Nordics, schooling, skateboarding and midsummer festivities!

Posted on June 27, 2010 by admin.
Categories: Vågå Norway, Åre.

Wow! Norway.

Vågå put up some great flying and real race conditions. Well rock’n roll race conditions to be fair.

Four days of full on flying in fantastic enviroments with happy people! Not much more to ask for.

Even Marcus King was there

And AK B was in the house too

The two first tasks was held at Juvass sommerskicenter, and it was breathtaking to fly there. Soooo scenic. The days were quite different, the first was strong and tactics was needed to stay out of the cloudsuck. I made goal and felt realy good :-) Though the last 20 minutes trying to get down through the conversion at Lom was rough, hard work.

Day two was abit slower and with two headwindlegs it was alot of bar needed. I ended up making a silly decision that day and landed short of goal. If i had stayed with Seb Bochet i could have reached goal. He did together with some locals who knew the way…

Seb under his UP Edge before i glided off from him as he went to goal.  

Third day was from Vole just above the freeflycenter of Vågå. It was a nice task in good conditions and it was fast. I could not “quite”;-) keep up with the fast crew on R10-2s.

I did not get to goal. Landed 2.5 km short. Very fun flying. I want more of this!

Fourth day was different. To say the least. Stronger wind was to come in during the day, there was lentis in the sky. The first pilots to thermal at Skagsnebb said level2. I waited awhile on takeoff, there was zero wind for awhile. When the sun returned i launched and got high over Skagsnebb quickly, no probs. Flew on to star tgate and cruised on, rather fast according to my gps. Above 70km on trim… :-)

I hit some strong thermals above Sel, abit turbulent but not bad. Got high again and heard that people said it was turbulent down low. Over Otta i started understanding what they were talking about. It was superturbulent, i got two collapses of about 50-60%, the air was aggressive. I worked it as best i could and gained hight and moved on. The convergence over Otta it to take serious. It’s evil.

By now i was in the lead, Ronny H, Anders B and the rest of the R10 squad was behind me!!! hmm, now what? I speeded(this is where i should have slowed down)on towards Torgeirkampen that was shaded by clouds. Silly me! The wind got the best of the thermals and i landed in Kvam in calm conditions. All i could do was see the top pilots flying above me on their way towards goal. Damn i was on it there. But still a fun flight that alot of pilots hated because of being in bad spots along the course. Some pilots went backwards on landings and one reserve was thrown. No one was hurt. The task was cancelled for awhile then counted again. I ended up on 28th place this day.

Nordics was won by Ronny Helgesen of Norway, second was Larsa Jonsson from Åre, third was ozone teampilot Anders Bearheim from Norway.

In the Swedish championships Larsa won, Fredrik Lindholm in second, Matts Eliasson third, Ulf Nylander fourth. Just points ahead of me :-)

In total i ended up on 22nd place in the Nordics and proudly i got fifth place in the Swedish Championships. Not bad huh? :-) Happy Fred!

Going back home to Åre after a saturdaynight party in Vågå, we were enlighted about the weathersituation in Åre. It was utter kaos at home. Landslides caused by very heavy rain. The village looked like a big mess.   The paragliding club had abit of work to do with the landingfield.

Pål who had been in charge at Skysport had a hard week at work… Teaching paragliding in crap weather is hard work. This is how happy he got when the sun came back!

When i got back weather went good and last weeks students were ready on friday lunch. Perfect timing for midsummer festivities Swedish style!

Today i was hoping for some hardcore soaring with my little cloud miniglider but it was not to be, so insted i went skateboarding in the local miniramp. Good fun was had and my gopro got it on pics.

backside grind for fun and pleasure ;-)

First task of Vågå PG Open. Finally.

Posted on July 26, 2009 by admin.
Categories: Vågå Norway.

Finally! on friday we had good conditions for a task. After going to Vole takeoff and the race organizers setting a task it was open window. A long awaited one.

Ronny Helgesen and Gunnar Seabu was the first to go. They glided over to Skagsnebb and were struggling to get up. It was weak and clouds were in the way of the sun. I chilled out on take off. I’m heavy in my lovely M2 so i waited. And waited. The startsignal went of and i was still on take off. Hmm. Not good.

Then all of a sudden the sky cleared abit and the sun shined hard on the valeey and slopes. Thermic activity was on. I took off and went straight into a nice thermal. I wasted no time once i was airborne. Went over to Skagsnebb, climbed out fast, seeing the outcome of a midair collision that went well, and glided on to next turnpoint. I got good height on the way over there and with some tailwind it was a easy ride…

However, when turning around thing started to mess with my ride…

Speedbar was used but i had lots of lifting air so i used that on the way over to a big canyon and glided on back over to Skagsnebb. Easy climbing and i was back over at takeoff in a whisper…

Once i got there it was raining a little. I took the turnpoint and turned back to skagsnäbb side by side with Arne Kristian Boisen. During this glide the safety chanel on the radio was used and the word was that the task was stopped due to massive rain on take off. Very sad since conditions were stonkin’ once we left the blackclouds. But the decision was right. Lots of pilots were on their way to take the takeoff waypoint. Some even got their gliders wet and all kinds off shit…

I landed over at the Holungsöy camping next to the hut we stay in. Packed my glider, made a coffee, shared it with a fellow Norwegian pilot who also landed at the camping.

Vågå is a great place for xc. No doubt. I like it!

Below is some fun from Norway.

First out is team Monkeybiz,

Micke K has done more wierd stuff,

We had Frode Halse for diner last night. Frode Nimbus as he’s known on National Geogreaphic…

Norwegian wallposter,

Nic the Norwegian Advance dealer brought his harness hangtest thingy. Nice…

Anyway. Go to Vågå. Bring whitewater kayak ;-)

More pics from Vågå Norway. But still no compflying…

Posted on July 23, 2009 by admin.
Categories: Vågå Norway.

Weather stays on the evil side. Non flyable conditions.

But spirits are high, it look’s better tomorrow friday. I realy want a nice task here in Vågå. Brit Sörum and AK gone bananas… ;-)

Two pics below: Arne Kristian “AK” Boiesen is the comp organizer.

Yesterday he and a couple of others tried the Little Cloud on the landingfield. They all want to fly it… ;-)

Brett Simpson trying to tell his hangglider to pack itself. No luck though…

Packing hanggliders makes Brett this hungry…

In cherge of bbq de hangie was non other than Ernst. Ebbeflug as he’s known. The hangies even feed us paragliders ;-)

Sjoa river is a whitewater paradise. Next time i will bring my kayak. For shure.

Micke Kjellman is here too, he’s done strange things. Watering on takeoff was one of them…

Jon Björnback flew a 214km flight taking off in the northern part of Norway but flying most of the flight in Sweden. I asked how far he flew in Sweden, Jon answered around 155km. Well Jon that means U have the new swedish open distance record. Peter Wicanders old 150.2 km is broken. By a Norwegian… hahaha. I dont know the rules for open distance records, but well flown by Jon.

Jonna has found a new favorit helmet, Sweet Rooster. Pink with a puppy on the back. Oh yeah, Sweet is a Norwegian company… 

Vågå Norway.

Posted on July 22, 2009 by admin.
Categories: Vågå Norway.

Well tis place is nothin short of breathtaking. Fantastic scenery with turqouise rivers with brutal whitewater sections running in the deep valleys. Above the valleyfloor the moountains rise high and proud. It has the terrain to dream of when planing xc flying.

Here the Norwegians have their airsport center. a building with all the facilities wanted of flyers. And more… Perfect for a paraglidingcomp

But,

it’s raining loads. The two first days it rained hard. Today it was perfect blue sky in the morning hours. Briefing was sat at 9.30, and then we went up to the takeoff at Vole. New briefing was set at 11.30. By then it was strong winds. Only one pilot took of for a flight Jon Björnback. He’s the dude who flew from the Bodö area to Arvidsjaur in Sweden. A mere 200 k’s…

The rest of us decided to ride the bus of shame to the valley. Ronny Helgesen did the same… siting in the far end and hiding from cameras ;-)

-We were all dressed up but nowhere to go… Wise words of Frode Halse(Nimbus)

Tonight we have a bbq with the Åre hangiesection. They bring the meat. We only eat… The Åre hangies are fun guys, the pour hot coffe on them selves…

The norwegians are clever.(because they eat smart food. Whales for example.) Just look at their milkcartons. Measurements on the side. Great!!!