When I come down I’ll be a better pilot

Flight 30: A new day brought enormous anticipation. I’d had 3 tows and was about 300% the pilot I was the morning before.


Teamwork ensures maximum tows.

The morning’s lecture was about stalls and spins. The thought of deliberately stalling your wing is insane. The fact that you’re up in the sky safely flying due to the aerodynamics of a fully inflated canopy is a miracle. To pull the brakes beyond the sustainable angle of attack and force the air out of all those cells will remove the wing from above your head. In fact, the force of the air leaving those cells pushes the wing behind and possibly under you. You fall to earth accelerating at 32 feet per second per second.

The pictures on promotional materials from paragliding vendors make this kind of incident look worse than a point-blank bullet. A full stall causes you to go into a full fall. That was on today’s curriculum.

Gabe spared no details in describing what would happen, including how the wing would return over head and how to re-inflate it.

The main thing here is the feeling: knowing what it feels like to free fall and restore.

As it took so much time to set up my video the day before I decided I had two choices: be the first or last in the tow order. I quickly set up the camera and asked to be the first up. I gained an enormous amount of cred from capturing the previous day’s events on HD video. Everyone was fine with my going first, or there was still some fear.

I had some fear. Fear is a natural part of flying. People don’t fly naturally: we don't have wings. To free fly well requires some physical retraining, reprogramming really. As I stood waiting for Robin to begin the tow I checked in again with all my internal state. There was fear but it was not a “No” signal from within, just plain, natural hesitation at being hauled 4000 feet into the sky.

I had an inspirational thought: I’m not doing this for kicks, I’m doing this to become a better pilot. I’m facing the worst possible scenarios now in a safe environment so when I encounter them on my own I’ll be prepared: When I come down I’ll be a better pilot.

That was the mantra the soothed all my anxieties, I mean, they vanished.

I’ll pulled the tow cord and the top, took my 90˚ turn signaling to Gabe below that I was ready and dug in. We did a few collapses to start out. I ripped the shit out of those A’s getting more than a 50% collapse from left, right and center. Then it was time to stall.

I double wrapped my brake lines and started pulling down, down down. When Gabe said “Push it through!” I locked my arms down in place. It’s hard to stall an Independence Marlin. The wing is designed with vents 2/3rds of the way down that open only on stall which simulates the extra flaps of birds that open as they land.

It’s a beefy wing, but, if you pull on those brakes with an extra wrap and hold it the air will rush out of the front of the wing, through the cells, and you will begin a free fall.

First you feel your head fall back slightly. The wing loses it’s air as it fall behind you so you begin to follow that path. Soon the pressure on the limp canvas pushes the wing back above your head as it tosses like a flag around above your head.

I heard Gabe count “1… 2… 3… 4… 5… Okay, half release. Now full release, arms straight up”. The wing fully inflated on my half release and surged. I didn’t apply any brake as I’ve handled many surges by this point and this looked like all the others. I had survived my first full stall.

Gabe said, “Great job on the first full stall of the day!” I was pumped. Then he said, “Okay, let’s do it again to make sure we weren’t dreaming.” I was dreaming alright, but this was a good dream, better than a twosome with Keira Knightley and Scarlett Johansson, on acid. I sat up straight and began to push down on the brakes. Down a second time into free fall, counting 1… 2… 3… 4… 5… half-release and then full release.

These wings are amazing. I’ve said it before, the are the ultimate technology of our age. Nothing from Apple or Motorola can come even close.

Then I did a b-line stall. This is the elevator-down maneuver. It's amazing to watch on video as you just go straight down. I pulled on the b's initially and had a tough time. You're literally doing a pull up, and I weigh 210. I redoubled my commitment and gave them a pull. Again I heard Gabe count and then I popped them back up. Another successful maneuver.

Gabe had me do some wing-overs. I’m weak on the left side of my wing-overs. I’ve got to work on that. I did some spirals and came in for a landing. I didn’t want to stop. I was like a kid in the playground. I just wanted to keep playing.

When I landed I gave Gabe a bear hug. I told him about my self-fulfilling prophecy and my mantra: When I come down I will be a better pilot. It’s my new mantra when I face irrational fear. When I face real fear, and I do know the difference, I will not fly. But, 99.9 percent of the time it’s just the jitters, it’s just the crape we face every day that keeps us from truly living. That’s the very issue I came here to face, and I nailed it!

Flight 31 was my 5th tow. I ran through the same routine now looking to build some mastery rather than bare essentials. I can feel the time to shift weight more in my ass than in the view of the edge. Gabe’s instructions are to look at the outer wing, that is when you’re turning right shifting right you’ll look left to watch the top part of the wing as it’s lines begin to go limp; that’s when you weight shift to begin your left. To me it was the feeling of the lines communicated to my ass that gave the signal to begin my next turn. I counted on that for this wing-over and did a much better job.

I thought as I completed this run that’s what I’ll look to next time and see if I can nail this with a progressive, even wing-over.

As it turns out the gusts really picked up. When I got rigged up for tow #6 they were blowing around 15, perhaps gusting to 20. When Robin laid on the throttle I picked straight up in the air, but made not forward movement. My wing collapsed backwards and I fell down about 20 feet, still 10 or so feet in the air. I was going for it. I figured as I got over the lake I’d keep rising, especially with some speed bar. Gabe called it off and asked me to kill it. I landed safely but was a bit confused. Apparently it all looked horrible. After all I’d been through up in the air the actual most dangerous situation that I had been in – close to the ground – felt like nothing at all. I was surprised that Gabe called it off.

We packed up to go do some thermal runs. Towing was out of the question for the rest of the day. It turns out the winds continued to build, well beyond the point of safe flying for any of us. The SIV clinic was over.

8 Rim Road

Back at the home we reviewed that tapes more like returning victors.

I’m a much better pilot than I was 2 days ago. I’ve had many people tell me that nothing is more valuable than attending am SIV clinic, well, it’s true. I’ve grown in many ways. In many ways I’ll never be the same. This was a beautiful growth experience where the rewards far outweighed the risks.

My life wish

I told my wife that I wanted to do this SIV clinic because I don’t want to die paragliding. She has taken a lot of heat on my behalf from people who think she’s crazy to let me do this.

My point of view on this is that I have a life wish: I want to live before I die. So many people live their lives cowering in fear. Fear dominates their every move, it clearly dominates politics, some would even say it’s the primary motivation for religion.

I can’t live like that.

Bryan rigging up Danielle

I admit that when I started paragliding it was for a kick, just to get a thrill. But there’s something about this sport that reveals your character. I’ve heard it said that football doesn’t build character, it reveals it. I think that’s very much true for paragliding. Somehow with each flight another layer of the onion is peeled off.

My life wish is to love every moment of my life connected to everyone and everything around me. I want to embrace each incident of my life, each loss, pain, pleasure or gain, equally without judgment. I want to express the creative powers of the universe without any limitation and yoke it out of those whom I meet however I meet them.

There’s something very private about paragliding: it’s just you, God and His creation. You need to be in the moment with His forces. I have no idea what God is, but I feel Him in my heart and hear Him in my body and mind. He’s not in outer space and He’s never far. He’s in me. The only way to reach Him is to reach inside. The only way to reach inside is to shut myself the fuck up, stop the noise, the chatter that we all have, the insane cravings. Hanging by a handful of threads 4,000 feet in the sky has a way of bringing that focus and awareness.

I have no need to test God or prove anything to anyone. This experience is just for me. At the end of the week, after I’ve payed my bills and taxes, provided for my family, offered my ear to those I love and opened to those I don’t understand, after these things I need to look back and have something for myself. I’ve had the best food and wine the world has to offer, the best things: homes, cars, gizmos, whatever. Having things is empty. At the end of my week I need to know that I did something for my mind that touched who I really am, where I truly lived. That’s my life wish.

Flight 28 : As I towed up for the 2nd time I asked for God’s blessing and heard nothing, which took as a “Go for it!” God and Gabriel only were in my ear. This time I needed to really pull those lines, throw my weight, see what I could do.

The wind was starting to pick up and there were visible wind lines on the surface of Isabella. I committed to making this flight work. As Gabe ran me through the routines and gave it my all, but my timing was a bit off. I ran through the first set of wing-overs and nailed it. All right!

Then Gabe walked me through an asymmetric spiral. These things are really cool. You do a right, go back to neutral and then hit it hard right again and keep it on. You get some g’s on this, apparently enough to knock you out. Gabe said 4 or 5 pilots die each year because they get into these spirals and hold them too long. There’s no way to exit the spiral other than pilot action. These 4 or 5 guys just spiral unconsciously to their death.

I still had enough air after my asymmetric spiral for one more set of wing-overs. This time I went a bit weak. I think my head was light from the spiral. My timing was way off; too early with my weight shifts. Gabe saw that I let me bag it. I came to the LZ and chilled out.

Of all things a flying boat came into the lake and started doing touch and runs. Of course we had to stop everything. Gabe called the local airports and military bases to see what was up. It was the kind of plane that scoops up water and takes back off to drop it on a fire. If I weren’t so impressed I’d have been pissed off at the interruption.

After an hour or so the plane left. We never found out who it was.

Flight 29: I got one more tow in and again gave it my all. This time the challenge was getting high. The wind increased to about 12 MPH steady with infrequent gusts. I had a great run, with minor improvements from the 1st 2. Fear had turned to confidence. The issues now were the actual maneuvers: feeling the wing, turning and shifting with accuracy.

When we got back to the home we watched our amazing HD videos. The details as I mentioned earlier were very rewarding, but the general picture of progress was the biggest reward.

Listening to God and Gabriel

This week I was fortunate to attend the Torrey Pines SIV/Maneuvers clinic at Lake Isabella. SIV stands for “Simulation d'Incident en Vol” and that’s pretty much what it is: you induce all kinds of wing incidents and then recover from them. These incidents include:

• Frontal collapse
  
• Asymmetric collapse
  
• B-line stall
  
• Full Stall
  
• Spins
  
• Spiral
  
• Wingover, and,
  
• Reserve deployment
  

I got to do all of these except for throwing my reserve. This experience has completely changed how I look at flying, how I handle my wing, and, I regret, I can’t call myself a beginner anymore.

The view from the tow zone.

Flight 27

The guys at Torrey have a home at Lake Isabella that sleeps just about everyone, but it sounded a bit crowded to me. I don’t get many nights of sleep away from my kids and I take sleep pretty seriously so I stayed at a hotel: The Paradise Cove Inn. At $65/night is was nothing but the basics, but clean with hot water.

Cingular is the only cell provider that works at Lake Isabella. I have a t-mobile phone and verizon ev-do card so I can usually make a call from anywhere in the world. Not on this trip. That took me a bit by surprise. I found it hard to imagine there was anywhere in the state of California where you couldn’t make a cell phone call. I know, I know, that’s a positive – that’s what we like to tell ourselves.

Last time I was on a Torrey Clinic it was in Baja and things got started at 8:30. I assumed that would be the same here. I got up at 5:30 and couldn’t fall back asleep, showered up and looked for a coffee place. I ended up in a small market scrounging around their packaged goods to put together a breakfast.

When I said to the cashier, “I don’t smell any coffee here.” she put a pot right on with the kind of exuberance you only find in small American towns. A couple of the locals started telling me about the Budweiser fishing contest the weekend before. A friend told me about this too. He said if you ever wanted to attract all the white trash out of Southern CA to a single place clamp a few tags worth $20,000 on some bass and throw them back into Lake Isabella. The joint is shoulder-to-shoulder with fisherman throwing back cold ones ripping up the lake for those bass.

I love these guys. One told me a long story about how he finally left LA and moved to the lake. He told his boss to “take this job and shove it – each shit and die”, to find out a few moments later that he worked for his cousin and remained on the payroll through his Internet connection.

That coffee was soothed with the milk of human kindness, a milk I’ve had more than my share of traveling all over this country – the world for that matter. It’s America’s abundance that makes it different I think. Norway and Switzerland are both wealthier on average than the US, but you don’t get that openness and kindness there to strangers, especially so early in the morning.

After that cup I made my way to 8 Rim Road, the Torrey-rented home. On my arrival I found I missed the whole morning’s lecture. They started at 7. Shit! Gabe assured me I’d get the condensed version of the story. I did.

Gabe’s girlfriend, Danielle, rode with me to the LZ, a very cool, very attractive crazy pilot. All the girls, there were 3 on this clinic, that paraglide are hot. I don’t just mean you like them because the do something cool, I mean they’re sexy. This is something I like about this sport. Maybe that’s just a SoCal thing.

The team.

When we arrived at the LZ/tow-zone we quickly got to work. Gabe said the more we worked as a team the more tows we got in. His job was to guide us down alive, ours was to lay out the wings, rig each other up and take care of all the little things that go on between flights. I have to say we did a lot of great teamwork.

I brought my HD video camera, a Sony HVR-Z1U. I have a fluid motion tripod that I knew would get some great shots.
Everyone on the team had a task. Mine was being the video guy. It turns out to be very demanding and you do not get the benefit of watching everyone else go through the maneuvers in air. You watch the little screen. I’ve been wanting to make a paragliding video for some time and figure this was one of the best ways to get started, so I took the bad with the incredible opportunity.

It turns out, and you’ll see soon ,we got some great video, better in many ways the the phenomenal DVD Instability 2, plus ours is in HD. The clarity of the image was so sharp that when we reviewing the tape that evening we could see ourselves shifting our weight, even wrapping brake lines in our hand on each slow-motioned frame. This is good stuff. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Because the video took so long to set up I was the last to tow up. I watched each of my teammates here go up, do 2 partials, a full frontal collapse and take a shot at wing-overs. When my time came I rigged up and as I waited for the boat to pull out asked for God’s blessing.

From my Kung-Fu training I’ve learned to listen to the voice of God in me and trust it more than any other voice. If for any reason I even suspected that voice was saying “Don’t go up”, I wouldn’t go up, regardless of the consequences. I heard no such warnings. In fact, I believe I distinctly heard God telling me to “Rip it up!”.

On the tow up, nearly 4,000 feet, the view is incredible. The lake is teaming with fish even after the Budweiser-sponsored fishicide. As you just begin the tow you can see some well-fed birds resting and the hapless fish going about below. There are more species in Kern county than any other in California, a statistic that surprised me when Robin was reading the local tourist brochure out loud that morning. When you get in the air you begin to see all the diversity.

The lake turns from a teaming petrie dish to a topographic map as the snow-covered Sierra peaks come in to view. First tow in the morning is absolutely still, dead silent. You can practically hear Robin’s walkman in the tow boat below. As you reach the summit you kind of begin to panic: “I am going to fully collapse my wing right now. Holy shit! What if I fall out of the sky into that water. People die falling from the Golden Gate bridge. I’m about 8 times higher than that.” These are the panicked thoughts that went through my head. I’m sure everyone has their own custom oh-shit thoughts as the complete their 1st tow.

Then I head Gabe’s voice – clear, completely calm, relaxed, been there a thousand times – snapped me fully back into the moment. He said to me, “Put the tow bridal between your legs and make a right 90˚ turn when you’re ready.” I said to myself, “I’m only going to listen to God and Gabriel.”

We started with some asymmetric collapses. The first is the hardest to do. Gabe said, “Reach up and grab your right A-line, pull it down to your chest and let it go right away.” I timidly did the first one. The wing turns right, you shift left. Easy.
The second time I pulled more aggressively. Hmm. I’m not falling to my death. This isn’t so bad. Then I did the left side.
Now it was time for the full frontal collapse. Every video I’ve seen of this makes it look like you should just rip your eyeballs out when this happens – there’s no chance of survival, just pray as you spiral to your death. Again, I timidly pulled both A-risers down the first time. The wing tucked in, and then recovered. There was a bit of surge, but hardly the end of the world. I did the second much more aggressively. There’s nothing to this.

In fact, that was my biggest lesson of the whole seminar right then and there, there really is nothing to it: just don’t panic. Anticipate what will happen, be calm, the wing will self-correct for the most part providing you don’t do anything stupid.
The biggest value of the SIV clinic is the experience of living through these incidents and knowing it’s going to be okay. It gives you the confidence to trust the wing, let it get back overhead, let it inflate. You can’t learn that by reading. You have to do it.

Then I started a set of wing-overs. I’ve never done a wing-over before. I’ve never turned aggressively. I’ve always pulled the brakes so slowly and gently that I’m amazed I got any turn at all now that I’ve finished this clinic. Gabe said, “Take a wrap on each brake, weight-shift right, then brake right”. I turned into my first wing-over with my heart in my throat. “Shift left, now left brake.” You swing out of the right and into the left with the wing parallel with you to the ground, right, you’re looking straight down at the water on the biggest swing-set in the world. If I wasn’t holding the brakes I would have reached for my balls!

You really do just swing down like on a swing set. The idea is to opposite weight shift into that down swing and then apply brake to get both the pendulum and pivot motions of the wing into play. Wing-overs get the full movement of the paraglider into play. Also, you have to time your movement to the wing. It’s a phenomenal holistic maneuver.

I pulled it off for my first run, but timidly and not with a lot of style. When I came to the LZ Gabe said, “Great job”. We greeted each other with applause and kudos after most runs. I thought, “Wow. I love paragliding. I really really love it.”

One more thing… I told Gabe that when I was up top I said I made a commitment to listen only to him, and he added, “…and God”.

Flight 26

I've had it with work.



I've been hammering on kapsize and pingnote. The good news is having been single-threaded on those two products since January I've made a lot of progress. I believe I'll be launching both next month. The bad news is of course I haven't been up in the air. That ended today.

I felt like I just had sex when I landed. Actually, more like I hadn't had sex in a long time, really needed sex, and then had sex which wasn't perfect but was overdue enough to not matter, and was having that post-coital high. It was great to be back in the air.

We flew from Rancho Penasquitos today, just outside of Poway. (Click on hybrid on that map and you'll see the exact hill.) Gabe as usual gave a phenominal lesson on what he does to survey a new site, a site where he's never flown before. He called it: P-WAIT.

P - How do you feel personally. What's going on physically and emotionally. Are you in a good enough condition to fly?

W - How's the weather. We looked at and talked about micro and macro factors, all affecting the safety and enjoyment of the flight plan.

A - Alternatives. We surveyed the lanuch and landing sites for alternatives, picking places to bail on takeoff and landing.

I - Indicators. What could we see that were giving us a heads up on conditions, rising air, cumulous clouds, birds, other paragliders.

T - Terrain, both of the air conditions and ground. He described where we'd find lift and sink, and what to avoid.

Obviously there was a lot more to it than that, but I believe I'll remember it better having written in down and it gives you an idea of how articulate Gabe is. We're blessed indeed here in San Diego to have him.

I picked up a vario today, the flytec 4020. I strapped it to my leg and prepared for launch. I always ask silently for God's blessing before I take off and listen carefully for any advice. All I heard today were my usual mild physical apprehensions. Man was not made to fly, it's not natural, so some anxiety is expected. I've had strong feelings before not to fly, like the day I whacked my wing. Not today. Today it was just enjoy.

Robin monitored the cycles at launch and I got a beauty catching a lot of lift right at launch. I heard the vario beeping up for the first time. That adds some excitement for sure.

I'm concerned that having a vario on may take away from the silent beauty of paragliding. I didn't catch anything bad today. It was nice to know when I was ascending and just moving about.

I was airborne well before the ledge. I turned into the lift Gabe said I'd find on the left and looked around for a bit more. I followed Gabe's advise to head to the rocks on the ledge for more lift, but the cycle ended.

Gabe said he's never had a good day flying where he didn't see birds. There were very few today.

In fact it turned out to mostly a sled ride. Except when I started approaching the LZ the vario started pinging again. I like my vario very much.

Gorgeous day at Torrey

The season's back!

Stubai Cup 2006

I don't get bugged very often from Cross Country Magazine, in fact it would be nice if they did ding me more often. However, this week I found this very cool video in my email from the 2006 Stubai Cup in Fulpmes, Austria: Click.

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Winter conditions

Conditions have been awful lately. From where I work in Del Mar I can see the lifeguard station. There’s an American flag flying there that gives me a good indication of the wind. It’s been hanging low pretty much all day every day these days.


DM lifeguard station: Primary technical indicator.

No worries. It was time for me to get back to work anyway. I came up with a great idea for a website: http://www.pingnote.com.

Pingnote is a utility that works with any phone to email recorded messages. I have been in tons of meetings where I just wanted to make a recording. There’s almost always a speaker phone in the room. With pingnote I can call the number and have the recording sent to me anytime, anywhere. Plus with an emailed recording I can edit it down to just the parts I need, save it or send it off to others, something you can’t to with voice mail.

My wing is fixed. Steve did a great job. Here’s what the repair looks like:


The yellow stiching shows the repair.

The cost of the wing repair was $210. Steve replace the whole panel except for the part at the top where the cell is formed.

I caught Robin leaving Torrey with his dog Kiko. Pretty cool ride.


Robin and Kiko preparing for the ride home.

Here’s another character who shows up at Torrey: Mr Roselli.


Mr. Roselli – The octogenarian inventor.

86-years old. Been working on on a paragliding wing that will fly in no wind for over 20 years. He rigged up a set of handles because he kept getting blown over. Steve called it a ‘perpetual motion machine’. David said he was flying in the dirt for a long time. David invited him over to fly on the grass.

I love this place. It’s the most amazing collection of bums, multi-millionaires, soul-searchers and know-it-alls. As Groucho Marx said, “I’d never join of club that would have me as a member.” Let’s just say I feel at home here.

Skewered by a windsock pole

I ripped my wing today while kiting.


Lesson: Avoid these when kiting.

I was playing around in the gusty wind at Torrey, having a great time actually. One time when I inflated my wing I was lifted about 15 feet off the ground by a strong gust. That would have been fine as I was playing and having some fun, except, I laid on the brakes all the way. That would have been fine too except I didn’t notice that I had moved all they way across the LZ to the workout area where there are (were) 2 windsock poles.

As about aggressively as possible the wing came right down on the pole. Robin came to the rescue right away clipping the lines that held the pole to it’s post so we could get my wing down with no further damage.


Here’s the damage.

I didn’t expect to fly today. There was no wind at my home in Carlsbad and some whispy cirrus were the only clouds high in the sky. I decided to have lunch at the gliderport as I often do. When I got there the conditions were unbelievable: steady 12-15 mph wind, due west. I was so excited I couldn’t wait to get in my harness. I think that was my first lesson: No matter how excited you are, no matter how much you want to fly, calm down and assess the situation.

Also, it was a bit cold today. I was thinking about buying a flight suit. I’ve never wanted one before and in retrospect I was wondering why in the world I was thinking about that so much. I think my intuition was telling me not to fly. To calm down. Do something different.

The wing is fixable. There’s a guy at Torrey who fixes wings, Steve Stackable (they call him Stack). He landed about 10 minutes after I did and did nearly the exact same thing. He landed on the other pole that was standing next to the one I took down. I’m not sure how to explain that.

Stack came over and looked at my wing. He said “No problem.” Gabe suggested that he a use fluorescent pink patch.


The repair shack at Torrey.

I stuff sacked my wing and put my harness back in the car, then went to take a few pictures for the blog. To my surprise Stack was in the repair shack working on my wing right away. He invited me in and we talked a bit. He’s a former professional motocross racer and lived for a time about an hour from where I grew up in Pennsylvania.


To repair the wing you replace the whole section from the stitching.

Apparently to fix a wing you take the bad section out by the stitches and then stitch a new section in. We talked a bit about that, motorcycles and Pennsylvania.

When I came back out Gabe said it was blowing too hard for me to fly. A bunch of guys were getting blown back way past the LZ. It could be a blessing that I never got up. I could have gotten in some serious trouble today.

It’s important to keep a great attitude about things, even disasters like this. It would be easy to be all angry and pissed off about damaging my wing. If I had I would almost certainly have missed the whole experience.

Flights 21 – 25

I’d like to say that today was the best day of my life but that would somehow diminish the other best days of my life. Let’s just say paragliding feels that good.


A paraglider's view of Mythen, Central Switzerland

Jérôme Daoust from Expanding Knowledge was there this morning. He’s a great guy and I love his web site. I told him so. So much appreciation it seems goes unexpressed. I wanted to make sure he knew what a tremendous asset it is to Southern CA flying, flying everywhere really. I’m glad the site is bilingual, French and English, as so much of paragliding (or should I say parapente) is French. He pointed out that the “tips” page is translated to over a dozen languages. Very cool.

I kited for about an hour in light wind. It’s a challenge to keep the wing up in light wind. It tests your subtlety. That’s what I decided to work on. The wind was only about 5 mph, but it was consistent. Little moves, anything exaggerated would bring the wing down, usually in a forward collapse.

Then all of the sudden the wind picked up. It was still too light for me I thought, but I saw a hang glider take off. I figured if a hang glider could be out there than surely I could.

When I went up for my first flight I had almost forgotten how much experience I’ve already gained. When I turned north I got lift right away. I did a couple of short passes over the north ridge and expected Gabe to bring me in. He didn’t. In fact he said he was going to keep me out for another 10 minutes or so. I stayed up for over a half an hour.

When I came in I took a quick look at the green and white tower over the Torrey Pines golf course. I was above the green. I think the only reason that surprised me was that the wind just hasn’t been this good in a while. I came in far in the back to turn off my altitude. I over estimated a little bit. I touched down after my first turn. I felt like I was walking on air. I was so happy. What a perfect flight. What a perfect day. Flight 1 of the day and I was already ecstatic.

Many paraglider describe their feeling of flight as freedom. I don’t want to take anything away from that, but I have to admit that freedom is not the strongest feeling I get: joy is a better word for me. Freedom is something I feel on a warm summer morning driving a motorcycle without a helmet on a country road. Paragliding has too many restrictions to reach that feeling of pure freedom. My favorite place in the world for that motorcycle ride is the road between La Croix-Valmer and Ramatuelle on the St. Tropez penninsula. There are others, but riding the hills through the villas and vines on that road where the helmet law is not at all enforced is just about as good as it gets. I’m retiring in Gassin.

Flight 2 of the day followed soon there after. Getting lift today was effortless. People were doing wingovers, there were 4 or 5 vertical lanes in the lift band right on there ridge. No need to give right of way. At one point I swear I was 1000 feet over the ocean. I don’t have a vario. I suppose that’s the next big purchase. The market better be very good to me.

Second landing I took some long wide turns over the back of the LZ. I came in and landed so gently I could almost have been bare-footed.

The next 2 flights were more of the same, just joy, altitude and long rides. My 3rd flight lasted just a bit over 30 minutes.

There was a long delay before I could take my 5th flight of the day. It was getting windy, too windy. I believe the gusts were up to 20 mph. I kited, played with big ears, then started jumping. I was kind of fake launching getting 10 or 20 feet of air and coming back down, turning and braking, doing a lot of weird shit with the wing just for fun. It was a blast.

Words fail how I felt just then. I felt 10 years old, actually better. As a 10-year old I might dream of taking 30 foot steps, flying into the air, spinning and playing with the wind. Here I was doing it, a 46-year-old guy really playing like a kid!

Finally, it was time to launch again. I took off a bit too early: there was someone was in the window. Gabe said I had to turn left as it was “his window”. I knew I was in for trouble. I proceeded south. I’ve never been able to go far south in Torrey without ending up on the beach. Gabe kept saying he could get me back up if I was closer to the ridge, but I was as close to the ridge as I felt comfortable. As I sunk and accepted that I was going to the beach.

When I landed I was pissed. I quickly became determined not to let one small bad thing ruin an otherwise perfect day. It wasn’t easy. What a letdown. I really wanted to land on top and there was plenty of air. It’s hard to let air traffic control ruin your day. There was a ton of sand on my wing. I’d promised to be home by 5. I would never make it now.

By the time I got to the trail all my concerns seemed to fade. Someone had rebuilt the trail at the trailhead and for 5 minutes or so walking up the hill I thought I was on a different trail. I met that someone about half way up. He was a real down-home southern CA stoner dude. He was rebuilding one of the stairs with a huge sledge hammer and some wood. I stopped to talk to him a bit. He really loved the paragliders. He loved the view, the air, the waves. That guys was doing some hard manual labor without a care in the world, it seemed. What was so bad about going to the beach? Never, ever let a minor disappointment change you view. You miss everything from that point on if you let yourself go.

Up at the top I knocked the sand out of my wing. There was a lot of camaraderie going on up there. A long-time hang glider named Jeffery saw me land and advised against landing in the wind. I landed in the wind because I just wanted to get to the trail as soon as possible, but it does mean running your ass off. He said on a hang glider that would never work. It’s good practice. That makes sense. I’ll only land into the wind from now on. That practice may save me one day.

Flights 17 - 20

I got 4 flights in today, 3 to the beach. My legs are worn like rubber bands.



It’s the holidays and with my 2 little girls, in-laws coming to visit and usual demands to bring home the bacon I haven’t had any time to get out to paraglide. This was a rare day. I checked my charts, several positions had been closed out at profit locks (BTW: that's good). There were no new trades to make, no clear patterns forming, and it was only noon. I checked the weather report at Torrey which it said it was blowing 10-12. OK. Done working for the day.

First flight out the air was really good. I got some great height right away but I couldn’t hear Gabe. My radio battery was dying. Makes sense, it’s been nearly a month since I’ve flown. Who knows when I charged it last.

Second flight I lost some altitude in my turns that I was unable to recover. Actually that’s what was wrong all day. Gabe kept saying to wait for the lift and then turn. I waited but it was never there. I ended up going way south. The good thing about the south trip was when I landed in the north wind I was right at the trail head.

Third flight was way north. I kept thinking as I was coming down, should I turn and land with the wind to my back? I just didn’t want to do the long hike to the trail. I ran to the traIl head on the beach with my back pack, a good 15 minute jog. I wanted to get one more ride in even if it was a sled ride.

When I got back on top the conditions were great. It was about 4PM and the sun was just starting to descend on the Pacific. Gorgeous scenery. On the north rim there were some photographers and models doing a shoot in the “magic hour” sun. I am fairly certain I got in some of those shots. The shoot was for running gear.

There were a lot of folks up top waiting for the sun to set. There's a parking lot just north of the gliderport that attracts a lot of folks looking for some beauty, some time to breath. I noticed a couple with arms around each other in deep sadness. Were they breaking up? Had someone died? Who knows. I do know that I was part of the beauty they needed to get over it.

I had a long ride on my last one but just couldn’t get the lift I needed to land on top. As I descended I rode closer to the ridge than ever before. I’m starting to really understand when happens when I turn, where there is usually some lift and what to expect. At one point I approached a spire that comes up from the bottom of the ridge. There’s a fairly large space between it and the ridge, perhaps enough to fly though. I thought if I went between the ridge and the spire I could get more lift as I’d be closer to the ridge. I passed. I’m not good enough yet to make those calls.

This time I wanted to get as close to the trail as I could. When I was beyond the point of no return for getting lift I turned around and decided to land with the wind to my back. I came down fast and hard but ran my ass off and actually pulled it off, though without grace. Was it worth it? I can’t really say. I may do it again and I may get hurt. My wing landed in some crap on the beach that turned its virgin white cells a nasty brown. I guess we’re both evolving.

My last climb up the hill was no meditation. I was exhausted. Very rewarding though physically. I needed that. The sun set over the ocean as I made it to the top. Gorgeous reds and oranges supplied mostly by LA smog that drifts south this time of year. The air pollution in southern California is awful. I can’t believe people don’t make a bigger deal out of it.

Why write about it?

There are 2 reasons I think it’s important to write about paragliding.

1. It’s practical – You have to keep a flight log.

I keep a trading log. Without it it’s impossible to retain the countless lessons that I learn from day to day in the market. These are punishing lessons. Not many people show up to work and risk losing everything they own because they punched the clock.

Trading for a living is dangerous work and it must be done deliberately. The lessons are painful and should not be repeated. There is guidance available, but little that suits your particular situation. There are too many variables, too many techniques. After all, differing opinions are what make the markets themselves.



The same goes for paragliding, however, unlike with stock trading someone had the wisdom to require that everyone who becomes a pilot should keep a flight log. Odd how you can flush your life’s savings down the toilet with no training at all but you can’t kite a paraglider without taking notes.

Which profession would not benefit from keeping a log? What would happen if you collected your lessons, wisdom or just kept track of what you were feeling and experiencing during the high and low points of your career? Instead of repeating critical mistakes you would change, without anyone’s help – even without reviewing your notes. There is something about the deliberate process of writing that refines your point of view about a situation, personal or professional.

2. For spiritual growth: How often during your day do you focus on happiness?

The media does not focus on beauty and joy. Friends and family are too embarrassed to express the fulfillment of their deepest desires when they occur, as rarely as they do. When one sells a company gets a raise or has a huge financial windfall they don’t talk about it. They can’t share the dollar amount or talk about what anything costs once they start spending. We just don’t do that. We don’t share our intimate experiences. It’s not considered manly. When we do share we try to frame it in such a way that it tells a fairy tale story: we remove ourselves from the action, depersonalize it.

On a social level we’re trapped in the riptide of our consumer culture. We don’t recognize how few thoughts are truly our own. We borrow metaphors from the media, some TV show, something we read or something we heard once that we thought was smart or cool. Individuality itself is a marketing device and if you want to rebel you’d better be using the right brand or no one will recognize your rebellion.

Most of us are acting out the desires we established as teenagers. It’s like we put on a little yellow raincoat when we were 2, 3 or 4 and haven’t taken it off as we’re turning 20, 30 and 40. We would sound like fools if we paid attention. Instead we’re too preoccupied with hiding the fact that we’re wearing that coat that’s busting at the seams – that someone might notice.

Consumer culture discourages spontaneity in favor of acting impulsively. There’s a huge difference. The impulse action is a reflex, an involuntary reaction as a result of conditioning; mostly the monotonous drum beat of consumer culture to have more, more than you need to be happy. Living spontaneously means living in the moment: seeing what is truly in front of you, acting from your heart. It means acting from your center, acting from the small voice that consumer culture branded the “angel on your shoulder”. If you listen to that small voice you can adopt a gentler attitude, because you have all the time in the world. The devil’s voice is much sharper and louder.

Consumer culture requires a commitment to the belief that you are running out of time: you’ve got to do this or have that before you get too old. Worse: you’re old now so you can’t do this or that. When you face the reality of these beliefs you have to laugh.

You spend your youth aching to be grown up, your old age dying to be young. When we’re at work we wish we were playing, when we’re playing we’re worried about work. Who wrote this script? Not you, that’s for sure: it sucks!

Paragliding demands that you live in the moment, that you relax, that you adopt a gentle attitude. It’s speed training for reconnecting with your true nature.

To me, the very purpose of life is learning and growth. As we go through the unending cycles of life we must change – we must transform the circle into a spiral so that when we encounter the same situation again we are different, we do better.

I made my walk up from the beach yesterday a walking meditation. It started by just breathing as I climbed. It’s a steep hill. It takes some strength and balance with the pack on your back. As I focused more on my breath my worries subsided. I didn’t think so much about the bad trade or the money I needed. I felt myself in my body. I saw the light reflecting off hill for what it was, magnificent, pure energy. That’s when the thought occurred to me. Underneath all of our worries, issues, fears there is a source of peace and joy that will, if you will let it, overpower any pleasure or pain the world can offer. We have a habit of taking what’s close to us and we giving it meaning. But what’s real isn’t always close – you have to dig deep.

I need to make money of course, and provide for my family. I need to pay my taxes and come to a full stop at the stop sign, of course. Spiritual growth can become a drug like any other. If you don’t balance what you’ve learned in the physical and social world you didn’t learn any lesson at all – you just escaped for a while. Escapism too can be fine, if you know when to stop. It’s a balancing act.

Paragliding is about joy and beauty. It takes you to places that are beautiful and demands that you experience them directly – uniquely. It demands that you go deep and stay there.

No one can accurately describe his or her experience flying. To do so requires growth on the listener’s part. The listener of any paragliding story must get into the skin of the one sharing what happened. To the extent that that listener can see, touch, smell and hear beauty, they can get closer to the experience being shared – but only close. You can’t touch it.

What can be more important that knowing joy and beauty directly? What if, after you die, and you see the face of God unfiltered, you cower in fear because you didn’t train well enough to see beauty, truth and joy directly? You’ve wasted your life.

Every day we turn away from beauty when we should embrace it. We see the spontaneous love between a mother and child in the Starbucks line and we turn away either with no interest, or perhaps embarrassed because we think it’s too personal to watch. I watch my children acting without a script. What they offer is spontaneous love and joy. It’s all discovery. They shit their pants too and throw tantrums because I didn’t let them stick the head down the toilet, but even those can be seen as experiences of spontaneous discovery, if you can put down your anger for a moment – if you can have, or at least pretend to have, all the time in the world.

There’s a lot of beauty in paragliding. The locales are the most obvious. The shape of the wing, its lines, the way the wing interacts with the wind, the graceful movements of the wing in flight, the colors, the techniques and the technology.

I’m a technologist so to me good engineering is beautiful. Good software design works: Google Maps, iPod, Mac OS X for that matter. I like technology that feels good in your hands. There is solving the problem, and then there is the elegant solution. Anyone can create something complicated. It takes genius to create something simple.

What could be a more simple solution than the arc of a paraglider to the problem of man’s desire for flight? It’s a archetype for any technologist. It approaches perfection.

Watching a paraglider fly is like watching a ballet. There are no violent moves: all grace, all poise. When they come into land it’s like they’re floating. I suppose they are, but we just don’t expect it, even when we know what’s going on. We’re genetically programmed not to believe it.

You can see the waves come in when you surf. You know when it’s your wave. You know when there are no waves and you know when a wave is dangerous. When you paraglide you can’t see the waves of air, you can’t see the thermals or dust devils. It’s like surfing blindfolded. You might hear it coming or see a bird or other paraglider get lift, but you can’t see the wind itself.

You are in a situation where you need to respect the forces of nature: to find control within nature’s limits. Talk about an antidote to consumer culture. There can be no manhandling, you can’t force something to happen. You find the groove, the pulse, and you work with it. You get in the zone. That’s where it all happens.

I have a artist friend, a painter, who celebrates the limitations of the frame: the 4 walls of the prison that is his art. He says that only within these walls can he find freedom. Well that’s the truth in all of life. Only when you respect the limits of nature can you truly change the world. You become nature’s ally.

Finally, in the words of my spiritual teacher: we are here to experience life and feel the feelings. That comes first. Then we want to express ourselves. If we don’t express ourselves we can never get to the next step, understanding, learning, letting go. Fear is our ultimate spiritual enemy. I’d never claim to have conquered fear, but I know if I don’t express these feelings it’s like they never happened. I can’t become them or share them with you.

Flights 15 and 16

Yeah, I’m a beginner. But, what an experience.


Flight 16 – Photo by my Mama

How do you describe joy? A feeling a great pleasure and happiness? That’s my dictionary entry, but it's not quite right. There’s something beyond the body with joy. When you’re high you’re not quite all body. There’s an experience that goes beyond mere happiness. I’m happy when I’m getting a massage, or having my 1st margarita. Joy is happiness for certain, but that’s just he beginning. My senses are enhanced and fully stimulated. I feel light. When I enjoy beauty it’s very similar.

Actually the closer I get to nailing this description the more embarrassing it gets. Perhaps that’s the same for every “real” personal experience. Paragliding is not a “high” per se. When I think of “being high” I think of being dumbed down a little by alcohol or some drug. There’s the euphoric feeling that you get after running for a half hour or so, or Alpine skiing for a week – that’s another high: the kind of high you only realize you have when you do something “normal”. But, this is having your cake and eating it too. You didn’t know you were high in Jackson Hole until you grab the strap back `in the subway. Then you feel it. It’s a beautiful memory. Paragliding is having that other-worldly awareness, but being fully in the moment. You’re in the air, but you’re grounded.

The feeling is not getting any weaker, that’s for sure.

Robin was my instructor today. Funny I’ve never mentioned this guy before. He’s a big dude and when you see him you want to smile. He looks like fun. He’s the main man if you want a tandem at Torrey. I’ve seen him give a hundred flights since I’ve been showing up. My wife loves him because when she went there to buy my harness they diss’ed Bush.

He teaches the way he flies. I’ve seen him scrape lift out of almost nothing, close to the ridge, tight quick turns. I was lucky enough to have his guidance at the lightest time of the day. At one point I thought I’d hit the thing when he was asking me to be a bit closer. I’d say my safe place is 30 feet from the ridge. I know I can get closer, it just doesn’t feel right yet. I’ve seen him tapping the ridge with his wing.

After taking it closer than I’ve ever been to the ridge a few times, perhaps 20 feet, I started sinking – I knew I was headed for the beach. At this point my idea of a perfect beach landing is “close as you can land to the trail.”

Did I mention my Mom was there? This was her first time seeing me paraglide. When I started heading out of sight she was alarmed. She asked Robin where I was. At first he didn’t know who she was talking about.. He said, “Up there somewhere.” Irritated she said, “No! He went down.” As cavalier as giving directions to the loo he said, “Oh him. He went to the beach.” I suppose my Mom could have used some more comfort. The thought that someone would be concerned about “going to the beach” was completely out of his range of thought.

When I got back I asked Robin for some advice. He said that I needed sharper turns, not to go out over the ocean as much.

If I’ve heard anything in learning paragliding it’s not to do anything drastic: don’t over react, don’t pull too hard on the brakes. The reason I’ve been reluctant to turn very hard is I was never sure how hard I could turn without causing a problem.

Second time there was a bit more air it went from a consistent 8 MPH to a little more than 10. It was perfect.

As I approached my first turn I shifted my weight early and then pulled the brakes smooth and harder than ever before. I could feel a downward acceleration initially as I started to pendulum out. That was new, that pendulum feeling. You’re about 30 feet under the wing which is controlling your movement. That’s something I’ve been getting used to in landing, but not up in the air.

Gabe was instructing me now. He said, “Good turn.” Right on! I felt that too.

2 or 3 turns later I was getting some great lift. I was way above the folks on the ridge below, so much so I didn’t need to give way along the ridge. Gabe was instructing half a dozen people. 1 by 1 he started lining them up for landing. “You’re next Kris.” I started approaching the south side for my landing. As I did there was a tandem on the ridge and someone way out there and I could not give way to him without going way over the ocean. I made a decision to go right between them. Gabe said, “Good choice”. Which surprise me a bit. I turned for my final approach and really felt that pendulum effect. Okay, now I’m addicted to that. These are not wingovers mind you, just good turns. It feels good to be in control of the wing 30 feet over my head, get whipped out like that, yet still be in complete control. Gabe guided me in for a button-hook landing. It was perfect.

If being good is keeping a beginner’s mind I want to remember today. It was wonderful. When I just arrived, kiting, I was reviewing all that I knew: mostly just relax. By that second landing I was walking on air, not literally, any more. I didn’t have time for any more flights. Got to get back home to the kids. If I could – when I was a younger man – I would have been up there until I couldn’t see any more. This is one of the most fully rewarding experiences of my life.

Monica Edwards

I've been doing more para-web-surfing than paragliding this week, but I've uncovered some gems. First of all there's the excellent graphic by Monica Edwards of the Orange County Register:

Click for full-size image

Also, I take back what I said about Outside Magazine. They actually give paragliding a lot of play. Once again though, you have to dig. Click here.

I found a map of local paragliding sites in San Diego:



I'm heading to Torrey this afternoon for some more experiences, hopefully more stories to share. The Santa Anas are making the weather warm, sunny and beautiful. However, the wind is far too cross for flying.

The Minorty View

I want to paraglide over snow, to take off and land on a snowboard. I picked up Outside, National Geographic Traveler and Condé Nast Traveler hoping to find some destinations for the winter. Nothing. Nice images of mountain sites, ridges in Croatia. Is there an LZ around there somewhere?

It’s tough being a minority in a consumer culture. None of the marketing is targeted towards you. We’re completely surrounded, invaded actually, by the sirens of the media and their financial backers: the advertising industry. We’re disenfranchised, marginalized, neglected, made to feel strange and worthless. Who are we anyway to want to see images of people like us in the major media?

Out of the mainstream, it’s frustrating to read magazines that are clearly targeted towards adventure travel and find no reference whatsoever to paragliding. The images are spectacular, especially at this time of year when ski travel advertising is extremely prominent. You see pictures of the Whistler, Sun Valley, the Grand Tetons of Jackson Hole, and the natural question you have is: is that ridge windward? Is there an LZ there?

Online is a different story: you dig your own tunnel that’s so rich and narrow that you might suppose there are hundreds of other pilots competing to beat you to the mountain. However, the mass media makes it very clear: paragliders are a minority relegated to the "extreme" sports category.

The reality is the mass media is really missing it. If you look at the average demographic of a paraglider, at least here at Torrey, his is a pocket the advertisers should be directing their funnels to in full measure: somewhat older (or scion of the wealthy), plenty of disposable income, a regular traveler with perhaps more than one frequent flier account. It’s strange. It’s such a rich media buy.

Reading the only 2 paragliding magazines I know of, Paraglider and Cross Country, either these guys don’t pursue the big buck accounts or the Four Seasons in Hawaii really doesn’t want paragliders to visit the big island. All the ads are for powered paragliding. I suppose the margins on those machines are high enough to justify an ad spend.

I’d like to say I’m insulted, but I’m not. I think I’m just discovering something in its infancy. When media buyers discover who I am and how cheaply they can get to me, they’ll be there.

The resources just aren’t there for traveling paragliders. If you google a locale and the word paragliding you’re left to your own to pick up the scraps and carve out a vacation for yourself. Perhaps ski resorts should be offering free tandem flights as part of their packages or there should be a column in travel magazines for people who use their bodies on vacation. That’s what I thought Outside was for.

My guess is that it will start online. Once someone hits the right combination it will take off. Google has a great video paragliding site. That’s a start. Now where exactly is everyone doing this? Where are the links to the nearest hotels, resorts, car rentals, plane tickets, etc?

Photos: Ozone Gallery 1

This is the first of a series of collections I'm putting together of photography, art, music and even poetry about paragliding.
Here's a "Best Of" page from the the Ozone Pilot's Gallery. I like to get a big fat page of photos when I go to an image site, not 1-by-1. Click here: Best of Ozone

First Flight: Gal Bar-or

Gal sent me his first flight story. Send me yours. Here's Gal's…

My first solo flight was very much like that day in France, I think it was 1987 or 88, when I ran up to the bungee jumping rig, thinking I was getting in line, but in fact I was first and every one else was just watching! Before I knew what was happening, I was on top of a 150' crane, with a French guy yelling "Go! Go!" In my ears...

Well, my first paragliding flights were like that - I met someone from a Santa Barbara outfit out at their training hill; he showed me how to get in a harness, and then how to build a wall. At that point, he helped me pull into a reverse launch, turn around, and then he pushed me towards the rapidly dropping edge... I remember being shocked at the paraglider lifting me off the ground, and before I knew what was happening, I was airborne, with the instructor yelling directions at me from the top of the hill... I got up around 100', and then did a running flare/landing at the bottom - boy I was hooked! I went ahead and did 8 more of the same, with both forward and reverse launches! By the time the day was done, I was exhausted, but the feeling of that first take-off never left my body.

Lesson 2 with Dave Jebb

My second lesson with Dave came only 2 days later. I learned a lot last time, mostly from the experience of being airborne and the final landing approach. Most injuries in paragliding occur in takeoff and landing. In fact, according to wikipedia: Ninety percent of all injuries occur in the first 10 flights and are, typically, to the lower leg. Once a pilot has achieved a full license (after 40 to 60 high-altitude flights) the injury rate drops significantly until 500 to 1000 flights have been completed. Then the injury rate spikes again and, typically, the injuries are very serious or fatal.

Okay, you can die. I don’t want to die before my time, but, more than anything I want to live while I'm alive. Most people I meet are driven by their fears: fear of loss, fear of inadequacy and fear of humiliation. They are the living dead, cowering in false humility but brave enough to flip you off if you pull into their lane.

Somehow I escaped that fate. Don’t get me wrong I have fears, but I’m not afraid of living my life to the fullest. Life is about growth. Every day our body dies, ages, replenishes the supplies slower than it used to. We all know that. But our soul grows, expands, encompasses. We can have more peace if that’s what we seek, more love, more joy.

Who is too old to have more peace, love and joy? Really. Obviously, as our body ages there is something inside that grows. I’m tuned into that. Anyone who’s truly alive is.

It’s subjective. I can’t share my experience of love with you. I can love you, but, to feel my love you have to have your own experience of love. Love gifted to the unloving may be wasted. The same with beauty and joy. We can mostly agree that a flower is beautiful, but, can you see the beauty I see?

Not the beauty we see with our eyes, the beauty we experience with our mind. Every day I seek more beauty in all my surroundings.

I like this picture from morephilosophy:

Can you see it? It’s simple, but there’s real beauty there: the contrast of a smooth worn basketball in a pile of cold jagged metal. Hard physical work mixed with play. I can almost smell the basketball, feel it as I dribble the old ball. If I were 9 or 10 that would be a find. I’d take it home, have my older brother fill it up with air – which alone would be an adventure – I’d try to get a game going. That ball is full of life, as I see it. What do you see? Look deeply.

What was you’re first thought? “That’s trash”? One man’s trash is another’s treasure, or does the one looking for trash always find it as the one looking for treasure likewise find his? What are you looking for? You will find it.

You don’t need to squint to see the beauty when you’re aloft in a paraglider. You’re overwhelmed.

Now that I’ve had 16 flights things are changing. I’m getting used to being in the air. On my first flight I simply saw raw energy. The whole landscape was alive and crystal clear. Now I’m making out things. I’m noticing the white tower with the strange green frame supporting it. Gabe says, “If you’re above the green land behind the RC, below land in front.” I’m looking deeper.

Dave is a martial artist. You can see it in the way he stands, the way he moves – in the way he teaches it’s unmistakable: Deep, full horse postures as he shows you how to inflate with wing. He’s balanced from 6-feet deep under the ground. He used to be an instructor to the San Diego Police. I think he taught Aikido.

Unlike Gabe he does get annoyed when you don’t do it right, throws his hands up in the air. That’s okay with me. I like his style. He can’t suppress his years of experience in the air or his sheer love of the sport. When talking about how rules and regulations have proliferated around the sport one time he said, “How can people take something so beautiful and twist it around.” It’s the way he intoned “so beautiful” that put all the meaning in those words. You can’t quite read it, but you may hear it in his podcasts. This is a man with a deep love for paragliding.

On my first launch I got a lot of turbulence from the wind wake of a tandem wing that passed by. For less than a second I had a slight asymmetric collapse. Amazing how these things work. I didn’t feel any altitude loss. By the time I looked up it just popped right back into place. Button hook landings 3 times that day, all from the north on the southerly wind.

Each time a bit better.

My last run took me to the beach. I know how to turn this thing now, or rather, I know what to expect. Gabe said it’s not the depth of the weight shift when you turn, it’s the speed. I’m starting to get a feel for that. As the wind died down I tried to get as close the the cliff as I ever had, still 10 to 20 feet away, but close. There really was not lift. I could feel that. On my last turn Dave said to find some soft sand. I tried to get as much glide out of the wing as possible to get closer to the trail. I landed on the soft sand – I prefer that – and then ran the wing out to the soft sand and to get it away from the ocean water. I’m a champ at landing on the beach now. No issues there.

On my way towards the trail I ran into a Belgian guy who was quite experienced. I watched him hugging the ridge as the wind died. I didn’t feel so bad about coming down. If this guy came down there just wasn’t enough wind. I introduced myself. His name was Rick. We didn’t say very much, mostly the word, “Beautiful”.

Lesson 1 with Dave Jebb

On my next visit to Torrey I had had a taste of soaring, as well as a sting in my ankle from my crash landing into the patio chairs. I wanted more than anything to just get it right. I didn’t care about numbers. I just wanted to practice what I knew.

Dave Jebb teaching on the mound.

One thing I’ve learned from stock trading is not to hurry. Actually, I learned it surfing. When there are no waves you can’t surf. Sounds simple right. You’d be surprised to see how many people try to surf trash, or a wave that isn’t theirs. A better attitude is, “I’ve got all the time in the world.” Let the wave come to you. When it comes do what you do, do what you’ve learned.

You might wonder how that works in equity and currency trading. It’s much the same. There are seasons for assets that move just like waves. When you chart them they actually look just like waves. In a bull market go long, in a bear market go short, range-bound trade the boundaries. Simple right? That fact took me almost 20 years to learn and now that you know it it may take you 10 years to practice. The point is when there’s nothing to do, do nothing. When there’s something to do, act without hesitation. No gain comes for forcing anything when you’re dealing with forces of nature.

When you have all the time in the world you can adopt a gentle attitude: you can tell when it’s time to go short, go long, or more importantly do nothing. A natural outcome of my “doing what I do” is that I make money – a disproportionate amount. If I “try” to do what I do, if I force it in the wrong conditions, I lose money.

In martial arts you have 2 kinds of fighters: the technician and the bull. I’m a bull. I can win a fight seemingly without a strike, though sheer willpower. The reality is that there are some fighters that are just as bullish but who have more technical skills. If I want to win against the best I need a balance: to be both bullish and technical.

Paragliding, as a skill, is about balance and finesse – Listening to the wing: not forcing or overreacting to anything. In fact, the skills you need to be a great paraglider are all those that I’m lacking – or seeking – in trading and Kung Fu. It’s a perfect way for me to find the balance I need to grow. "The way you do anything is the way you do everything", was the message from "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance". I'm not sure truer words were ever written.

I’d been downloading Dave Jebb’s weekly show on World Talk Radio to my iPod for the past couple of days and getting used to hearing his voice guiding and sharing his experience. You can download them as podcasts on iTunes or directly from the Web. When I arrived at Torrey and saw him on the LZ I was thrilled. This is the true master of Torrey and I had full access to him for the day.

My first flight was easy, perfect launch off the ridge and smooth quick turn to the north. Lots of lift early in the day. Winter weather is coming in here in Southern California. The marine layer is heavier, it’s starting to rain. This was a day when you couldn’t tell if it was going to rain or if the marine layer was just heavy.

I’m starting to get used to soaring. At first I was just trying to get high enough to see my home in Del Mar, about a mile north from Torrey. In fact I can see it pretty easily when there’s lift. Today I focused on something else: How do you know when you’re getting lift?

For one thing you feel some pressure on your ass, but the visual markers seem more usable. I could see the distant horizon changing before the nearer objects. I was making note of where the shop was in reference to La Jolla.

Dave had me doing button hook landings all day. On my first approach I thought I had it nailed. I should have known something was wrong by the fact that Dave was calling in my ear, “You’re not listening to me!” Uhh, what did I do wrong. It turns out a lot.

On my approach to the LZ I was coming in right over the RC mound with all of it’s obstacles close below. Dave said that even though the conditions at Torrey are ideal we train as though we’re at a mountain site where you can drop 10 to 25 feet in a landing approach at a moment’s notice. There’s a bowl right in front of the RC mound that offers some pretty reliable lift as you approach the LZ. I guess somehow I felt that lift on prior landings and was starting to count on it. He offered some other approaches using visual markers.

I had 3 more flights were I tried to get it right. It got better, but the wind died. My last run was to the beach. When I got there an Indian tourist approached me and asked about the sport. I was so disappointed about landing on the beach that at first I didn’t give him any attention. I knew that wasn’t right. I could feel it, but at the time I really was pissed. Was I too far from the ledge? A lot of folks up there were not obeying right of way. When I turned away from the ridge to give way they’d start their turns and I had one pretty near collision. Was it they or I? It was hard to be an ambassador of the sport at that moment.

As I packed my wing I begain to calm down. How can’t you on Black’s Beach? It’s so beautiful: California raw, unspoiled. I regularly spot dolphins here. The seaweed on the beach is fresh and smells good enough to eat. There was no wind at all on the beach; the nudies there were in a state of bliss, as happy to see me as if ET had just landed. I took some cleansing breaths, put a little ocean water in my hair and headed for the ridge trail.

As luck was have it I ran into that tourist again. He was a scientist visiting San Diego with some biotech firm. Biotechnology is the real engine of growth here, not Qualcomm. Sorrento Valley, which is about a mile square, houses a little over $4 billion in venture and seed capital. That’s a lot, even by venture standards. I talked to him a bit about his skills in molecular biology and shared my picks for the winners in the valley. No big surprises really, ILMN, AMLN and others. It’s all here on my ClearStation watchlist.

We parted as friends and I believe he’ll take a tandem ride. I love meeting people at the heart. I’m glad he was open to a second chance. I’m starting to get used to this kind of encounter.

The Return to Torrey

So now I’ve got a whopping 6 flights under my belt, all sled rides. Not much to show for such raw enthusiasm and nearly 4 months of work. But things are quite different: I’ve got my own harness, my own wing, days of kiting experience and a strong determination to land on top.

The conditions at Torrey are such that on a good day you can get in 10 flights. I’ve seen it done. I was determined to start getting those flights in, padding out my flight log and finally getting a P1.

Gabe Jebb.

When I showed up Gabe was on the hill. Pretty familiar. He asked me to kite a bit. It was the usual 10-mph that day, but with gusts, strong gusts. I kited and got lift right in place more than once. I was used to this now though. I’m a martial artist and it’s a habit of mine when kiting to stand in a martial arts “horse” stance. This is a great position for kiting as if you feel some collapse you can sink a bit to fill the wing, move left or right with ease and with appropriate pull on the carabiners (ie risers).

A lot of folks were coming in with big ears due to the gusts. This wasn’t promising for my flight. To my surprise, and believe me, Gabe knows best, Gabe asked me to launch when ready.

I launched as usual and banked right, but to my rather extreme surprise this time I got lift. I could see the horizon descending for the first time. This was what I was looking for, but holy shit, I was getting up there! I took a few turns at Gabe’s command and then came in for a landing approach. Gabe guided me behind the RC platform and had me go far more right than I would have on my own, another turn to the left and a final approach. I nearly perfect landing.

I was thrilled. Gabe said, “Good job!” I said, “That was my first ridge landing.” He said, “I know.” That dude’s so understated. You’ve got to love him.

Finally, well above Torrey.

The next 2 landings were disasters.

I was so used to sled ride, into-the-wind landings that I couldn’t quite handle the button-hook landings that were required of the day. Second time in at about 20-feet over ground Gabe said to turn left into the wind. I flared on both brakes with the wind and landed literally on my ass. I’m not sure what I was thinking pulling my feet up. It was fun, but stupid.

No one would ever land on their ass if they jumped off of a small building. Why would you land on your ass when landing a paraglider? There is something that seems right about it, but the instant I was on the ground I knew I made a big mistake. I acknowledged it immediately with Gabe. I just got right up and tried again.

This time I made a shallow south approach. Again, instead of turning left, I turned right, right into the beach chairs for spectators. Gabe said, “Your other right.” I really twisted my ankle on this one. My first thought was maybe I should get some of those expensive boots. I’m still using my hiking boots.

Gabe said, “Don’t worry too much about turning right when I say left, just remember to turn into the wind.”

My next landing was shallow and from the south again. This time I made a long traverse against the back of the field. Easy turns. At the end I remembered what Gabe said and made a perfect landing. That was my last flight of the day. It was great to end on a good note. I wanted to do more, but the conditions were too challenging for a beginner.

I make a conscious effort to hear my intuition. Sometimes it tells me not to fly. This time it said, “That’s your last flight of the day.” I never argue with my intuition. Gabe was a bit surprised to see me packing to leave, but I said I’d be back soon.

Baja Thermal Clinic

I hadn’t landed on top of the ridge at Torrey before my friend Gal suggested I join him on a thermal clinic in Baja. I had a month-long interruption in my Torrey training due to a flood in my home. We lost the whole first floor: rugs, furniture. We had to rip out 2 feet of drywall. Unbelievable.

Anyway, I wanted to get back into my training and signing up was a commitment to do so. I showed up 3 or 4 times at Torrey before the clinic but for one reason or another I couldn’t fly. It was too cross, too windy or no wind at all. It happens even at the most consistent spot in the US. I asked if I had the skills to take advantage of the clinic. I had some doubts. All the instructors said to go, that I’d be fine.

The Mexican flag atop La Salina serves as a wind sock.

The destination for the clinic was only a 2 hour drive south from my home, a place called La Salina. My wife and I tucked the kids in bed and hopped in the SUV for the drive south.

Torrey holds an annual thermal clinic at a resort in La Salina called "Baja Seasons". We called it “The One Season”. It’s okay as low cost accommodations go, but hardly a luxury resort. It has a good restaurant and US$5 pitchers of Margaritas.

A view of the beach at Baja Seasons.

To date I had only used the rental equipment provided to students at Torrey. I had to buy my own equipment for this trip. At Torrey they let you demo all the equipment you like. If something works for you, you buy it. I had to make a snap decision in this case as there was no oppotuniry to fly beforehand.

My wife and I celebrated our 7th anniversary the weekend before the trip. For our copper anniversary she bought me a harness. (I suppose there's some copper in that thing.) It was the top-of-the-line Ki2Fly harness designed by Ki at Torrey. They assured here that I could exchange it if I liked.

She gave it to me in a funny way. I got home after sunset the night I was to leave for Baja. She said there were a few more bags she left in the car and would I go get them. I went outside, popped the hatch on the SUV and saw the harness. My wife, whom I love with all my heart, has a way of either completely resisting new interests of mine – fighting tooth and nail making it perfectly clear that it won’t work, or encouraging me. I looked at that harness that thought: “Oh good.” In fact, telling that story in Baja got a lot of, “You’ve got the best wife in the world!” responses. Yeah, I’ll take that.

The first morning of the clinics starts with breakfast and a lecture. At breakfast we all went around and said our names, rating and where we were from. I felt like a 3rd class citizen when it was my turn. “I’m not rated, so don’t let me slow you down.” I apparently was the only one who thought that was a big deal.

Jerome's morning lecture above La Salina.

Jerome from Expanding Knowledge delivered most of the lecture. Jerome is a Québécois transplant to Southern California. To hear him talk though you’d swear he was Swiss: factual, precise, enjoys the numbers and swears by his vario. This is a much different style from Gabe and Dave Jebb who express much more from experience and feel. The two styles matched really well. “This is going to be a great seminar”, I thought.

The LZ was a short drive from the resort. You hike up an 800-foot ridge from there. It’s a surprisingly short hike to the top. The morning weather was promising. The wind follows a 180˚ arc throughout the day in Southern California and into Baja. In the early morning it’s south, mid-day when it’s at it’s strongest it’s due west and as evening approaches it’s northwesterly. That morning was sunny and brisk. During the lecture the wind was blowing my notes around. I was thinking it would be too strong for me to fly.

The terrain in La Salina is chaparral, just as in Southern California, with much more cacti. There’s one plant that’s hard as a rock and shaped as a form of serrated knives. Dave recommended we stay as far away as possible from those plants on landing.

Faceplant into one of these and you're scrambled eggs.

However, when we arrived at the top of the ridge the wind had all but died. We continued talking and waiting at the top. Gabe thought it would be a good idea for me to do a sled ride as that was all I had in store for the day at my level.

I demoed an Independence Merlin DHV1 wing. The thing just went up like butter. I was so used to the heavily worn Advance and Paratech wings at Torrey I almost couldn’t believe how smooth the Merlin was. I didn’t know it could be that easy. Gabe said, “It wants to fly.” It did, so did I. Dave gave me some warnings earlier. He said, “This will be difficult. You’ve got 3 things going against you: New site, new harness and new wing. Take your time and listen to Gabe.” I can do that. Gabe’s voice is calm and soothing, never panicked or even urgent. It’s like the voice of my intuition. He never says, “Oh shit”, or “That’s wrong / stupid”. After making a mistake he just says, “OK, you’ve done that, now do this.” Perfect.

Here’s a video of the run.

I watched carefully as I passed closer to the serrated knife cacti. In fact, I judged the LZ perfectly and landed perhaps better than I ever had in Torrey.

I had 2 more runs that day as the more experienced pilots were waiting for wind. Sometimes it pays to be the newbie.

On day 2 the wind was even worse, but I got my sled rides in, one straight into the chaparral with the dreaded cacti. No problems. My constant thought airborne was, “I love this. Look at this. I’m here in this new terrain, already a sight to behold, but with the power to fly.” It is nothing less than joy.

Even when there’s no wind La Salina’s a winner. Some of the guys were able to glide all the way from the ridge crest to the margarita bar. That’s my goal for next year.

There's a lot to say about the people I met at that clinic. Paragliders have a bit of lone wolf in them, but you put them together and there's definitely some pack behavior. Torrey is run by a family. Dave the father and Gabe the son run the joint. Together with thier wife and girlfriend they create a warm atmostphere not only at Torrey but wherever they go. I have a lot more to say about that which I'll save for a dedicated post.