Europe, as famous as le Palud in France. And as famous as the climbing is, in Marche-les-dames in Belgium. But that's only because a Belgian king fell of this rocks and killed himself rockclimbing, long time ago.

Saturday was epic. No wind at take off, western side. Almost forced to alpine launch. But once in the air, easy to get to cloudbase. Some took it too literally and had to big-ear down. No stress.

It was flyable all day, from midday onwards till sunset. But every good half hour pilots were landing, because hands were frozen. Up high it was only 4 degrees, and that's nippy.

Only Carmen, topped up her airtime with three hours, three hours of consecutive flying in this cold. We all wanted to see her magic gloves. They looked designed in the sixties, and they were of poor cheap plastic. Those were the days, made in Taiwan ... .

We all camped near the lake, had good wine, steak on the BBQ, and lots of fun. Again, good friends, good flying, no hassles.

Oh by the way, Rafa from Caudete won the spot-landing competition. Anothe bottle of wine of course.

El Chorro, climbing

Valle d Abdalajis west

Arabic market in Granada, day blown out

Last week(s) of june 2007, I organise a roadtrip to the southern sites of the Pyrenees. It'll be a roadtrip flying Ager, Organya and Berga. Feel free to ask us more info.

Soon I will invite you all through this 'today'-section. The group should be small to be as flexibe as possible to get the most flying in. Give it a thought ok ? Cheers.

tuesday 5th of december

Tomorrow is fiesta in the whole of Spain, till monday. If you want to live in a country with muchas fiestas, well that's the one. I can't keep up for what we have fiesta again, one thing I know, we all love it of course. Just had a look on the calendar, it is constitution day, and friday we celebrate some virgin again, hoorah !

And today as well, we loved it. We were inland, Peña Rubia flying. Five of us, three of us did well, considering the conditions are 'december'-like. Suby and me bummed out ..... after struggling to find the right thermal. We stayed up for a while, scratching close to the sunnier bits of the hill, west wind generating some ridge-lift.
But as soon as we took our chances away from the hill, into the valley, sink-alarm almost. Damn. Once in a while some turns were giving us hope, but soon as roasted chickens on the ground.

Dudo ,Rafa, Imre were more lucky, got into the right thermal went for the neighbour ridge and had a good hour of flying. Winds were west, not too strong as predicted.

Tomorrow fiesta, told you already. We are off to the south. Probably very windy in Alicante for the next upcoming days, that's why. We maybe go to Almeria, Granada or even more west Valle de Abdalajis. I know the sites, and can't wait to fly them again. If not we'll just have to live with the hospitality of the Andalucian people, and their tapas.

I won't be updating my 'today'. But my phone will be with me in case you want me to pencil you in for the upcoming weeks. Bye now.

Photo send by Michael Pausch, he took it when we were flying over the lake of Guadalest. The day before a plane crashed and they were fishing it out.

monday 4th of december

Well, Alicante is one site richer, thanks to the greediness, the perseverence of Jarl Christian Kind. Sometimes pilots are more passionate about flying than birds, you would think. Even small, low hills, with obstacles, don't withhold the ones with a huge drive for flying to try out new things.
As long as we get our feet off the ground no ? Jump !

He found a new site in Torrevieja. Checked it this afternoon and here it is. I don't think we'll frequent this site very much, but hey if it is strong east, and we are near, why not ?

Foto's from Jarl himself.

The site reminds us of our alternative sites like Cabo de Huertas, Cala de Finestrat, Campello.

sunday 3rd december

Carascoy, Peña Rubia, La cortina. That's where there was paragliding done today. I can speak of Carascoy where we flew together with the Murcia boys, Rafa, Sayo and Kath.

Bits rough in the air, and at times strong headwind. But if you felt fit, you could stay as long as you would. In between the soaring bits, you had to fight to get into the punchier thermals. Once in a while you had the impression you weren't moving forward any more. You looked above and you saw the other pilots above you racing you by. Very typical for certain days at Carrascoy. Sometimes at some height, winds are stronger. Sometimes stronger than higher up. Ahum, difficult to explain. If you ask locals again and again howcome, they keep on answering you . 'eso es', it is that way... .

For those who are interested in some spanish culture, today there was food culture. After flying we we went for a famous restaurant that serves paella. Their specialty is paella with rabbit and snails. Awesome. Every table gets a pan with the paella, and dig in. No fancy stuff, the real stuff. The restaurant is not known by foreigners, it is still one of those very very local places.
A very typical spanish atmosphere. Very loud in the restaurant, seems like everybody is raising his voice, having a good time. It was sunday, lots of people well dressed up. Proud older spanish señoras, and also cute younger women, dressed as if they want to seduce the waiters. TV on, nobody watching. Kids running around, shouting. Bright white neon-lights. Cheap table wine with sweet lemonade, vino tinto y casera.

Maybe not your cup of tea ? Well then you certainly miss the 'carajillo'. We love it.

saturday 2nd december

Soaring over the med. Cloudy though, colours not that sharp. But anyway, a huge window at the coast we had. Nice and steady 18 km/h winds, untill all died off.

friday 1st december

Morning flights at Cabo, and afternoon flying inland. It was very cloudy and rainy up northern Alicante. Still pilots flying early afternoon at Cabo, and bits later I had a message Dudo was flying inland.

November 2006; 19 flyable days

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.

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.

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.

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
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.

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

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

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 !