All work & no play...

Today was my first "play" day in a while.  It was cold but worth it, especially since it will probably be my last flight of the year.  That means it's time to look back on the adventures of 2012.

Cold at landing and happy to have gotten some airtime

I've taken on a 2nd job so am working close to 70 hours a week, plus keeping up with Jet Set Paragliding and the occasional writing gig.  I'm grateful for the work, and the weather has been mostly gloomy so I don't feel like I'm missing out on much.

The second job started a few weeks ago.  This spring and summer weather-wise weren't the greatest for flying...in fact I probably got the fewest flights in this year since I moved out to the valley 8 years ago!  I slacked off on recording flights in my log book (I'm usually really dedicated about it) but I did log 65 flights this year, and over half of those were tandems.  Compared to 200 total flights in 2011 it's no wonder I feel like I barely even touched my paraglider this year!

However, I had some amazing moments in and around those "few" flights.  The biggest and most awesome was my Skywalk ponsorship.  I'm really proud of that...it was a new experience for me to prepare a paragliding "CV" and to have to tell someone about my accomplishments.  To have them come back & tell me they liked what I represented & then offer me a place among the Team Pilots was definitely one of the biggest highlights of 2012.

Then Flyte Park came on board when I went to compete in the paragliding nationals along with support from so many of my friends!  The competition was a bit of a bummer for me...with the loss of a pilot my confidence in my own skills disappeared, and some soul-searching was needed to get back on track.  Once again, support from my friends helped me clarify my own views on flying and I was up and running (flying?) again as usual within the week.

I also experienced having a new pilot tell me I was his mentor.  It was just dropped casually into conversation, but wow, that was humbling and awesome!  I remember being new to paragliding and having pilots I looked up to.  It's crazy to think I could be that person to someone else.

The year has had it's challenges of course...trying to run a flying business when working 2 jobs and waiting for weather windows can be dis-heartening sometimes, but I love paragliding with a passion and want to be involved however I can for as long as I can.  This sport has completely changed my life, introducing me to people, places and adventures I never would have experienced if it hadn't been for that magic cloth that takes me to the skies.

Launching as the snow started falling today...

Coolest Helmets Ever

Wohoo!  I decided to become a dealer for Ruroc, who sell awesome helmet systems that look like this:

RG-1 Shadow Complete Helmet System from Ruroc

I entered a contest on Facebook to win one, then approached them about carrying their products.  Kind of like what I did with Flyte Park and selling the Microvario - I found a product I liked & believed in and wanted to help promote.  These helmets just look so cool I couldn't help but ask to work with them!

So after doing some research, I found they don't just look great but have fantastic safety features and innovative technology, like their goggles and lenses that have special vents that permanently prevent goggle fog.  The "ski mask" is detachable so you could wear it when flying (or skiing or boarding or speed riding) in the winter, and remove it when having a nice little summer flight.

I plan to promote these within the snow sports arenas as well as the paragliding community, although I think most people who fly also ski/board/speedride in the "off season" and would love a helmet they can switch between sports. 

This past year I've been trying to "think outside the box" for ways to make a living in paragliding without having to rely on things like tandems which are completely dependent on the weather.  So far I've started teaching intermediate classroom courses and will do so again as soon as flying stops for the year, and I think branching out and catering to sports connected with ours or that pilots like to do along side with flying is a solid step in the right direction.  I'm excited about this next venture and look forward to improving my snow skills so I can wear one of these helmets somewhere other than the bunny hill :)

If you'd like to buy one (or just want to see what's available) check them out on my website:

http://www.jetsetparagliding.com/ruroc.html

These pages are still "under construction" but I can start taking orders immediately.  Thanks for your support!

Fortune Cookie Tells All

Enough said.

Keep Calm and Paraglide On?

This is somewhat of an anniversary for me.  Maybe more of a milestone, or a reminder to look at how far I've come.  About a year ago I moved into my own place, with nothing more than a pocket full of tandem money and the confidence I'd easily find a job to work over the winter so I could go back to paragliding full-time the following spring and summer.

But living close to a flying site often means you're living in a small town, and living in a small town can mean a struggle to find work.  Typical job ads read, "Experienced milker wanted" or  "Chicken catchers needed".  Not being proficient in any of these, I've kept my eye open for office jobs or retail or something else exciting from the "et cetera" column on the Craigslist job postings.  I spent my days applying for jobs and doing whatever contract work or odd jobs for friends I could find, and would "play" my nights away...getting lost for hours working on my website (although it never felt like work).

In February I was hired at my current retail job, which happily started out as full time as it was a new store and we were prepping it for opening.  The hours slowly dwindled down to very very very part time, and the frantic search for something to supplement it began.  I loved the job and didn't want to replace it with something else full time, especially since it was spring now and that meant tandems, right?

Wrong.  Mother Nature had other ideas, and I flew maybe 10 per cent the amount of tandems I had last year.  What was I thinking in trying to run a flying business?  But every time I considered putting my ambitions on hold, something pulled me back in.  A new student.  A group of tandems.  Media opportunities.  Great turn-outs at the paragliding courses I started teaching.  Becoming an authorized dealer for my Flyte Park microvarios and having such a positive response to them (and my tshirts too!).  Friends believing in me and sending me business.  Then the big one...the Skywalk paraglider sponsorship!  Every time I thought that this dream was just that - a silly dream - something else would pop up as if to say, "Don't you dare give up on this!"

So I've stubbornly carried on, even cutting down on my personal flying to save the money I'd have spent on gas to drive to the take-off to simply make ends meet.  Why?  I've talked it this before, but I HAVE to fly.  It's not an option, it's mandatory.  And if I can't fly I have to help others fly, or learn more about flying myself.  It's bigger than me, and it's what keeps pushing me through the challenging moments.

A few more job opportunities have been presenting themselves lately, and I'm confident that I can get back to a place where I'll feel more comfortable financially again.  It may be another lean winter, I may not get to join my friends on flying trips to sunny destinations, but I know I'm on the right path.  After reading so many inspirational books lately on success and those who struggled and made it, I know this is just part of the process...that this is the time to have the most faith and believe in myself and Just Keep Going.

In the meantime, I will search onwards for more fun things to sell on my website (shameless plug!  Buy something from me!  http://www.jetsetparagliding.com/shop.html ) and follow the signposts that keep popping into my life that tell me I'm doing the right thing.

Radio flyer

Spring has finally arrived!  Ok, so it didn't get here until September but the last couple of weeks have been great and the week ahead looks beautiful too.  Tandem season looks like it will easily carry on through September...and hopefully beyond to help make up for the lackluster summer weather.

Last Saturday I took a local radio DJ and her brother on tandem flights.  Here's the video I made for Sadie that she posted on their website and you tube (thanks for the publicity Sadie!)

A group also came out a few weeks ago to celebrate their Dad's 60th...I got to take the birthday boy tandem and hired some friends to help fly all the family members who came along.  One of them is coming back for another flight this weekend, and today I got an email from an excited passenger who wants to fly again and is bringing along two more friends who want to try too.  Repeat business is a HUGE compliment, especially in an "extreme" sport like this where a lot of people tend to just want to try paragliding once.  I'm lucky enough to get paid in cash as well as hugs, smiles and referrals from happy customers.  If this isn't a rewarding job then I don't know what is!

Aug 11: Final Day & Revelations

Back home with some time to reflect on the past week, and I've found a few answers to my question of why I was not flying with the ability I know I possess.

I wasn't going to talk about it on this blog, but it's been in some media already and around Facebook a bit, so I'll mention it now since it really affected me.  A pilot landed in the river on the 2nd day of the competition and lost his life.  After it happened we had a day off to talk about it and deal with it and frankly I thought I was okay.  From the stories I'd heard (I didn't see the incident) I could justify that he'd had enough warning to get out of the air earlier and avoid the developing weather conditions that led to this awful event.  I told myself that I'd never push that hard to keep flying if it wasn't safe, and through that built enough protection around me that I felt fine to continue on with the competition.

Problem was, the river is between the mountain and the landing fields.  You have to overfly it, and it's right there if you get low after take-off and end up at the lower launch.  I remember looking down at it our first flying day after the accident and feeling a moment of fear and overwhelming sadness thinking about what it must have felt like for him, and quickly began flying around aimlessly, looking for any lift to hang onto to get out of there.  I didn't find anything immediately so flew out much higher than I needed to and held my breath until I got to the (easily reachable from my point) bomb out landing field.

I just remembered that part now.  That was my food poisoning day, so I told everyone I couldn't concentrate (which was true) and convinced myself that's why I flew poorly.  But the next day I did the same thing.  I caught a thermal, climbed up nicely in it, my wing pointed me downrange but my brain wouldn't let me go.  I sabotaged my flying until I had to land in the bomb out again and then went through all those feelings from my previous post, wondering where my confidence had gone.

Funny how the brain can block things out.  I knew there was something else besides low confidence going on and went to talk to Sam.  He's a pro-athlete (X Games, etc) so I figured he knew a thing or 2 about sport psychology.  We had a fantastic talk and he gave me some great questions to ask myself and through talking to him and some other patient pilots (thank you for listening...you know who you are!) I simply said on the morning of the last task, "Maybe I'm more affected by that accident than I thought."  And that was it.

I didn't fly to goal, or even make the first turn point, but I dug into the thermals when my Microvario beeped, and I followed along when my Cayenne 4 said, "hey, let's go!" and I remembered how I got here, why Skywalk and Flyte Park believed in me enough to sponsor me, and more than anything why I love to fly.  I'll admit I was scared, but it was the good kind of fear - the kind that helps you grow - and I bobbed along 10-15 km downrange and landed with a grin at a field nowhere near adjacent to the bomb out.

I'm back baby!

photo by Veronica :)

Aug 10: 4th task

I have no idea why this is happening, but I am having the worst flights here.  Are curses real?  I've been skunked every time I've come to Pemberton, and I was hoping that since I would be here a whole week that I would get at least one XC flight in.  Tomorrow looks like the last day of the competition and I have yet to fly farther than the bail out field below launch!

This is obviously not how I imagined the Nationals going.  I'm pretty sure I'm in last place (!) and absolutely devastated.  I know I'm a much better pilot than this, and can't understand why I'm flying so poorly.  I can find excuses if I want.  There were about a dozen of us who took off at the same time today and we all landed at the same bomb-out field so I could blame bad timing and conditions.  I'd wanted to launch earlier but got stuck behind a pilot on a competition wing who was having trouble launching, then switched lines but just like at the supermarket now the pilot in front blew their launch, so "maybe" if I'd launched earlier I could have stuck it.  I could blame yesterday on the food poisoning but Matty had been sick too and he won the day!

So I'm back to blaming the Pemberton curse.  Seriously though, I'm frustrated and angry and a whole lot of other things right now.  Rationally I can see that it's not a big deal, and as one of my new friends explained tonight it doesn't change anything about my abilities as a pilot...I'm still the girl who reached goal in other competitions, and who flew over 100 tandems last summer, and the fact that I'm in some kind of slump doesn't take away the fact that I am a good pilot.  It just sucks that my "slump" had to happen here at the Nationals, on my only vacation this year, at an event I was really excited about and where I had so many people supporting and believing in me.

Challenges make you stronger.   Sayings like this and more (the kinds that friends post on their Facebook walls about overcoming hard times that you click "like" for) are running around my head tonight.  Trying to see the bright side and hoping tomorrow I can fly at least 10 km somewhere.  Oh!  There is one awesome thing that happened today.  One of the pilots I've been coaching did make it 10-15 km (he thinks) which is his personal best!  I am so proud of him and stoked that he did it, I'm sure he'll fly even farther tomorrow after tasting the sweetness of an XC flight.  Living vicariously through someone you've helped is pretty cool, and I hope he'll let me follow him around the sky now :)