Damn shitty weather, again overdevelopment and rain. It feels like being punished.

I've done the Swedish thing, watched the movie based on book by Stieg Larsson, and went to the sauna.

You only had to look at the sky early morning to see that no flying would be possible today. All over angry skies. Here and there a drop of rain, here and there a thunderstorm. It is getting better, but what a lousy 3 days we leave behind.

Tomorrow hope to fly, afternoon southwinds, less instable. Direction Murcia ? Maybe, maybe.

If you have satelite TV, you must have seen the heavy storms on TV in our region. Floodings, mudslides, cars floating. It is bad, has been last two days. But tomorrow and even this afternoon we have our good old sunshine again. Fingers crossed.

We do have the GOTA FRIA right now, and it hasn't been so cruel for 12 years. Torrential rains, just like a monsoon.
Ingredients, you can google for that, but its easy, a cold bag of air above us due to the northern air we received last week, a warm sea, and eastern winds.

Paul, Stef, Bernhard, Arvid, hope you guys had fun, and hope the Doyouwanna service was as you expected. You can always leave a not on our guestbook. Helps out, low publicity, keeping prices democratic for all visiting pilots wanting to fly in Alicante.
It doesn't get much better !

An idea about the Gota Fria, which only luckily occurs a couple of days after a hot summer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukW73NRcOpA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZUJj3bckL8&feature=related

No flying today, from early morning too much wind east and rainy. Not a nice grey day today.

No flying today, from early morning too much wind east and rainy. Not a nice grey day today.

Lots of heights at Cabo. Meaning lots of wind at take off.

Although forecast was iffy, we had a splendid day. But not all of us. One swiss pilot hurt himself being dragged in the gulley.

I was down at landing field doing retrievals when it happened, but heard winds were strong and pilot didn't control glider anymore, flew downwind in the gulley and came in hard.

One back up at take off, I checker our swiss friend and he was allright. Just his feet were hurting. So he asked us to bring him up ourselves and have a check at hospital.

But what a show we had running in minutes. Cigarette smoking guardia civils, out of breath fat policemen surrounding the place were our buddy was having a rest, waiting for us to bring him to the car.

Wait, more to come. Bombers, yes topfit members of the firebrigade, a rescue squad with harnasses and cords, as if to rescue a victim out of a crevesse. Madre mia.

Minutes later a helicopter. Holy shit, what the fuck. More spectators, digital camera's in hand, accident tourists, looking down at the waving accidentee.

We asked if we could bring our buddy up to the car, or even ambulance, but no way. The helicopter crew was gonna do his thing.

Hoovering above the gulley, protecting our heads for falling stones, he was lowering a cord. Yes they were gonna rescue him 'American Style' .

We all thought we were in a movie, or in a candid camera action.

I left the scene, it was too much for me. My friend was taking care of, by topfit firemen, and the green barets in the helicopter were gonna do the rest. What a crowd there was. Excellent for promoting the sport.

What a show, what a theatre, ridiculous.

Ok, had to let you know.

Good news is that he was hurt of course, well that's not the good news, the good news is that he hurt both his feet, and needs to go back home to have it all repaired. But that's not good news either, what I wanna say was, its not the worst injury. He is in good spirit, although of course, angry at himself, swearing. Pilot error it was, took off with too much wind. Although an experienced pilot.

Be careful out there.

Unfortunately it happened at Cabo, where we can miss any incident, accident. Because the site is still fragile.

Later on in the day, visiting schools were chucking off their students, holding on to them, as if a firecracker needed to be launched. Guardian Angels at take off. They all had a good 'hang'. Most local pilots waited it out.

Down below, my little lovely nieces' feet, hanging under a tandem somewhere in the alps. Hanna didn't they tell you to put shoes on !!

Love to all.

Col de Rates

Parcent down below

Michael flying towards good old Maigmo.

Boart taking off, Swiss pilot.

Shit happens.

today southwestern winds. Good day for Toix, but we choose Palomaret. At first too much southwestern winds from over El Cid. Didn't like it, Flyable oh yeah, but nice is something else, so after a while heading down to have a coffee with my group in the hacienda. Always a place taht brings back memories.

Once back up, still strong, even stronger. So another forced chill, parawait.

At 4 pm, breeze kicked in, more humidity in the air, El cid not so sharp looking, but more in a gaze. Kick off !

Impression of the day. Too busy. Lovely people, no worries, but Swedish school in the air, heard some Russian, some Brazilians and some Swiss pilots. We are one big happy family, but too much traffic, too stressfull at times.

I still think we should organise it all better as locals. We shouldn't let foreign schools just use our site just like that. It doesn't happen anywhere in the world. There should be a kind of contribution. A 10 euro each pilot a day or something ,then we could more easily take care of the take offs, clean up our sites. And listen then we wouldn't have to read on the international paragliding forum that we do have the worst places to fly in the world, because no windsocks, no clean up, no service. Oh well, who am I.

We all had a great time, but at times it was like flying in the M25 (is that a busy one ??)

Praying Mantus on Nova Factor

And all of a sudden it was summer again, and it flew fantastic.

Foreceast northeast, funny with a norhtwest reasonable strong in the morning. What could we do, 80 km south or 80 km north. Lets flip a coin. Ok, we'll take north.

Where are we going Nick ?

Don't know yet.

What do you mean ?

Have to look along the way, find smoke, flags, see the sea.

Oh....

So we passed Benidorm, Calpe and left into the hills of the Jalon valley. Yes, up Col de Rates.

A bit of a drive guys, but if working it'll be worth it.

How long Nick ?

Not that long.

How many kilometers then ?

About 80.

Oh.....

Once at the landing field, nerveus looking pilots. Is this it ? Is this the landing field, are you sure ? Hey, it is bigger than it looks like ok.

Driving up the mountain, scary bends, steep rides.

Once at take off, fantastic, a steady 10 km wind northeast. Yihaaaah !!

Amin, Boart, Michael, Bernhard, Arvid and Paul and Stef in the air. Got to 1450 meter above sea level, is a 400 meter climb. Not bad.

First in the air at 1 pm, last one down at 4.30. Lande-beere.

I usually don't go a lot to Col de Rates, too far and cloudbase usually very low. But if it works it is a master site. And today it was.

Foto's today, Arvid Norwegian pilot flying his Nova Factor, a wing I truly love.

Shitty weather to fly. Luckily a hard sun in between,but way too windy again. Sea nerveus and lots of angry clouds above us. Rainy at times.
Fingers crossed for our site San Antonio tomorrow.

Swedish young little star ALFRED !!!

son of Swedish pilot Fredrik Ahl

The most boring clouds from early morning, cirrus stratus. Whoever invented these clouds, I dont want to meet.

From afternoon onwards rain, till now late in the evening. And tomorrow more of this I fear.

Foto of the port of the village of Santa Pola.

Elisabeth, Alexandra, Amin, Michael and Bart, our Swiss friends arrived. Always nice to have your around guys. And thanks for the T-shirt, Kath looks lovely in it.

Morning flight at Peña Rubia, where winds were weak from north at first but soon veering to east. Arvid under his Nova Factor doing very well, same for all the others under their Sol, Edel (yes they are still around), Apco, and Nova Rookie gliders.

Thinking about the norwegian Magne and his Swedish friends who were here last week. They flew Peña rubia as well, with a babyXC achievement in for Magne. Hope all is well up north !

Later in the afternoon two windows flying at Cabo. Mid afternoon till it got too nasty, clouds and rainy. And early evening when everything turned out to be so smooth in the air, you could fall asleep or read a book flying.

Two foto's in one week. One last week, hammering sun. The other yesterday hail hammering down, destroying cactusses. A tremendous hailstorm hit us yesterday. In our village El Altet 10 cm of hail. Maybe not uncommon where you live, but mostly uncommon at ours.

I am writing this next morning, monday morning, as we didn't have electricity last night due to the storms. This morning cristal blue sky. We'll go out flying soon,

talk to you this evening.

Alicante rocks, written by Lucien Simon. Thanks for this Lucien.

Indeed Alicante rocks, yesterday at night, because during the day winds were too strong from the west.

Lots of allergy problems yesterday, the eucalyptus trees around my house are in blossom. Patio, nose and roof covered in tiny light yellow hairs from the tree.

Along the roads we pick figs, pommy granites, and soon the almonds will be ready.

Doug and Julie, hope you had some flying in already back home, nice to have guided you again, hope we'll fly together again.

Take care mister Niviuk !

If yo want to know what Doug and Julie achieved last week read his blog, and add it to your favouites :

http://dougieandjulie.blogspot.com/

Soutwesthj wind, smooth in the morning, strong in lae afternoon. Toix flyable. But not having the right pilots to go there.
I tried other sites but notpossible to fly.

Toix is tricky, again bullet proof take offs needed, and decision all along the flying is necessary. In between take off and landing there is the sea. If no laminar wind, it can be tricky for even experienced pilots, so I'd rather not took the risk.

We just had to enjoy scenery, as you can see on the foto, canyons near the city of turron (marsepan, nougat) Jijona.

Once back near the coast, blue skies, hammering sun.

Santa Pola soaring

Magne and Fredrik, soaring the coastline. Incroyable, increible, unbelievable with the winds that were forecasted. Southwest, and we flew for over an hour at our eastern site. While up high we could see the clouds moving southwestwards and not slowly.

At first I wanted to go inland, to Hondon, the only place I thought that would have a window early in the day.

But clouds were already suspicious enough not to drive all the way.

I told the guys to have a good day, and told them to keep their phones on in case I found a window somewhere. A call from Magne did it. He was at the coast and spotted a slight easterly wind.

A few lousy top to bottoms later, I could radio them to the lighthouse. Chris also arrived and got hisgood old Hook out, after two months being back down here from England, where he managed to do one top to bottom all summer.

Stevie and friends have gone home. Hope they get their flying in upcoming days, they said it was gonna be gooooooood out in Wales. Hope you all had a good time, lets meet again.

www.blauvent.com

don't miss it

Palomaret Alicante

Last days weren't the best days weatherwise. And the roads up our hills are damaged. No drainage, too much cost for the few days of rain we get a year, so mudslides here and there.

Maybe not a very respectfull way to use this Gin Sprint, because a very good dhv 1-2 glider. As it was in a yellow bag, easily to be spotted, we used it as target for our spotlanding comp.

And Stevie won it, together with Riis under his old Ozone Elektron.

Always fun, Cookie, Stevie and Riis, the way it should be. Our retrieval car.

And Julie around, taking shots at take off Palomaret, Doug flew his solo wing Niviuk Artik.

Norris waiting for launching, and Cookie in the air. If reading the sky, you can already tell that we didn't fly all day. But managed to fly thermals, very unexpected today. But hey, that's Alicante for you.

Swedish and Norwegian friends, Bernald, Magne, Fredrik. I hope you have a good time guys. Today was interesting building up confidence under a cloudy sky.

http://blauvent.blogspot.com/

Check out this blog. It is not a paragliding blog, but a very interesting blog from my best friend and pilot Carmen, who just opened her shop online.

Get to know her and her ideas, through her blog.
And then when interested check out her shop, http://www.blauvent.com/

You can call this publicity, but to me it is sharing something I do support.
As I think it is very creative, sideways linked to our sport, environmental friendly.

Check it out, I am sure there is something you'd love to give your partner or yourself... .

hugs and kisses,
Nick

Santa Pola soaring

Santa Pola soaring in a bit tricky weather. As you can see on the foto's, huge thunderstorms inland. But the coast was free, so some of us could have an hour of flying in.

We had the sea as indicator of the wind, and were looking behind our back all the time. For me no the most relaxing flight, as I do have lots of respect for clouds and weather. But, climb was smooth and well controlable.

Our swedish and norwegian friends were working hard on their groundhandling which can only be applauded ! Lets hope tomorrow morning we do have some window in the morning.

Alicante paragliding Peña Rubia

Chris, Doug, Julie, Cookie, Stevie and Norris after their flights at Peña Rubia. Where Magne (not on foto, still flying ..) registered 8 m per second thermals, and found cloudbase 600 meter above take off.

But soon it was time to get down to earth and chill as cumulus were towering around us.

Later in the day we had tremendous lightnings. Huge discharge cloud to the ground. Elecrical charge travelling from cloudbase (negative charged) to the ground (positively charged). Brilliant jagged bolts between sky and ground.
It is said that if your hair should begin to stand 'punky', it may mean that you are in the near distance of a positively charged area, risking to be hit by a strike. Auch. So cut your hair.

This afternoons' weather. So don't feel too bad.

Half hour later ...

Some shots taken by tandem passenger Julie.

Julie and Doug have made a sensational flight at Palomaret. The reached 2600 m ASL, which to my memory has never been achieved by any pilot before.

I am checking around, and nobody remembers having such a height at our favourite home site.

Skygods !

A 1600 meter climb for Doug and Julie on their tandem can't be ignored. Yes sir, 1600 m climb. Inland flying was epic.

For the whole group, unforgetable climbs. Veru unstable weather, flying on a southern site with northeasterly winds on top. So a hot valley and a cold sky, mastered by a spanish sun, the recipe for an unforgetable thermal-day.

Today other pilots had their XC done from Reconco. Others flew (like us later in the day) relaxed near the coast. Schools were teaching their students how.

Everybody filled up their boots.

Lots of activity today. Different schools, different sites. Good friends,no hassles.

Hunky dory !!

Late in the day, it got all overdeveloped, and cumulus nimbus were forming left and right, we even had to shelter for the storm at one point. And then we found out why raincoats have to be yellow for gods' sake.

After lets be honest, three days of 'sportive' flying, we were happy to stretch our legs, arms, wings at Santa Pola. Enjoying the soaring, untill it got too strong.

Excellent take offs, as you know very important for me. Flying is easy, the glider will sort out 99 procent of the probs. Landing is most of the time the easiest bit. But taking off is all in the hands of the pilot, not the glider, not the conditions, but the skills from the pilot.
Therefore I am happy to have our welsh friends who obviously have had loads of opportunities in Rhosilly to practice strong wind launches et... .

We'll all have fish with heads on tonight at a local fish family run restaurant in Santa Pola, with lots of wine 'vino tinot', from their home barrel. Weekend ain't it ?

Clouds over the sea, cumulus, towering inland. Some bad weather, instable weather coming up ? Lets hope our coastal sites will give us playtime.

Oh yes, we can confirm, one XC 130 km Dudo, 6 pilots more than 50 km yesterday on top of that.

Lots of pilots had the day of their life yesterday, well this couple had it as well.

Some soul in white bodies. Thanks Remi sending this to us, and we all hope your recovery goes well.

I don't remember my wedding being half so exciting.

http://www.20min.ch/ro/entertainment/videos_buzz/story/13661919

Bingo. The magic word was convergence today. And Ismael had his 50 km xc from Caudete into the province of Castilla La Mancha.

Plan was to join the local pilots of Monte Cabrer again to go XC, as well with the forecasted convergence south/east. But to me the winds were too south for Monte Cabrer so we moved to Reconco. Up there winds were too strong and Stevie found out it wasn't ideal for flying. Where could we go to profit from the convergence later on at 3 pm.

Caudete, lets call Ismael. Not strong here 'yet', he said. Hm.

Once there, indeed the windmills weren't making their nasty 'fvou-fvou-fvou' sounds yet.

But more a 'fvou - fvou - fvou' noise.

Ok, everybody quickly in the air, and get used to the air. After half hour things calmed down, no good cycles so most of the pilots down.

But Dougy and July on their tandem, Ismael and Norris still in the air and climbing.

Ismael took his chances and left northeastwards, going XC,please pick me up.

He made 50 km xc ending up in Castilla La Mancha.

Cloudbase at 26oo meter ASL, which is 1500 meter above take off.

Just a minute ago, I got notice that pilots as well in Monte Cabrer took their chances, with even more succes. Dudo made 140 km and ended up in Albacete I heard. More pilots went XC and had their personal bests.

What a day, putting Alicante mountains on the map as XC sites. Well well done, all of you - skygods.

Late afternoon there was still some coastal flying to end the day.