"I have reached my goal and lived my dream – to be able to fly the Infinity Tumbling. The feeling of flying absolutely vertically over the paraglider many times is impossible to describe. Like all the other manoeuvres which I have learned in the past the thrill of success is enormously large - but somehow the Infinity Tumbling is the icing on my acro flying cake. Ten years ago on the beginner hill I never ever let myself imagine that I might one day be doing such a thing with my paraglider..." - Judith Zweifel, the world's number one female acro pilot tells about her impressions.
When we started briefing at 8.30PM on Thursday the question on everybody's mind was: „How cold is the lake really in November?“ And: „Are those dry suits really dry?“
But first things first: As reported earlier the Swiss Championships in August were not valid due to miserable weather conditions.
The announced replacement event in November had people wondering if Swiss pilots are crazy: Temperatures are freezing and snow is not uncommon here at this time. The regulations of the Swiss Paragliding Federation forced upon us a waiting period of two months to organize a new event and our determination to crown a Swiss Acro Champion in 2010 left us no other choice to do so.
All fears were unnecessary: Friday morning was sunny with 16°C. The water temperature was at 13°C: Some pilots even decide to fly without dry suits.
Just about 6 years have passed since Raul Rodriguez's greatest discovery the Infinity Tumbling. An unbelievable maneuver that nobody expected to be possible.
At the same time together with this invention a new dream was also born: if it is possible to build up a horizontally rotating SAT into a straight-up vertical movement (Rythmic-SAT to Infinity) it could also be possible to come back down into a SAT again to the other side! But how!? How to do this "Anti-Rythmic" and work down the angle from Infinity without loosing massive amount of energy in an already extremely sensible movement, just working tight on its limits?! In the past 5-6 years these thoughts and theory probably ran through the minds of most top acro pilots but still, nobody really heard of any serious attempts trying this connection - probably because of the scary, instable moments during the transition.
On the 22nd of October 2010 in Ölüdeniz, Pal Takats managed the first ever successful execution of the "Anti-Rythmic" coming down to a SAT from Infinity and soon after the dream of "Esfera" came true - the maneuver from SAT to SAT that is turning to the other direction, linked with Infinity in the middle. The name "Esfera" is a Spanish word that means: "sphere", "globe", "ball".
Pal is using the new U-Turn Thriller '11, that finally made this possible! The '11 is the very latest version of the glider that was slightly adjusted and reinforced as a result of one year's new experiences gained during the test-flights and the Tandem Infinity project.
In the middle of September (11.-14.11.2010), at the end of the europe season 2010, the french and some international pilots came together for the French Championship and the FAI CAT 2 French Open acro competiton. The competition was held over the gorgeous Lac de Serre Ponçon (Haute-Alps, France), a really beautiful spot surrounded by interesting mountains for flying acro and XC.
For the French Open the pilots got towed up 500 meters over the lake with a funny but working winch system which made us laughing but also screaming. That was also a reason why we couldn‘t make to many runs while we had sunny days and too many competitors to tow.
Anyway, finally we did one complete tasks and a super final with the best 8 which was decided at the beginning of the competition by the judges François Bon (Headjudge), David Soujey and Iris Vogt.
Some of the pilots showed some incredible clean runs
The Swiss Championship in August was washed away by the rain and with only 1-1 valid tasks in solo and synchro it was not possible to celebrate 2010's champions.
Swiss Robair Paragliding School decided to save the Championship and to organize a second event in November! What? In freezing snowy November ?? Yes, because the swiss rules only allow the next event to take place 3 months after the last one. Anyway, Robair does everything to make the pilot's and the spectator's life easier and offers good music (helps to keep on moving), free dry suits for all participants, hot drinks and a heated tent!
The location is going to be Weesen at the Walensee with the take-off place Amden, called Durschlegi ("Antenna"). The altitude difference is only 600 meters, the event will take place just below and the mountain falls down with an almost vertical cliff into the lake, providing fair play for the pilots with a reliable ~500 meters of altitude in the acro box.
Dates 5-7. November or in case of bad weather 12-14. November.
Registration and futher infos (in German) at: http://www.coldwateracrosession.ch/
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