The British pilot became the first overall female winner in Ager, where 4 tasks were held during the week. The last task on Thursday was decisive as some of the top competitors bombed out while other lower ranked girls climbed in the scores. Spain’s Esther Garaizar and Beatriz Garcia are 2nd and 3rd.

No matter the results, there were only happy faces at the prize giving and farewell party in Ager on Friday 27th. During the 6 days of the competition there was flying but also different activities focused on improving the fun and learning curve for the participants, like the talks by world class female pilots or a psychologist about managing competition stress.
On Thursday 26 the competitors flew the last task, an ambitious 100 km race with a first part out and return to Ager and some technical flying out of the main ridge, which this time ‘sucked’ in some of the pilots. The leader of the comp until task 3, Laurie Genovese, was not feeling well and went to land short after the start point to then go to hospital! Klaudia Bulgakow was also ill and bombed out at the gorge east of Ager, while Anne-Claire Boule took the lead and flew the farthest (81,49 km) to get the 1st place of the day, followed by Esther Garaizar and Caroline Brille. Nine girls covered over 70 km and were close in the points, but the best positioned after the previous tasks was Kirsty Cameron (GBR, Advance Omega) who became the Open winner, with Esther Garaizar (ESP, Sol Torck) 2nd and Beatriz Garcia (ESP, Niviuk Peak) 3rd in the overall results.
"Female pilots of all levels have learnt so much and had a lot of fun together. I always wondered who would lead out on tasks with no guys. With only a few top female pilots present, that responsibility came down to just a handful of the same girls each day. I was one of those girls at the front, pushing the race forward, a new experience for me and something I have learnt so much from – several times I was looking ahead for the lead gaggle and then quickly remembered I was in it!", Kirsty commented.
The strong winds on Friday made impossible to fly a last task so the prize giving went on with trophies and prizes for the best ranked girls in four classes (LTF1, LTF 1-2, Sport and Serial/Open) and the best teams. Apparently, the party that followed was epic too…
After the success of this first Womens Open the organizers expect to repeat next year.

Podium
Serial Class and Open Class:
1st - Kirsty Cameron (GBR) Advance Omega 8
2nd - Esther Garaizar (ESP) Sol Torck
3rd - Beatriz Garcia (ESP) Niviuk Peak

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Kirsty Cameron wins first Womens Paragliding Open

It seems that the girls are having a lot of fun in Ager, where some are really pushing hard in the leading gaggles to win the tasks. The 44,8 km task flown on Tuesday was completed by former Spanish champion Bea Garcia in just 48 minutes, some 40 seconds ahead of the comp leader Laurie Genovese and with Kirsty Cameron and Klaudia Bulgakow very close behind.

It may seem that the first pilots were very fast to cover that distance, but the speed section was actually less than 35 km as the start point was distant 9,6 km from the takeoff, and the scoring system calculates the shortest distance between turnpoints (which means subtracting sometimes the entire 400m of the tp cylinder).  24 happy pilots arrived flying at the lake beach were the goal was. The overall results so far show Laurie Genovese (FR, Sky Eris 3) on first place, with Kirsty Cameron (GBR, Advance Omega) 2nd and Klaudia Bulgakow (POL, Gin Boomerang 6) 3rd.
Yesterday the strong wind forced to cancel the flying day but the competitors enjoyed a day off at the lake where they were even seen kayaking under the moon rays by midnight!
Today, the organization expects to have all the women flying again – on their paragliders ;-)
*Update: A 100 km task has been set and the competitors are now in the air. Goal is at the lake beach...

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Womens PG Open: Bea Garcia wins 3rd task

The international paragliding magazine edited a very interesting guide with 23 of the best sites for flying around the world, which you can download for free in pdf format.

The nice guys at XC mag say that “we just want as many people to enjoy it as possible”, so you are only one click away from their 2010/11 Travel Guide! It is an A5, 100 page, full colour guide that details the flying and “all the logistics you need to know about in 23 locations around the world”.

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Cross Country Travel Guide as free download

The first female Open competition in the history of paragliding started on Sunday 22 in the well-known site of the Catalan pre-Pyrenees in Spain, with 36 girls from 16 countries enjoying a special and unusual ambience, very friendly, and good flying conditions.

The Women’s Open is now a reality and even the male collaborators of the Organization are surprised with the differences from a normal competition dominated by men both in number and attitudes. "There is nothing like arriving at your site launch surrounded by 36 girls that are already happy just to be there, no matter what the conditions are; eager and optimistic, they know that better moments always come. Very different from a male competition where testosterone flows through our veins and you only see serious and concentrated faces", Lucho Jimenez says from Ager.
The focus in this Open is on the progression and enjoyment of flying in a relaxed ambience, and so the tasks set are achievable by most of the pilots and the days are complemented with extra activities, such as the talks given by PWC former champion Anja Kroll or top pilot Karolina Kociecka on competition flying.
The competition started on Sunday 22 with a task of 53.1 km under strong wind conditions that forced to temporarily close the window to wait for the wind to drop. Finally the competitors took off in manageable conditions and once in the air enjoyed good thermals - with 14 girls reaching the goal, a 39% of the pilots. As a training exercise there was one turnpoint before the start point, which added some difficulty. Finally, Kirsty Cameron (GBR, Advance Omega 8) was the first after 1:09:09, followed by Klaudia Bulgakow (POL, Gin Boomerang 6) only a minute later and Laurie Genovese (FR, Sky Paraglider Eris 3 Rs) in 3rd place.
On Monday, the strong westerly wind forecasted for the day made the Organization decide a quick task of 37.9 km with an early window opening at 11:30 am and start point at 12:15. The objective was to save the day doing what was possible in those conditions, but with weak thermals it was very difficult for the pilots to keep the altitude when they left the ridge, and with time most of the pilots bombed out even before the start. The small group who managed to survive barely reached the 1st turnpoint in the Valley and only a few girls managed to return to the mountain and stay in the air until conditions improved. Nobody completed the task, only five pilots exceeded 10 km and the winner was Laurie Genovese, who finished just 3 km short of goal.
Today Tuesday the organization set a task of 75 km with goal on the shores of the Talarn dam (near Tremp), so the girls were advised to bring their bikinis as even if they did not get there flying the retrieve cars would take them there to spend the afternoon. At 5 pm there were already more than half of the pilots in goal, enjoying the beach and the satisfaction of yet another flight completed in good conditions .

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Three tasks in 3 days for the Women's Open in Ager

The second edition of the Revoluttion event was held last weekend (August 6-8) with the participation of about thirty pilots, some foreigners, who flew three tasks in the solo category and two in synchro in perfect conditions over the lake of La Pobla de Segur. Horacio Llorens (RR Radix) took the top place overall, ahead of team mate Raul Rodriguez (RR Radix) and the Argentinean Hernan Pitocco (Sol Supersonic). Horacio reports from the competition.

"The Championship took place in La Pobla de Segur (Lleida, Catalonia), towed by Jordi Marquillas and the Entrenuvols team, who are very professional and towed very well giving us good height for the tasks. 
This time we had two competitions, solo and synchro. The synchro was really something new as they towed us up with only one boat but with a rope that split at the end in two strings separated by a distance of 15 meters, so that the pilots wouldn’t touch during the ascent (one was more delayed than the other). This system initially seemed strange for the pilots used to synchro competitions with two different boats doing the towing, but it actually worked very well and we were able to do two tasks in synchro and three in solo.
The competition started on Friday with a solo task (there were around 30 pilots, ten of them foreigners). As it was an Open it scores for the FAI ranking and foreign pilots can compete; and there are two rankings: Synchro and Solo Open, and Synchro and Solo of the Spanish Championship. On Saturday and Sunday we did two tasks each day, one of synchro and one of Solo per day.
The weather was very good and we had a good sound system with a speaker that really livened up the place, as many people came to watch the comp.
Felix Rodriguez had a problem on the first day in his first task and had his glider cravatted with several twist, a difficult situation that only one experienced pilot like him could fix, and so he did, he didn’t have to deploy the reserve and could reopen his glider and continue with the task but he had not much time left to do all the manoeuvres and started quite low in the ranking.
We hope to repeat next year; the experience was even better than last year and, who knows, it might even become a World Cup event. There was very good feeling among the foreign pilots and I believe that the place is very suitable".
Horacio Llorens

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Horacio Llorens is Spanish Acro champion 2010

Pal Takats and Gabor Kezi (HUN) are the first acro pilots to successfully perform 45 tumbles in a row flying a tandem wing, on Saturday August 7th in Walensee, Switzerland. The pair used a special version of 31 m2 of U-Turn’s acro wing Thriller.

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First Infinity tumbling in tandem paraglider!

On July 29, Thomas Puthod from France did the longest flight on a paraglider in Spain after starting from Piedrahita in the province of Avila to then head south crossing the Gredos range and continue flying over the flatlands of Central Spain until landing near the village of Viveros in Albacete.

The amazing flight took Thomas eight hours in the air following the wind direction (N-W) on an unusual route to the south east of the country, aboard his Ozone Mantra R10.2 glider. 
He flew with his mate Guy Parat, also with a Mantra R10.2, but Guy lost the last climb and could “only” complete 259 km. The maximum altitude reached by Thomas was 4600m, with the strongest climb on 4,6m/s.
 This is the longest flight ever done from Piedrahita (and in Spain) and the route offers some advantages over the classical XC route following the N-110 road to the east-NE that leads to Segovia and Soria, like the lack of airspace restrictions (that force paragliders to fly below 3000m on the north of Madrid) and the high bases seen on the flatlands of La Mancha in mid summer. On the cons side we have the Gredos range that has to be crossed on the first part of the flight, quite technical, and the long retrieves from Piedrahita.

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312 km from Piedrahita, new record flight in Spain!

The Acrobatixx took place on July 15 to 18 in the town of Zell Am See, where the Hungarian pilot took the first place after 4 tasks, ahead of Spain’s Horacio Llorens and France’s Cyril Planton. Horacio tells us how this contested competition involving more than 40 pilots was.

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Pal Takats wins first event of the Acro World Cup in Austria