One, two, one, two, three, four.
But the full stalls and the wing overs are the two elementary and most important maneuvers that should be part of some kind of a basic course or some kind of a basic license that people have to master, you know, before whatever, getting their like certification or the second one or whatever advanced thing.
Hi there, everybody. Welcome to another episode of the Cloud Base Mayhem. Really excited to bring you this show. I've been trying to sit down with Pal Takats world champion acro pilot and Red Bull athlete and twice, two times competitor in the Red Bull X-Alps in 2009 and then Big Gap. And then I raced with him this year and he crushed. He did really, really well. Very accomplished XC pilot. And of course, one of the best, really responsible for creating kind of the. New era of acro moves, the Joker, the cowboy, a bunch of others. So we talk about in this show all kinds of great things, including his near death accident that put him in a coma in 2012,
flying a tiny little mini wing, little speed wing, six meter wing. And then again that year, another really bad accident, base jumping and kind of coming in for a poor landing and what that did to his perspective. And. What it's how it's changed his flying and a lot of things that we discuss here on the Mayhem regularly, but a few of the things he says about safety and what people need to be learning, of course, ground handling comes up, but are things that I hadn't learned. I hadn't heard by any of our other guests and pretty remarkable. He's working on a long series, a video series that will be out soon that talks about a lot about safety maneuvers and that kind of thing. But, yeah, anyway, you're going to get a lot out of this. Before we get into it, a few items of housekeeping put up the bonus podcast with with Chrigel that he answers all of your questions that I got via Facebook and other places.
So that was kind of the follow up, the stuff that we weren't able to cover in the first show that's available on the Patreon feed. That's kind of a bonus. So it's available to those of you who support the podcast. So either via PayPal or through Patreon, if you have supported the podcast and you didn't get that link, you should have gotten the newsletter. But just. Reach out to me via the cloud based mayhem dot com. Send me an email and I'll send that over to you. That's also the same goes for the X-Alps podcast that Nik Hawks did with me about the race this year. So that's also in the Patreon feed. So if you're not a Patreon supporter, go over there. Patreon dot com forward slash cloud based mayhem. And you can sign up and get all this cool bonus material that we put out there. I've also got we've had a lot of requests for music on various shows.
And so we now have. A Spotify playlist, which has all the music from all the shows thus far. And I'll keep adding to that as we go ahead. That's just free. That's on Spotify. You can search for it. Cloud based mayhem podcast, or you can find it in the Facebook feed on the cloud based mayhem. So if you like our page, cloud based mayhem, you can get all that type of material. Also put that up on the website here at some point. I haven't yet, but I will. The other thing that's kind of exciting. So Red Bull and Real Water Productions. Put together quite a few of there's four of them be kind of behind the scenes. Many of you have probably seen the making of, but maybe you haven't seen the others. I've put all those on my Vimeo channel. So if you go to cloud based mayhem dot com, click on the little Vimeo link, you'll find all of those and more films that we've done over the years.
But the behind the scenes stuff that they did for North and known is really cool. There's one on the food caches. There's one on kind of the protagonist, Dave and I. Kind of how we got along and how we saw each other through the thing, which was really fun. There's the making of course, there's how we did it, which is a seven minute cut. That's just unbelievable. And there's one on the food caches. So the kind of the biggest crux of that whole expedition by far was the food caches. That was the thing that took me six years to figure out how to do it. It didn't work that great, but it did sort of work. We were able to pull it off. So I guess it worked. But yeah, putting in those food caches and how they worked and how that all worked. And how we still didn't nearly have enough food. So check out the Vimeo, my Vimeo page and you can see all those.
They're pretty fun. And then finally got some really cool giveaways. We're going to do some more of this again for whoever. Just what I'd like to do this time instead of doing the ratings thing like we've done in the past. I'd like you to just share the show with different Facebook groups wherever you are in the world. We've all got Facebook groups, flying Facebook groups. And if you're if you put that up. And say something cool about it and send me what you did. And so one, I could be aware of these other groups, but also just how you're spreading the news. I've got three things. I've got a Flymaster B1 Vario, which is not very current. But if you're looking for a Vario that you can play around with, I've got one of those. I've got a brand new PowerMast power. What's it called? Power Traveler.
Sorry, Power Traveler battery. You know, so rechargeable battery that they gave us in the 2015 X-Alps. Never even made it. I'm hoping it's brand new. So a really cool like vol biv battery or a flying battery that you can use. I think it's like 10,000 amp hours. And then I've got a NOCO X-Grid 5 watt solar panel. So a little small in my opinion to work for like proper vol biv trips. You know, so you need something really more in the kind of the 7 and 9 watt range in my experience. But definitely good enough to, you know, charge up your phone. And do little things like that. Or for like a short vol biv where you don't have a lot of needs with power. It's a nice little light solar panel. So brand new, ready to go.
Still in the box. All three of those things I'll have available to whoever does the best job spreading the word about this show. So send me those. Again, put those out there to your friends or to your groups or whoever you think doesn't know about the podcast. And send that to me via the cloudbasedmanager.com. You'll find the email and stuff there. You can send that to me to make sure I know about it. And we'll pick a winner by, oh, let's see, the end of November. So, Pal Takats, let's get into it. I think you're going to really enjoy this. There's some awesome stuff here. It makes you want to go out and, yet again, we hear about ground handling. But also the importance of stalls and other maneuvers to keep you safe. And an incredible career he's had in the last 16 years of flying.
He started when he was 16. Did really well. Followed the ex-Alps this year as he did in 2009. Really interesting cat. Just got a bunch of land down in Columbia. And he's moving down there with his girlfriend for half the year. But very active pilot. Super passionate. And had some bumps along the way, as we all have. And I think you're going to enjoy it. So, yeah, please enjoy this conversation with Pal Takats. Pal,
so awesome. We've been trying to do this for a while. But I think you're the first person in the world that I've met that's actually busier than I am. So, thanks for making the time. It's kind of funny that I understand you're in Indianapolis. Let's start with that. What are you doing, man? You're in the wrong part of the world.
You might say that. I'm here for the Red Bull Air Race for the final stop of the 2017 season. As you might know, I'm performing paramotor demos at most of the stops since a few years. So, it's the last one of the season. But I'm only here for six days.
You know what? I knew you did all these demos and you did the performing. But I thought it was acro without a motor. I didn't know. So, are you doing like full acro stuff but with a paramotor?
No, not really. You know, most of these events take place under quite some of the most restricted air spaces in the world. Close to some pretty big airports. So, the ceiling is quite low. And I usually... Basically, my show time is 10 minutes. And that includes takeoff and landing. So, there's no time to climb out high for, you know, doing radical stuff. And I'm usually just doing some basic aerobatics and pull a long streamer and use my smoke and do ground spirals, do foot dragging. And, you know, these areas are quite large. So, I have to do some here, do some there. You know, visit the different spectator areas and where the 10 minutes are gone pretty quick.
Okay. Well, for those who are listening and I want to get into the more recent history stuff because I know since the ex-Alps, you've been extremely busy. And before we started recording here, you were telling me you've got some land down in Columbia and you and your girlfriend are going down there. So, we got a lot to talk about. But, you know, for those who have had their head in a hole for the last 15 years. Can you give us the, you know, the PALTAC? It's like a resume, you know, what you put down on paper, maybe hit some of the high points. Because, you know, to me at least, you know, your history is really acro. But you're, you know, twice now you competed in the ex-Alps. But catch everybody up that may not be familiar with your history.
Okay. Well, I'm 32 now and I started flying when I was 16. I come from Hungary, Budapest. So, quite flatland country. And somehow got into acro pretty quick and put all my efforts and motivation and money into progressing as fast as possible just out of pure passion. And, well, powered by this, I ended up competing in the World Cups, which I won three times. Twice in solo and once in synchro. And finished once second. And, I mean, quite good results. But then I kind of pulled out from that in 2011.
But, you know, I was always as well a very passionate cross country pilot. But, you know, you never really saw me on the top of some high-level podiums. Which is because, probably because I didn't really put so much time and effort into competing yet. But, as you said, I competed in the Red Bull X-Hubs twice. Most of the people probably don't even remember I did it in 2009. And finished eighth. And did it again with you this year. And, well, I invented some of the latest. Well, it's not really latest anymore.
Because since then, a lot of new school stuff came. In aerobatics. But, basically, I invented the foundation of nowadays new school acro-flying. Which was some new connections. Some, basically, a new style of performing certain things. And diasfera, cork, and joker, and cowboy, and booster. And this kind of stuff. And with Gabor Casey, we did the...
Infinity Tumbling in tandem in 2010. Which was quite a feat. And... What else? I also did... Which nobody knows because it never actually got published. It's one of those projects that kind of disappeared in the archives. But I have a Guinness World Record in Tandem Infinity Tumbling. Which happened in 2014. I think. In Argentina. Did you go out of a balloon for that? Oh, from a helicopter. Ah. Tandem. That was it.
Yeah. Wow. Your passenger must have been thrilled.
Yeah. Yeah. Did you de-bag? Or did you... It was a she.
She. Wow. Yeah, yeah. And how did you guys exit the heli? Did you de-bag?
Yeah, yeah. We de-bagged. Okay.
Wow. That must have been exciting. It
was with Squash Falcon. She's British. Oh, yeah. You've probably heard of her.
Yeah. She covered... She did a nice story for Sidetracked with me on the last X-House in 2015. Ah, yeah. Nice. Nice. Yeah. She's fun. Oh, wow. That's amazing. So how many did you get in the Tandem record?
Officially 140.
Amazing.
How did... Did she vomit all over the place or did she do okay?
Ah, she did great. She did awesome. I mean, after the landing, she had to lay down for half an hour, but otherwise she did awesome. That's not bad. Then anyway, I will probably just publish the raw footage, so at least it's online in a way.
And yeah, well, what I would like to mention as well is I'm the creator of JustDarkCrow.com, which is basically the... The largest website about aerobatic paragliding. It's already 11 years old and I'm quite proud of it and I'm still working hard to develop it. It's just kind of tricky. I mean, there's a lot to do on the side, but I'm still really motivated to keep pushing this further. And despite that Facebook basically overtook... Mm. All these community sites in a way, but I still didn't give up hope.
And actually, it's quite popular still and lots of videos and the forum is running.
Yeah, of course. Everybody follows it. I mean, that's interested in acro. So 16 years, so just after 2000, you started flying. When did... Yeah. When did... So what was the catalyst to get into flying, being from Hungary and Budapest, like you said, in the flatlands? Yeah. And then when did it become... When were you like, wow, I could make this my job and when did Red Bull happen? So three questions there. Sorry, too many, but...
I got into, I mean, this kind of crazy activities already before that, like skateboarding and rollerblading and then somehow I got into caving. So that was the first real passion, going down into caves and do proper tours. And I did that for four years, quite intense, like I could say pretty much every week. And from there, I got into paragliding, which is quite funny. So from going underground to go up and punch the clouds, like...
Subterranean to overterranean, I don't even know what the other word is.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So basically in Budapest, where I grew up, there is this flying site. Pretty much just on the board, on the edge of the city. And you could time to time see people, you know, hanging up there, like little mosquitoes. And that's how I started to... My attention turned to it and, you know, the internet was quite new thing, but there was already some videos and some information about it. So I did some research and then as well, while caving, I... I got to know some of these guys, pilots, and then I got into a course and I got hooked like instantly, like most of us. And then basically the way towards becoming professional was kind of unplanned and natural progression.
Basically, I just wanted to fly as much as I could and then I finished school, but luckily, I didn't actually get into a university because my notes were not very good that time. And so I could not go through the... I couldn't enter without an additional exam and the exam was quite high level, so I didn't get it twice. I wanted to... I wanted to learn geography because that was the only thing that I could think of. The only thing that would, you know, interest me enough. Yeah. Yeah. And then basically, you know, how it works in our business. So basically then, you know, I was young, I was talented, I was pushing and tried to learn as fast as possible and people saw that.
And then, you know, things started to happen, you know, I got cheaper gear and, you know, I bought my first equipment already at a better price. And then the next wing was... It was even at a better price because the dealer of Hungary, you know, basically sponsored me with a dealer price, which was awesome. And then, you know, we figured out quite quickly, I mean, I say we, because it was basically Gabor and me and some other youngsters, but especially Gabor and me were pushing somewhat harder than the others towards this direction. And we figured out that, you know, well... Well, if we do this right, then we actually don't have to spend so much on equipment and we might even be able to travel or at least travel cheaper.
And this is how it started. And luckily, this was quite a natural progression towards getting our first sponsors. And which actually happened through an event, a crazy little acro competition. Yeah. That my friend organized in Hungary back in 2004, over ground. It was not really, well, it was a contest, but it was more like a meeting where that very few acro pilots that were doing some acro, at least in Hungary, were basically meeting up and doing all their crazy stuff over ground from towing. And we somehow, we won that competition.
Yeah. And then we both ended up being first somehow with the same, the same score. And that led to our first sponsor, which was a Hungarian like closing sponsor. And Red Bull was the co-sponsor of this event with, well, basically nothing more than a tent and some cans.
But it's how they already kind of knew about us. But it only came later. Yeah. And then later, as we were kind of, you know, kind of too shy and kind of not really trusting ourselves to actually go there and ask, Hey guys, I'm into Red Bull. Hey, do you want to sponsor us? So we were just, we knew it's too early. So we were waiting for the right moment and waiting for the right way to approach them. And and this happened only four years later in 2008, where we, where we got our first contract. And, and obviously for that, we, we already had to lay down some, some results in, in, in, in international competitions and right there, they could already see that, you know, this is, this is getting serious.
And in 2007, I won the solo world cup already. So it was becoming quite serious. So that's how they got in. So
pal, the, the, you know, I might have this wrong, correct me if I do, but it seemed like for you. There was this moment or time in your career and maybe, and I definitely want to talk about your action in 2012, maybe that was, it was because of that. But you know, when, when did it, I feel like any way that your, your career has really transitioned, you know, from really, you know, from the world cup scene and competitions and really pushing the acro and creating new tricks to, you know, you're still really young, but I see you now as more kind of like the. Yeah. like the Raul of the sport, you know, where you're, you're, you know, you're, you're maybe judging more or you're more, um, you know, it seemed like you got, in some ways it seemed like you got bored of it.
It was that true or is, or yeah,
yeah, totally. Um, you know, the accident itself was, uh, was, was a very unfortunate thing, but, um, what only my close friends know that at that, at that time, in that moment, I already decided to, to leave this lifestyle to, to stop competing in that way. Um, and actually, you know, winning again in 2011, cause I really, I had a desire to, to repeat the overall world cup victory from 2007, uh, once more. So basically in a way to prove myself that, you know, it was not just a one-time thing, but I can repeat this if I wanted to. Which, uh, which I did, but then I, I wanted to leave it there.
And, um, I didn't actually announce this publicly because I don't know for, for whichever reason I did not, but then came the accident and, you know, I guess it's quite obvious for, for most people, just, just, uh, looking at these events from one after the other, and then seeing that, you know, I'm not coming back to compete and stuff. So it's, it probably everybody thought that, ah, for sure. You know, he doesn't want to compete cause he's whatever, not good enough anymore, or he's, you know, he's not the same old pal or whatever, which is for sure. I'm not the same old pal. I mean, how could you be after such an event? But, um, I mean, my close friends all know that, that, that was not the case.
So I, I already actually decided to quit like in the moment when I hold held the trophy in my hand, basically in 2011. Yeah. But, uh, then came the accident and obviously I'm not going to publicly say, ah, you know, I decided to quit after the accident. I mean, that would be, there would be probably even worse, uh, worse option to communicate that. And, uh, anyway, I never, I never, I never actually talked about this before or in any way publicly. So it's quite funny. And, um, what, what was the other question? Oh yeah. So you are, you are totally right. So, uh, definitely my, uh, my career has changed my, my, my way of seeing things as well changed.
I'll be all honest for sure. I'm, I in a way, not that crazy youngster anymore. And for sure the accident was, was more of a life-changing experience that, uh, you know, I had to question myself. Many things and, and, and rethink many things, but it has nothing to do with, with the fact that I stopped competing. It has way more to, um, so basically the lifestyle of, of being a world cup acro pilot is quite intense and it involves a lot of training. And most of it, if you really want to get good and stay good, the, the training possibilities restrict themselves, to a very, very few places in the world where you got to spend like at least two months a year, just training hardcore and keep pushing.
And then, you know, the worst with the current, um, judging system and the current, uh, competition, it's still, you know, not necessarily the best who's going to win, but sometimes, you know, it's the angle of the sun too much subjectivity. Yeah. Way too subject. And it's just, it's kind of very disappointing when, and you know, both ways, like it could be on your advantage or your disadvantage. I mean, sometimes I myself even got like higher points that I, I deserve, but then again, other times I got lower points than I deserve. So it's, it's really, really difficult. I mean, I I'm not judging those who actually do this truly really difficult job, you know, giving points instantly watching the maneuver and one after the other, and then the landing and, you know, there's, there's a lot happening and, and, and it's really hard.
So, so any sport
that's judged is just really tricky, you know, gymnastics, ice skating, and you name it, it's, it's just tough. You know, there's always going to be people that like it and don't. That's tricky.
Exactly. Exactly. And then there comes, you know, on the other side, if you go cross country flying, it's like, it's, it's, it's super objective. You, you have your GPS track, you, you, they download your track log and that's your performance. There is no, there's no way, you know, to, to cheat or to change. Yeah. Obviously it's again, a very complicated calculation, how the results come out, but the best guy is going to win. Yeah. Yeah.
So before we, before we jump into XC, I know there's, I know there's people, that, that, you know, I need to ask you some questions about acro for those, those are the listeners that, that either want to get into it or into it. But I, I think we should talk about your accident. What, what happened in Zermatt in 2012? Cause I, the other thing is, you know, you, you just competed in the X-Alps, which is kind of the epitome of, to me, at least in this sport, you know, not the acro side of things, but you know, that, that you don't, you're not an unbold person. And, and, you
know, you're not, you're not an unbold person. And, and, you know, you're not an unbold person. And, and, you know, you're not an unbold person. And, and, you know, you're to
come back from that, you know, this wasn't a sprained ankle, this was a major accident. And, you know, so I want, you know, unfortunately, you know, we participate in this sport that hurts a lot of people, a lot of people get hurt. And so I, you know, one of the main questions I get from our listeners is, is how to come back and, and they're not the physical side, the mental side. So maybe kind of fold all that into your action. I think there's a lot of learning people could get
from that. Sure. it was a speed riding accident and uh and i flew with six square meter which is now we know that it's too small so the top guys the very like super top guns the the most hardcore pilots they even they don't fly a six i mean maybe one meter bigger or two meter but um that's just too small and and and too fast and um and just super sensitive but the problem was not actually that but it just uh long story short it it didn't give me the amount of lift i actually needed at moment that moment because i was not fast enough because i i just made like three flights with it that was maybe the fourth and uh and i didn't have the lift to to jump a cliff and i basically crashed with the road just before the edge of the cliff and that you know made me lose the balance and probably just by losing the balance that the wing basically just went out of position and and then i fell and then i mean i remember everything but the thing is the glider just somehow disappeared i i can't exactly explain why or what happened probably it collapsed and and but the thing is that i basically free fall down and that when i say i free fall down i know i free fall down because i do base jumping and i know that you know how that feels accelerating from like close lock zero
you know going into the free fall and that was that was it that was exactly it basically the the sound of acceleration that wind speed uh that was exactly the same when you jump over cliff so and that was pretty scary and and uh i can't be really sure but i think it was probably like a 20 meter fall i would imagine because i mean it was quite a long fall and uh and when i look back to the cliff it looked quite high too but i couldn't see the the exact proportions were you were
you already hurt from hitting the end of it before you went off do you remember or no uh
i don't think so yeah i don't think so maybe but but definitely not seriously so um the serious injuries came from creating a huge crater in the snow which i was lucky enough to hit with my butt first somehow and um but that's that basically compressed my vertebras a couple and uh and on the way i broke my my my my um my leg an open fracture and well i basically bruised like i bruised all my body like crazy you know i basically not at that moment but but um i i didn't feel much that moment because obviously adrenaline was taking over but uh but when i woke up from coma two weeks later then i mean i could still feel like pain everywhere all my ribs and my what do you say the bottom of your butt yeah yes and um well the the
worst thing of the whole thing is that i also suffered a head concussion and uh that actually led to the next day and led to an increasing pressure in my skull a skull school which uh for for for that reason they actually put me into artificial coma to basically shut my body down and put it into standby and um luckily uh they managed to to handle this through medication only but but during the artificially induced coma i also got the lung infection which is it's then becoming a really life-threatening situation so your your body is already in a in a shock from all the multiple injuries plus the head concussion with that extra pressure plus you know you are in a coma plus you have a lung infection so that was that was really uh a dangerous combination and uh well thank god i i somehow woke up and it's insane but i woke up on my on my birthday so basically i they after a while when when when they saw that i actually started to start to do better so they they took away the medication to try to wake me up but i didn't come back like i opened my eyes but i was not there you know it was like uh and and and that was where it started to become really scary for for my beloved ones because they the they died maybe the doctors then that well no no no but but at that moment the doctors like didn't know anymore you know what's gonna happen so it could be that they couldn't say anything you know if if if i'm you know i may wake up tomorrow or come back next week or come back in a month or or never
and uh so and then again the longer you stay in coma you know the more damage you're probably gonna suffer the more uh skills you're gonna lose and so basically they told my family you know well we can't be sure when when i when i wake up if i wake up as a as a two years old like or i can't speak anymore or i can't do this so uh i can't imagine so i'm i'm i'm really sorry for especially my family and my girlfriend back then she went through quite difficult times obviously as well
but wow and and and you know it's crazy but i i kind of believe in these kind of things like uh a higher power which i i would never call god because i don't believe in that stuff but because i mean what god god only i mean those different gods are only creating uh death and war and suffering in in in this society but uh if there is god it should be some different power like more i don't know universal or whatever you want to call it but uh so anyway
like many many people like probably hundreds or if not thousands of people were uh thinking of me and you know praying and not only praying in those conventional manners but in basically any any way so you know calling for the energy of the universe and and and and all that stuff and and i i tend to believe that this could have been the reason why i i i returned this exactly on my birthday which is so
cool so
basically that that probably that day that moment so many people were were thinking of me and you know wishing that that i was there and back and and and i lived so i mean it could be so
i was i was pretty cool that's amazing do you do you think there's so i want to ask you about when you know like coming back to flying but um do you think because you got hurt the way you did you know flying a six meter wing i know this is impossible because you didn't get hurt flying but do you think if you'd gotten hurt like flying a normal paraglider would it have been different coming back i
could be could be but i mean there always should be a difference between you know getting hurt and getting hurt and uh i mean it's hard to it's hard to think of a what's the word situation what would be if you know would be if if but i don't know i i really don't know but for sure getting hurt with something you know you are not like you know necessarily on the top of the gaming like i i did some speed riding but i was not top of the game and i'm not really a good skier either so i can somehow comprehend
more why that happened obviously if i i know let's let's say you know alejandro rodriguez the small brother of of felix and raul died from doing a misty flip low over ground and then twist it up and enter the spiral and you know had no time to to sort it out so and you know a misty flip was something he did like thousands of times thousands of times can't mess it up yeah and okay i know he he did it with the glider he was not he didn't knew it very much so again there is you know that point of okay that was probably the glider he didn't know he was probably not supposed to do that maneuver that low even though he did it thousands and thousands of times with another glider and and and doing it low and stuff but but you can still kind of find a reason why
it happened because of a different glider because that different brake length because the different behavior that was something something just a little bit different that that made that that small difference did
you was there um was there thoughts when you started kind of coming back and realized you were going to be okay and you know obviously horrendously horrific rehab and stuff you know coming back from something like that but it was there thoughts of was flying different for you i mean was there thoughts of man maybe i shouldn't do this or maybe your family or or or was it just a matter of kind of overcoming the accident and getting back to it as soon as you could yeah
actually i was i was really motivated to get back flying and and and get paying to get back doing everything i i love to do and uh um coming back from the similarity with what's going on and and what's going on with the the Sixto Actually, the first time I flew again was in Canada. Just before that, I actually did my first flight. And then I did the comp, which was quite fun.
Was that still in 2012?
Yes, it was in August. It was in August of 2012. So it was quite early. And I was really happy. I was stoked to get back flying. And it felt like the right thing to do. And it felt like the right time. But actually, in October, I had another accident. I didn't publicly communicate because it was just way too embarrassing for me. And the rehab from that accident even took longer than the one from Zermatt. Because it was basically ripping my... My kneecap into many pieces.
And that took some time to recover. And it was terrible. For me, it was way worse than emotionally and motivation-wise. It was way, way worse than the big accident before. Because that big thing happened. And I came out. I survived. I didn't die. That was a big thing. And I felt so blessed to have another chance. And, oh, man, it was great. And then, you know, I basically started to do everything I really wanted to keep doing.
And then I had a really bad landing, like wingsuit-based jumping. And I basically crashed into rocks with some backwinds. And I broke my knee pretty bad. And, well, that felt like extremely stupid. That felt... Imagine just basically coming back from a life-threatening accident. And then... And after all the rehab and all the work and, you know, while, you know, people questioned your mental abilities. Because... Anyway, it was kind of communicated. Well, not very smart, I would say.
So my accident, while I was in the coma, was not very well managed from the public point of view. That basically, you know, I could be just a retard now. Because, you know, because I had a head injury. You know, I was in coma. And so on and so on. So it was not quite clear what actually comes out of all this. And, well, and then I have another accident. So that felt really stupid. And especially the way back, to get the motivation again to come back from an accident that's not life-threatening.
But in a way, it takes even more effort to get back. Like, health-wise. And it takes even longer to leave the crutches, to be able to walk again, to be able to run again, to be able to bend your knees again. And, you know, like, all that basic stuff. So... And I guess that serious, like, first, obviously, the big accident. And then, again, this stupid mistake that could have been, like, easily, easily avoided. I mean, that was a big throwback.
Do you find... You know, my first really big film project, I'd done tons and tons before that that were a much smaller scale. But the first big one I did with Red Bull Media House was with Will Gadd on the Rockies project in 2014. And, you know, he'd been a Red Bull athlete for so long. And he'd done, you know, he called them rodeos. He'd done so many rodeos. You know, so many big film projects. That he, one of the things he talked about, you know, really rammed home. Because he could see that I, you know, at that point, I was still, you know, I hadn't, I'd only been flying, I think, eight years. And I was kind of known to take a lot of risk. And I think that was one of the reasons I was able to become a, you know, good pilot faster, because I, one, I'd put a lot of time into it.
But I was also, you know, probably taking too much risk. Not probably. Probably. I was. And, and, and Will has, you know, a very, he's been at it so long that, and, and for the most part, pretty injury free, you know, like tweaking fingers and stuff, ice climbing, that kind of thing. But, you know, and he, he just kept saying over and over, you know, like, listen, it doesn't matter that we're making a film. Those guys can just film what they get. Just, you got to be a pilot and you got to be safe. And, you know, if you get hurt for the, for the cameras, that's just the stupidest thing in the world. And I know I'm not comparing your base accident to that, but do you find that because of the profession and Red Bull and the sponsors, do you, does that, does that pressure you?
Does that, is there, is there a good and bad side of that?
For sure. It has a good and bad side, especially when you have a camera running. It's, it's, it's, it's a huge, I mean, it's, it's, it's, it's a real safety factor. It's, it's, it's really. Bad for your health. If you have a camera, I mean, I mean, nowadays, nowadays it's, it's, it's, it's totally normal that everybody has a GoPro and, uh, and films everything. And, um, it's a good thing because you can, you know, look back and analyze your, your flight or whatever your tricks and, and, and, and get better at doing so. But for sure, there's a, you know, with Facebook and YouTube and, and.
And all this stuff going on, there's a huge push of, you know, having to bring out something more spectacular, more hardcore, closer, faster, better, and so on. And, uh, for sure, this is definitely a big source of, of accidents just because people overdo things. Uh, in my case, in, in both of the cases, it was.
Um, I don't feel like it, it played a, uh, a big factor.
Um, I actually had cameras running in both cases, but in the, in the first case in Zermatt, I lost the camera in the crash. Um, and the second case I have it feeling it's it's, but it's just a big embarrassment because, you know, I could have done much better. I could have avoided that.
Um, but I mean, you can't blame the sponsors themselves. Yeah. Cause the sponsors actually, you know, are a good thing. And, um, I would say, you know, many people ask me this, but I never felt like being pushed by Red Bull to do things that are too dangerous. Like if it was too dangerous and I told them, look, this is this, I will not do this. It's too risky for me, or there's just too much uncertainty or for whatever reason, you know, I don't feel good about it. And they say, say, okay, okay. You know, they don't, they, they never want you. Yeah, no, they don't push that. They are not stupid. They don't want to push you into an accident. It's not good for anybody. Right. Uh, and they very rarely come up with ideas.
Hey, you know, we, we figured out, you know, you could do this or that. And I mean, especially not in paragliding, cause they don't, usually they don't know, they don't have so much knowledge to actually know, you know, if you can do certain things or not, but. Obviously they came up with some ideas that those were usually not necessarily doable or just too complicated or too much risk, but you can always say no. And, uh, the other thing is, I think probably like another typical situation where it's, it's hard to say no, is, you know, having a show when, you know, you know, there are like thousands, maybe even 10,000 of people. Yeah. Waiting to see your performance and, you know, you really want to perform you, you, you have that motivation from energy from inside.
You know, you want to do that because you want to, you know, it's not about showing off. It's more like, you know, showing, well, obviously your skills, your performance, and obviously in a way kind of showing off, but, but basically you want to impress the people you want to show them, you know, what you can do the best. And, um. Everybody has to know his limits and, and especially the limits of, you know, the wind or turbulences or whatever. And, um, but, well, many, many accidents happen during like show flying or, or competitions, competitions, because people just keep, just tend to push just a little too much. And, uh, it happens.
Pal in the last, usually this is a question I ask right at the end and we're not at the end. I got a lot more stuff I want to go over with you, but, uh, you know, your two accidents in 2012, um, you know, looking back from when you started to fly in, in 16, I like to ask this question, like, you know, what would you say, you know, imagine you're a 50 hour pilot, you know, imagine you're back at that first year. Um, you know, what, what advice did you maybe get and didn't follow or what advice do you wish you would have gotten? In other words, what would you have changed? You know, when you look back at your flying career, what would you like to impress on people that are maybe just getting into the sport or maybe dealing, you know, kind of locked into intermediate syndrome, you know?
Well, it's a good question. I think I can't really say I would have changed something because basically I was just following my, my instincts and following my passion. And it took me down this road. And, uh, it was obvious that, I mean, accidents can happen and probably will happen, which, I mean, I had two, two accidents earlier, uh, breaking first, like quite low airtime pilot. I broke my arm like stupid, like super typical beginner mistake, small landing place. I misjudged, uh, you know, power lines came.
I stalled out. Um, so quite typical stuff. And then, and then I broke my ankle from a ground spiral over high grass. Uh, I knew these things can happen. And, and I mean, I took this in consideration, but I really just, I had this, this, this crazy motivation to, you know, learn more and keep progressing and, and, and just do more and more and more. And, um. That was kind of natural for me. And, and, uh, I just, I just did everything I had to do to, to feed this, this, this needs. And, you know, this is different for everybody. I mean, some older gentlemen might be just super happy to, you know, glide down in, in, in, in calm air and then, you know, drink a few beers and, and, and talk about it a few hours and still be really happy about what they experienced.
And, and, and be totally satisfied. And this is, I mean, in a way different for everybody. And I think the most important thing is just that everybody, you know, finds what's his thing and what makes him happy. And, and, and it's, I mean, not everybody needs to, to get into competitions and, and fly a hundred K cross country or, or do a crew or do whatever. It's. Uh, it's, it's, it's a personal preference who, who, uh, wants to progress more, who is happy with, with, you know, just gliding down or, or soaring on the beach. Um, and this is really beautiful about paragliding that you have so many different styles of flying so many different, you know, ways to, to enjoy, but, but for, for those guys who, you know, are happy about, you know, just gliding down and basically do those very, they consider safe activities that's probably, I mean, they are probably in way bigger danger than the guys who are pushing like hell, because those who are pushing hard, they, they progress to, to a higher level and they, um, have a higher routine.
They are, you know, even though I believe, even though they are flying. More and they, you know, that's a good, they might, they're training, might risk, might risk more, but they are much more in training. And so they can, uh, avoid those dangerous situations or they know what to do when they get into one. And, and, and the low, low airtime pilots, even though they feel like, ah, you know, I only fly the weekend or, you know, just a few times in a year or so, but they are actually the ones being in, in, in danger because.
Because, well, we, we talked about that on a,
uh, a recent show. I was reflecting on that after the X-Alps that I think a lot of people, you know, see, see the, the, the people competing that is really daredevils and, you know, and taking really huge risk and. Wow. That's true. That's true. You're right. But I, but at the same time, I feel like, you know, I think there's a lot of pressure on the weekend pilots because, you know, maybe they only have one day, one day or two. Two days a week. And the forecast isn't as good, but they, you know, they try to fit it into something that's, that's not right. You know, they try to make the day work on a day that's above their ability, you know, and, and you don't, you don't have the flexibility. I think, you know, when you're a full-time pilot or you really have a lot of time, you don't have the flexibility to just walk away as easily.
I think there's a lot, in some ways there's more pressure on them.
And, uh, and again, they don't have the routine as well to say no. Yeah. Because they just, they are there to fly and they, they want to fly because it's the only time of the week they can. And wow, that's when shit hits the fan. Yeah. And, but as well, they, you know, I believe those guys, I mean, it's okay. You know, nobody, not everybody has the privilege like us to, to, to leave out of flying and to, to leave for flying in a way. And, uh, but people have to realize that there is, there is a lot to. To learn and practice even without actually going to fly. So I think those who don't have the time to go flying, but still, I'm sure that most of the people would have the possibility even after work, even, you know, if mountains are not close by, but even just go out to a field and do ground handling, because that's, in my opinion, that's, uh, that's a very, very key practice and a very.
Yeah. Of, of glider control and you can learn flying without actually, you know, getting airborne and being in, in safety on the ground. Obviously accidents can happen there too. If you, if you, if you go on the limits in higher winds, but, but this is, this, this will actually teach you active flying on the ground. And, um, this is as well, something I will, uh, express. In, in my upcoming, uh, instructional video that, uh, you know, there is a lot to learn through ground handling and people really extremely, extremely underestimate this.
And, and, you know, it's, it's, I think it's really, really bad that nowadays the practice is, well, the schools obviously. Yeah. Get certified, get you through the
school, get you the rating. Yeah,
exactly. Exactly. So now, so now, uh, instead of teaching the basics in the basic course, which is for me like ground handling. So in, especially in the Alps where you don't necessarily need a reverse launch, uh, for taking off, because as soon as you have that amount of wind on launch that you could reverse launch, it's might already not be the beginner, uh, conditions to fly. Yeah. Because you either have strong thermal or you have phone or just, you know, front coming in and strong wind and take off. So you should not be flying anyway. But, but I mean, that's, that's just terrible, terrible thing that, that, you know, basically the ground handling became a different product.
Ground handling course became another product. They are selling like some kind of advanced technique for, you know, like bullshit. Yeah. So. I agree
100%. And, uh.
That's, this is, what's cool is it's, uh, I, I, I hope we're changing the tide a little bit with that. Just with this podcast, you'd be amazed how often ground, we actually did a whole podcast on ground handling, but the, uh, you know, the, it's, it's cool that the top pilots, but especially the Acro guys, of course, because you guys are just dance with your wings on the ground. If they have really rammed that home. And so hopefully we're. Yeah.
But anybody
can do that. Everybody.
Everybody should do that. Absolutely. Everybody should do that. Even the old guys, obviously you don't have to be like jumping and, and whatever, you know, there's, there's a lot, a lot to learn. Grant ending. I have my seal, a lot to learn ground handling because you know, I'm not the best at it. I'm it's okay. I am safe enough for, for most wind conditions to take off basically most places, but, uh, yeah, anyways. Yeah. So different.
I'm glad you glad you bring that up. Okay. We're going to transition to cross country here in a sec. But for the, for those that want to learn, um, Acro, uh, where, what are the, I saw a really cool post the other day by Theo the Blick about, you know, recommending that, um, uh, you know, if you're getting started in Acro, you should start on a really nice B, you know, don't, don't get a freestyle way. Don't get an Acro wing. So talk about, talk about, you know, what. what should people be, you know, where should they go? What should they do? Um, maybe, maybe talk a little bit about SIV as well. And then we're, then we'll transition cross country.
Okay. So then, um, I take the opportunity to do some advertisement. So, so, uh, well, it's, um, it's, uh, the biggest, biggest ever project of mine, uh, that took, or it's still taking like three years since the beginning. And it's still not finished due to, um, basically problems with the personal I've been working with. Um, and because it's a huge project, so it's ending up being four hours long and, um, it's going to be called master acro and, uh, it's, uh, well, it's about learning acro, especially the basics from, from spiral dive to asymmetric sat and helicopter.
And, uh, I'm glad you brought this up with Teo and I didn't read this, but I'm really glad that, that, that Teo told the same thing, because that's exactly what I will be communicating through these videos. It's because people went way off course people. I mean, thanks to the, the paragliding industry starting to produce and, and, and market acro products and freestyle products. So now the newcomers think that, you know, to learn acro, they need at least a freestyle wing, if not an acro wing. And, uh, this is obviously the biggest mistake they, they, they ever going to make in their flying career because so, and, and it's so common, it's just so common these days.
That, that youngsters, uh, you know, people basically after like one year of, of, of making their basic course and they, they end up buying whatever secondhand acro wing online, because, because that's what they see. That's what they see in all the videos. Everybody's only flying with acro wings. You know, there's nobody, or just, I mean, you, you can't barely see any videos where, where people do like, more than just the full store, more than just the wing over with, with, with some kind of certified and, and, uh, and, and regular gliders. And, uh, that's, that's, that's horrible. So, and, and back in the days when, when I started to fly acro, I, I was lucky enough to get my hands on an aerodyne dune, which was a DHV two.
So nowadays, well, probably E and B or C probably a low end C, uh, wing. And it was great, man. It was, it was actually sold as a freestyler, but it was, it was not, it still had the performance. I flew cross country with it. I flew like, even back then with my low airtime experience, I, I flew like a couple of hundred K flights, 140 K over the flatlands of Hungary. And, and at the same time, you know, I learned a lot of things, basically everything, everything up to like, helico to helico and tumbling and basically everything except rhythmic start and infinity.
Cause that, that couldn't do this glider didn't do rhythmic set, but imagine then changing to an acro wing or freestyling, having all that knowledge already knowing how those maneuvers go and, and work and, and, and having the routine of performing it at least on that kind of serial glider, which is slow. Or safer, the, the, the break travels are longer. It doesn't shoot like a motherfucker. And, and, you know, it still has the dynamic. It still has the potential to perform those maneuvers. And then you just have to, I mean, adopt all your skills to, to a different glider, which is obviously it's going to be, again, you have to relearn things, but then you're going to relearn things again, from the basics and then build it up from there.
And, um, so. Uh, and this is how I'm, uh, this is why in, in the master acro videos, I fly, uh, an ozone rush four in 95 % of the cases, basically I do all, I do everything with the rush four, which is a high and B three liner with a shark nose. And, you know, it's kind of a modern, nice, you know, cutting age high and B glider. And, and to prove the paragliding word that you don't need the fucking freestyler, you don't need a, an acro wing. Cause all you're going to do with that is twist up, fall into the canopy and, you know, make
shit. So basically, basically in my videos, in each video of, you know, presenting, so, uh, spiral dive, uh, full stall wing or asymmetric spiral. Uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, and then even looping and dynamic full store and helicopter and, and asymmetrics, uh, sat, uh, I'm doing it all that with the, with the rush four. And then only at the end of each section, I, I just quickly mentioned, you know, the differences if you perform the same maneuver with an Acro gold freestyle, either what differences can you expect? Because so I, and I build it up this way because I want the people to understand. understand that they have to learn everything possible with a basically their their their normal wing their regular wing if well if they fly obviously if they fly a high performance wig like a c or d then better with a b as well as well said because you can learn so many things and people just just ignore this fact and uh that's that's that's that's really really bad for for the safety of our sport there's a lot of
crossover here isn't there like i i remember what my my like bible when i was first learning how to fly in 2006 was was Jocky Sanderson performance free flying you know and and uh and they they have they do some acro in that and then he talks about you know the whole time in that whole series that he's on i can't remember what the what the wing was back then but it was a b and uh and he talked about you know just how important it is to you
know to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to
to you know you can do everything you can i i what i'm saying is is there's there's a this there's the same crossover and cross country that i think people really often mistake where they start thinking you know that oh i got to get that hundred my first 100k flight or my you know my first x and so i i gotta get away with better performance and they move up too fast and they and they don't have the foundation you know they don't have the i mean that's that's a topic that comes up on this show a lot is this is when to move up and and my my answers of course it's always independent for person to person but my my analogy is is kayaking you know like you don't you don't you really shouldn't go i spent a lot of time back in the day whitewater kayaking and you know that what we always talked about then was that you know you don't really go kayak class four until you're nailing every move in class three you know that you can hit every eddy you can hit you can take you can you can work the river you're working the river it's not the other way around you know then you're ready for class four and then you're ready for class five but if you just.
go from three to six you're gonna die oh
for sure yeah yeah they what but unfortunately we don't have these kind of well structured rules or well
yeah guidelines and you just yeah i i there's a there's a real gap isn't there because it totally and it also really depends on where you learn you know is it the british is it the swiss is it the united states i mean everybody's it's a real scattershot in terms of and like you said depends on where you learn and some schools don't they don't really have a very good place to ground handle so you don't ground handle that's just terrifying
and and so so let me i mean i'm happy to i'm happy you brought this up and and let me point something out so it's uh i always have to laugh when people think about acro as being more dangerous than cross country flying and that's really really not true no I know and and people who don't fly acro they don't fucking understand that because they only see the crazy part of it and uh and they don't understand that by controlling your glider perfectly in the three-dimensional space in all basically controlling your entire polar curve which people you know just control it like 99 percent of the people can only fly you
their glider in the in the positive range of the polar curve which is from minimum speed to full speed in best scenario from minimum speed to full speed but there is you can fly backwards you know you can do a tail slide the full stall you can and and and i don't even want to go any further than just full stalls and wing overs and obviously spiral dive but but but the full stalls and the wing overs are the two elementary and most important maneuvers that should be part of some kind of a basic course or some kind of a basic license that people have to master you know before whatever getting their their like certification or the second one or whatever advanced thing because most importantly obviously the full stall is your only chance in some situations your only chance to avoid throwing a reserve
or avoid getting into an outer rotation or you know correct uh a big collapse or uh a cravatted wing and the wing over on the other hand is is your your tool to maneuver around in three-dimensional space um on the limit basically to max out your maneuverability with each glider and and you know i i am so upset every time i see one of those thousands of crash videos on youtube because because the the the reason why people crash and get hurt is because they don't have a minimum skill of glider control which when they get into some kind of a stressful situation then then of course then they they tend to well
lock or just do the wrong thing and by not being able to uh to perform a full stall like it was the the most natural thing you know yeah like so obviously how how do you expect them to source sort out certain situations without that knowledge there is i can tell you there is no way and sometimes if they would stall they would get into even bigger trouble than what they're doing right now and so i think it's it's a it's a it's a it's a it's a it's a it's a they are already in true so yeah
i think it's a i i think it's terrifying that you know maybe you know if most people wouldn't even do this but maybe they'll do an SIV a year and maybe if they get the weather and everything goes right they might get three or four stalls the last day of the SIV and that might be the last time they'll ever do it you know and exactly yeah in the 2015 X-Alps i had to full stall three times one day coming out of the out of the matterhorn in in a horrific amount of wind and and like you said if it's something you're really comfortable with it's just not it's a non-event it's just nothing you lose 10 meters and you keep flying
exactly exactly and and this should be you know the standard maneuver for all pilots and then we would have basically uh we would not have like probably 90 percent of the accidents with more ground handling and more full stalls it would be like the safety statistics safety statistics and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and would be like turning upside down that's
great i'm so glad you brought that up well for those of you listening we will have show notes when this goes live and uh and we'll have links to everything pal's talking about and maybe it sounds like your project's not quite ready for release but when it is uh make sure we we uh we blow that up and put it everywhere thanks for for doing that um yeah
just i i i recently just had to fire the third guy i've been working with this project so and and two of them and and the last two guys were were editors basically i already i already pre-cut all the four hours of footage and every so basically somebody just need to go over uh correct the sound you know the colors and do some animations and basically just create a final product i don't have time to and i'm not you know skilled enough to trust my skills to okay
well cool well this is a call out you be careful dude you're gonna get a lot of emails because of what you just said but yeah they're i'm sure they'll be now
it's it's already on the way it's i don't have time for for more good good
well cool well i i can't wait for that okay well hey i i want to be mindful of your time but the but before you go um why the big gap between 2009 and 2017 obviously you had the accidents in 2012 but you know kind of fill me in on that what was the experience of the 2009 X-Alps um and then uh you know why why come back to it thanks
for asking so well i didn't come back in 2011 because after 2009 i told myself never again really but um yeah because well it was obviously it was um i the the coin has both sides i mean obviously it's it's one of the most beautiful and and and challenging and exciting but as well dangerous event you know ever organized in in paragliding and um well back then there was no um resting time so it was it was basically a night pass every night which is now which is uh today most particularly the participants could probably not even imagine how you know it went down because because you know now like the athletes are thinking about the night pass as some um radical mysterious you know like the crazy stuff and and and some of them they don't even want to pull the night pass unless you know like super necessary because it was it was really really different style and it made it more radical and uh but luckily they they made this new rule because well and even with this new rule that you have to to stop so long every night but after a few days you just just whenever you know the air is calm and maybe you have a slow climb or maybe you have to be patient you you just start falling asleep so it's still super exhausting and uh yeah then came the exit and and uh i
i don't know it was a combination of many things uh probably most importantly that i kind of felt this need and motivation to to prove myself that you know it's still possible like i'm still able to i'm you know i'm even after all this i'm not crippled and kind of to the same in a way and and but kind of also tests especially my knee because it's that i had my knee and also my ankle that was broken so but i i was really motivated to to just train hard and get fit again and and and and test myself and my body to see if if i could do it again and and and i'm happy yeah
it's it's it's an amazing journey isn't it well did you have it you kind of have it in mind? You know, because, you know, it seemed to me, and again, this might be really wrong, but it seemed to me that in the last kind of three years, you were really chasing it in cross country. You know, you've done a lot of, you've been doing more world cups, you've been doing more comps. You know, was it something, was it something kind of that clicked like back in 2015 or 14, like, Hey, maybe I'll give this another shot. I'm getting healthy again. I'm feeling good. Or, or was it really kind of a last minute decision?
No, no, not at all. You know, I, I really felt motivated to do more competitions and everything, but just, you know, before, um, before 2011, before I stopped, uh, the actual career, it was just really impossible. Then the big click or, well, the moment, uh, the, the big change came, uh, when I, when I, when I, when I came to ozone in 2014. So with ozone, I, I, I got the tool of flying the best gliders and, and that really pushed me to, to compete more, but still, unfortunately I, I could not by far compete as much as I wish to because, uh,
the last few years, most of the world cups were always at the same time or, or at least a few days where, where hitting one of the air races or some other event, or they would be just way too far and way too expensive. And, and, uh, and it didn't work out, but I will really, really, I still feel the same and I still want to do way more. And I'm really like, I'm sitting on needles to, to do more than that, more of that, but, um, the moment still needs to come and hopefully it will come soon.
So the, the, the 20, 17 race, um, you know, you, you, you crushed it even regardless of the 48 hour penalty, which must've been just brutal, uh, sitting there in Italy and, and seeing people making progress and stuff. But what, what was, you share with me your kind of highest moment and your lowest moment of the race?
Well, the lowest moment, if I may start with that was obviously, uh, realizing the, um, um, the airspace violation,
uh, which I wasn't quite sure about until, uh, the next day. And, and it upset me, like it upset me really bad because I was, I was doing great. You know, I felt really strong, like physically, and I was flying really well. And, um, and it upset me, especially because of my team, because of, you know, there were four people behind me working their ass off. And, and, and doing a great job. And then basically me doing this, this stupid little mistake that, um, the kind of, you know, destroys everything in a way. And, and, and, and I really, I mean, not only sorry for myself, but, but, but more for them.
And, um, so that was, that was a really hard moment. But then, uh, when, when I figured that, that, that I, I got the penalty and, and, you know, the shit hit the floor. And then fuck, I, I, I started to feel like really emotional. And, and then I was on the way up in a, whatever, 1,400 meter climb, uh, somewhere in South Tyrol before my run. And, um, and, uh, the first spot I had some coverage, I called my team and, you know, they put me on the speaker and then I told him, you know, sorry guys, it's, it sucks, but you know, I don't want you to, to break down.
I don't want you to feel bad about it. I'm sorry for the mistake, but you know, we're gonna just get, get the best out of it still. And, and, and, um, and, uh, well, we, we are racing, we are in a different race now, but anyway, we, we're gonna keep racing. And, uh, and that was cool. Then, then I had a, uh, a pretty strong moment. I had to cry for some time and, uh, on the top, on the same mountain, that was, uh, there were like three or four more athletes.
And, um, and I was super pleased. I, I, I took off way too early. I almost bombed out, then at the end I did not, but, uh, it was great. And the positive or the, the highlights for me, I think I can honestly say that I did, i think i think i i never in my life flew that well as as as during those those 10 11 days because i mean even considering that you know i was really tired and and you know it's you're not in the same mindset as if you wait for the wait for the one of the best days of the year and then you go super motivated to the takeoff and fresh and you know all just you know you put everything on on that day and and go full obviously you are likely to make better decisions and stuff but considering all the conditions i mean the physical and mental load and uh i i have to say i can only i can only mention like one single mistake i know i i did a mistake i could have done better i could have flown a little bit more but but that's it like it's one mistake
i can really i and and it's it's awesome i mean i i i feel so crazy happy about it because because i mean sometimes the conditions were really tricky sometimes it was i mean you know
standard yeah exactly yeah
like like day three when when you flew over my head and i you know it was it was such a non-event you know it was like we nick and i got shaded out going in there and and then you came in and and uh you know i i bombed
and i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i bombed
and that happens in paragliding whatever and and uh you know but then on the way back up i tried to take a shortcut and i lost my phone and it was it just you know it was an hour delay that turned into not getting to treat you know i launched later on with all you guys going the other way and it's just yeah i think i
saw you amazing i think i saw you launching below us yeah
really cross really dicey down there oh yeah it was too i i flew just across the valley and then another little hop and you just you couldn't get in then it was so south and so so nasty that it was just you just missed your window and then like you say you have to uh that was my really low moment that night you know just going oh what what have i done i went from third to last almost you know and uh and but it was at the same time it's like you just have to shift your mind isn't it like okay i'm not this i'm not gonna place now it's that it's a different kind of race now and then from then once i once i was over that hump it was beautiful the whole way you know it's like wow this is you just have to appreciate it for what it is you know
exactly and and and this is how i came to to the race i knew there's gonna be suffering i knew it's gonna be danger and all that stuff but but i also knew from 2009 that it's it's something really special and beautiful and and you just have to see the beauty in it and and try to you know put the suffering aside or at least you know you know you know you know you know you know you know you know you and and just have to like be able to make fun out of it in a way like you knowing to be able
to just like be able to just make fun out of it in a way like you know to be laughing
about the suffering and yeah it's it's really difficult sometimes but but i mean you have to figure something out because otherwise it's gonna be terrible it's
a long way to go so uh the the answer's yes ultimate question will you do it again
yeah so i mean i i know i i know i an amp talked to that for sure and but i feel like you need to i said the same in 2009 and then i came back eight years later but um the thing is and that's different now what i learned from two ex-ops that is is the preparation the amount of time and effort and energy you put into it is is not balanced by the the result by the outcome in any way like you know it's just basically even even though when i registered for 2017 i promised myself okay well i you know you you probably gonna qualify it's not like i registered and i see if i get qualified or not i knew exactly if i register i will like most probably be qualified again so i just promised myself okay i will do this again but i will not put so much effort into it because i have shit lots of other things to take care of and you know a lot a lot of other things happening in my life which are in a way more important and my health is as well more important than anything else in terms of like competition and result and fame and whatever so
and still do you look back at that
um sorry to interrupt i just do you do you think in some ways that that helped in it like having having the distractions have it you know not taking it maybe as seriously as for example i did uh but you know like i i i've thought about that a lot like clearly you know Chrigel takes it probably more seriously than anybody and he trains really really hard and obviously he's he's amazing and he wins but i i wonder in your case like you you you may be coming in so relaxed and and not really having um you know expectations or pressure maybe that allowed you
to do that but i i don't know i don't know i don't know i don't know i don't know i don't
know i
don't know i don't know i don't know i don't know i don't know i don't know i don't know because
i i fly differently in the X-Alps i start worrying about course line and i i i make my mistakes are because i'm not as loose you know as when i fly normally you know i'm more tight i'm more i'm more like i know the move i need to make but oh god if i don't if you know if it doesn't work out i'm going to be 10 miles farther walk and so i don't do it you know and
yeah um
i think there's something in what you say so basically not having such a big expectations i think certainly helps not to feel so much under pressure and maybe be able to make clearer decisions or better decisions and and not to be so strict to yourself but at the same time i'm i'm a super competitive person and and then i with this i return to my my original thoughts that even though i promised myself not to invest so much effort into this but i did and i could not help it i basically like my the last few months before or let's say for sure the last two months like completely but completely the exhaust took over my life and and in terms of preparation in terms of training in terms of preparing basically everything and and lucky i i i was lucky enough to to get some last minute support and and and and find the right people to to help this journey uh which was again kind of you know although i didn't really want it to put effort into looking for sponsors and put effort into making this professionally and put so much effort into you know looking at the route and and and spending fucking hours
studying the route and and and looking at tracks and then and then even you know drive down to to italy and and drive down to places and look at at certain things but i did not so much really flying the route that was still like a lot and a lot of of of virgin territory for me a lot but but um it turned out quite well and uh but that's what i mean so even though if i promise myself no i will you know focus on the on the more important things in my life i i can't now i prove myself that i just can't you tick the box uh take it take i can't take it easy i can't take it that lose because that's not that's not who i am that's not how i work yeah it's a
it's a it's a major commitment absolutely it's it's it's a major commitment your life yeah you have you you at least have one one fan on the other end of here that it's it'll be disappointed not to see you in the race because man you were fun to watch that was uh awesome effort and uh yeah you'll never know time does funny things but um speaking of time i you you've given me way more than uh your fair right way more than what i could have possibly asked for so thank you so much i really appreciate it uh that's a perfect place to end and uh i can't wait to see this this film uh that when you
watch it i'm going to be so happy to see you in the
we'll have to show that to everybody that that sounds terrific uh good luck with that project good luck with columbia uh and your girlfriend that sounds like another major project we didn't even get to talk about that very cool thanks
very much i mean talk to you soon bye bye
cheers bye
well i hope you enjoyed that uh really cool to sit down pal and and get all that cool information if you're getting something out of this if you're enjoying the show or if you're just first discovering it i really invite you to go back and check out all the other shows that we've done all the amazing shows we've had in the past with so many incredible pilots there's a lot of great information but if you're getting something out of this um as i always ask for all we ask for is a buck a show uh this is a listener supported podcast it's actually pretty spendy to put all this out there and of course extremely time consuming and really appreciate those of you who do support us uh you can do it directly through paypal or you can sign it sign up for a buck a show that's all we've ever asked for is a buck a show you can sign up on patreon.com forward slash cloud based mayhem and get the bonus material stuff if you sign up at certain levels you can get a hat and a t-shirt and a whole bunch of other things so check that out it's pretty fun there's also some really cool footage that's not in the movie from north and known and uh yeah we will see you on the next show fly safe fly far have fun cheers