The start of a paragliding competition is always a hectic and intense time and this one is no exception (most of us arrived on Friday night and Saturday was the usual panic to get ready for the registration) - one thing stands out though and that is the atmosphere at this competition. Everyone is really excited about the week ahead and it shows.
We have a great mix of pilots across all levels of paragliding (for some this will be their first ever competition, some are seasoned competitors and we have a number of World Cup pilots as well) and this was well reflected in the pre-event briefing last night.
The briefing had a lot of the 'normal' content (radio usage, safety procedures, a description of local conditions and favoured tasks etc) but also featured an excellent talk by Karolina Kociecka on how to actually read a task board and what all that info means to a pilot (where to be when the start happens, what the end of speed section means, why you still have make the goal cylinder etc) - it was well received.
Now the registration day is over and we can concentrate on the competition. It has been decided to start with a fairly 'gentle' task to ease the new pilots into the comp. The task is now set (this blog is a bit late - sorry for that, it's been quite a busy morning) - and is a 53km Race to Goal with the goal here in the landing field. Its an interesting task in as much as it has a turnpoint before the start (presumably to allow a bit of practice before the race actually gets underway).
A graphic representation can be found at www.fastretrieve.com/download and this screen will change to the Live Leader Board as soon as we start the downloads (the Live Leader Board gives a good 'first impression' of the results but does not account for leadout points etc).
For those who want to see the Live Map (which shows landed pilots and the state of the retrieve) you can see it at www.fastretrieve.com/mapping)
We are all looking forward to a great week of competition - check back here regularly for updates....
Text by Chris
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