1st Robair Coldwater Acro Session - the swiss championship is valid!

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.

Starting with a synchro run on Friday morning the Lucky Clowns (Yves Berlowitz and Remo Niederer) were the first to take off. They were followed by six other teams. We needed at least five teams to make the synchro count as Swiss Championships. So some of the teams were only formed the night before. Thanks a lot to the pilots for that!

The weather forecast predicted a change for Saturday. So our goal was to have as many runs as possible on Friday. We continued straight away with a solo run and completed the day with another synchro run.
Saturday morning greeted us with wind. The conditions were still flyable and we were able to have another solo run. We started another synchro run but the wind picked up and we had to cancel the run after three teams. From that point on the weather would just get worse. Two solo runs and two synchro runs make a valid Swiss championship so we decided to call it a day and went on with the prize giving ceremony.


TOP 5 results solo
1 - Niederer Remo - U-Turn Thriller - 378.99
2 - Maurer Chrigel - Advance Omega - 351.10
3 - Berlowitz Yves - Paratech P720 - 348.22
4 - Zweifel Judith - Advance Omega - 322.63
5 - Rothenbühler Philipp - Airwave Slingshot- 319.00

TOP 3 results synchro
1 - Lucky Clowns - 432.52
2 - Acroholics - 414.25
3 - Advance - 390.21

The pilots liked especially: Free food & drinks all day long. Free Red Bull on take off, landing, on the boat and in the bus. Two cool days with not too cool weather.
The organization would like to thank all sponsors, helpers, friends, pilots, families and everyone who made the first Robair Coldwater Acrosession possible.

We hope to see you in 2011 between 11. – 13. November / (Replacement date: 18.-20. November).

Click for results of the Robair Coldwater Acrosession
Click to view the photo gallery of the competition.
More pictures by Dani Junker

Read more at:
www.acro-cat.ch (French)
www.chrigelmaurer.ch (German)
www.chickenstyle.ch (German)
www.luckyclowns.ch (German)
www.acroleague.ch (English)

Text and infos: Thomas Kühne, Robair Paragliding