Treating animals

Someone famous once said : the level of civilization from a country, is looking how they treat their animals.

Well we are living in some kind of country I can tell ya. Let alone the discussions about bullfighting or not, running with bulls in the street or not, having dogs on 1 meter chains in the unjustifying sun. We also have petshops now that sell beer for dogs. Is this now going the good way or the bad way ?

Make it easy for yourself

Really, no big talk, just easy and cheap, safe and reliable,

check this weather forecast,

come on down, before end of august, +

check....

and join, just like today,

because we flew till it was dark,

flew my last tandem with Paco, my 11 year old son, till way past sunset,

awesome,

loving this time of the year,

the hot hot part of summer has gone, during the day winds a bit strong,

but later in the day awesome fun

check...

ryanair will get you here... Alicante airport .... we bring you to your car .... to your house .... to the site ..... untill you are knackered.....

pretty good advertising ain't it ? if not, skip it, book a ticket, see ya !

Reconco and much more

Reconco near Onil. A site mainly visited by pilots from the nearby villages.

A drive up to take off near the antennas and take off in a venturi. Not a site with guaranteed good flying. But guaranteed fun when local pilots are around.

On my way back Oliver send me a message he flew at Cabo, and Julian flew at Palomaret. Choices.

fly

Crap morning, went hiking, too many clouds and black ones. But what a surprise, late afternoon back on my porch, and guess what, one glider after the other popping up above the palmtrees flying at Cabo, off we went.

Espen and Guru, thanks being here, hope all is well back home !

Steijn, topfit norwegian pilot just decided to have his 9 hour hike in the mountains today, uf.

Downtown Elche, huge fireworks, fiestas all over, hard to miss.

Nature is freaking out

The weather was aweful today. Huge clouds, grey skey, rainy, and this for august. Very unusual to have it that bad. We know half august is a turnpoint for the summer, but that bad we didn't expect it. Pressure is dropping, and cold moist air is coming in from the sea. Result, huge thunderstorms and lots of rain.

Watching beachvolley.

Blauvent recycled, got one !

Got one ! Go to Blauvent and check 'recycled'. A wallet this is. Very handy, comfy and recycled from a paraglider. That's the way we like it.

1998 postcards doyouwanna

Times have changed, gliders have changed. Postcards I made in 1998.

You can see the blue carpet once at Palomaret. You can see us flying Sella, with Puig Campana in front of us. Good times.

end of first half of summer

Winds can kick in strong at Cabo. But reading the maps help. So all were briefed to be carefull not to get caught at Cabo. At Cabo ? Yes at Cabo, it wouldn't be the first time that somebody has to be taken out of a tree. But ok, we knew it could get strong fast.
And when I was picking up my french friend from Montpellier Bernard, waves were appearing.
Luckily Steijn took off in time and had a play with his speedbar ... .

Storms are coming over Spain, that means the first half of summer is over. The second half of summer is not that hot, it is more humid. Sticky, sweaty warm. Also the flies get to you. Don't like it, the only way to keep it bearable is to fly !

Whole families picknicking on beach, after all it is Spains' holiday month.

For all my welsh buddies, Newport !

this is for all the welsh buddies I met, Newport !

going soft ???

It is all going soft down here. I think we are in a transition period. Young pilots trying to achieve their first big flights, last week novices did 30 km, great stuff !! But the established pilots are not seen. No words on the forums, no chats on the blogs.
I think the older generation is leaning towards playing domino's, and the younger are on the treshold of flying big stuff.

In between , now so, we have to do with daily flying. Not so epic. Medoing tandems, and my guests, topping up airtime. Building up experience in the hope they have a taster of Alicante, in the hope they look around and sense there is so much potential flying on our sites. In the hope they'll be back !

Today temperatures were up their thirties again, and meteo wind coming from southwest, which is a dry heat, very bearable. Inland, like Sierra del Carche, clouds were forming rapidly early morning. I think we need XC cracks to break records on those forgotten sites, hardly ever visited any more. Also part of this transition period, between old pilots who are bored, and younger pilots who cannot wait to put their name on the lists !!!

Be welcome to join in, exploring the older sites soon.

New prices for glider

Ok, we have new prices in for next brands :
Ozone, Gradient, Sky, UP, NOVA, Skywalkm Swing, Advance, Sol and Windtech.

My choice for a DHV2 would be next ,
Ozone Delta, delivery time about 6-7 weeks,
Gradient Aspen III, seen lots of good flying with it, and acro maneuvers,
Advance Sigma7, well if money is no option, why not buy the mercedes,
Sky, underestimated in Spain, and at reasonable prices
Skywalk, if you are looking for German quality, design and safety,
Up SummitXC, only real pilots have discovered this one, low profile, still a great wing,

There are no bad gliders any more, you just have to be convinced or loyal to a certain brand,
like Nova gliders that would buy a Factor.

If interested in any glider, please don't hesitate to ask us prices. We'll do our best to serve you well.

instability promising high cloudbase tomorrow

Every cloud has a silvery line. Thunderstorms inland could mean a cleaning of the inversion layers and a high cloudbase tomorrow.

Today we visited Hondon region, with its bodega's, old cave houses, fresh wild figs.

Steijn enjoyed it.

Citizen Smith

Ozone is a very British orientated paragliding brand. They didn't get their inspiration for publicity out of a cigarette case, but out of a late 70's sitcom Citizen Smith.

Us, not living on the island, were probably secretly listening to John Peel playing the Damned, the Seeds, the New York Dolls, the Sex Pistols, Per Ubu. Sorry missed Citizen Smith.

Thanks Jon for the tip !

Looping a tandem, P Takat and G Kezi

Easy living ....

Easy living today, chilling, some beach, some flying, some beach. Superb as an august day.

To make it a bit challenging we used the new take off of Santa Pola. Which you can see on the foto. Also on the foto, Guru and her husband Espen under his U Turn, Obsession, and Jose Luis Segorb under his Mustang Airwave.

The new take off requires a bit more skills. You have to groundhandle the glider, and walk along the obstacles to launch. Toplanding is stricky, be careful.

We flew at the coast as inland we had some suspicious looking clouds today, easy living today ... .

Para to the people ?

Para to the people, is the heading of Ozone's publicity in several magazine's. Para to the people. I don't get it. What do they mean ? Para to the people ? Para qué ? Para donde ?

Para-pente ? Have no idea. Must be me.

And why in the hell are they using Che Guevara's profile on the background ?

We all know that most of the Ozone team are ex-hippies, but not exactly revolutionaries who where on the barricades once.
And when you read how they promote their new Ozone Delta, you realize they are just ordinary businessmen, like everybody else in the business.
Using the recent successes of their R10, promising everyone to fly better under their new Delta. I sell Ozone, I fly Ozone, I can have my say about Ozone, can't I. I like their gliders, and for some pilots Ozone should be their choice.

I was trying to find a link between Che Guevara and their Delta. And the only thing I found was a cigarette case, called Che Guevara Delta, maybe that's where Ozone hold their spliffs and got the inspiration from. Here is the real Che Guevara Delta :

Long live Ozone, rastaman, Yah bless.

small but nice XC Steijn Norwegian pilot

We flew our thermals again today at Palomaret.

And I have to get used to those Norwegians again. While cloudbase was only 1200 m ASL, Stejin managed to fly away and land at Tibi. Although we talked about staying near the hill. An ice cold beer, some boquerones in vinagre, ready for tomorrow.

Hola around the sun at midday, meaning colder air up high. And could influence our tomorrow flying.

New guests from Norway, welcome to the sun chaps

New guests from Norway, lets have a good time chaps. Weather is fine, flyable every day. Espen with girlfriend and Steijn arrived. They immediately got a taste how the flying can be in Alicante. Off to the site, and some hours after just landed at Alicante airport.

Who said Alicante was the easiest place in Europe to top up your airtime ? It wasn't me ....

Found it !

2 weeks later... from joost van dam on Vimeo.

Found it !
This must be the most boring video ever of flying a paraglider. The music is not only awful, but the hairy legs jeeze, and please change the camera angle, good god.

Lately every pilot has a Go-Pro camera, and videos are published by the thousands. It looks like the best promotion for people NOT to go for paragliding. It all remembers me when people got their foto-albums out. I started drinking so I could cope from boredom.

GONG ! Action please.

happy men

Happy men, both Tal and Ian had another good day. Choosing for inland flying, instead of coastal soaring. And glad we saw some local pilots as well, almost a relief to see Antonio, Manolo, and a couple of others.

No big blog stuff about huge acro-maneuvers, or epic XC flights. No it is not the time for that. The weather is good, excellent for all who want to fly, and that's it. Daily in the air, topping up airtime, flying, flying tandems.

everybody is a winner babe, you sexy thing

What looked to be a bad day, turned out to be .... . Allright, allright we heard it all before. But what the hell can I say. What looked to be a bad day, turned out to be a good day. We flew again, and for a couple of hours.

No, nothing near the new record XC flight of 400 km that was done the other day in Spain, but equivalent to the best fun spanish soccer fans had, watching the finals winning from the rough and dirty playing dutch team. Everybody's is a winner babe.

So come on all together : everyone's a winner babe, since you came along you sexy thing, you sexy thing you ... everyone's a winner babe, I believe in miracles, oh god I want hot chocolate ,
gimme !

Flying every bl.... day

It is summer and we all know it. It is hot, but the air is refreshing. It is lovely to fly till the sun goes. Nothing special, just flying again and again and again ... . Tal on foto.

Jijona paragliding

We chose for Carrasqueta today. Near Jijona, a 1100 m high ridge.

Flying with disabled friends

Every now and then we organise tandem flights for disabled.

Last time, a couple of weeks ago, a guy asked if he could meanwhile take his prosthesis off, get ready, and fly with me next. Of course I said ok, after I finish this flight I'll be with you to fly.

When I landed, I saw his prosthesis laying near take off, and him ready to go. I felt so ignorant and small, so unattentive and speechless.

But that's not the point. That was only me.

I had to tell him that we couldn't strap him in on our harnasses as a passenger, so we asked him to wait next day to go fly with paramotor trike.

Next day again he was first in line to have a go on flying.

The eagerness of this gentleman, the greed to live, the solidarity amongst themselves was again so huge. Waiting to join in to fly, 35 degrees, hardly shade. I loved it.

I have doubted to put this on my blog, but after a couple of weeks still thinking about it, I had to share my thoughts, about my experience again with these lovely people. Whenever I feel like being grumpy, or complaining, I think about it.

Man, there are so many beautiful, great and strong people out there. These guys and girls were strong and eager.

Sometimes we should think, what the fuck are we complaining about.

Schools were out with students

Tandem paragliding Alicante

Yes, almost there, a little bit more, up we go.

As foto tells, hell of a time pleasing customers to fly tandem. It is our season and it is going well. Weather is with us, and it is fun to fly late afternoons all 'tranquille' at the cliffs of Santa Pola. Hooray.

Damned you should be here.

tandem flights

My new flyer for tandem flying. Well touch, became dutch ...

Choice today, sierra del Carche for the XC hounds, Palomaret - Villena for the thermal freaks, and Cabo for the soaring lovers. Big choice today, as the weather was fantastic to fly.

Raul, Alicante paragliding, and Carlitos, with his school from Valencia, flew with their students inland at Palomaret,

while Kasana was doing his thing at Cabo.

And others just joined in.

It is 11 pm, just got back from the beaches, and it is still packed down there. Bars full, on the boardwalk lots of inline skaters, runners, cyclists. I love it.

sweet as

A hot day cooling off under the waterfalls of Font d Algar. And late in the afternoon filling up your boots at the cliffs.

Telling how flying feels, is like explaining how chocolate tastes.

Morroco paragliding

Todays' flying was lots better. Smoother it all was, more flying than just dealing with it. We all wished the conditions stayed a bit longer though. But the clouds curtaining the sun, spoiled the party too early in the evening. We stopped flying at 7 pm.

Other news is that we are on facebook, just look for doyouwanna and make yourself a fan !

Other news is that we are looking into organising roadtrip to Morocco for instance. We are thinking of meeting at Marrakesh, flying the sites in the atlas with local pilots. All mixed with some culture, exotic as it is. Price, around 450 a person. That would easily pay the bill for accommodation and food, transport and guiding. Thinking about it.

rough

Rougher than we wanted. Palomaret we went. Kike was flying, and his glider was veering up and down, right and left.
Waited a bit, as gusty thermals were kicking in too heavily.
Once in the air, we should have known, too rough to be good.
Sometimes a nice thermal, but then a rollercoaster ride, no good for flying. It was more dealing with it, than actually enjoying the flying.
Not such a good day, this kind of air usually means a change in weather pattern tomorrow.

floating in boaty air

Some shots of Saul and James, flying over the mediterranean cliffs near Santa Pola. An easterly wind, kicking in strong at midday, dying off later in the afternoon, giving everybody a chance to enjoy.

Also tandempassengers having a life experience. Even René who was scared at first having vertigo, but soon he felt more relaxed once he enjoyed the easy floating, the stressless environment, the colours I guess as well. It doesn't always have to be strong and tricky. Some times it can be nice to just soar.

But ... I surely hope we have done Cabo for a while now, I feel more like flying the thermals inland, hitting cloudbase, a bit more adrenaline please.... .

For you honey

Woke up this morning and realized it was married for 18 years today. This one's for you honey.

Santa Pola

Business as usual. Afternoons always gets us a nice seabreeze. Smearing our noses in with factor40, and off we go, till dark. Is it smearing ? Sounds grose. Grose ?

True colours, all the way.

Pressure drops

Pressure dropping a bit, formation of clouds inland. Made us fly till late, and once close to the clouds, some nice cloudsuck made it all worthwhile.

Nice and fresh in the air as well.

Foto StevieG launching his Paratech.

Ballon jump

2010 July 13 Roll-over from Filip on Vimeo.

Our belgian pilot Filip Perremans, regular visitor of Alicante, his first balloon jump in Belgium. Respect Filip, I wouldn't dare.

Hairdryer, hot air fan

The coastal flying in the evening is the most refreshing 'sport' to be done in this heat.

The refreshing seabreeze late afternoon is very welcome after having temperatures up in their thirties. Running cycling in this heat is out of the question, swimming diving snorkeling actually is a superb alternative.

Writing in my blog is not to convince you to come down, it reflects our daily life as a paraglider down here in Alicante. I just hope that all of you get as much flying in as we do, daily, yearly. Have fun.