SHAzaM! Saterday

[Aaron]

10 degrees cooler by 10am up top and a full eagle van pulled up to ej bowl 30 minutes earlier then yesterday. yesterday was slow getting up early. cycles were barely flowing in today and i thought we were way early. then chad came over the radio reporting 5k at VOR... well shit dam its on!!! all of us lemming folk started hustlin and fallin off the cliff one after another. Rafael(on fire today), Howser, Spin Doctor, Colorado Neil, BobA and I all promptly pointed west. easy smooth climbs along the way and joined about 10 other VOR jumpers in smooth, wide, slow butter to 6200 at VOR. BobA went to painted cave but reported zilch, and some of us had our eyes set on eastbounding it. Met up with magic(i think launched vor), timmayyy and others at la cumbre where bart was 6500+, and kept on floating. thermal factory was a huge let down and east wind was increasing. i left the east side of thermal factory with 3200 and came below shadow for some ridge soaring fun. after 10 or so minutes timmayyy! joined me and we climbed a few hundy. timaayyy, howser and rafael dove over to the flat mid section of cito, and i floated to the bump behind shadow for a good times full stall slap and eventually few extra hundy. nothing at cito for me, so east to secret bowl which was good for a couple hundred and more east wind. didnt think it was going to be too prosperous eastbound and we all ended up turning tail to parkers. we all got stuck with a few other hgs, at the holy hills for a bit in a lull. finally got to mid threes again and let the east wind guide us. Colorado Neil, Timmayyy! and I eventually ended up at VOR again but couldnt bust 3700ish so bucked in the headwind and some ratty windblown strong lift to later get to parma at about 2500. amazing day floating around with friends!! hope to hear some more flight stories from all you freaks! uhhhhhhhhhhhhHHH!

Near VOR looking east, below is NoName

[NMERider]

Thanks for the report. As bad as I wanted to make the drive from Long Beach (again) I was just too pooped and left wondering all day today what I missed by not making 'that' drive. I was still reeling from my Wednesday sled-fest on top of that. And so here I am pondering the imponderable.

Looking 160 miles East toward Santa Barbara from 9,700' MSL

I must have been somewhat hypoxic that my mind be playing such games with my head.

[Magic]

Arrived at the T to see a full van load of pilots and more cars pulling up, Rich jumped in with Dilly and I and we were off to the VOR. Good cycles coming up when we arrived and I was off first, followed by Chad, (I think he drove his own car too) Rich, and Dilly. Struggled a bit at first, but I found a smooth core to 5400. Chad took off eastbound while I waited for Dill. We left with 5200 heading eastbound to No Name, (but no love), so we kept going, arriving at West Bowl slightly above the top. It was pretty weak. Got stuck in front and below WB for 1/2 hr. then finally got above and benched back to the Alternator. Met up with Bart @ La Cumbre where we got back up above 5K. Hit more east wind on glide to the RR so we just kept pushing on to the Thermal Factory. We could see Timmayy and Aaron pretty low @ Cito so decided to follow Ron out to East Beach. Packed up on the grass with Ron, Benson, OJ, Bart and Max. Got a ride to Parma with Max and Lauren (thanks Lauren!), then Bart boosted us up to the VOR for car retrieve (thanks Bart!). Finished off the day with Tacos for lunch. What a great day of flying with friends, and a personal best flight for Dilly in SB!

[Aaron]

wow!!! killer flight dilly! so stoked for u! hands up!

nice job u two being patient low at westbowl. that looked like it took a ton of bushwhackin

and nice flyin magic!

[Faoro_Ron]

And congratulations to Benson who launched EJ Bowl for the first time (after about a five year or longer absence from the mountains!) and flew to East Beach.

Saw a couple gliders from my living room window leave Shadow and head toward Butterfly yesterday as I watched the football games.