From air to the water

I was always amazed by the people I watched kite surfing on the water and my wish was to give it a try one day. By the knowledge and feeling I have from hang gliding and paragliding this should be an easy one :)
Davide hang gliding friend from Italy is already master at it and as I live only 30 minutes from the coast it was matter of question when it will happen. After one hour in Marina Julia learning the basics of it I was eager to try it in real conditions. Saturday and late work time gave me a chance to try it during the day. First there was not enough wind but enough to remember the basics and drink a bit of salt water.
Then I was on the go :)
For those to whom the sound does not work click HERE

Winners

The Kobala open 2011 came to an end. We had a very very good weather which had to happen as we had a really bad weather last year.
Cloudbase over the tops on most of the days where we had to experience the whole area with high mountain ridge included.
Too bad that on the last day one of the Ukrainian guys tried to glider over the no landing area and touched the tree. He was driven to the hospital with a helicopter, we hope that he will be ok.

Saun, who was on second place overall made a mistake yesterday and bombed out. You can see the picture from yesterday, where we tried to cool down our angry heads.
So, Primoz won again the overall Kobala open with Franc Peternel in second and Stanislav Galovec on third place.

Our club won the nationals team prize.

The bombouters waiting for the final glide of first pilots

From hero to zero. First bombout with this glider.

We got a visit on Kobala today :)

The last task

No mercy :) 100 km task for the last day of Kobala. This is going to be 10th day in 14 day flying. Finally after bad weather season.

Kobala open the last day

As you can see, clear blue skies today. We had a small front coming trough last night during the small party that was organised at HQ. There is again a decent chance of t storms also for today. For now it looks ok with out any clouds in the mountains which could show the chance of overdevelopment. East wind on top will make the start of the race a rodeo ride again.

Correcting error-ing....

First start gate with Suan and 5 others but I spend 20 minutes on ridge just to climb back up where I got to the group who took the second start gate. Seemed like every turn was made wrong today, only straight flying made some beeps... Pilots will know about this conditions :)
Suan was first today with the first start gate, maybe Edoardo with first one as well, then there where Primoz and others with second one. Front is passing us at the moment so we will see what happens for tomorrow..

Task 4, Kobala open

As we have t-storms predicted they made a race in the valley with 70 km run. Winds in the mountains are gusting up to 17 m/s so it is going to be an interesting low flight.

Morning present from www.be-xtreme.eu :)

I got a nice tee from bextreme Slovenian company this morning. Thanks for that.
We are off again to the take off. Chance if t storms today, it almost feels good to have clouds finally after two very stable day. Lets just hope that we dont get it too unstable. Tomorrow looks like front will pass us with strong NE wind. I hope for two more days to correct the mess of the second day.

Task 3

We all stud off on take off waiting for better conditions as we saw first guys coming up to 50 m over take off and then stopping there for at least half an hour.

Things started to get better later and we where all of the hill in no time. Start cilinder was bigger this time so we where able to make the start gate in the back mountains.
I was making a thermal when it beeped for a start gate but I still did not had a good height to make a pass over the high mountain pass but went for it and somehow made it over. I was all the time bellow the big gaggle pushing forward all the time until the last turnpoint where I found a nice thermal over the "boobs" hills where gaggle caught me at the same height for the first time in the day. Primoz Suan and Stanislav where already gliding to the goal when we went for the last turnpoint next to Kobarid.

Very very nice and scenic flight today in the high mountains, I enjoy them always aldo I saw them many times, but people who where there for the first time today must have enjoyed it even more for sure.
24 pilots in goal today, results are HERE

Task changed

First turnpoint to Polovnik and the one far east is with 10 km cilinder. Can u see the stable air in the valley? :)

Kobala open, task 3

Everything looks even more stable then yesterday. The idea is to get pilots to the high peaks above inversion layer. It is going to be a hard start as inversion is little above take off. Almost no landing area to the east turnpoint so organisers are playing on the brave site. Lets hope we make it to the mountain ridge.

Morning bussines

Every day morning job. Wind is turning to the west and I hope for some clouds today as yesterday rodeo was a killer ride. 7 brave and patiente pilots made it to the goal yesterday with an average speed just over 30 km/h, data that tells how hard the task was but I am sure that our task comite, organiser him self wont spare us also today.

Every year the same field

Looks nice but I would still be more happy tp fly over it.
Day is so stable that not many if someone will make it. Sky looks great but only when you are over 1800m, bellow it is just a bumpy rolercoaster. I am already back at hq where we wait for someone to close this long and hard task.

Second task, Kobala open

As you can see our task rope is getting longer every day :)
122 km with the same turnpoint as yesterday and the long last one far to the east over the railway bridge. Still strong E wind on take off but it is predicted to go down. I think that rodeo is calling :)

Kobala open 3th day

Needless to say that we have great weather again today so we will soon go up to the take off.
You can look at official blog as well HERE
And results HERE

Task 1, Kobala open

We started with 100 km task as u can see it in the last post from the morning. That was a new kind of task here with a turnpoint far west in Bovec valley. I made a mistake on second turnpoint coming too low. I spent at least 20 minutes there in Bovec valley and had to go back for a turn point while others where racing from there to the Polovnik ridge. I was quite fast afterwards and got in to the goal as 4th of the day but Suan was maybe 2 seconds behind and with more leading points. Alan took the second start gate and came in 6 minutes faster then me and Suan, we will see what leading points will say.
Primoz won the day ahead of Edoardo and Peternel on thirdt third place. I think that there will be around 12 pilots in goal with 50 in the competition.
Great flying we had today with great views over Kanin ridge. Looks like a long race this week.
Finally :)
Sent from my Nokia phone

First task Kobala open

As we have a better weather situation we will make a new task with flying in to the back of the mountain Stol. Should be an interesting one with early start gate already at 13:15.
Briefing will be now in a moment, window open at 12:30.

Kobapa open, second day

We are packing for a trip to take off. Looks quite a lot of E wind predicted so we should have a bit more turbulent day if we get of the mountain. Yesterday we made a small flight in Nova Gorica before the rain. Looks like we should compete now every day untill Saturday. The race is on.

No task today

But we are leaving for Nova Gorica to free fly. Seems like we should have a bit of the ridge flying. I am driving down with Jochen and Tullio with some strange gliders on top of the car :)
Seems like very good weather is waiting for us next days. At least a bit of good weather in this year.

The shade

At the last part of the task most of us got caught with the shade that came from NE. Elio took the first start gate while all others took second one, so he must have had a good run. Tonight the prize giving ceremony and after tomorrow our nationals already.

The task

Last day of the Dutch open

Looks like similiar day as yesterday. Some of the guys are already training in front of HQ :)

Stable became unstable

Enough unstable for a decent race for this 55 km. I took out my weight which was a mistake, thermals where fast on some parts.
Elio won the day.Results can be found HERE

Stable

As we have such a stable air here the task comite had come up with another idea. We did a race with elapsed time so everyone can take off when they want. 55km task seems big today, as long as the shade stays in. Jellies are thermaling but it all stops 100 m above the take off.

5th day Dutch open

Looks like a very stable day with low inversion layer. Wind has turned to the E again. It all calls up for a long day :)

Second task

We did a traditional task today as the cloud base was much lower and we wanted to have more pilots in the goal. We worked it out.
Everyone was surprised about the low cloudbase, but the first day got us spoiled with the cloudbase that is usual for spring time, not now in the middle of the summer.
So we raced the ridges low all the time and I got in decent enough today.
Since I got away with the first group out of the gaggle I was easy going all the way and got in goal 5th today.
Elio was first in goal, leading most of the task, Carl was in second with Paolo from ITA third. 4 minutes afterwards I was coming in with Jochen close but he beat me by some seconds and leading points. I think around 25 to 20 pilots made it to the goal so the task was set quite right.
Tomorrow I guess another stable day with low cloudbase so we will play the valley again.

Second task

We set up a 75km task up and down the valley as it looks quite stable. Should be a quick race.

Briefing

We are just having a briefing, no need to say that we go up as u ca see in the picture. Maybe we make a task to Bovec today, we just need to see what the cloudbase will be.

Another good day

Another good day ahead of us, well yesterday was a strange day :) Results can be found HERE
Forecast for today is great.

First task too much?

Even I was surprised by the views today we had over Tolmin, you could see from Venice to Croatia. We have had a nice thermal up to 2200 m where at some point things rolled down in the mountains, so we went back out to the first hills. North wind was not such a problem as I thought we will have more turbulence then we had.
I wanted to go back to the hills next to Kobala while others went in to the start circle. Well they got up to 2600 m and I got stuck in the valley scratching to get back up. Did not worked out...
Seems like no one made it to the goal as the valley was hard to fly low.
Tomorrow looks like a another good day.

Here is Jamie landing in official landing field.

19:40 pm News is that 2 pilots made it to the goal today.

First task

52 pilots showed up for the Dutch open and this is the view they got from Kobala take off. We made 82km task up and down the valley with tricky points on the other side of the valley (left side on the picture)
We have a window open at 1pm and first start gate at 2:15pm. I will open my live tracking for the flight which u will be able to find it at leonardo livetrack. Google it, I dont have the right adress at the moment ;)

Dutch open 3th day

As u can see we are ready to leave landing field for Kobapa take off. Weather looks good with a bit of N wind, so it might be quite lively in the air. See you on top.

Second briefing

Strong wind came as predicted, but however this is good as it will dry the valley and make the good weather that is predicted for tomorrow. We wait untill 11h to make sure miracles don't happen :)

10:30 am, day is cancelled due to too strong wind today. Sun came out so it is a good sign for tomorrow.

Registration

Bad beggining good ending? :)
We are already used to this, this year :)
Should be good later on.

Two week race

After three days at work while the weather was good for flying I finally got my day off on Friday and went in to the air after Worlds.

Now I got back home to Tolmin for 2 week racing at two comps. Dutch open and Kobala open. I will help Harm and Annet a bit with organising things here in Tolmin and try to spare myself for a race in my home valley Soca valley.
I got a new skin for my Viper S harness, looks great and I hope I can test fly it before the comp starts. Changing it was a piece of cake as I watched Primoz doing the same thing with Reginas harness. Only problem is attaching all the ropes at right spots otherwise it would be a matter of 10 minutes.

The weather.... Ah weather this year.
Seems like first day will maybe be Tuesday or Wednesday for sure. From then on we should have good conditions for racing here.
This is one way good as we will get a fresh old and new Belgian champion on its way from Laragne, Jochen. Congrats Jochen :D
Jamie and Carl will come and many more, so nice to have them all here in Tolmin.

There will also be an event where we will have Dennis Pagen talking about Secrets of thunderstorms, avoiding them, predicting and so on. Seems like many pilots both HG and PG will come to the event.

Tolmin is going to be very crouded place in the air for next month. 14 days of our race, then the first ever in the world Serial class PG comp and Polish open PG as well.

Dutch invasion

So nice to come home and meet familiar faces from hg world in your home town. I should be lucky to live where I live ;)
Just when I came to Tolmin I saw field full of hang gliders which made me think of 2 weeks ahead. Race race race :D

World championship "wrap up"

So it ended, my first World champs with only two flying days. This is ringing the bell from Greifenburg, but still, we flew there 3 days, yet it stays in my mind as a comp with one black dot over it.

Safety
I was reading over internet how we had days where we could fly and so on. I want to say that I am for the first time happy with work of organisers and safety committee who did a good job at preventing the task to be dangerous. Last day was the last day, but somehow you can understand their decision as well. Some pilots where arguing about terrible conditions others about wanting to fly, it is not easy to judge while watching pilots get thrown around in the area of competition.

They should be a good example to all organisers as we almost everywhere experience the great need of getting competition scored or just organisers wanting to show the chances of their local areas while the weather is not suitable for this flights.

My flying
How much can you tell from a result that was produced in two days. I could be 20 up and 40 down, just by one wrong or right decision.
After crouded skies in Ager gaggle waiting was here piece of cake compared to the between rockets flying in Spain.

On both tasks I got up on 3/4 of task with the leading gaggle but here is my mistake. I saw that already from my long runs, when I am coming to the end of the run, last km I push on to finish fast, but, hang gliding is not a long therm run, there must be patience involved as well. I saw a gaggle going forward to the blue sky and went behind them aldo I knew that there is a big chance of getting grounded there. And so we did, all of us. Dan Vyhnalik was behind us and thermaled up to the cloudbase and got in to goal on a first day. Point one, trust yourself more.
So, after 3/4 of the task I start to make my own decisions of pushing forward which usually don´t end up with good result.

Pre flight preparations
I see that by getting a bigger number of comps in my flight book makes me more chilled after few years of competitions. At the beginning all the rush from moving to take off, rigging, briefing and so on, it all made me quite nervous, now I enjoy it in one way.
Nokia gave me nice bluetooth earplugs that made my rigging on take off a party of its own. Combination of more experiences and this unplugged world made me really relaxed for the task every day.

Somehow even my live blogging made me relaxed as I had to sit down and think about what will I write and not think about the rush of people next to you.

So, satisfied with the results, I can not say, satisfied with my approach to the overall comp, yes, I am, and this is a good path to take all of this experiences to the next round of FAI1 comps, to Turkey next year.

I would like to thank all the staff at World champs to make this 14 days as they where. Really good job! They could talk better with the one in charge for the weather but, we all know that he does not want to listen many times :)
I meet some really great people here at Worlds and spend some great time there either on the ground or in the air.

Now, as we had so much bad weather, I hope it all clears up for Ducth nationals and Kobala open in Tolmin.

Come come people :D