9 years ago
The surprise of the Year: Théo de Blic switches to Gradient after a long Relationship with Icaro. JustACRO could catch him for an Interview today:
JustACRO:
Hey Theo, thanks for your Time! How are you – how is your European Winter Season?
THEO:
Hey Simon, I am fine thank you!
Well European winter can't be called a winter right now actually, we have had nearly no snow at all here in the French Alps, it is really warm, it looks a lot like spring to us right now. Even the conditions for flying have been terrific! There had been some great day with great thermals even at Christmas. Unfortunately I could not enjoy them as I am in rehab right now recovering after a leg surgery to take away some metal I had in since an accident in 2013 but I will be back next week!
JustACRO:
OK, good to hear that you are back in the game soon! So- We all want to know: Why did you change?
THEO:
Well it was kind of a hard decision to make obviously, I mean after 6 years of partnership it is never easy to switch to something else. However I had a really good season last year with my World Tour results and Sounds of Paragliding working pretty well on the web so I thought that I was in the best timing to try something new. Indeed I feel that I am only on the really beginning of my career and I thought that I had to experiment some new things in order to keep progressing. In addition to that I have been flying with Horacio in synchro this season and he told me that Gradient would like to add one acro pilot to the team. We had already talked in the past about flying for the same brand but this was the first time that it was really possible. And Gradient has made some really nice products in the past years. They are a really good company with a really nice spirit. The team is great as well everything was calling me in. Also if you look back at what Gradient has been doing the past year you would see that they really focused on communication and quality advertisings through Tom, the Team Freestyle, Horacio.. And that's what I am looking for right now, being pro in paragliding is like 10% competing only. You have to be really into sharing your sport, communicating and that's why I thought, that Gradient would be the perfect fit for me, they understand that.
JustACRO:
Since you have an acro glider there was only one Brand for you – Icaro. If you look back at your Career: What can you say about that?
THEO:
To be honest I had a 17sqm Slingshot (Airwave) when I was like 13-14y.o, but otherwise yes I have had NIKITAs since I was nearly 15. I learnt my first Infinity on a NIKITA 2. And I would say that Icaro and the NIKITA made me who I am today - I mean they helped me when I was just a kid doing Helicos and they taught me much! Xandi helped me trimming my first glider and gave me advices during my whole partnership with Icaro. He was the first one, confident enough to let me work on protos. With Icaro I learnt a lot about the paragliding world in general, the sells, the protos, how everything works and I think that how I am communicating today is a lot because of their help. Then during my 3 season of world cup they did not put pressure on my asking for results and that was also really cool! Also working on protos, getting gliders that do not always work well taught me a lot. And I am sure my technical level now is due a lot to that. I mean once you have tried for months to make a glider working in infinit, when during months you have been fighting in each Infinity turns because you knew that one mistake would mean disaster you are quite confident under a “normal” glider. And when I tried for the first time the twisted rhythmic I thought: “whatever happens it won't be worse than trimming a bad proto”.
I think those 6 years of collaboration gave me what I needed to climb up into acro paragliding and I am really thankful for that!
JustACRO:
You switch from your own Pro-model the Nikita to the Horacio Llorens' one. Tell us something about the Glider?
THEO:
The Agility is really different to the glider I was used to fly. I flew a seven for some weeks back in 2010 and let's be honest this was the best glider I have ever flown for helico connections! When I fly the Agility I really have the feeling of a Seven, it is like flying an old school glider but it does Esphera, and all the new tricks easily. The brake pressure is soft and the glider reacts really fast. During all the time I worked on my NIKITA 16sqm this was the kind of feeling I was looking for, a glider which so reactive that it just feels like wings you know. And I think that with some work it could be what we found with the Agility. Horacio did a great job with it!
But of course I will participate on the development of the Agility and I will fly my own pro-model in World Cups as I used to with Icaro. There is a point in your acro pilot life where the perfect glider is simply the one you trim because only then you can fit it to your flying style!
JustACRO:
The Competition Calendar is full. What are your Plans for the upcoming Season? Do you focus on the WAG in Dubai?
THEO:
Of course Dubai is a big event in the season, and it is at the really end (December) so it is worth focusing on. But I think that through focusing on the World Tour I will be more than ready for the WAG, the only way to train for a big competition is by competing in other events so you gain experience, and I think that the WAG are no exceptions. Also qualifying in the WAG is quite a challenge here in France the number of spots are limited and if you look at the FAI World Ranking the 4 top spots are for the French pilots so we just have to hope that we will all be qualified. But I am confident that the WAG organizers will want to have all the best pilots in the world to make it an unforgettable event!
Outside of the competition schedule I will work on different videos projects and travel around Europe. I should be in El Hierro this spring and of course I will spend a lot of time in Organyà again, beside from being the best spot to train it is the best spot to enjoy paragliding with friends and to have fun in the air!
JustACRO:
Thank you for the Interview Theo – We wish you a successful and joyful Season 2015!
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