..higher and higher..

hell yeah!!! what a great morning this was! :)

yesterday I got pretty pissed in the morning.. no thermals, just some glides down to the landind zone and a lot, a lot of waiting! :( improved my patiance to the max and over stretched it :P they call it also parawaiting and there´s a lot of it!!
then in the afternoon, after I picked up Myle my girlfriend, I had some exciting ridge soaring, where you fly along the ridge here in front of the house, together with three top landings (landing on the same spot where you took off). There´s not a lot of space and strong winds, so you need the right technics, but with some help over the radio, it was possible.. well.. also landed two times on my ass, but you get this huge, soft harness with an airbag that protects you from getting a sore ass or a spinal injury.. so glad to have that ;) hehe :)
then I had a wonder, wonderful evening with my love here!!! giving massages, watching Sweeny Todd and drinking Rum and Coke :D haha :))) oh yeah.. it was GREAT!! best times ever! :D

I also got some moments where I felt more "down" and low energy, because there are so many moments that are just EPIC! where I couldn´t be any happier than I am and I feel like this is the place and the moment to be.. for example, laying in Myles arms and feeling her hand caressing my neck.. watching some good movie together or being too distracted by our hot kisses ;) hehe :) yes.. really good times!
but then there are moments where she has to stay home (with her Mom) and I´m just having a rainy no-fly day here, being along and missing my sweetheart.. so a bit of ups and downs, but the ups are "very strong lifts", as you would call it in the Paragliding language ;) hehe :)

so then this morning, waking up late in Myle´s arms, having short breakfast and getting my stuff out on the field, waiting for about half an hour, before some nice thermals showed up. My Dutch friends took off but didn´t catch any upwind and when I started a bit later I got really good lifts.. I went up about 1000m above the landing zone and it really looked high!!! ..got a bit scared up there.. it´s so mental to fly with an inflatable wing attached to some fabric chair ;) haha ;)) yes.. glad it was not too shaky up there.. so I hit one thermal after the other, was turning in left circles until my abdomen and my neck were hurting and then switching to right circles until it got too painful ;) was up there for more than an hour and finally decided then to go landing because I couldn´t stand it anymore :P I heard, it´s all about being relaxed in that chair up there, but your body tends to tension up if you´re in high altitudes.. so probably have to get used to that more.. but really, really f**king awesome cool! :D ..you have to love it!! haha ;)
I mean, this is not like a tandem flight.. it´s just you up there and my good buddy Russell down on the ground, giving me some radio instruction (really helps at the moment ;)
it´s just.. if you´re flying, you have to be present and aware all the time. Feel the lifts and the sinks in the air, see that you don´t get kicked out of the thermal because you don´t turn fast enough. keep the right ammount of pressure on your breaks, lean as far out as you can (as you dare ;) to have a good wight shift and don´t let it throw you around in the chair too much. Sometimes I get thrown to one side, loosing balance in the chair and messing up with the controls, because you can´t hold on to anything exept for your breaking handles up there (that you´re not supposed to mess up with ;) hehe :)
and then the birds.. beautiful black vultures that are marking the circle of the thermal for you and accompanying you on your way up (or me accompanying them ;) hehe :) they are so close.. sometimes taking evading actions to not fly into you or just playing with each other hundreds of meters above ground.. I LOVE IT!!!! :D haha :)
once landed, I felt my sore body and just needed to relax.. still wanting to go back up there.. once you´re getting high, it makes it all so much easier.. you have plenty of altitude to burn to find another lift. You can fly whereever you see birds circling and "land" on top of the hot air.. sometimes you have to wait until you get further down, where the thermal is developing and taking you up again into the sky!

then it becomes also clear why we just get a P2 beginner licence here and it´s not valid in Switzerland.. there is so much more to know about and to practice that we could do here in such a short time! if there are no birds, I would not now where to fly.. and there are so many different fly sites with different conditions.. I´ll feel confortable to get a glider somewhere and go with people who know flying and then circle with them in the thermals.. we just get the basics here.. how it works, starting, landing, more experience of feeling wind movement and circeling in the air (with wight shift and the right break pressure). So it´s a nice way to get into it and a lot of fun (next to the waiting ;) hehe :) but it would take way more to be able to do all this on my own.. still, I´m glad to be here and learning something about it, having the opportunity to fly on my own through the skies and getting another unforgettable experience! ;) haha :D and hey.. after all it´s flying!! can´t expect all the airodynamics and meterology to be that simple ;) and then you need a loooot of practise to be able to handle all kind of situations.. as snowboarding, as surfing as almost every sport that takes time to learn and get a deeper understanding for it. But I´d like to do the special maneuver course to become more confident and then to fly on my way down to Patagonia.. heard there´s a nice place in Chile, where you can fly over dunes along the beach.. sound´s pretty sweet to me! ;) hehe :)
OK.. I gonna rest for a while and soon we might be on the field again for some dynamic flights in the afternoon.. :D weeeehaaa!! :D