Judith's blog

After last night’s excellent briefing, we had the first task today. We were all a little concerned about the interesting wave clouds early on, but Nicky assured us that Ager has a micro climate and that the clouds would evaporate. We all did a bit of cloud appreciation while waiting, but it was gustier than any of us would have liked.

Kirsty and I were duly called to the task setting meeting and they set a 45km cat’s cradle task, with a pre-task turn point 9km away. There was some confusion about this, but we eventually all got it programmed into our GPS and were ready to start. John, acting as wind dummy, reported good conditions in the air, so we were all keen to go. The launch sequence was a little confusing – at least for the Brits. Instead of a marshal coming round asking us to ‘sign to fly’, we had to pass through a tent and were signed off and then allocated a place along take-off. It was getting windier and as I got past the marshal, the launch window was closed due to too strong winds. It was a good call, and appreciated by most of the competitors. So the committee reconvened and we decided that we would assess the conditions each hour and try to have the task as soon as possible.

Obviously, as soon as the task was delayed, the wind dropped, and by the time we re-briefed, it had picked up again. However, there were more lulls, so the task went ahead. We had to go through the tunnel and sign to fly again, and by window open there was a long queue. The majority of us were left standing in the sun, with full flying gear on, getting hot and bothered while we watched others having to stand on launch waiting for lulls. As we only had an hour to fly the 9km before the race start, many were very keen to get going. Sandra Monse was first off, when the wind was very east and had a horrible time getting away from the ridge, but then settled down and was off on the task. The rest of us launched as we could, but by the time I got to the head of the queue and got a lull, I was well into the pre-race start hour.

Nicky had mentioned to us that the lower ridge would be working and would be smoother, and a chat with Mike Cluer confirmed that he thought the same. I got off, struggled with the wind and then set off along the lower ridge, trying to stay under the wind, and quickly sussing out that thermalling wasn’t necessary until the valley crossings. You could just top up in the thermals along the ridge whilst flying straight. On the top ridge it was windy and turbulent and I thought that would just delay me. Lots of people were ahead of me and the tactic of setting a pre-task way point certainly stopped us having congested gaggles – I never flew with anyone the whole task! The wind made it hard work at times, and I kept low, only getting high at critical points. I was getting tired three quarters of the way round and seeing people high, I started to think that actually I am not really that good at all this comp lark and maybe I should just not bother next year. But I really wanted to get round and gritted my teeth and kept going. Ruth and Trude got to the last turn point before me and I was really pleased they got in. There was nobody in the landing field when I got to goal, so I assumed that they had all got there hours before and I was last in. Another pilot came in while I was packing and then another and I realised that maybe I wasn’t last after all. When I checked in, there were only 9 others in before me. Wow. A few arrived after, so I wasn’t last after all.

First was Kirsty, then Klaudia, third Sandra Monse, a really talented Swiss/German pilot who we’ll hear about in years to come. I am 10th overall so I am really pleased. With three pilots in goal, Doc’s Bollocks might be winning the team event.

Brilliant talk by Anja Kroll tonight, called “Elements of Success”, all about comp flying. Really, really useful!

See photos of today.

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Day one was a practise day, although we didn’t get a task to fly. We were offered a lift up the hill at 12.30pm and 4pm and could explore the ridge as we chose. Since I know the area relatively well (at least the Ager valley), I didn’t feel the need to explore as much as others. So my plan for the day was to assess the conditions, have a nice little fly around, take some pics, admire the scenery and then land and relax before the stress of the comp.

I had a leisurely approach to launching, so much so that Oscar asked me if I was actually going to fly. I got off fine, after a short interlude of a dust devil and wind from the north. I launched straight into a smooth thermal and headed west to the lake. Then I went east along the ridge. Conditions were surprisingly smooth. Even coming out of the thermals wasn’t rough at all. In fact it was all really like a good day in the UK. Others found it a bit rougher at inversion layer, but I have no complaints. If the rest of the week is this enjoyable, I’ll move to Ager permanently. After an hour of floating around (no turning necessary) I decided to land, but couldn’t get down. There was lift everywhere. I promised Emma an LZ beer, but had to delay that for 20 mins while I floated over the town in gentle lift.

We all got our beers in the end and decided to go to the lake for a swim. It’s boiling here and we needed a cool off. So off to Corca to the turquoise lake to the west of take-off. When we got back to register I had a slight wardrobe malfunction… At registration we were a little stumped by our local address and Nicky advised us just to write down ‘Doc’s place’. Our landlord is a mild mannered Irish gentleman called Doc. Once we were all signed up, we needed to choose a name for our house team of Emma, Kirsty, Ruth and me. It seemed obvious really, so we’re called “Doc’s bollocks”. Not sure he’s got over the shock yet.

The other news is that Kirsty and I are on the safety committee. They needed someone at the front and back of the field, obviously. The power has already gone to my head. If I bomb, I’m calling the task off for safety reasons!

See photos of the flying and frollicking today.

See photos of the comp briefing today.

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I’ve arrived in Ager for the first of two comps, back to back. I am a little apprehensive about doing one comp after the other, because at the moment it looks very, very flyable, so it’ll be full on for two weeks with little prospect of a day off. I’ve been a little nervous about these two particular comps, since both are in places renowned for big air. On the other hand, I don’t really know why I am particularly nervous. I know Ager well, having flown there a fair bit and having learnt to paraglide here. I have a nice safe wing and I can always land if I don’t like the conditions, since I am a clear also-ran, rather a serious competitor. The other nice thing is that with 35-odd competitors, the women’s comp isn’t going to be crowded, so it won’t be too busy in the gaggles.

My priority of these next few weeks is fun. I’m going to enjoy the holidays, hang out with the girls (and guys next week) and do some good flying too, I hope.

Geoff dropped me off this morning, bitterly regretting that he’s not coming with me when the forecast is so bad. In the seats on the plane next to me were some lovely young Welsh lads on a stag do. They had dressed the groom in a polyester matador outfit, which was going to be a) far too hot; b) somewhat tasteless given the amount of people injured in the bull rampage of yesterday; and worst of all c) incur the wrath of every Catalan who will think he is making a Spanish nationalist statement against the Catalan bullfighting ban. Let’s hope he gets gored by a passing bull before the Catalans get him.

We had some fun and games getting all our party assembled at the airport, with us all arriving at different times. Catherine from Switzerland had arrived at 8am. Kirsty and Ruth were already there, and I was supposed to be last and phoning for the retrieve at 1.30pm. We were short of Domenica and found her two and a half hours later in the other terminal, where it had taken her three hours to get back her paraglider her airline had lost the day before. Joanna arrived at 4pm from Venezuela via Frankfurt, having been upgraded to business class and then waited on hand and foot by Corinna Swiegerhausen (the German national HG champion), who works as cabin crew on Lufthansa.

We got to Ager some hours later and first things first… a cold beer and meeting up with Emma. Lots of people were flying and it would have been nice to go up, but we had to sort out the apartment (we didn’t get the one we booked in March), and were too hungry. So nice to see so many friends. Mike Cluer is here, as well as many women not seen in ages. Really nice to have big dinner with so many smiling girls.

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Geoff writes: I took Judith to Bristol Airport this morning; she’s flying to Ager in Spain for the Women’s Paragliding Open, then to St Andre in France for the British Open. She is obviously devastated at being apart from me for two and a half weeks, but is consoling herself with the thought of lots of cheap alcohol, seeing old friends, hot sunny weather, and flying every day. Oh, and being chased by all the single male pilots who are flocking to Ager for the women’s comp.

After dropping her off, I decided a good substitute for Spain in summer was Weston-Super-Mare. I’ve driven past this UK holiday resort dozens of times in the last 30 years, but never been there, and I have a weakness for British seaside towns (I do like to be beside the seaside…).  It’s actually quite a nice place, though it felt a bit like visiting the seaside in winter, rather than mid-August.  It was very cloudy, no sun at all, with rain clouds in the distance.  Strong winds. A great beach, but empty apart from one group of people who, very optimistically, were about to set up their beach blankets and hire their deck chairs.

The pier there burnt down a couple of years ago, but is being refurbished – the posters said it was due to open in Summer 2010, so they need to get a move on.

The promenade was literally a building site – they are redoing it, partly to make it nicer, but also to improve the sea defences – apparently the town is often flooded. But the noise and the disruption must be driving the local businesses crazy.

Still, there are some great advantages to the place – apart from the brilliant beach. There is every tribute band in Britain playing there at some point, including Abba (of course), Dusty Springfield, Billy Fury and Zee Zee Top. Or maybe the last two are the originals?

It’s also got its own version of the London Eye (which itself is just a jumped-up big wheel) called, imaginatively enough, The Wheel of Weston.

Cheap too – a bacon sandwich and a coffee right on the sea front for only £2.50. And lots of public toilets (something Britain is still the best in the world at, for our foreign readers).

The first hotel was built there in 1810. When the town is finally finished, it’ll be a great place to visit.

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After my rest day of the day before, I felt really refreshed and certainly up for making the most out of the day. Last year at Piedrahita I had to wait until the final day to make goal and I was hoping for a repeat performance. The final task was going to be windy, so we did another zig zag task, first to beyond Tolmin, back to the volcano and then to a third turnpoint back near the first, then Kobarid, the hill behind and back to Kobarid.

I got a good start and flew conservatively to avoid getting drilled at the same point as yesterday. I needn’t have worried… the thermals were well established and in places, booming. I got to Tolmin no problem and then got high in a thermal and followed a good line (which others were marking for me) to the turn point. It was really windy by this point and as I passed over the last ridge before the turn point, I realised I would be in rotor from the hill. It got very rough when I turned to go to the next one and I was glad I was out of there. Mal, Malcolm, Emma, Tony and I (and a few others) struggled for ages on the ridge to the east of Tolmin to try to get a climb and progress with the course. I was convinced that if we waited long enough a bubble would release, but after about 20 minutes I was less convinced and I decided to push on. With the strong wind, I thought the ridge would work. It did and I soared up the spur and then got a strong thermal which allowed me to do a slow into wind glide to the volcano turn point above Tolmin. Looking at where the next turn point was, my GPS was telling me to go back to TP 1. Since my GPS and I have been having some trust issues, I checked on the turn point list and foolishly decided that it was wrong and I’d done my bit in the Tolmin valley, so I headed away back to the volcano, where Andy was struggling valiantly to get up again. It was so windy, we were being blown straight over the back of the volcano with each turn and I could see the wind blades in the official Tolmin landing field blowing like mad. Eventually, Andy got enough height to get back to the ridge and as soon as I saw him climbing, I dashed over to follow him. He stopped to thermal up the mountain, but I decided the ridge would be soarable in the strong wind. With the trees thrashing all the way under me, I soared all the way to Kobarid, leap frogging about 10 pilots on the way. In the Tolmin valley the winds are usually east and in the Kobarid valley they are west, so the trick is to work out at which height to be to maximise your downwind glides. I got to the small ridge over Kobarid, bagged the turn point and then set off for the last one on a higher hill behind.

The turn point is in a gully and normally I wouldn’t have gone in there low, but I went in, soared up the slope, but kept missing the TP cylinder by a few meters. Andy came and joined me and I thought it was a bit of a tight spot for both of us to be battling it out in, so I gritted my teeth, kicked a few trees and stuck my shoulder into the cylinder and then ran for it to goal. On the first day, someone told us that Brett always uses TP71, because unless you get a really strong headwind, you can always make it to goal from there. I got to goal with loads of height and landed to find David and Bren running towards me with big smiles to congratulate me. Then they told me off for being such a div for missing the turn point in Tolmin. I did get a promised goal beer though! I needed it after another nearly four hour flight.

To be fair, had I tried to get back to the third turn point in Tolmin, I would have pretty certainly gone down. Most people who were there at the time did, many landing in very turbulent conditions, in howling winds and in fields surrounded by trees/power lines. Emma was injured landing in the winds and from a safety point of view, I am pleased I went back to Kobarid. My aim for the day was to get to goal, and although I didn’t fly the whole course, just to prove to myself I could actually get round a task was the most important thing. Since my results didn’t matter to me, the fact that I only got 30km for the task, when I flew nearly twice as far, was irrelevant.

The post-comp party had great food, free wine and dancing. Some of the pilots are pretty good on the dance floor and one of the LMSC members was determined to get his club fees worth out of his club officials, so had me twirling round, tangoing, etc. At 2am, it seemed like the band was slowing down, so Andy, Bren, David and I headed back to the house via the Kobarid fiesta. Everyone was ballroom dancing round the square and I persuaded my reluctant housemates to have a go. Bren and I went for the freestyle option, then David tried to waltz with me, but was hampered by my constant desire to lead. Andy and I got an upbeat number, so we bounced round the square playing dodgems with the other dancers. Hysterical.

See photos of today.

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72km task, in windy conditions, but with turnpoints in the valley of death behind the Stol ridge. I was completely exhausted from the day before, hadn’t slept well, should have had more water the night before and said no to the last glass of wine. I tried to sleep on the bus and in the grass while waiting for the minibus, but as usual with me, when I want to sleep, I can’t. On launch I was trying to blag some ProPlus from others, but no one had any. The sky looked good and it seemed ok. I decided that I probably wasn’t fit to do another 4 hour flight, so decided to race a bit more and try to keep up with a gaggle that would help me on the way and get me round the tight spots, so I would just have to cope with the head wind and not other issues. So I raced off the end of the ridge, just to find the little ridge above Kobarid not working. Lots of us bombed in the same field at 13km, with some really big names not much further.

Some people went back up to free fly, but I needed a rest day, so decided to go for a lovely slap-up birthday lunch and a much needed siesta. In the evening the house lads had organised a surprise get together at the camping for me, which Matt Church accidentally let slip two days before. It was a really lovely meal in good company and we stopped off at the Kobarid fiesta on the way home. There was a stage on the main square with live music, stalls, food, etc. It was great to see the locals at play. They’re really into ballroom and everyone was dancing in the street. Fun to watch, but a bit surreal to see people doing the cha-cha-cha to Pink Floyd’s ‘Brick in the Wall’.

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I’m getting a little frustrated at not getting to goal, when everyday at least 90 others do… Today was the day, I hoped. Problem was that the forecast was for more wind. They couldn’t send us into the mountains, so the task was a turn point flight to Tolmin, Kobarid, part way back to Tolmin and back to Kobarid.

I got a great start and was off. I got stuck on the first ridge, but then managed to get up and glided most of the way to the turn point without having to turn much. On the way back, I hit the headwind… I managed to get a thermal with DT and we got to cloudbase at 5500′, but it had drifted us back over the mountain and going forward I was only getting 8km/h on speedbar. So I lost all the height I had gained in the first place, and it was just wasting task time. I was on bar most of the way, but had to top up with height sporadically (always thermalling away from the next turn point). Everyone else just overtook me, until there was just a little group of us stragglers left at the back. I eventually got back to Kobarid, bagged the two turn points there and jumped onto the ridge to go back towards Tolmin. The lead gaggle had landed ages before, when the conditions were still very sunny. When I got back to Kobarid, the high cloud had come over and I thought that would be it. However, I did get back up and flew out towards the turnpoint. I missed a climb others were in, and that just allowed me to collect the final turnpoint, but then I was too low to get back to goal.

I tried to get another thermal, but it wasn’t to be. A flight over four hours, 7km short of goal and landing 10 minutes before the land by time, so I wouldn’t have made it in even if I had got the thermal. Ruth got in with 2 minutes to spare, Malc Davies with 28 seconds!

BBQ at Scottish/Northern Irish lads house later and then I collapsed into bed completely exhausted and with aching knees from using my speedbar so much.

See photos of today.

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