The coast turns on!

This morning I didn't even bother to check the weather. Upon waking up I mozied around for a while, had coffee & at around noon I checked my email. Finally I got around to checking the conditions at Pacifica. WNW @ 11mph! WOW! Westerly winds at 11, perfect flying conditions. I text JJ, Arnel, Don & Zack. Don was 5 minutes out, Arnel was on his way, JJ was showing up after work, I was on my way & Zack was out for the day.

There were lots of pilots at the Dumps today. At one time I counted 18 wings in the air & 7 on the ground. The winds were low on my first flight. I took off, climbed a bit then started sinking. I watched Hussein in front of me barely getting lift & thought I'd be able to hang in there but Hussein climbed & I sunk. It was a long walk back to Walkers Launch via the beach. I thought about packing the wing to make it easier to carry but in the end just carried it back.

The second flight went much better.

Both launches today went extremely well. I built a wall, lifted it, checked it & took off nicely. The winds were perfect on the second launch. The flight lasted 2 hours and 10 minutes. I spent time taking in the views & shooting pictures. There were so many wings up there today. It was awesome to see wings above you, below you & all around you. It was cold, after about an hour my hands were feeling it. I met Mike from Sac. Yesterday I spent ime researching power paragliding. I found a school in Sacramento & I spent time going over their website as well as checking out a bunch of pictures they had posted online. Today I recoginzed one of the instructors, Mike. I met him & spent some time talking about learning power paragliding. He's the instructor. Seems like the motor would be perfect for those days when the winds are not great on the coast. Overall it was a great day today!

We even had a visit from Santa. He flew in on his paraglider blasting his radio & wishing everyone a Merry Christmas!