Getting ready!

As the team starts leaving for Europe, throw a coffee's worth of funds at https://www.gofundme.com/f/australian-paragliding-team-2019 and we'll get into the blogging in the leadup to the event!!

2019 Paragliding World Champs Macedonia

2 Months to go to the next installment of the Paragliding World Championships.

This years Team:

Gareth Carter
Kari Ellis
Pete Slade
Felipe Rezende

Ably assisted at the comp by team manager Dave Gibbs, and logistics guru Phil Mansell.

As we get closer, stay tuned for blow by blow excitement!

Cheers

G

Kari wrap

The 15th Paragliding World Championships in Feltre have finished... its hard to believe.

I'm so proud to have flown as a member of the Aussie team with the boys over the last 2 weeks. We came here ranked 14th as a nation and after an absolute ton of flying over 11 tasks, we achieved a final result of 5th place!!!! It's a fantastic feeling! 🇦🇺😊🇦🇺

A big congratulations to my team mates - Gareth (top Aussie in 12th!!), Felipe, Steve and Pete - for your results in the last 2 weeks. As a team we came together so well, with each of us stepping up at various points to contribute and get the job done. Thank you to our team leader Dave, who kept us focused and worked endlessly behind the scenes on our behalf. We couldn't have done it without you mate.

Nothing is ever as we expect it to be and the Worlds experience has been no different. Going into the comp I knew I would be working overtime to try to manage stress, pressure and fatigue of a 2 week competition - flying in a new place in big mountains that I am not used to, racing amongst enormous gaggles all day, making sure I was eating and drinking enough, maximising my use of down time to recharge, maintaining my focus etc. And I was tired, I got run down and sick with tonsillitis in the middle, it was stressful at times, there was pressure to perform, the mountains and the gaggles were insane... But through all the chaos and the drama I was surprised to find that for the majority of the time my headspace felt calm and relaxed. I pretty much loved every minute. 😉

In large part I think this was due to the vibe and feeling amongst the team and in the house we have shared for the past 3 weeks. This has been a major highlight of this whole experience for me and amazing to be part of it. A huge and heartfelt thank you to Axa, Louise, Alba, Sa Bine and my Aunty Jillian and Uncle Kel for the time that you spent with us in the Aussie team house. Everyone's support and the happy distractions you provided, were invaluable to help us relax and switch off in between flying.

So my first Worlds are done and I am happy with how I flew. In the Women's Championships I placed 2nd. A very big congratulations to Seiko for defending your title, you flew very, very well to win. It was an honour to fly in such a strong field of female pilots and I have connected with some amazing, inspiring and fun women in the last fortnight. I am also proud to have placed 40th in the overall Championships, out of 150 pilots. 😊

Final results are at: https://airtribune.com/worlds2017/results/task2702/…/overall

Thank you to Feltre 🇮🇹 and congratulations to the CIVL/FAI for a well organised and incident free Worlds, with great tasking in a beautiful location. The Opening and Closing Ceremonies were unforgettable!

Time for a final selfie before I go home!!! 🤓

Worlds Task 11 - G rap

Going into the last day in 10th with a podium in sight, it was worth pushing hard in pursuit of a result. Unfortunately this works both ways and after being really stuck at about 20km's I met up with Kari and Steve way down low. Eventually Kari and I got out of our hole, unfortunately leaving Steve in it, and set out to catch the leaders, eventually hunting them down with about 7km to go and coming in to goal about 21st for the day. Since we got so stuck this resulted in a 25th day placing on leadout, and the winner got a break on the gaggle, resulting in lower scores for the rest. Dropped to 12th in the final placings.

After 11 tasks it felt like I could do this forever - just getting into the groove!

Overall the Australian team came 5th in the world.

Kari came 2nd for women, and 40th overall
Gareth came in at 12th overall, Pete Slade came in just behind Kari at 45, Felipe Rezende at 85 and Steve Nagle at 117.

Worlds Task 10:

Day of ups and downs, had to top land with a harness problem with only 25mins to the start, lucky cloud base was not much higher than the hill. Thanks to dave for the help taking my whole kit apart and rebuilding it on launch, made the start on time. Good for the first 15km, then i had a cravatte which needed sorting outside the best thermal of the day, by the time I had it organised it was pointless going back to the climb, so i bombed down the course low across the first big valley crossing. Got a reasonable climb on the other side and angled straight at the turn point in the flats while the lead gaggle stuck to the ridge. Picked up a reasonably crappy climb and could see that the course line was starting to shade out. Pushed in front chasing the sun line and marking some thermals for the group, and arrived at the sun over a factory complex which provided a broken climb while about 100 pilots bit the dust. It took us about 30mins to climb to about 500m agl, and another 15mins to get to 1000m. By this time there was about 30 pilots left in the air. The last 20km was characterised by slow broken climbs and poor glides, but the gaggle stuck to it and after a last ditch ridge soar 6km from home, popped over the hill and cruised in. 5th for the day gets me into 10th overall. Unfortunately the Brazilians and Koreans both got two pilots into goal and skipped us in the teams, however we did a big catchup on the Swiss. Really close between 3rd and 6th with all to play for tomorrow. Kari consolidated 2nd place in the womens. So a mixed bag today.

Pete on task 10

The organisers arranged for us to go later than normal to Rubio Launch east of Bassano as
it was raining heavily in the morning. Upon arriving to launch we were enveloped in thick
cloud and visibility around few metres. Jokes like ‘ we have arrived to Cloudbase’ were
made as we put in same extra layers for the cold.
Gladly soon after the sun appeared followed by the first thermals. A 58 km task was set and
with start just above launch. As is normally the case pilots played the suck into cloud , exit
and re enter cloud merry go round until we went blasting down the ridge and back. The pace
was fast and base very low at only couple of hundred metres above hill. After 20 fast km
shadowing on the course line forced the massive gaggle out into the flats were we worked a
1m/s climb to about 900m. Then this shadow began to make its way up the course line so
the race was on to stay in front of it. 130 pilots arrived about 100m over an industrial area
that had some filtered light on it. The ensuing madness of fighting over 0.2m/s claimed it's
victims , including all the Aussies except Gareth who showed amazing tenacity to hang on
for over 30 minutes to climb to 800m and then glide off with a group of 20 into the improving
conditions. After some great patient flying he came in 5th for the day, an amazing result that
places him in 10th in the overalls. The Aussie team is looking forward going out on a high
tomorrow, the last day which is forecast good .

Worlds Task 9

54 km task with two options, safety in the mountains or risk the flats for the short route.

We went in the flats and with some help from the other flat countries (brazil, germany, england) we put the euros who are scared of the flats to the sword. I reckon 15km in front after 30km. 

The day deteriorated somewhat and the lead gaggle struggled into the last turn point and I had to go around some houses to get to the windy side of the gorge and soar the river bank in the valley breeze for a very low save ;-) This worked out and with a couple of gliders we transferred to the main ridge and started rocketing up the big hill.

Unfortunately a couple spots of rain meant that a strategic stop was called to the task. The Germans knew the stop was coming (safety committee member), went on glide and cleaned up 1st-3rd. Frustrating for me as the small gaggle of 5 I was in were climbing strongly towards final glide in the sun, with a clear track along a big ridge to ESS and goal. We had the day in the bag if the task was completed as everybody in front was on death glide to the shady flats.

Stopped tasks are always a balance of charging down the course in case a stop comes, or maintaining a good position on the course line in case it doesn't.

Gareth, Felipe and Pete in 21st, 22nd and 23rd. Team in 3rd