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Low Save, High Focus

Low saves are fun!

So why am I shouting “ne!” (“no!” in Bulgarian) over and over in this video? Because I’m in the middle of one of four FAI triangle record attempts I did last week, it’s the middle of the day, and I’m refusing to obey this stupid law of gravity, which appears to be at such odds with my ambitions. Continue reading →

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The Step – 6000m at Lalibela, Ethiopia

After a week of driving and flying over giant canyons and plateaus, we had reached the end of the Ethiopian highlands.  Now, 2000m above that last 4000m ridge, we were riding the better side of a giant step in the atmosphere.  To the east, the terrain was dropping towards the lowlands of east Ethiopia and the sub-sea-level volcanoes in the Danakil depression, then the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean.  So we were flying at the meeting point of two great air masses – the dry one of the highlands and the moist one of the Indian Ocean – and our cloud base was 2000m higher than the sea of cumulus in our feet; we were at 6000m!   Continue reading →

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How races start, hopefully again this summer

And as the start approaches, each of 150 pilots focuses on all the others, that’s how our minds get super powers, connecting into that web, that super body, a collective organism naturally staying high and optimally placed, we all swirling on and on and on, and fighting for position but as gentlemen and friends, and when we hear the beep from our cockpits that means “GO NOW!” we all together turn like sunflowers, all facing in the same direction now and diving into our first glide and into the day’s adventure Continue reading →
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6000 meters in Ethiopia

The axis of desire rotated to 90 degrees, this XC flight was not about distance, but height.  From the takeoff at 2800m, up to the 6000m cloud base, down to the 3600m village where we stopped to say hi to the locals, and finally off again at sunset to the 2000m valley floor, which even with the sun gone was sending 3m/s thermals in the near-darkness – we sliced through that day like knives through layered cake. Continue reading →

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Ode to the Crowd

A crowd is a force of nature.  And in Ethiopia, it’s a mighty one!  

So (assuming you’re white like me) try dropping down from the sky under a colorful piece of fabric in any rural Ethiopian area, where the locals have rarely, or never, seen a white person, never mind a paraglider(!), and watch what happens! Continue reading →

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Mother Goose (A Day of XC Guiding in Lalibela, Ethiopia)

Talk about a glass ceiling.  There’s an inversion at the level of the high plateau (3500m) and we keep bobbing in the turbulence below it, hitting our heads at the lid while trying different escape routes up, and it takes some time but finally three of us pierce through and suddenly we are at four thousand meters, then five, and then some more, while the air magically turns to butter and the sky opens to our wishes. Continue reading →

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Into the Savana

Longonot volcano. Photo: Niki Yotov

Fun fact about the African male buffalo (told to me by a local ranger): when they are a part of a pack, they have female mates, so for understandable reasons their testosterone levels are regulated and therefore they behave as calmly and safely to humans as cows; however, when a stronger male kicks another male out of the pack, this latter outcast can no longer copulate, so his testosterone (and therefore aggression) reaches such critical levels that he would attack and try to gore any human in sight for no reason other than his sexual frustration.   Continue reading →

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Africa Intro

You can hear it in the salsa of Colombia, in the reggae of Jamaica, in the afrobeat of Lagos, in the goqm of Durban, in the samba of Brazil and the blues of Mississippi, even in the techno of Detroit, in Chicago house, in London jazz and hip hop, and on, and on – black music rules the world, and you don’t have to physically go to Africa to feel its heart beat, which is groove, which is the beat.  That’s how I got to know this continent before I even set my foot on it.  Or at least some essential part of it, which is its music, the way it moves, the way it grooves, the way black people swagger even when they walk, never mind when they’re actually dancing…  I know you’re expecting me to write about some paragliding business, but I must first excuse myself and start with this essential info which is not in our photos, nor in our videos – it’s not, because to photograph it would mean to lose it. Continue reading →