Athlete • Speaker • Guide 
Athlete • Speaker • Guide Date: 2nd March 2007
Flying in the Worlds
Short report: A good task was had today, plenty of people in goal, and plenty just short.
My view: We’ve had two tasks, and I’ve suffered from the same attention deficit issue on both tasks. On the first one we sat around endlessly at base, I got bored and left with Bill. Today we sat around on launch waiting for it to blow in–I was laid out about third in the lines of gliders, and got frustrated at the wait. By the time I was in the air I was hot and annoyed, more so as a glider laid out in front of me as I got ready to launch. If I were really here to compete then I would suck it up and stay focused, but the bottom line is that I’m not all that mentally “in” this competition. That’s a weird thing to say about a world championship, but the whole vibe just annoys me. Sit around, cue up, it’s just plain aggravating. In the XC comp we launched and flew, and I was happy to be in the air each day. Here it’s been a far cry from the sort of flying I enjoy. I’m used to competing in different sports and can normally focus on the task at hand (so to speak), but I just don’t seem to have any competition mojo for this one.
After launch today the gaggle flying was really bad–lots of pilots in a small space, with a few people cutting through the gaggle randomly. I was nearly mid-aired twice, and kept leaving the gaggle to find something less messy. I’d get a climb on and then the gaggle would jump into it. That’s OK when it’s going up good, but the climbs were weak. I was in the lead gaggle to the first turnpoint, but didn’t slow down on the way back along the ridge, there were just too many damn gliders to enjoy the air. Eventually I climbed out, then got mobbed again and left before topping out the climb. That was it, I went on glide into a blue hole and then landed close to a road, no enthusiasm left. You can’t be flying to avoid other gliders in this sort of meet…
I’ve had this happen at pargliding comps before–it’s one reason I didn’t compete much for about five years. Too much time sitting around, too many politics, too many of the things I go flying to not experience. The contrast between this competition and the Manilla XC event is really jarring–good fun flying vs. clusters…
I’ll have to figure out why I’m here and what the goal is, at this point I’ve about had it. I do better with a goal, the last two days I haven’t had one and the results are clear. Keith did well yesterday, as did Josh and Tom, so Canada and the U.S. are doing well, good to see.
Posted in: Blog
Will – you sound seriously bummed. Climbing back out of the mental downward spiral is tough. Judging by the wild results so far nobody’s got this thing locked yet. Forget about the past tasks – sounds like the whole next week will be wicked flying – go out there & kill it!!
Come on Will, don’t succumb to the dark side. Better to be in the air than behind a desk, right? Stay positive and flap hard.
launch earlier, get off the hill and in the air
Sounds like the big difference has been the weather. I’m home from work in California, put the hang glider away grabbed my skis and on the road to my next project in Bozeman. Snow will be better then the 40° rain in Portland
Come on. Don’t analyze it, cut it behind !! Reset ! Well, it’s nothing strange to be annoyed by crowd. There’s nothing worst than victory hungry crowd on too small air space ;(
And, by your story, looks like poor marker setting in the kick of every race. Only purpose of marker or first point limited by time is to disperse that hungry crowd.
I don’t know.. my only goal is to have loads of fun in any race, but that’s just me 
Keep on faith who knows, maybe it all Will of Gad ;))
Kick on and have fun !
Grin, thanks for the good words, it actually really helps. We had a good day of running, work, reflection and general fun while the winds blew. Today is new day, went for a really nice run in the morning, I’m ready, hell yeah!
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