Vancouver :: Bridal Falls

This is the beginning of something good.



Gabriel high in Vancouver


One of the great things about having a business partner that paraglides is that you can plan business trips to places you'd like to fly, and call it work. We scheduled a meeting with a major investment partner in Vancouver, British Columbia for a Monday and as luck would have it the only good flights came in on Saturday.

Saturday night we caroused the Granville and Yaletown sections of Vancouver. In the summertime Vancouverites really like to get out. It stays light until 10PM. That helps. Canadians in general look very wholesome and well-intended. That's not to stereo type, although it is. I don't know what to say, they just are very rosy-cheeked. That's why we were shocked to see swat teams coming into the swank nightclubs of Yaletown looking for gangs. Where I'm from they are generally known by their colors. In Vancouver it's Prada vs. Armani.

We stumbled by an old, bearded panhandler on the way back to our hotel. He started offering free tourism advice. We asked him if he knew where the best paragliding was in BC. Without hesitation he said, "Chilliwack, Bridal Falls". OK. That took us a bit aback. I offered him the loonies I had in my pocket and we looked it up as soon as we got back to our room. It looked pretty good.

In the morning we made a few more calls and found the LZ. An hour later we met Tom of Deimos Paragliding http://www.deimospg.com offering a trip up the the launch point. There were some really good people with him. Great folks all.

The first was a sled ride. I don't have a lot of mountain experience so that was just fine with me. There weren't many bumps on the way down. It was an uneventful ride in some gorgeous scenery. The LZ was a little tricky. It's at the end of a golf course where some trees offer a huge wind shadow.

The second flight had much more promise. As we brought our gear up to the launch the sun was starting to break out in patches. Gabriel turned on his vario as it beeps as the pressure drops, even when you're waiting to launch. That's good to know.

Finally with the sun breaking out it looked good to go and I wanted to be first. I got a ton of big air on this flight. There were a few genuine thermals but it was mostly the house ridge lift that kept pushing me up. My wing was pretty stable. I'm used to flying Torrey where there are very few surprises. This was actually the first time I flew over tree tops. It was fun. I played it safe.

1 by 1 I watched everyone launch. It was fun to be out there generally above the rest. The best altitude I got was 3K. I got a call from Tom that it was getting gusty. Better come down. I called in to verify that he wanted us down. He did. Who am I to argue.

I did some wingovers and asymmetrics to lose some altitude, but when I looked at my vario I was still where I started. I was thinking there might be a late afternoon glass off going on. I pulled my As and did some big ears and some nice gentle turns. It was a nice slow ride down.



Gabriel with Vancouver haught cuisine


When I hit the LZ I let off on my big ears and actually everything felt quite calm. However, the trees off to the side were really waving. I didn't trust what I was feeling so rather than try to hit the LZ dead on I drifted into the golf course. When I hit the ground there was nothing. I was right in that wind shadow. I should have stuck with what I felt and saw. I could have landed in the LZ. I wasn't thinking straight. I learned there to just trust my pilot instincts and accept other input as guidance.

Flight 161

I reserve my weekends for my family, which used to mean I'd do all my paragliding during the week. With all the heavy lifting I've been doing to get adaptiveARC off of the ground I haven't had many chances to fly.

I had a great weekend with my girls: we played in the pool, played games, drew, wrote music with friends. It's about as good as it gets. As the day was winding down yesterday I checked the conditions at Torrey: straight in 12-14. It was about 4. I asked my wife if she'd miss me if I ran down for a flight. That's just what I did.



Scripps pier easily in glide range

With no traffic it's a 20 minute drive to the gliderport. I parked, pulled out my wing, laid it out and ran for the cliff. The next hour was heavenly. There were many wings in the sky but tons of lift. I used to loath flying on weekends because it was too crowded. With conditions like this it really doesn't matter.

I got tons of lift off of the south ridge. I came in and out a dozen times doing my half-assed wingovers and coming back in. There were a lot of late-day thermals. You could really feel the heat coming off of the beach. Alternately you'd feel the cold ocean air.

I had more than enough altitude to do a run directly over the Scripps pier, but I didn't want to chance it. I was having a perfect run. I was here to enjoy myself and walking a few miles back to my car would not fall in that category, not today anyway.

I started feeling the wind die down. I had to scrape to get back up on the north ridge. If it weren't for those strong late-day thermals I would have had to land on the beach. There were already 3 or so wings down there. I came into the LZ and folding my wing.

I spent an hour or so adjusting my harness. Not that I needed all that time. A family came by and I let all the kids sit in my harness on the trainer. They were having a blast. I was so happy to be off the clock.



A full view looking north of the Torrey ridge.

This weekend I'm heading to Hawaii. I my fly both Maui and Oahu if I'm lucky.

Wolves guarding the chickens

I oppose the appointment of Bob Kuczewski to the Torrey Pines Advisory Board.

Tim Green debuts on liftband

Timothy Green is another leading US pilot. I don't know much about him except that he kicks some serious acro ass. You've got to watch this video to the very end where he dips a wing tip in the water then lands on shore. Awesome! Quicktime required.

Max's first tow

Max is Robin's son and one of the best acro pilots in the USA. This awesome run was nothing special for him, but us novices got a real thrill watching him fly.

He brought his kiteboarding wing to the clinic as did I and I was hoping to have some fun on our boards when the wind blew us out of the air. Turns out it was too violent for our kites as well. Quicktime required.

Love is the opposite of fear

The first thing to know about an SIV clinic is that everyone’s scared. No one wants to fall into their canvas or pull their reserve because they’re in a free fall. The reality couldn’t be further away from the nightmare fantasies we create for ourselves as we prepare for the 1st tow.


Stine Cove at Lake Isabella: A graveyard for your fears.

If there’s any maneuver where you’re in a free fall it’s the full stall. For the first 50 feet or so you actually are in a free fall, but you learn soon that you’re not accelerating at 32 feet per second per second, In fact, you’re flying backwards in a choppy but stable glide.

I’ve found that it’s usually the biggest talkers at the gliderport that are the biggest chicken-shits at the clinics. I take that back, the only chicken-shits are the pilots to don't take SIV clinics. Regardless, I think it’s best to just be honest. When I’m afraid I say so. I’ve found that everyone gets real all the sudden and starts to share their experiences.

When I’m afraid first I check in with my intuition: Is this fear fake or real? It’s not natural for man to fly, so some trepidation before any flight is natural. The question is: is this fear real? I know real fear, it’s a message from your intuition. It’s simple, guiding and quiet. I know fake fear as well, in fact, it’s far more familiar than real fear.

Fake fear is the fear you taught yourself. It’s how you beat yourself up. You got it from movies, society and your parents. It’s learned. Real fear is different, it’s actually not fear at all. It’s a simple message. In my assault prevention training that I teach with Andre Salvage I know that every assault victim says the same thing, "I knew something was wrong". That’s true fear. It’s the voice of your intuition keeping you safe.

So I check in first. Is there a message? Does something feel different? I hear my intuition mostly through feeling. Some people feel it in their gut or the hair on the back of their neck. So far I’ve never heard that voice before flying. So far I’ve been safe. If I ever do hear that voice, I’m not flying and I don’t care if anyone understands my explanation. I’ve learned to trust my intuition unconditionally.

When I’m certain that I’m not experiencing real fear I need to take care of that fake fear that can be so debilitating. If you go into a tow thinking, “Oh my God I hope I don’t fall into that fucking canvas!”, you’re not going to have a very good flight. It could happen, because you could accidentally get back into the moment, instead of living in your self-imposed fear chamber.

A better attitude is to focus on what you love. Love is the opposite of fear.


What's not to love about this?

I love flying. I love everything about it: the freedom, listening to nature, the peace, going to places and seeing things few others have seen. I love being safe in the air. I know that with each tow I’m coming back a better pilot. Without fail that’s what's happened. So, I scrub out all those petty bullshit fake fears with my love of the sport, every aspect. Don’t overdo this, when it’s time for your tow drop it, focus on your goals, check the lines, even the chin strap. This is work for before the tow.

If you go into your tow thinking, “I love this. I’m going big! I’m going to nail this!”, you’re going to go big and you’re going to nail it.

November SIV Clinic

This was a great clinic. I signed up because I took such a big fall at the last clinic. That’s when I fell nearly into the canvas after going in to a negative spin.


Landing approach at Lake Isabella in my Dragon3.

SIV is a acronym from the French “ Simulation d'Incident en Vol”; literally “Simulated Incidence in Flight”. The purpose of the clinic is to develop your piloting skills by inducing incidents that can be remedied with active piloting. It’s also practice the maneuvers a pilot must to to master control of the canopy. SIV is a universal term for this kind of training. Gleitschirmfliegen is German for paragliding, parapente is French, but the term SIV is use in all languages for this kind of training.

This was my third clinic, so I’m getting to be somewhat experienced at this now. That doesn’t mean I’m any more expert, I just have more experience. Here are the maneuvers I’ve performed:

Collapses
- Asymetric
- Large Asymetric (over 50%)
- Frontal
Spins
Stable Spirals
Stalls

In addition to catastrophic events like these we practice descent techniques. There’s no stick on a paraglider cockpit. You need to rely on your soaring skills to ascend. When you need to descend quickly you use a descent technique:

Big Ears
- With Speed Bar
Big Big Ears
- With Speed Bar

These are the basics. If you experience rotor or perform some other move poorly in flight you can enter one of these conditions. Knowing how to get out of them is life saving.


The situation at the clinic in full swing.

After you master these it’s time to increase your canopy skills by doing tricks, or acro. Here are the maneuvers I’ve performed so far:

Whip Stalls or Porpoise Dives
Wingovers
SAT
Helicopter
Asymmetric Spiral

It’s getting to be quite a list, and especially after a clinic like this I want to write about all of them if only to reinforce my understanding. Before I do I’ve collected a list of maneuvers I haven’t performed yet as a to-do list:

Ground Spirals
Riser Twist Recovery
Reversals
Tumbles
Loops


Photos by Scott Smith .

Savannah's First Flight

Quicktime required.

Who's that guy on the radio?

The #1 question I've gotten since posting these SIV videos is who's that guy talking? Also: How is he talking to you?

That guy is Gabriel Jebb and he's easily the best paragliding instructor I've ever met, especially at SIV and acro. If you've seen Performance Flying, Instability or Broken Toe you've seen some good video, but the instructors are average communicators at best. Gabe really teaches. He describes how it feels when you're gaining momentum, when to pull, weight shift and all the other little things that happen when you're really up there.


Click to watch the video.

You can tell he's Swiss: he's methodical, patient and follows a clear unbroken line of thinking. But he's Californian too. He know's that not just getting it but making it cool is what we're trying to do. Sometimes cool's enough too. He gets those in as well.

With all due respect to those other guys, Gabe's simply the best. If you watch Instability 2 when they show how to get out of a spin it's clear they're practicing strong pitch control and laying off of the brakes when the wing's in front. But, all they actually say is "Lay off of the brakes". I remember watching that video for the first time thinking, "This video should be called 'Lay Off of the Brakes'! There must be more to active piloting than that."

That's what Gabe gets into. Everything else that you know is there that no one's talking about.

I love the video on Broken Toe. Owning that video's a must. But, the instruction is almost hard to listen to. He doesn't so much teach as do a free-association rambling about what to expect. There are no details, no finesse.

I don't want to take anything away from these other guys. I'm thankful they're there and have put out videos. All I'm saying is if you're a paraglider you need to take a clinic with Gabe while he's still teaching.

Robin too.

This guy manning the boat is exactly the guy you want to see after you end up in the drink. He's driving a half-empty man-made lake with 40-year-old tree trunks popping up everywhere as if he could see from our 1000+ foot perspective. He arrived when I threw my reserve within seconds and pulled my 210 lb. ass out of the water like I was a wet nurf ball. Amazing. Robin is reason enough to go to these clinics.

He knows his shit too. He's the king of "outside brake". Everytime I've messed up a move in the sky he's right there saying, "You need more outside brake." He's said it so many times now that it's become a reflex for me. And, when I mess up a move one of the first things I think is "Did I forget about the outside brake?"

SIV 2007 Part 2

Flight 125 - 7

Day 3 here was different. We had all had at least 1 tow and all wanted to go big.

First tow up was a bit cold. I did some wingovers, asymmetric spirals and landed right were I need to be for the next tow.

All I really wanted to do was wingovers. I just want to get that feeling, the timing. I was still beating myself up from not going bigger the day before. I wanted to get up high and go big. Just before launch Gabe came up to me and said he wanted to see a full stall and spin in order to prepare to do a SAT. OK, I’m cool with that. Gabe knows where I’m at and what I need.

On each tow up I ask for a blessing. It’s beautiful at Lake Isabella. The tow up is a great time to just enjoy the natural beauty. I had no idea what I had coming.


Click to watch the video.

Once off the tow I pulled a full stall. I’m not sure why but I let off early. Strange. Full stalls are hard to hold. You really need to lock your arms.

Then Gabe asked for the spin. He said to let off when the wing was in front of me. Part of holding a spin is that the wing will oscillate in front and behind you. I for some reason heard him say to let off as the wing was coming to the front, which is in fact the absolute worst time to let off. The result was a fall that resulted in a cravat. As if that was not enough, Gabe’s radio went out after I fell into the cravat.

I have seen enough cravats to know that you can get out. I decided to pull a full stall, but to no effect. The brakes were stuck or they were all the way out already. My vision got very narrow at this point. I was focused nearly exclusively on the part of the wing that had power. I’m not sure why but I wasn’t looking around.

The biggest lesson I’m taking away from this fall is when things go wrong look around, see what’s available to make your recovery.

I knew I had already spiraled more than 3 times. Gabe always says to throw the reserve after the 3rd spiral. I reached around for the reserve. The handle was not immediately where I expected it. I rarely check for the reserve. I’m going to start doing that.

When I threw the reserve it didn’t open immediately. I notice the little bag it sits in just resting on my lines. This wasn’t good. I started drawing in the paraglider wing to get it out of the way. In retrospect this too was a mistake. I should tugged on the line to the reserve. It just didn’t occur to me. I just figured if I got the big wing out of the way the little one would open. It turns out I was right, but that was the wrong way to approach it.

With both wings open now I was safely descending to the water. I looked down and saw that the only tree in the whole area where we were practicing was just off to the side below me. I continued to pull in the big wing because if I could go straight down I knew I would miss it.

When I hit the water I struggled to get out of my harness. The foam from the harness makes it hard to keep your head up out of water. Robin was there in seconds. He picked me straight up into the boat. Amazing considering I weight 210 dry, and I was very wet and wearing huge boots.

I never panicked throughout this whole experience. I wasn’t always sure what to do, but I calmly performed my training. That’s awesome as well. Gabe has me well trained, and it all paid off.

On land the whole crew gave me a big cheer and a hero’s welcome. That’s really great when you’re coming in from a disaster. Danielle said, “I told you to go big and you really went big!” Arman told me later the cravat spiral I was in is the number one reason paragliders die. What a great experience! This is exactly what I took the SIV for. This was a chance to safely get out of the number 1 disaster I could get into. Awesome.

Dan offered his gear for another flight. I have to admit this one was difficult. On the one hand I wanted to get back on the horse. But, on the other my mind was clearly not on my abilities. I was scared. Was it real of fake fear?

Dan and I laid his wing out. I got in the harness and needed to make some big adjustments. I got it back on, looked at him and said, “I don’t want to go.” I took everything off. By the time Robin had come back to get me I changed my mind. That wasn’t real fear. It was natural to be reluctant to get back up there after taking a big fall. But, a great flight would be very healing.

As I went back up I asked for my blessing. As I released the tow Gabriel walked me through 2 awesome SATs, then some wingovers. I didn’t feel the joy until I hit the ground. What a rebound! Perfect. Just what I needed.

I’m still burning off the adrenaline days later as I write this. All I have to say is if you paraglide you need to take a safety clinic at least once a year. And at the clinic you need to push it. You need to get where you’ll be in trouble with the way you fly.

I’m 2 for 2 as far as going into the drink on these clinics. The last time I couldn’t make it back to shore. This time I lost my virginity: I threw my reserve for the first time. Thank God I did this over water rather than land, and under Gabe’s eye.


Click to watch my third tow with SATs.

Relationships

I attended a summer solstice party with the "Band of Angels" at a lavish estate in the Los Altos Hills last night. I flew up to SF just for the party and knew I was coming back early so I threw my wing in the back of the SUV so I could fly today.

When I arrived at Torrey the wind was weak and south. I had a BLT before launching and considered not flying at all. I just didn't want to do a sled ride. But, as I was eating, I noticed there was one pesky little blue wing that just kept getting big air as everyone else was bombing out. That was my goal, to get up there with him, or as it turned out her.

I geared up and launched. It was even lighter and more south away from the LZ than at it. I looked down at the wind socks and couldn't believe the direction. I didn't go very far but I stayed up for about 45 minutes. I did a lot of figure-8s wherever I found lift. After a while it was starting to feel like a lot of work. My arms were getting sore for some reason. I came in and landed. This is where the fun began.

Danielle was gearing up and noticed me. She put down what she was doing and gave me a big hug. A few paragliders were lounging around the pavilion talking shit about the nudie beach below. I knew all the faces but few of the names. It was a good time, just a relaxing conversation that lasted as long as my flight.

As I was packing my wing the blue wing pilot came over to talk with me. She was a visitor from Russia. She asked why no one was flying. I said, "We're all spoiled." Usually conditions here are absolutely perfect. When the wind's off just a little bit we come down. No one wants to end up on the beach." She asked what dangers were there. I had to laugh. "No, we're really spoiled. The beach is gorgeous, we just don't want to walk up the hill." How long does it take? "20 minutes at the most. Danielle can do it in 2 songs on her iPod."

I encouraged her to launch and enjoy herself. I simply knew I would be back on another perfect day. Not merely excellent... perfect.

Father's Day Flight

Flight: 115

What do you get for the father who has everything? Time to go flying!

Besides being treated to breakfast in bed and getting a full body massage by the 3 most beautiful girls I know I was treated to the afternoon off to go flying. I strapped an HD video camera on my helmet for this nearly hour-long flight. When I get a chance I'll post some of that. It was a perfect day.

Terms Related to Paragliding

I work with computers, a lot of them, and they need names. Most of the time these days I name fileservers, databases, even routers and disks terms that are related to paragliding. I'm posting this list here for reference next time I need a name. I'll keep updating this list over time.

aerodynamic, aenometer, AGL, air, airbourne, airfield, airfoil, Alps, altitude, angle-of-attack, Annecy, approach, ascent, aspect-ratio, aviation, aviatrix, axis, best-glide, big-ears, bird, blow, bomb-out, brake, breeze, canopy, cell, check-list, chord, chute, cirrus, climb, cloudbase, cockpit, collapes, core, crabbing, crest, cross-country, cumulous, descend, DHV, dive, dive, downward, drag, drift, drop, dust-devil, dvh, flight, float, foil, full-stall, gaggle, gear, glide, glide path, glide ratio, glide-angle, gloves, gps, gust-front, hang-gliding, hangy, harness, headwind, hook-knife, hover, howling, hypothermia, hypoxia, inflation, inversion, kiting, landing zone, lapse-rate, launch-point, lift, lift, liftband, lines, loop, LZ, min-sink, MSL, Oludeniz, outlanding, Owens, para-waiting, pilot, pilot-in-charge, pitch, plf, polar-curve, ppg, prayer-flag (lungta), pwaitt, reserve, retrieve, ridge, rig, rise, rise, risers, rocket, roll, rotor, Salève, SAT, scrape, screamer, shoot-up, Sierras, sink, sink-rate, siv, soaring, span, spin, spine, spiral, stall, sundog, surge, tailwind, take-a-wrap, takeoff, tandem, task, thermal, Torrey, trigger, trim-speed, tumble, upward, vario, venturi, virga, vortex, wall, waypoint, weather, wind, wind-sock, wing, wingover, XC, yaw

Paragliding on Mars

I was doing a little research on dust devils and came across this image:



Apparently there are thermals on Mars. Who knew!

This image was photographed by the Mars rover Spirit. The counter in the bottom-left corner indicates time in seconds after the 1st photo was taken in the sequence. Three other dust devils appear in the background.

When I take my trip to Mars I'm definitely bringing my wing.