Halloween Flying

Every October there is a paragliding "fly-in" where pilots gather for a weekend of flying and socializing. There is a costume party on Saturday night, and depending on what they're wearing, some pilots even wear their costumes while paragliding. It's cold this time of year, and some of the costumes are rather...skimpy...so not too many end up in the air with their creations.

A group of us go every year and dress in a theme, this year was "Road Kill". I was a dead frog. My costume was covered in blood, guts and tire tracks so I didn't wear it flying, but the next day I put on my frog head (complete with brain squishing out if you look closely) and had a little flight.

It always seems to be more about seeing your friends again than the actual flying, which is just fine by me. Friends are what makes life so amazing, and the more excuses to hang out with them the better!

Winter Getaway

It's been an amazing summer.

120+ tandems in 3 months, making fantastic new friends and a big move have all made this a summer to remember. It's time to look ahead to the future and right now, that means deciding where and how to travel this winter. My non-flying friends (I do have a few!) are starting to talk about getting away to Vegas, and the paraglider pilots are beginning to book their flights to Valle de Bravo, Mexico which collects pilots from around the world from November through January.

As someone who loves travel, my biggest dilemma is having to choose if I should go back to somewhere I've been and know I love (Mexico, Ecuador, Brazil?) or somewhere new (Columbia, Chile, Hawaii?). Or do I face reality and put my nose to the grindstone, find a full-time job near home and work straight through til the spring? My hope was to go south and fly tandems through the winter, but generally the money you make when living that kind of life is enough to get by while traveling, but not enough keep paying rent back home.

Debt vs Sanity...which will win this year???


Mexico?


Ecuador?


Get a "real" job?

Fame

If you were reading this blog when I was competing at the Rat Race you may remember the post about the TV crew that was around filming us. Well here's the finished product!:



It's cool to see a video that explains a paragliding competition so accurately. Well mostly. There are not many of us who look or act like the long-haired guy they interview but they got most of the other stuff right. I'm beyond excited to have gotten my first time into goal on video...and LOVE the fact that they refer to me as a "young pilot". And they say Hollywood is cruel...ha ha.