Episode 50- Dave Snowden and turning talent into Wins

The race begins, World Championships, Italy 2017

Episode 50 is all about competitions. From flying psychology to training David Snowden has taken 25 years of flying passion into figuring out how to take a country (Australia) with plenty of talent but with few of the resources that France, Germany, and Switzerland (for example) have to be a serious player on the world stage. In this podcast Dave sheds light on their journey from not even having a team in 2015 and being ranked in 38th place in the world to breaking the top 15 and sending a strong, competitive team to the Worlds this summer in Italy. How did they do it? What can all of learn from their journey? How to foster a team attitude in such an independent sport? Can paragliding become an Olympic sport? Dave is quick to point out that the Australian Paragliding squad development has had a lot of people contribute to its success, but their path is one that anyone could (and should!) follow.

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Show Notes:

Dave talks about how he developed a keen eye for competition in his 25 years of flying
The British Championshiops, mentors, dealing with weather and developing a competition structure in Britain in the 90’s.
Hosting a PWC in Bright, Australia after 3 years of effort
Economics of competitions and how they can be funded more efficiently
Mentoring and coaching and developing the Australian Paragliding squad
Going from 38th in the National Rankings to the top 15- how they did it
Using local comps and proper advertising to improve their own pilots internationally
How to foster a team attitude
The Olympics and the East Asia Games

Mentioned in this episode: Miguel Gutierrez, Brian Webb, Alas Del Hombre, Jon Mallinson, Bob Drury, John Pendry, Robbie Whittall, Bruce Goldsmith, Jocky Sanderson, North of Known, Kari Ellis, Mike Pfau, Aaron Durogati, Ondrej Prochazca

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:13:52 — 67.7MB)