humility in the pacific

[Aaron]

well there i was, standing buck naked on top of a winnebago at the daytona 500, with nothin on but flip flops and a condom,,,,,,,,,,,, i'm not sure what happened after that but there is always a bit of fun sharing humility with your friends.. i quit posting on our forum a few months ago due to a few locals (friends) turning numerous other locals (friends) into uspha for perceived safety issues, etc. I totally disagree with going to ushpa instead of dealing with it locally but it is what it is and i dont want to put anyone in the accused category through any writings i post in good fun. so i have signed off.

However, i personally had some great humility today that i think may be of entertaining light and i'm sure i bent some rules in my mistake, but whatevers. So i arrived at wilcox about 12:30 and it was light and straight, south south south eastish. took off and easily soared above the trees but not super high. the direction was incredibly straight so i cruised west and made it to more mesa where magic, dilly, jerry and alex were all enjoying the perfect zen moment. then i turned around and made it back to wilcox just as easy, never getting more then 100 feet about the ridge. with the sssse direction i have always wanted to land at the bar just south of leadbetter beach on a day like this. so i easily cruised up that direction and the light sssse kept me at least 100 feet above the ridge. when i got to shoreline kiddie park the kids were all going nuts as i was 100 or so over, so i waved and kicked and hooted back. Then i lost altitude rapidly and was very quickly below the ridge and hauling ass with a fat west tailwind. hmm, I thought it may have just been the spot so i pushed on thinking all would be good when i got to the east face of leadbetter just up ahead. i didnt make it that far and was over shooting the last small piece of beach(high tide) heading for a sure out to sea downwind landing where the surfers were at leadbetter(i was no longer above the ridge and would not be able to cut the corner to the sand at leadbetter). i tried to quickly hook back into the wind but only ended up further out to sea and thought i wouldnt be able to get it all the way around before hitting the water so i aborted and turned again back downwind with lots of swooping energy thinking i would try to get as close to shore as possible. i knew it was going to get ugly but i did have an acro wet dream of a moment when i saw my wingtip almost touch the water and i was almost perpendicular to it. then reality hit along with the abruptness of smacking the ocean hard downwind and my glory moment was gone. i tumbled a few times through the water and when i stood up i was thigh deep with lines wrapped around my head and torso. i panicked trying to get out of my harness as my glider was in the small surf and looked around as i thought i might need help. only one lady was on the beach in some yoga pretzel pose. i had made a big splash crash right in front of her and was worried about my glider pulling me under and she never even noticed. i guess that is the power of yoga. i eventually got my thousand pound glider and gear up to the rocks and half dry before dragging them around the point and up to shoreline park where Tye so kindly boosted me back to my car. I never thought i would land in the ocean, let alone crash into it. oh well, at least it was an amazing day. casualties of the pacific include vario, sunglasses, ripped glider, only speakerphone works on my iphone, banged up foot and tweaked back. i think i got off easy. love you guys and gals! see you up there and try to exercise your plan B before you no longer have a plan B ;)

[gracecab]

i thought you were going to say you ended up naked on top of a chick doing yoga... glad you're ok amigo.

[JimmyZ]

Sounds like a magical flight... until the end. Glad you are OK bro... Miss seeing your posts.


James

[Benson]

Wow, Deja Vu

From 12/22/06

The wind was se, maybe 150 at 8, but I got up nicely at Wilcox. After a couple of top landings I felt I was high enough for a run to Shoreline or Ledbetter.
My previous trips on this route had always been with a tail wind, and when I top landed Mark and Parma Chris were on the ground talking about the unusual conditions. The slow trip heading into the wind was spectacular. The air was crisp and clear. The coast, mountains, islands and foamy water below were amazing. The lack of beach made the view even more interesting.
At Shoreline Park I had enough altitude to top land, but decided to head to Ledbetter, even though there were signs that the wind was backing down a bit.
Previously, when I came around the corner at Ledbetter I would turn north and then hook a turn into the wind for a nice beach landing. Today there was no beach. I knew the tide was high, but it had been going out since Andy flew over an hour ago. The only option at this point was to fly downwind and get as close to shore as possible. I did a downwind landing in waist high surf.
It takes some time to get out of my harness so I disconnected the canopy and tried to drag it to shore. This is when things got ugly. It was all I could do to keep to wing from being dragged into deep water, and within a few minutes my air bag became a water bag, making it hard to move in any direction.
It seemed like hours later, but it was probably ten minutes later when I got help from a surfer and a guy on the beach. It took the three of us at least 20 minutes to wrestle the canopy from the waves and rocks. By the time I got the wing in the bag it had at least twenty broken lines and several large tears.
I tried to carry the glider up to the road at the east end of shoreline, but it weighed well over 100 lbs with the water, kelp and sand. I left the glider on a wood platform and walked home with the rest of my gear.
Taking a shower with my harness and jacket I thought to myself, I almost hope someone steals the glider so I won't have to deal with cleaning, repair and sale of a questionable canopy.
Ninety minutes later when I went to retrieve the wreckage it was gone.


Yes, I had a hook knife.

Thanks to Parma Chris and Kevin for looking for me, the salt water killed my phone.