Paragliding Alicante

Espen and James, after flying. Boring day at the office.

Ice cold beer after a bloody hot day

Simon,

this is the only foto I found of you. And I had to knick it off the facebook album of Espen, hope he doesn't mind.

Thanks passing by Simon, say hi to your folks.

Abrazo,

Nick

Heatwave coming up ! Yes, we're ready.

Kath took this foto, talented isn't she.

It will be remembered for lots having their first flight under a paraglider. And don't we all remember our first flight, at least I do. It was in France, impatient, after days of groundhandling. A little top to bottom and I felt king.

Today lots more than a top to bottom. Over the sea, hands off, toplanding, all the things you do to pleeeeeaaaaaaase.

Beach and fly

Heatwave coming up, winds from the Sahara coming in. Guaranteed flying for a week. Beach will cool you down, after flying over the med. For all pilots who need a break, who need to top up airtime. Gear down, its gonna be hot, but cool in the air.

Benidorm bastards

Belgian candid camera.

Bull tries to escape.

Very sad for the 10 year old girl who got hurt by the bull. But some sympathy for the bull, who tried to escape, who ran for freedom. Couldn't make it. A group of youngsters held the bull with a long rope. Then it got shot. Disgusting.

Hope the 10 year old girl is quickly home with her family.

This is no fun any more, Tafalla - Navarra, a place to avoid. But for the records this was not a bullfight, no, volunteers trying to play, and jump over the bull.

XC country day

It was a clear XC day today, clouds were forming early morning, drawing a line of conversion west-east. Also clear to see on the maps.

Some of the distance cup pilots took off at 1 pm and landed some 60 km further, well done.

Most pilots waited till later and flew more relaxed until too cloudy, until cloudbase touching Maigmo.

Distance cup is sponsored by all professional paragliding businesses in Alicante. Just like us we hope by sponsoring the cup, that more pilots will leave the hill, exchange experience, and get the best out of their flying. All happens in a safe atmosphere, not on comp days, but whenever you want to.

Summer soaring

Pleasing tourists for the moment, by flying the tandem. Still very happy with my Niviuk Takoo.

I have to thank Carmen and Sergio for flying with us. Scratching for 40 minutes, madre mia. Couldn't get higher up than take off, winds were dying off by seconds.

Briefing the passenger is always a moment of concentration. You need the make the passenger feel at ease. Not too much at ease, you want them to be listening to your 'commands' like running, sitting, getting legs out. And if they feel comfortable, let them do the flying, or at least let them do the weightshifting. Another important item on our tandem courses in Spain, was the emphasis on having contact with the passenger. Once every other minute asking if they are comfy, if they feel ok. You want them to enjoy it. You don't want to scare them. You want them to tell their friends to do it as well.

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.