11 August 2009

2009 Brazilian Paragliding Nationals

Castelo, Espírito Santo, Brasil

http://www.hipoxia.com.br/brasileiro2009/





I drove all night to get to Castelo. The last 100 km were overgrown dirt roads that wound up and through the mountains. The darkness and lack of signage made it a difficult journey, although the moonlight was peaceful.



This is the main task area.



Getting ready to launch.



Waiting for the launch window to open.



A packed sky.



This place has more beauty than you can take in all at once. Vertical rock faces 1000 m high are everywhere you look. The prehistoric ambience would make a pteradactyl feel at home.



New millennium wings fill a prehistoric sky.







This task brought us to within sight of the ocean. The thought of landing at the beach instead of goal was a tempting thought.



At cloudbase and on glide. I love this part of flying.



In goal.



No touchy.



The long ride back from goal is always calming. The satisfaction of having made goal, reliving all the fun things that happened and just thinking about how a good day of flying is always a day well spent, leaves me in a calm, contemplative mood.



The winners. Frank Brown won the open category, climbing from 3rd to 1st on the final leg of the final task!

1 Frank Brown M BRA [open] Sol Tracer 2010
2 Luciano Bender Tcacenco M BRA [open] GIN boom 6
3 Cristiano Ricci da Silva M BRA [open] MACPARA MAGUS
4 Marcelo Prieto M BRA [open] Solparagliders Tracer proto
5 Sergio Sampaio M BRA [open] UP Edge
6 Brett Hazlett M CAN [open] UP Edge
7 Clayton Alvarenga Resende M BRA [open] AIR WAVE FR4
8 Washington Peruchi M BRA [open] Macpara Magus 6
9 Donizete B Lemos M BRA [open] Sol TRACER 2009
10 Leonardo silveira Machado M BRA [open] SOL TRACER



Original gangster Julio AKA CB.



Me.



Vitória at night.



A CB approaches the Vitória coastline. It poured 10 minutes later.