Andrey Kuznetsov has been on the national sky diving team for many years, holds several world records and the genius record (100 way canopy formation record) and has been a long-time test pilot for reserves. He made the transition quite easily from sky diving to paragliding in 2009 and skipped the C class altogether as he found it too slow! He recently flew across Vermont and landed on the beach and owns AirQuest paragliding, a professional reserve packing and line-trimming company. In this episode we talk about his history of sky diving, the transition to XC paragliding, why SO many people don’t pack their reserve correctly, trimming gliders, why it matters and a lot more. There’s some terrific information here. Enjoy!
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The toughest adventure race on Earth starts in a few hours! 32 athletes go head to head in a mind boggling journey by foot and by sky across the Alps for 12 days. I sat down with many of them- Aaron Durogati, Celine Lorenz, Damien Lacaze, James Elliot, Lenart Oblak, Logan Walters, Markus Anders, Nicola Donini, Tanguy Renoud-Goud, Tom De Dorlodot, Rich Binstead and Tommy Friedrich a day before the gun goes off to find out how they are feeling, what are their biggest concerns, thoughts on some of the new rules, the pinch points in the course, the weather and a lot more. This is an intimate look at what’s going on in the minds of the athletes in this year’s race. Enjoy!
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Honza and Martin on glide, destination: who cares!
5 time Red Bull X-Alps pilot Honza Rejmanek and his son Martin return to the Cloudbase Mayhem this week to recount yet another incredible vol-biv tandem adventure in the Alps. Martin is now 14, and he and his dad have been tackling some pretty epic lines in the Alps since Martin was 8. In this episode they recount their 3rd attempt at hiking and flying from Annecy to Zermatt last summer and hooking into incredible weather which allowed for an amazing flight right up on the Matterhorn massif and then continuing well past their goal of Zermatt and carrying on all the way to Davos. This is inspiration on a magical level. You just can’t help but smile and dream listening to this father son legend duo. Enjoy!
Austrian pilot Philipp Zellner is a name XContest fanatics know well. Philipp is an acro ace and professional tandem pilot who spends his winters flying monster lines all over the world. We recorded this interview two days after he broke the FAI record in India with a monster 234km flight in the Himalayas, and then just hours later he broke it again with an even bigger 255km flight. In this episode we discuss Philipp’s zen for going big, being a professional pilot, the importance of having an acro background and acro training, vol biv, and just some good old fashioned storytelling in the highest mountains on Earth. Tuck in for some inspiration!
And Philipp is going to be guiding in and around Bir this next season. Ping him on info@tirolair.com if you’re interested!
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Your host getting a little spring action. Photo Matt Beechinor
This week we dive into spring with the current World Champion and long-time Ozone test pilot Russ Ogden and multiple US National Champion Nick Greece. Year after year we see accidents in free flight spike in spring. Spicy conditions, rusty skills, new unfamiliar gear, heightened stoke, another year behind us, lack of confidence… we explore the many things that might have an impact on why we see the spike and what you can do to make sure you’re not in the data set. Topics include:
Spring conditions in general- sharp, cold, boisterous, quick to change…forecasting?
How to “ease back in”. SIV?
New gear / wing choice. In Spring or after you’re tuned up? What about the new EN C 2-Liners? Are they a game changer or should people still treat them with a ton of respect?
Getting older each year- what should we be looking out for? Dexterity, reaction time, fragility…how to assess where we are NOW?
Getting in the right mindset- how to do it after a long break? How to know what our current “you” is?
Equipment – what should we review/ have in our kit? First aid, inReach, telegram groups, contacts…
Dude, this is brutal and I want to land- but it’s midday!
Taking on launches or landings that are demanding after a lay off for the winter- the need to tune up on the training hill or…?
The value of kiting practice
Hooking in- making sure you are connected to glider and leg straps are all buckled (ie the “4 points”)
Suitable conditions:
blow back, rotor, fronts, etc.
Crowded launch/landing conditions/peer pressure
Flying someplace new without getting an introduction with the local “tribal knowledge”
repack, rigging, accidental deployments, how to throw
Factors that lead to mistakes
rushing, peer pressure to fly, dehydration, distractions, interruptions during setup routine
We also take a look at what the statistics tell us (huge thanks to Chris Santacroce for compiling the data each year!) and the specific recommendations that come out of these reports.
Here’s a nice way to get tuned up this year, Nick Greece is guiding some really cool flying and culinary trips with renowned chef and master pilot Estefano Salgado. You can find their offerings at www.paraglidingguides.com.
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There are times in a pilots career when things do not go according to plan. This is one of those times. Nikolay Lipko had a rather unusual (but not unheard-of) event flying in Chamonix, France that thankfully ended quite well thanks to a successful reserve deployment. As with all incidents, there is hindsight and modifications to how to take to the skies. And if anything else, this story is a case study for why SIV training is so important. In this instance your host and our guest don’t see eye-to-eye on the cause and effect but the take-aways are valuable. Listen and give our chat some thought.
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Our Mayhem editor Myles Connolly is about 350 hours into his flying journey and is leaving soon for an SIV course with Jocky Sanderson in Turkey. We thought it would be fun to connect and have him fire questions at me about all the things he’s currently curious about as his XC skills and training progress. Hike and fly; risk related to big events like the Red Bull X-Alps; how to approach Vol Biv (gear, locations, top landing, distance, etc.); Wing and gear developments and the new 2 liner C wings, gear choices and a lot more. Enjoy!
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Gaspard stylishly launches the Gaisberg, Day 1 2021 Red Bull X-Alps
Gaspard Petiot is a mountain guide and very accomplished pilot who competed successfully in the Red Bull X-Alps in 2015 (5th, Monaco), 2017 (broken wrist, withdrawn after leading day 6) and 2019 (7th, Monaco) despite having very bad knees. In this episode we rewind the clock as we have done with the others in this X-Alps series and hear the behind-the-scenes stories that the fans didn’t see on live tracking. Gaspard was supported by his brother in all three of his campaigns, also a very accomplished pilot and we delve into what made each of their races so unique and so successful. More fun of what goes down behind the veil! Enjoy!
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Manuel Nubel has competed in four Red Bull X-Alps, starting in 2015. On Team USA 1 we call him the comeback kid. He often starts in the middle or back of the pack but gets stronger and more crafty as the race goes on. We rewind the clock to 2015, his first race and find out the back story of landing in a tree on his way to Monaco and the hilarity that ensues, the ups and downs of his campaigns, (for example having to quit due to exhaustion in 2017, and making a series of magical moves in 2021 which saw him climb from 16th to 6th in the final days of the race) and his decision to not compete in 2023, but why we may see him again in 2025. Another super fun talk with another legend of the sport. Enjoy!
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Debu Choudhury hails from the small village of Manali, India, a gateway to Ladakh and the infamous Karakoram pass. Pilots the world over know the region because of nearby Bir, one of the most reliable big-mountain flying sites in the world. Debu began flying there 29 years ago and chases it just as hard today as he ever has. In the world of paragliding he’s done and continues to do it all. Acro, high-level comps, tandems, guiding, instruction, vol biv and flying huge lines in the Himalaya. A member of the acclaimed “Sky Summits” team, which includes Eddie Colfox, Antoine Laurens, Stefan Bernhard, and the “Himalayan Sky Safaris team”, which included Jim Mallinson and the late John Silvester you’ll find Debu wherever the flying is good wearing one of the most contagious smiles you’ve ever seen. Enjoy this wide-ranging talk with one of our sports true legends.
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