The PD Blog

PD Factory Team Swiss Alps Expedition: Day 8

Today we get to hear from Ian Bobo about speed riding, touristy hot spots, and much more while the Factory Team continues to explore Switzerland.

From Ian-

"The weather is still transitioning here in the region as the south winds continued to blow through the morning. Winds weren’t as excessive as they have been, but everyone needed some more downtime due to the stresses of the week so far. It was nice to sleep in a bit and let the group just “be” for a day. No firm plans or schedules to keep, very nice.
A group went cruising through the town this morning and perused the local shops, playing the part of tourist for the day... instead of extreme athlete. Of course, the local fare provided ample entertainment for the group. They walked around Interlaken enjoying the scenery, drinking coffee, eating more Swiss cheese and salivating over the slabs of the Swiss chocolate in the window. Shannon and Tommy played tourists and bought some books showing the mountains in the Jungfrau region, and everyone tried on the warm weather clothing in the local stores.
 

Later, JT and I decided to cruise back over to Neisen, the local speed-flying hill, or mountain I should say at 2200m in elevation. The conditions were absolutely stunning in the afternoon and we got two epic flights to top off our day. JT followed me through both launches with video so it was awesome to share that airspace with him (check the vid). Pascal joined up with us on the final flight. We yahooed and flew together most of the way down that massive “hill” to this nice little field shared by some of the local livestock. They didn’t seem as impressed as I felt about myself after our 6-8 min flight :’)
Weather forecast shaping up for the rest of the week, so stay tuned as we get back to the mountain flying..."

Extreme Week

Extreme Week took place last week in Voss, Norway. This was the 11th year of extreme week and once again it was a great success despite some slightly dubious weather at times. There were a whole variety of sports happening such as longboarding, BASE jumping, climbing, big air, kayaking, kiting, rafting and paragliding. Each evening there was a skydiving demo jump into the centre of town followed by a prize giving, a 30 minute video of the day and then a variety of famous bands and DJs rocked the party tent. With it being held so far North it didn't get dark and the parties always continued on.

There was load organizing at the dropzone and the Nordic Meet were pulling some sick freeflying moves. Mountain flying was high on the agenda and a number of PD sponsored jumpers from a variety of different nations were in town. Some of the other highlights included some neat speed riding, featured for the first time, and some great ski stunts. The top moves must have been the ski jump over the swooping canopy with another swooper right behind the skier. This was then followed with the skier flipping over a hovering helicopter!

Much of the action was shown on both National and International TV as well as a variety of other media. If you haven't been to Norway or hung out with Norwegians before then you should think about going next year- they're super friendly and it's a beautiful country. Here's a short video of some of the fun that I had at Extreme Week.

Ground Launch Heaven

I recently had the opportunity to visit the highest sand dune in Europe. The Dune du pyla is located 60km from Bordeaux France in the basin of Arcachon. With a height of 107 m and 3k long it is already a haven for parapente pilots but I thought I would give it a go and try some ground launching. I was wishing I had a SPIRE instead of my Katana but I made due with what I had on hand. Needless to say I drew some weird looks from the parapente crowd when I pulled my gear out but I was soon enjoying myself as I soared down the steeper side of the dune toward the ocean. With some of the softest sand to be found, I could see why the parapente pilots enjoyed this sandy marvel.  Besides the breath taking view, the ocean provides a steady breeze that makes for fun flying. If you ever have the opportunity to go, make sure you take your Ground Launching canopy, just be prepared for sore calves from walking back up the hill in all that soft sand.

Red Bull Blade Raid according to Isaiah

By Isaiah McCauliffe

The third “Red Bull Blade Raid” was held March 14-15 at Crystal Mountain, in Washington. Unlike years past, where the event was a blade running event where participants started their runs by exiting an aircraft. This year, it was a ground-launching event. Requiring competitors to ski launch their canopies in order to be eligible to run the course.
Event organizers Andy Farrington and Jon Devore (Red Bull team) set up the course by laying out a challenging run on the mountain's most difficult double black diamond run -  the “Exterminator”. With only a couple months notice they managed to fill the registration with 42 competitors from all over the country and a few from over seas. Nearly all of the nations experienced speed flying, and ground launching pilots were present.
Most competitors showed up on the day before the practice day so they could get a chance to ski the run (required prior to launching), or get reacquainted with skis. As it turned out quite a few competitors were less then graceful once they strapped on the skis and headed down the double black diamond. You could over hear plenty of people talking about having no business being on skis, let alone trying to negotiate “Exterminator”. Many even had to ski down on their backsides.
Thursday, the official practice day came and everyone was anxious to get some runs in. The morning briefly began off with beautiful conditions, but by mid morning fog had rolled in. That didn’t slow people down though, most everyone was “vaguely” familiar with the terrain, and since the course was set up, people continued launching. Some managed to get as many as 5-6 runs, others weren’t as fortunate, out of the 42 competitors 7-8 didn’t get any runs in, either due to weather conditions and not being comfortable launching in the difficult weather, or unable to launch their canopy.
Friday, day one of the meet came; weather wasn’t looking so great, still foggy. Andy Farrington was asked what the forecast was looking like he replied, “It’s a little unpredictable, kind of like weather in the mountains” which wasn’t only funny, but true. Clouds rolled in and out, wind was up and down, but we managed to ¾ of the first round in.
Day two of the meet brought similar weather. However, there were a few more clear spots, and lulls in the wind early on and we managed to get the second round completed and halfway through the third. With that the first part of the third round was discarded and that finished the meet. It would have been nice to get more rounds in, but weather in the mountains has a way of being unpredictable. I think it would be safe to say everyone would have liked to get more runs in, it’s just a gamble when you need good weather in the mountains to get it done. Insurance for the event also required expediency in completion due to costs.
In spite of the only a handful of runs, everyone had an exhilarating time, for those that could ski and snowboard, the conditions were fantastic! Unlike a weather day at the DZ were all you can do is sit and wait, here you just went and enjoyed the snow.

Red Bull Blade Raid - Pictures

Dave Brown of VRW team Mandrin is a man of many talents!   He took his Spire to Crystal Mountain and had a great time - in between practice rounds he had a chance to snap a few pictures and was kind enough to share.  Enjoy!

 

In 2 Words: Phenomenal

Thats the Red Bull Blade Raid we are referring to there (and maybe also taking a slight dig at Paula Abdul for you Idol fans that get it.  Although I have no idea what I'm talking about because I will never admit to watching American Idol). 
We have managed to get a wee bit of news from the competitors at the mountain, although for some reason they seem remarkably reluctant to talk.  Cell phone reception is blamed but I think they are just having too much fun to be bothered to call home.
But here is the little we have been able to find out.

1.  The mountain is STEEP
2.  After Speed Riding all day, you get very tired
3.  This new sport is the MOST FUN EVER

Dave Brown from Team Mandrin has been updating his Facebook page with random odes to Speed Riding so it's pretty clear to us that he's in love with his new Spire and having a great time with the challenging course.   We will post more updates if we are able squeeze more information out of the PD gang on site, stay tuned!

Red Bull Blade Raid

This coming weekend a group of highly skilled athletes are all set to compete in the Red Bull Blade Raid, taking place at the popular ski resort Crystal Mountain, Washington.
The competition is hosted by Red Bull and plenty more information can be found on their website.  According to their description, the course is designed to be extremely tight with competitors flying through trees and over big drops - thoroughly testing the skills of the pilots.

Today they are running qualifiers for the event and tomorrow it's on Semi Finals (4 rounds), with Finals on Saturday. We have quite a few Spire pilots at the mountain and it will be exciting to see how it all goes down.    Go Team!!

Antoine Montant wins Columbia Speedflying Pro!

The Columbia Speed Flying Pro 2008 competition was completed on Thursday, February 7th, 2008, with the Freeride Contest as the last event.  It was an impressive display that highlighted technical abilities of the competitors.    The winner, judged by his peers, was Antoine Montant.  David Eyraud came in 2nd and Vincent Reffet and Mattias Roten tied in third.
The winner (best rider in both disciplines; the Speed Cross (parallel slalom run) and the Free Ride) also becomes the Speed Flyer of the Year.

The Free Ride competition unfolded on the Arandelières slope, on the Aiguille Rouge in Arc 2000, France.. Each competitor had one practice run and then a single competition run to impress the other competitors, who collectively judged this event.
Competitors were judged on several factors:

• Choice of Line Flown
• Fluidity (of the run)
• Technical Abilities

"After a timed race on Tuesday with the speed cross, we wanted a contest that would showcase all facets of Speed Flying. Today I very much enjoyed the riders who really skied the snow, who could take advantage of the terrain, find the hidden snow pockets and who did the show because this is the future of this sport" said Dino Raffault, the event organizer.

Antoine Montant demonstrated his qualities both as a pilot and as a skier in a quick run with daring trajectories and an original line. "I abandoned the line I had originally planned, because it was too dangerous.  I then choose a more straightforward option. My aim was to ski the snow as much as possible", he explains, commenting his winning run.

We would like to congratulate Antoine, David, Vincent and Mattias on their impressive performance.  We hope to see this new sport continue to evolve and develop and look forward to exciting times in years to come.

Brits On Snow

It's not just members of the PD Factory Team that head off and have all the fun during winter months.  A group of 60 skydivers from Netheravon in the UK headed to Val Thorens, France for bit of skiing.  Val Thorens is the highest resort in Europe and so the snow was guaranteed.  There was a mix of abilities with some never having been on snow before and others ripping through the knee high powder all day.  HEAT also had a few guys out there and took a canopy along for a bit of Speed Riding.  You can check out the video of the Sabre 135 flying down the slopes here.   We're looking forward to next time when there should be more of us out Speed Riding and we can't wait to start flying a Spire.

Columbia SpeedFlying - News from Day 1

The update below was sent out by Dino Raffault, the organizer of the Columbia Speedflying Pro event. He has graciously allowed us to post the content on the PD Blog - visit the event website for more info and to see video from day 1 of competition.

DAY 1: Speed Cross.
Antoine Montant wins the Columbia Speedflying pro 2008 1st run!

We witnessed a first in Arcs 2000 today, under a perfect blue sky : the first contest of speed cross, a parallel slalom for speed riders, skiers who fly with a wing and glide on the snow. French speed rider Antoine Montant crosses the finish line ahead of Gaël Amann for a few hundredth of a second, the French speed rider David Eyraud is third. See the results here.
"The slalom was both technical and quick. What made the difference is the speed of my wing", says Antoine Montant. This event of a new type was a success for the organizers who have been working on it for a year. "We wanted to bring something new, a contest inspired by the ski-cross, visually interesting and public friendly. The riders loved it !", says Dino Raffault, the organizer.

The Big Mountain race is postponed on Thursday February 7th due to the weather forecast.