A strange sighting from the desk at Parma

[Parma Chris]

I just saw the world famous Chris G walk by……

Welcome back to SB Chris!

[Chip Bartley]

What up Chris. Looking forward to seeing you. Hopefully Saturday if mother nature is kind to us. I'm anxious to get back in the air

[Chris G]

You guys missed an epic day too!

Climbout from launch was easy with some easterly drift to it. Thermal factory was working to 4k though there was a soft ceiling at about 3500. Once I boosted through I was able to move downrange and still get up easily at all the usual connections. It was quite the welcome back. My first real flight in 9 months and I got all the way down to Padaro lane. I could have pushed on but without being able to hit 4500 consistently Ojai looked dubious. I was also having emotional issues and found myself circling over romero, cracking up, giggling uncontrollably, with tears streaming down my face. It's been a LONG time so cut me some slack!

Stefan and Merideth from Seattle were there to pick me up and we scooted back to parma for a re-light. There's a huge group from Seattle/Cashmere down here so we all rounded up and got back to launch by 2. Jabe and I had an epic climbout from the house thermal and while the TF wasn't terribly big or organized, we still managed to get up to 3500 again. The north started to push over the top and we took a super buoyant glide to the beach. 5Km tailwind all the way out but when we landed it was starting to whitecap with an onshore. Crossed the freeway with exactly 1500 so we didn't lose much on the glide.

We're gonna try for some more air tomorrow but the spread in SB looks poor. Might try the ridges, or some of us might give the nuthouse a go. Ojai has a MUCH better spread.