Interview with David Thibodeau from Canada

Since the tragic death of legendary pilot Chris Müller in 2005 we didn't hear much more from Canada regarding acro paragliding. But these days a newcomer 22-years old pilot, David Thibodeau is apparently putting his homeland back to the world's map of acro!

Before learning more about David's background, check out his latest video "What I do" - a nice clip stuffed with impressive tricks, all filmed exclusively at his 300 meter high home site Mount Yamaska.

Pál Takáts: Hey David, nice to have you here for a little interview. At first, please introduce yourself!

David Thibodeau: Yes thanks for the opportunity! I’m David Thibodeau, from Montréal, Québec, Canada. I train all year long in dynamic conditions at Mount Yamaska, a 300m high mountain.
In 1986 My father founded the second biggest paragliding and hang-gliding school in Canada (after Muller Windsport) named Distance Vol Libre. He was doing aerobatics in hang-gliding (loops and spins) before he died in a ULM accident in Mexico in 2000. By the way, Muller Windsports was pioneer in free flying in Canada and especially in acro, as Chris Muller was performing most of the acro maneuvers back in 2004, even if I never met him.

PT: After all how did you get into acro?

DT: So, after countless hours of ground handling, I did my first flight in 2006 when I was 15 years old, at the former school of my father, and was immediately interested for acro. I began with the basic maneuvers such as collapse, spirals and some wagas under the eyes of Jeremy Peclard, the current Swiss Champion and 11th ranked in the world. At that time, we had not much knowledge about acro, so we did what we could, mostly watching acro videos on the web. Jeremy showed me the path by performing the first Loopings, Helicos and spiral landings here in Quebec, but I was much slower than him, and I had to make smaller steps. I had a rescue opening from Mcwist-twist in 2010, and began to ask to European guys how I could improve. With the first advises from David Eyraud and Maxime Chiron, I could improve my Wing Overs and began to think about travelling in Europe.

PT: I can totally feel your situation about your home training options. In Hungary where I come from, the best sites we could practice were similar little mountains like Yamaska. After a while we knew that to improve it is essential to move to the proper training sites in the Alps. So how did you proceed at this point?

DT: I travelled with friends to Annecy, Villeneuve and Murren in 2011 and did my first good Helicos and Dynamic Fullstalls. Then, Theo de Blic began to give me advises from overseas by looking at my videos, and so I did my first Misty Flips, Looping, SAT to Helicos, Twisters (bad ones), Helico to SAT, little McTwists and Tumbling. Summer 2012 I went to Organyà and my progression passed from slow to super-fast. It was easier to train there with all the advises and the good vibes of the pilots I met there.

PT: And now in your last video you are presenting pretty much all the latest moves and styles! Impressive!

DT: Well, I trained as hell and I was doing every maneuver on the APWC list with my Freestyle2, except Infinity Tumbling. I trained Rythmic SAT with every wing I could try but mostly with Fred Montet’s Thriller 2k11 18. I finally did my first Infinity Tumbling on July 29th with an Emilie Pro 17 passed to me by Lino Oehl from Air’G. After this, I became really interested to import and sell acro wings and the idea of acro in Canada, so I got a deal with Air’G Products for the dealership in Canada. Since then I flew the Emilie Pro 18 and trained the most I could here in Yamaska. I kept improving by doing almost every new maneuver invented in the last years, as Twisted Stall, Twistyflips, Cowboys, Joker, Petite Coquine and first Asschoppers.

PT: Very nice. How did you spend this season and what about future plans?

DT: I wasn’t able to go in Europe in 2013 because lack of funds, I spent it all in 2012...This year has been the tougher than ever for my acro motivation because I was far from the action in Europe. Even then, I worked hard here and I did the first roll-over from a hot-air balloon in all North-America on May 4th. Fortunately at least I could make it to the China Acro Show in August 2013 and met international pilots there who became great friends.
I plan to visit Organyà in 2014 and get into competitions. Next spring, I have to change my wing and train with it before the comps. Then the plan is of course to kick some ass!

PT: Great! Than, we wish you good luck with that!

DT: Thanks! This was my short story. Now, watch what I do: http://youtu.be/VC-XsxhhNuA