Thermals

Group of dutch leaving today. They hopefully leave with a good taste of Alicante. Some soaring at the coast which they loved, and some thermals in the mountains before heading back home to their dutch mountains.

The operate in the middle of Holland, between The Hague, Rotterdam and Amsterdam under Skygliders .

Some got up to 1500 m ASL and left for Bayneres, of course Pepe amongst them, as always. Still XC possibities though, but you have to be in the air before 2 pm, that's when it all starts.

Adrenaline Paragliders

New on the market Adrenaline Paragliders. Alicante-Murcia one of the main regions of free flight in Spain, offers a brandnew brand of paragliders. Adrenaline.

Some foto's of one the new gliders. CEO Manager Marcelo Mrtinez Calero on foto.

If any more info is wanted, please contact us.

Or directly : Adrenaline Paragliders

Two out of three days Cabo this weekend

Friday, saturday and sunday we had an "orange" alert weatherwise. It was gonna rain cats and dogs and it was gonna howl.

Friday my dutch friends had time in the air and this whole morning it was flyable as well. Not the best weather but still 20 degrees celcius and feet in the air 2 out of 3 days.

Topparagliding Poland

Wojtek, chief instructor from Poland, visiting us again.

As you can see on the foto, he is one of the nicest blokes you can meet. One of the better professionals running a paragliding school in Poland. I wouldn't go without him if I was Polish. Respect.

Andy Shaw

Andy Shaw instructor, Green Dragons England.

At Palomaret Alicante.

Osama ? Mr Bin ?

Too late boys, he got caught already.

Tandem season

I am probably gonna get some protest from girlie friends, but hey I AM looking for male models.

Check it out, a bit naughty but not at all dirty .... .

Tandems at 65 euros a flight, any time.

In between fronts

Two foto's, one of flying in Palomaret, but only the diehards. Way too violent at times at take off, and the sky getting agrier and angrier.

Down below at the coast lots smoother, till too smooth.

But we got our wings out, and we probably won't the upcoming days, looking bad. Rainy even in dry Alicante.

Foto's Alicante

How a week can look like in october Alicante, check out Claudia's foto's.

There are some winners there.

Ulli, Ulli, Ulli, Andrea, Cloud, have some great flights in autumn, it can be wonderful, un abrazo.

Wings out

Wings out today. Howling winds till late. Western winds, and we all know what that means, little chance of flying.
But we did some flying. Thanks making that effort, and coming out with me.
I was on the outlook all day, and all I could deliver was a little bit of that and a little bit of this.

Feet up

After weeks of flying, feet up. Alert all over Spain, strong winds, and some drizzly rain even in Alicante.
Time to enjoy some of the better footage of a stay in Alicante,
Cloudbase paragliding from England visiting us, sure hope we'll see you guys again.

If you hesitate how the flying, how the stay can be check out there footage,
Cloudbase paragliding in Alicante

Rest in peace

Rest in peace Antoine Montant,
some amazing footage
of this young guy who lived his life.

Watusi dance ?

Maybe not a Watusi dance but at least a Stroll or a Shim Sham dance today.

Thunder and lightning day turned out to be a Cabo day after all. Only early flying till 3 pm, then it got light .... .

Oh well two days in a row flying, with a horrible weather forecast.

Wild horses

No horses on the sea, although we were all warned to have a windy day.

At 9 am, yes at 9 am, we were at take off, launching thinking, hey before 11 we have to fill our boots then we're grounded.
But, Alicante showed its good side and it flew till dark.

New german pilots visiting. And good old Ken Wilkinson with walking stick, still flying though.

Early morning shots.

Advance Impress3

Ozone Delta above an Advance Impress3, in between Claudia.

http://www.cloudbaseparagliding.com/

and

http://www.greendragons.co.uk/index.shtml

Both present this week in Alicante. Together with german, dutch and polish friends.

We all had a great week of good laughs, lots of food and drinks, and important some very good flying. Good friends, good flying, no hassles.

Thanks being here, hope to see you all again.

Incredible

Incredible, Andy Shaw's pilots from Green Dragons flying this time. And with a 45 km wind at the coast.
Found a spot where no easterlies blew. Safe flying in the lee. Untill clouds got too dark. Well done. Alicante at its' best ? I would think so.

could'ave, would'ave, should'ave, .... ,

, ... , common excuses for paragliders.

Too early on the site, too late in the air, if only others, should'ave done this, could'ave known that, etc... etc...

But no stress, we have flown, and how. Later afternoon indeed, but fantastic at our home site. I think as far I could see, we all had a great day.

Volker, should'ave been here !

Well, you know ...

Sunny, pretty hot, wind on the hill, good company, no stress, summer feeling, all day flying, wish I stayed in bed.

Cloudy day

Cloudy today, and they didn't burn off, as promised.

I remember when I got here 13 years ago now, that I was surprised local pilots were flying under those big black clouds.

But soon I found out, these bbc's were not so mean. They were more clouds coming in from the sea, easterlies coming in. Moist.

Under these black clouds it was smooth gliding from one end of the mountain to the other end.

All day, all night.

First flight after three months of injury

Today I flew for the first time after my motorbike accident in beginning of july. I broke my collar bone three months ago. After a painfull recovery for three months, I finally have the 'flexibility' and the 'strength' to fly again. Not long, I only flew 15 minutes then I had to go land.

Felt great though.

By this I have to thank all the help I got from the local pilots, the local schools, the local professional tandem pilots for helping me out. Without them my business would have been stuck. But the service of doyouwanna was guaranteed by pilots like Pepe, Café and the parahawk team of Scott Mason who was here till mid august, and many others.

I owe you big time.

So we all flew today at Cabo de Santa Pola. A site which is victim of its success the last couple of years. Sometimes you wished we kept it quiet. Too many visiting pilots jeopardize the site. Sorry to say. Yesterday two bad accidents by visiting pilots, warned and asked by the locals (I wasn't there ...) not to fly. Maybe we as local pilots should stand more firm to protect our site, despite the swearing and the insults we get from it. I say no more.

At some point, us, locals will not have a lot of weapons any more to defend our precious home site.

Lets hope the two pilots will recover soon. Maybe they could help out by telling others not to come down and do things on their own, but fly with the schools, or guided. Before it is too late.

Roquebrune and other sites are closed, let it not happen to our precious Cabo de Santa Pola, please.

Palomaret

Did it again. We had some safe flying with this strong norhteaserly. Clouds were blocking the strong winds. So we could easily get to the clouds, 1500 masl, which is a 700 m climb, before getting to El Cid or Maigmo.
Landings were the most critical and technical today as you have to land on both official landing fields with cross winds.
Rolf, Ronny, Sven, Leonard and Tom, thanks flying with us. Hope to see you again, mean it.

Hard work but rewarded

Early morning at cliffs Santa Pola. Sea strong at first, then nothing. Didn't feel like waiting, for good times bad times. So I asked my buddies if they wanted to go walkabout and find a site inland.
Luckily all said yes. So off we went for Reconco, where at first the gusts were nicely on the hill, pinetrees smelling as if slowly burned, summer was around kicking off those valley thermals.
But we were expecting northeasterly winds. So bits later we had to move on to San Antonio, winds off, too east and weak.
Rewarded though later when all of the group made little XC's upwind, flew into the clouds, eared it down etc... . Playground for the big boys.

Leanord with his shiny Apco.

Morning flights in the sun.

And Ronny once again the most far, landing on the roofs of Agost ???

Ronny, Sven, Rolf and Leonard, no stress just bring us to the right place !

Just got a call from Pepe, he flew a 30 km out and return at Palomaret, last site we visited today.

2500 m cloudbase ain't bad in october

Is that a Cayenne3 ?

Ronny, landing out near Pinoso.

Take off

That was what Tom Kane got today, over Sierra del Carche.

Another hot hot day, in Alicante, direction Murcia where we visited Sierra del Carche with its 1400 m ASL take off.

As you can see on the foto's, a bit of a spanish take off, but that makes it all more interesting.

A beautiful day spent.

Dia de Hispanidad - Fiesta del Pilar

All spanish, latin countries in the world had a day off today. And you could tell, lots of families enjoying the summer days on the hills. Loving the paragliding scene, well we think they were ... .

Everywhere families with kids picknicking, grandma's and granddad being pampered, noisy at the bars as spanish can be.

If you look at the foto it gives you an idea how fantastic it is to live in this part of Europe, southern Spain. For many reasons, especially comparing it to my previous country up north, where the most erotic view you can get in october, is probably a tear in a nun's stocking.

So, lovely ladies on take off as well today, dressed as if summer still has to kick off.

Where we all were circling with the vultures today. Don't know where they came from, but today after years of not seeing them on this site they were back. They were flying close and together with the gliders, or the gliders with them of course.

Cloudbase at 1400 m ASL.

Just had a call from Pepe, he flew more inland in Caudete and got a 3000 m cloudbase. Wish we would have been there, tomorrow is our day to go more inland, lets see.

Good vibrations

We've been flying our tits off last couple of weeks. Lots of visitors, from all over Europe.
Good guys, good vibes, good friends, no hassles. I hope you enjoyed it all and I hope we meet again. Un abrazo.

I

Webcam at landing Toix

Installed, from now on all can view the landing by webcam installed in Calpe.
To see if there is interest, there will be a counter of how many viewers we have.
IP addresses will be listed, so we can ask frequent watchers what can be improved.

Morro de Toix

Over 30 degrees celsius, high pressure, feeling suffocated by the sun, what a summer we have. Incredible.
No sense to go inland with this thick inversion, so we went for sea soaring near Calpe. Morro de Toix.
That's where I met my old friend Leslie, who's father used to play the clarinet after landing. For old times' sake.
Hope all goes well for you Leslie, and all the shit that happened makes you lots stronger. Nice to have you around again.

Swedish and belgians thats' what we had as guests friends today. All excited to fly the coastal sites, the precious soaring site over Calpe.

Best choice of the day.