Southern Regional Paragliding Comp in December

The Southern Club is organising a Regional Paragliding Competition in late December.

The dates are 27/28/29 December 2016 
December 30th is a reserve day in case a day was missed due to weather.

This will count towards the National Paragliding Ladder

Organiser is Tim Brown: tjbro137@gmail.com, 034425319

WE HAVE A NEW LEADER

Updated National Paragliding Ladder.

You can download the latest version of the New Zealand paragliding ladder here.

It has been updated to include the six valid tasks from the PG Open (Round 1) that was held in Manilla.

Reuben Muir has overtaken Grant Middendorf at the top of the table and Jeff Ripley has climbed into third place.

Glen Stevens, Louis Tapper and Roy Tingay have all entered the Top Ten at the expense of Derek Divers, Mark Hardman and Eva Keim.

Joe Ward has appeared on the table - straight into 11th place!

Glen Stevens has scored the most ladder points (375) so far this season, while Nick Neynens is the biggest climber, moving up 28 places to number 15.

There are now 93 pilots on the ladder, and 52 of them have 277 points or less, so are facing the chop between seasons.

There are two competitions still scheduled this season that will affect this ladder.

• PG Open (Round 2) in Nelson
• Regional Competition in Auckland

NICK NEYNENS PLACES 10TH IN X-ALPS

Latest blog post from Louis Tapper​ - "From Rooster to feather duster and back to Kiwi"

NICK NEYNENS ON A ROLL

An elated Nick! - screen grab from video

Nick has had several excellent days of flying, and has been leap-frogging up the rankings.

As at the end of Monday is now in ninth position, just behind Ferdy van Schelven from the Netherlands (who competed here in NZ several years ago).

Saturday:  203km of flying - greatest distance covered by any of the pilots that day!

Sunday: 366km of flying - four flights, again greatest distance covered!

Monday: 315km of flying - third greatest distance

View on Sunday - just after getting over the 3600m pass - near Zermatt  Photo: Nick Neynens

Redbull article on Nick's "Great Day" - they talk about "understated Kiwis" - however, this video of Nick, shortly after he'd gone over a 3600m pass with ten metres to spare suggests otherwise!

Camping location on Monday night.

On Monday night Nick climbed up to 2200m on the side of Le Cheval Noir.  This puts him in a good position to climb up early in the morning for a long glide down the valley, and to then climb up to another launch site later in the day when the thermals are working.

Ferdy is 21km ahead, and he is camped 650m lower down.  How much advantage will this give Nick as he attempts to catch up to Ferdy?

It will be exciting to watch events unfold from about 4pm (NZ time) on Tuesday!

More photos on the ShareMyJoys and ShareMyPains Facebook pages.


If you want to show your support for Nick, Louis and some of their wonderful supporters go to the Give A Little page, and "buy" one of the excellent offers!

THE FIRST FEW DAYS OF THE X-ALPS

Updates from Louis and Nick.

Here's an excellent little video from Nick and Louis on the first few days of the X-Alps campaign: Share my pains

Blog post: Road to recovery

Watch the X-Alps on Live Tracking: Live Tracking

Nick's view - Share My Joys Facebook page: Nick's view

Louis' view - Share My Pains Facebook page: Louis' view

PREPARING FOR THE X-ALPS

It’s been a fast paced lap around the 2015 X-Alps route over the last month, with lots of flying and familiarising with the mountains, which will serve us very well for the race (X-Alps Reconnaissance).

Of course the weather is always going to be different but being able to recognize the main geographical features, having a feeling for the valley winds system and what kind of weather to expect were principal aims from my side.

I now feel I can imagine much of the route in my head which will mean I can do most of my navigation in the air without relying on instruments. The other side of the coin is that we have spent lots of time in the Jucy van, getting used to operating in race mode and bit by bit getting everything organised so we are ready to go.

Meeting at the home of our southern Germany based supporter Nils Kretschmer in early June, we headed straight down to turn point 4, under the shadow of the towering limestone cliffs of Germany’s highest mountain the Zugspitze. We weren’t quite organised yet but the weather was good and you have to capitalise – the previous month had been very wet indeed and several teams had struggled with their own route reconnaissances.

I flew every day as we made our way to beautiful Annecy in the northern French Alps. After some rain we had a brief window to fly around Briancon, one of the key points to pass amongst the intricate valley wind system of southern France.

This was arranged through our sail plane (glider) contacts and was really good value, my understanding of this area was consolidated along with previous experience flying here in past years.

With more rain I did some road walking to test the water, we will see but I hope with good management we will be fine during the race. Of course my strategy is to fly whenever possible.

Back to Germany where we made further arrangements to smoothen the operation and we delivered a talk to the local German paragliding club, a small promotion for New Zealand of course.

Finally three amazing days in the region between Zugspitze and the start, before we went to attend the obligatory briefings – and of course the weather became unbelievably epic. Still we managed to get away to fly the first part of the race and the weather will hold for the start of the race.

Yesterday's prologue was quite hot at 30 degrees but over the coming days it is forecast to reach 37! Our additional supporter Dan Meyers (an Australian expat volunteering to drive) has arrived this week and has proven his worth already with his practical knowledge and makes a great addition to the team.

We are feeling well prepared as much as it is possible to be prepared and are looking forward to the start in Salzburg this Sunday (or Monday in NZ) Watch live tracking, but remember that Austria is 10 hours behind NZ - so there may be a few late nights if you’re watching progress! And here's the online Red Bull diary.

Nick and Louis

Photo: Joshua G

Bonus video: Interview with Tom de Dorlodot

Meeting in Annecy in the lead up to Red Bull Xalps 2015 we caught up with Tom de Dorlodot. He certainly is no novice when it comes to vol biv, with the enviable career as a paragliding professional exploring all kinds of exotic locations around the world. So you can imagine that us kiwis were quite chuffed with the high praise he had for New Zealand, reminiscing of his trip before the last X-Alps with fellow competitor Ferdy van Schelven (NED). As an xalps veteran we also got some insight into his tips for newcomers - well worth a listen.

X-ALPS CAMPAIGN TOUCHES DOWN

Nick and Louis are now both in Europe - update from Louis here.

PARAGLIDING FAI TRIANGLE RECORD

After years taking his time exploring the stunning NZ backcountry, Nick Neynens has put it all together.

A paragliding flight linked with amazing scenery, exciting flying, a new record, and a strategic triangle in the rugged country alongside Mt Aspiring, NZ.

Check the video from the flight on his blog Share My Joys.
and the 6pm TV3 news article about Nick's X-Alps entry.

You can also follow Nick's and Louis' X-Alps preparation on Facebook at Share My Joys and Share My Pain