Hey
everybody, welcome to another episode of the Cloudbase Mayhem. Many, many people have asked for Theo LeBlanc, the Master Jedi Acro pilot, who has been making quite a name for himself in the last few years, dominating the World Cup scene in Acro. And you've seen all his instructional videos, I'm sure, from his hometown near St. Hilaire and all of his amazing pictures and videos. And probably have seen his column in Cross Country Magazine. He's been writing a column now for the last bunch of months that is just terrific. I'm not by any means a very skilled Acro pilot, but I love reading his column. I've gotten a lot out of that. And so in this episode, we talk about that and progression and where he trains and throwing a reserve and a lot of safety stuff.
And just, we had a lot of fun. This was great. I recorded it on my end at midnight. It was very early in the morning for him because he had to get on to training and doing some other things. But it was no problem staying awake and listening to Theo and writing a bunch of notes down. This is a good chat with a good dude who's a really, really skilled, just amazing pilot. So check him out online, you know, check out his videos. He's got a lot of instructional stuff up and enjoy this talk with Theo LeBlanc.
Theo, so excited to talk to you. You're on a little bit opposite sides of the earth here at midnight for me and getting going on your big day in the morning. So I know we're on a little bit limited time. So let's just get right into this. I've been following your column and in cross country for the last bit of time and always really enjoy that. And I've seen a ton of your videos because, of course, like everybody else, I'm trying to learn from them as well. But before we get into, I've got a lot of questions to ask you about Acro and training. And progression and all that kind of stuff. But before we get into it, what I haven't read about or seen, and maybe you've written about it somewhere else, but I'm not totally aware of it. What was the catalyst that got you into paragliding? And maybe give us the rundown of how you've become, you know, as far as I know, this is how you're making your living in a career.
Can you take us through that, you know, how that all kind of went down? Because it's unique, it's tough, and I'm sure people would enjoy hearing that. Yeah,
well, actually, the way I got into paragliding was quite easy because my father was a paragliding instructor. So I've always been in paragliding somehow. I've always been around landing fields and places like this. So when I was two years old, my father began teaching as an instructor. He brought me in tandems and slowly, step by step, I started ground handling at six. And I did my first flight. And I did my first flight in solo at 12. So it all went quite smoothly. And I was in a really good environment because the school I was in had really, really good pilots teaching there. So as well as cross country pilots, there were agro pilots and everyone. So I had a lot of good experiences there, a lot of good teaching from everyone.
So it just went step by step until I could fly by myself. And what not many people know is that I was also with my friend Tim Alonji, who is now a pilot. Also a professional pilot. And we were in the same place as well. So we were flying together also in the same place. So it was at that time, it all went really, really smoothly. I learned step by step with my father, with the other instructor. And I just was not focusing much into agro or professional paragliding. I was just enjoying flying as much as I could until step by step. The idea of becoming a professional came into my mind. But it changed. It really took a long time, actually.
And from all your videos, do you live in Saint-Hilaire? Is that base?
Yeah, I don't really live in Saint-Hilaire. Actually, I fly a lot there. But I live in Chambéry, which is in between Saint-Hilaire and Annecy, actually. I live there because we have one of the best agro spots to train in France. It's there. It's in Chambéry. So basically, it's an afternoon spot. So I go usually to Saint-Hilaire in the morning. And I train in Varel. That's the name of the spot in the afternoon afterwards.
And I've flown a lot in that area, but I'm not familiar with that site. Is that over the water, the site you're flying in Chambéry? Or that's like an afternoon, kind of more like a… Not only then, it's what I'm thinking of in Spain. Gosh, I'm sorry. Yeah, of course. Organia. Is it like Organia? Kind of you can just reload?
No, it's really like Organia. It's not above the ground like Organia. It's above the ground. It's a huge forest, actually. So you have cliffs and a forest below. And in Organia, it's a place where the valley wind is coming straight onto the mountains, while Varel is a place where the sun is hitting up the cliff and the valley wind is sideways to the cliffs. So you can train really safely because the wind will never blow you if you're under the rescue to the cliff, but instead it will blow you into the valley and on the trees. But basically, it's not a place where we train. It's a place where we train above ground, above water, sorry. It's a place where we train above the ground with thermal and we just fly all day long from usually 1 p.m. to 8 p.m.
So it is really, really good. Yeah, it's really good. For accro, it's really good. For cross country, not that much because obviously it's starting pretty late. But for accro, it's a perfect place.
Okay, well, before we get into the training side of things, then when did it kind of switch for you? When did you decide, okay, maybe I can make a living doing this?
Well, actually, it came down quite naturally. I think it always comes down quite naturally, these kind of things. But basically, I was starting to go into accro more and more. My father allowed me to go on a trip in Organia in Spain when I was like 15 or 14 to train there. And then I started to learn some tricks. I learned infinity tumbling, which at the time was quite aggressive. It was a great achievement, particularly at 15. And so I started also to sign my first sponsors. And step by step, the sponsors gave me gliders. And then slowly, step by step, I got money out of it, a little bit of money, just enough to pay for training, then enough to pay for a living. So it's always step by step.
And it's not until I think like maybe five or six years ago that I really said, okay, no, I focus on it. And I do it as a real... Real job every day.
And now, so now that you've been kind of doing it and competing for this much time, is it something you see yourself you could maintain? I mean, is it... I don't want to ask too personally, but is it enough money to pay the bills and have a good living? We had Ander Prashaska on about a little over a year ago. It was maybe even more than that. But, you know, he was... He's... Also doing quite well on the tour and that kind of thing. But, you know, I think you can't get by just with the winnings.
Yeah, actually, we cannot live through the winnings of competitions. The winnings are really, really small. So it's not enough. But through sponsorship and everything, it's quite enough. I'm living quite well right now in France through the sponsorship and through Gradient and Super helping me out.
And I'm making quite a good living out of it. And it's quite... It's stable as well. So now that the whole thing is running, it's really much easier to keep it running than to start it all over again. So it's working quite well.
And what about cross country? Do you also fly quite a bit of cross country? Or is really your focus just acro?
Well, so far, the last years, it was really much into acro. And since, I think, two years, two or three years, I've started to fly cross country. Three more and more. But because I'm more interested into the... I can fly formats and cross country. So I fly mostly some I can fly tours and cross country. And I can fly because only cross country, I have problem to see the point. But I can fly. I really get it. And it's really... I really enjoy it.
It's funny that you say you don't see the point. So that's going to be my next question with acro. So I've often done some acro training and nothing like what you guys do. But more... Or just to make me safe for cross country. We always talk about that you guys are just the Jedis when it comes to ground handling and correcting your wing out of crazy situations, of course, which you can get in. Of course, flying cross country. But when I've gone to places like Garda or Annecy to train acro, I get quite bored quite quickly. I mean, it's just a very different scene. And you wrote a really good article just recently. You wrote a really good article just recently in cross country about managing that.
Can you talk about that a little bit? Like when I've gone to like acro competitions and stuff, it's just your flight is over so fast. And you have to go back up. And it's just like you're learning these minutiae just over and over and over again because it really is repetitive, right? To really be able to move and get it right and start getting sequences really right. You've got to just practice it over and over and over again. I found that quite tricky. But tell me about kind of how you've attacked your training.
Well, obviously, there is a lot of ways to train acro. But for me, if I had to train in Garda or in Annecy all the time, I would find it quite boring as well because always packing, taking the lift again, doing a one-minute flight, going up again. It's quite tricky and it's quite boring in my opinion. But once you find a cool spot like Ogania or like Varel where I'm flying now, where you stay all the afternoon in the air and you really are flying so you never land, you just fly your tricks and go up again and fly your tricks, then you really can kind of get the momentum of acro because it's really you get the training part. It means that you can really repeat it as much as you can, as much as you want it to. And you can really progress in it.
So that's actually my whole mojo in acro is really to progress. So when I'm training, I want to do everything perfect. And if I don't get everything perfect, I will need to train it and repeat it as much as possible. But obviously, if I want to do this, I need to have a cool spot where I can fly and I can enjoy flying, not do a one-minute run, then land, pack again, take the car up. So it's really all about the place you are in training, the place you are training in, and all about the...
the feeling you get out of it. So for me, it's really about flying rather than just doing runs up and down the mountain. So when you go from a cross country pilot training to do acro, you want to learn the basics. You want to learn how to manage your glider in a tricky environment. While for my side of the things, I want to learn everything about managing my glider in everything, in every way, and even in ways that you cannot encounter while normal cross country flying.
And the site that you fly now, I imagine, you know, doing the sequences and the moves that are, I mean, even for you, I would imagine, more at the difficult end of things, although you're the master, you know, do you find yourself in situations that, like, oh gosh, I mean, is this a place where you can safely throw your reserve and be fine?
Yeah, obviously, the reserve throwing is kind of... of a mental thing, mostly. I've done it several times, and at least 10 times so far. So right now, I know that I have the experience and the reactivity to quite make the good decision every time I have to throw the reserve. That means that I have all the reflexes ready. So I have kind of in my head, like, a step-by-step of what I have to do if I throw the reserve, and I follow it every time I throw the reserve. So I feel quite safe because when I throw the reserve, I... I know what I have to do once I throw the reserve and what I have to focus on and everything. So I always feel quite safe, whatever the place I'm in, because I have all this focus on these steps that I know, that I described in the magazine.
And I really believe that they save my life every time, so 100 % so far, and it's quite a good ratio. So I always feel quite safe, even in the tricky situation, which happens less and less, actually, over the time.
So that article, for those that haven't read that, take us through those steps, but also remind me, are you using a cutaway system or in a steerable reserve? What's your equipment setup first? And then take us through what those steps are.
Well, so far, my equipment setup is not with a cutaway system. I'm flying a normal system with a Rogalo and a round rescue as a backup. Actually, it's a square rescue as a backup. Basically, I'm not using a cutaway system just for personal reasons. It's because so far, I feel really good with my actual system, and I really enjoy it. And for competition, for example, we usually don't fly the cutaway because of the trouble when drying the equipment, drying a base canopy. It's quite painful because then you have to repack it and everything. It takes a lot of time. So basically, we fly normal harnesses with two rescues. So for the training, I use it as well.
And also because I'm fully confident in my equipment so far. But what I think my honest opinion is that the safest setup right now is a cutaway for sure. So if you're starting acro, it's the safest setup.
And then take us through, you know, not... I realize every rescue, every throw is different, but take us through, you know, your checklist in your head when things go wrong.
Yeah, I hope I won't forget anything. But first of all, I always check my altitude. It's the first thing I do. If something is going wrong, I check down. I check that I have what my altitude is. And when I check, I have any doubt about the altitude. I check, but I'm not sure really about my altitude. I'm at 500. Am I at 200? I throw the reserve quite immediately.
Once the decision to throw the reserve is taken, I check the situation I'm in more thoroughly. It means that I am in auto-rotation with a lot of twists. Am I in a backfly with a lot of twists? Have I a big cravat or something? To react accordingly. So it means that if I am in auto-rotation, I will throw the reserve in a different way than if I have a big cravat and I'm playing straight. So all this comes into my mind. I have to... So it all takes like a split of a second, obviously. But it's an important decision you have to make. Then once I've checked everything, I go to... In the meanwhile I'm going to my rescue handle. So usually I go from...
I put my hand on my knee. And I slide from my knee to where I think my rescue handle is. Basically I'm doing this to be sure that I will find my rescue handle. Because sometimes... in a tricky situation you are thrown out of the harness you are in a you're not in the position you are usually flying so basically following from your knee to the to your butt actually is the best way to find your handle so usually i do this once i find my handle i throw it as far as i can away from me so i really don't some people unscratch it and then throw it me i really usually throw it all the way so and scratch it and throw it away as fast as possible and then i just check if my rescue is opening well because sometimes it's not opening well so yeah i have to throw the second one obviously it doesn't happen so often but it's a really an important way to an important thing to check because some people usually forget that on the rescue it is open maybe partially open which means that some part is in the glider or something else so usually it's important to check this and on time under the rescue the first thing i do is focusing on my glider so basically a rescue and a glider together flying is not a good setup you are going down really fast and sometimes way too fast for your body to to enjoy the landing so it's important to focus on the glider and find a good way to to take back your glider in so either through pulling the lines or through stalling the glider if you have not a lot of times but just getting your glider back and once you have done this i focus on on my landing points so basically if i have a rogue aloe i will try to to land front wind so i will go i will put my rogue aloe front wind or i will try to to land in a good spot or if you if i have a run rescue i will try to see where i'm going to land and to prepare because if we throw on rescue you don't control much but basically the best way to prepare once i have checked everything and i'm in the good position for landing is just to stand up and uh and basically in my head when i i'm standing i'm standing up always before the crash because if i arrive quite fast i will stand up anyway and put the leg first because in my in my head and it's quite quite difficult to to say it and to think about it but the leg is way easier to reaper than a back so i prefer to break my legs so basically i stand up and i prefer to crash on my legs and then i check the situation once i'm landed basically it's all the steps i'm thinking it's obviously in a tricky situation it all goes quite fast in your head so it's uh it's all a blur but uh but it's kind of all the steps i'm thinking about when i throw the rescue and so far i've never hurt myself never broken a leg and i've always landed in quite good situations
dio are you doing something let's say you're you're using your right hand to throw um are you putting both toggles in your in your left hand to keep your to try to keep your wing from uh let's say you're let's say you've been in an auto rotate situation but you're you were able to kind of stop it are you but you've got a big cravat like it may go into it again or it may to keep it what i'm trying to say is are you doing anything to try to keep it from shooting or doing something else when you go yeah for sure
yeah for sure it's it's really important well if you are in the rotation for the rotations and you should focus on throwing the rescue but in any other situations where you have the glider under control you have to keep the glider under control because you never know what what could happen once you throw the rescue so it's important to to keep both struggle in one hand and and to and to force the rescue with the other one of course
i'm also using a term that some people might not be familiar with can you describe auto rotate yeah
auto rotation basically is uh is when the glider entered on a rotation really fast it can be either a spiral or a more a movement closer to the set basically it happens uh with a cravat or with some twists uh because of the of the asymmetry of the harnesses of the of the brakes when you twist or basically with a collapse well with a collapse it's not it's not really usual because usually the glider exit by itself and uh and you don't um and the glider reopens but mostly in acro it's with a cravat or most of the time with twist because with a cravat usually we can we can manage the worst the worst risk of auto rotation with for acro pilots is basically twist
gotcha yeah i always think of it as it it has that sensation like you're going into an infinite or something like you're just you're almost you're almost looping but it's it's uh ugly
yeah it's it's basically the rotation basically is a really really strong spiral strong spiral so yeah it's not not really fun and usually when you are in auto rotation you are not in a in a in a comfortable place because you have maybe you are twisted or anything so you are not in the usual playing position and it's going somewhere you don't really understand and yeah it's not really comfortable it's not something you wish to happen to anybody do
you how do you so you're training over over dirt and what we always hear is you know you go to places like where you train or organia um you know after you really have the totally nailed uh is that how you've approached it too or are you learning new stuff and new sequences uh where you train there well
definitely not in my pot um because i've always felt quite comfortable above the ground so i've trained everything above the ground i've not learned any tricks above the water so far and uh and above the ground what i what i think is that if you have the good uh the good reflexes so i already always uh was really mentally prepared to further rescue and i knew very well all the steps to further rescue and i knew very well the altitude i had and everything i always took a lot of care about my altitude but basically uh i always train above the ground and a lot of people do this because i was always really confident in myself that i could further rescue that i could manage the situation and that i had enough altitude but i think it's a really personal
thing some people are really not as confident above the ground and would rather train above the water and i think it's important not to push yourself too too much so if you are more like a water person train above the water it's no problem there is no shame in that it's just a personal feeling i guess about it about it
yeah i mean of course and just time i mean when you were talking about that you fly all afternoon for hours and hours every day uh you know you just you just can't get that over the water period that's impossible so that's yeah obviously you're just getting so many more hours um tell me about so you know you you've kind of you've seen you came into it of course after raul and all the guys who really set the precedent and stuff but where do you see it where do you see it going well
um when i came into the sport actually uh it was uh like the golden era still uh raul and oracio and felix and just just uh pal also it was more the era of pal was starting when i came into the sport but uh a lot of tricks were coming in and the first professional pilots were arriving into the sport because so far before i don't remember a lot of professional pilots and uh so so far i've seen the sports grow because right now uh when i started acro was really only for acro pilots it means that people were starting acro and they were really focusing on acro and uh it was really something like you didn't take so lightly you know to go to to perform an acro run so far what i see is that a lot of people right now are doing acro as a
as a side uh as a side effect of paragliding like they go for paragliding and sometimes they perform some acro flying because they like it they enjoy it but they may prefer flying cross country or it's not really their main focus in paragliding but i think a lot of the future in acro is uh is in this and i i'm really a bit happy about it because i see a lot of i've seen a lot of pilots just playing acro just for the for the pure enjoyment of it and also for the for the basic knowledge that it can give them in their normal frame so basically i think acro is evolving in into something like this where people will fly mostly everything and not just only cross country or just acro but they will try to uh to enjoy all aspects of paragliding and i think it's one of the future of acro so far
when we had we had pal on the show not too not too long ago and he was talking about one of the one of the kind of frustrations for him uh was was the judged aspect you know that it it you know sometimes it matters you know sometimes you got lucky and sometimes uh you know maybe you got more points than you should have and then other times the other way around but because it's judged you know it's like gymnastics it's just it's tricky um do you do you share the same frustrations or is it something that's just a part of it, that's just how it is?
Yeah, I think every competitive acro-pilot will tell you the same. It's really frustrating, but obviously you cannot do anything about it, but it's a judge sport, so first of all, nobody is seeing your performance the same way. I mean, the judges will all see it personally, whether they like it or not. It's really an emotional sport. I mean, either you touch emotionally the judges and they will give you a really good point, or you didn't, but still you performed well, but you will get less points than the one after you who did as well as you, but just maybe the judges were more receptive. So it's really frustrating for everyone, but as Paul said, sometimes you are lucky, sometimes you are not lucky, and that's the way it is actually.
At the end of the day, on one condition, competition, the best pilot might not win, but on the all-two, on the all-circuit, on three, four, five competition, at the end, normally the best pilot should come up first, should be.
Theo, what's the, for the, not the level that you guys are at in comps and flying comps year-round, but just people that you want to see, they're excited about flying, they want to become a really good pilot. They want to make sure they get X. You know, what is that X? What are the foundational skills that you see maybe a lot of cross country pilots missing?
The main fundamental skill that many cross country pilots are missing is the full stall port. Well, if you, the main part they are missing is the rescue part, because I see a lot of cross country pilots not able to throw the rescue correctly and sometimes not even think about it. They're not thinking about the rescue, which I think is the one thing our crew is teaching you, but in the really technical part of paragliding, I think the full stall is something that a lot of pilots are missing or are misinterpreting, because I've seen a lot of pilots going to SIVs and telling me afterwards, yeah, full stall is no problem. I've done three in SIVs, and they've never got the guts to perform it above ground again or got the confidence to perform it again.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's not managing full stall, and I think when you are a cross country pilot, you will go into situations where you will get sometimes cravat. You will get in difficult situations, and you should be able to stall your glider just without thinking it should be an automatism, and I think a lot of cross country pilots so far are missing this automatism.
I'm so glad you brought that up. Pal brought that up as well, and he thought just a considerable number, I mean, he gave it a huge number of accidents, eliminated just with that one. That's actually what my next column is about in the magazine, so I'm glad you brought that up. What other ones? One of the things that I hear come up on the podcast from other pilots quite a bit, a lot more of the cross country guys too, but like wing-overs, just in that big, proper, good wing-over is something a lot of cross country pilots don't have.
Yeah, obviously, it's a huge wing-over. It's something that you don't see so often. Well, with the new cross country, it's gotten easier and easier. I mean, if you try an ENB wing and then you try an Enzo 3, maybe you will be able to do very good wing-over with Enzo 3 while you will have struggled to get the momentum with an ENB glider because it does so much more energy. But for most of the pilots, really good wing-over is difficult to achieve, and I can understand that because it's not so easy. You have to really understand your glider and to really understand your glider. You have to really get the feeling out of it. So it's not really easy, but it's true that it's important because it's one of the few maneuvers, we could say, that works on all axes, which means the pitch, the helico part, and the rolling part.
So it's really a maneuver where you can learn a lot about the momentum of the glider, which means where to pull. You have all kinds of ways to do wing-overs. There is all the way, all the pitch. When you are going down and going up, when you can pull, when you cannot pull, the control of the outside tip for it not to collapse and everything. So it's a really, really interesting school of paragliding wing-overs. But still, in my opinion, full stall stays the main, main problem in nowadays paragliding cross country pilots.
Okay. So take me through then the kind of next, you know, so once you feel like, once you really have stalls totally dialed, what are the next kind of moves to build your acro foundation?
Well, the good thing is that once you have stalls perfectly, you are in a safe place, which means that every time you are in trouble, you will come back for stalls, for backfly. So basically it opens to everything. So after stalls, usually what I'm focusing on is, is, spins and helicopters, because it's, first of all, it's something that can happen while flying. So it's always useful to, to be used to this, to this feeling, but it's also a really, really fun trick to perform. So after stall, I would think the next step is helicopter.
Okay. Yeah. And that's quite technical, isn't it? I mean, I think that you, you recently wrote that, you know, to learn helico and to learn a lot of the maneuvers that require deep stall. You know, the best thing is to not be on a super twitchy glider. So don't be on a freestyle or an acro glider, you know, get a nice B. Can you, can you talk about that a little bit more?
Yeah, basically. The helico is one of the most technical tricks. It's not, it's not the most, the most hardcore, the most dangerous, but it's one of the most technical because it always, it all comes down to a really, really precise control of the glider. You are in, you are in a really precise situation. So you have to be a really, really strong control of the glider. And, and it's, it's more difficult to have this control with a, with a hardcore acro wing or even with a freestyle wing, because it's really more sensitive in the, in the back fly, in the deep stall position. While an ENB wing allows you to have a much more huge margins of, of error. So you can, you can make a lot more mistakes with an ENB and still the glider will help you out.
A lot. And, and when the situation will, will get a bit more tricky and you will start to, to lose the control a little bit of the gliders. The ENB glider will help you out a lot by a really easy responses. So I think everyone should start training those tricks with a, with an ENB glider. Obviously it's not the case so far, but, but all my friends, I always advise them to go for ENB glider. And so far the results have been really great. And, and they get a lot of confidence out of it. And when they, when they go after, after learning every tricks, every helical tricks and all the tricks they can on an ENB glider, when they go to a freestyle wing or to an acro wing, they usually get way faster than next steps and, and they progress really fast.
And it's quite often that I've seen friends of mine or people I know training on the ENB glider while their friends went, went with, with acro gliders and, and, and on my friends went into, went with acro gliders, a progression went way faster than the other people who went straight with acro gliders. So I think it's a, it's, it's kind of a, of a, it's kind of feels like a backward step when you want to go to acro to, to take an ENB glider, but you will, you will find it a really good, really good way to progress and it will be way faster for you once you get it. I think.
Yeah, I like that. That's great. Um, do you, I want to go, I want to go back to what you said about, you know, that the acro pilots, when, when something goes wrong, uh, you, you know how to react because you've done it so much as a work, where a lot of times cross country pilots get hurt is they, they don't throw it all. Uh, that, that's been, you know, something that I've seen over and over and over again, especially at comps, I think because people are thinking about a goal and they don't want to blow their day. And, you know, they want to, they want to, they want to recover it. Or maybe, maybe like you said, they're just, they're not even looking at the ground. They're just focused on the problem. Um, just talk more about that because I, in, in my acro training, that was the most valuable lesson I got was to recognize,
okay, I've got, I'm twisted up four times. I know that that's going to take, you know, uh, a considerable amount of time to get out of it. It made me really appreciate height a lot more than I had because before I, I had, I had just thought, you know, I'm really good at stalls. I've done a ton of them. Yeah, I can fix this. Uh, whereas there are certain situations, uh, that really do require a lot of time to get out of.
Yeah. Wait, basically, uh, when, when you are playing acro, when you go for an actor and you always think about, uh, the possibility to further risk you. And, uh, that's things that that's what a lot of pilots are lacking. Is that, uh, an acro pilot even flying cross country will always have in, in his mind that it's possible to further rescue. And it's also no problem to further risk you. I mean, uh, is there is no shame in Frank, the rescue. There is no personal failure in France, the rescue. Sometimes it's, it's not such a personal failure to just admit that, that you have been, uh, you have been bested by the elements so far. So, uh, so far it's, uh, it's quite important. I think it's a, it's a big lesson. And, uh, and basically it's, it's just come down to, to just admit, to admit that, uh, that you, you cannot do anything more.
So sometimes it's just because you are too low. Sometimes it's just because the incidents just, uh, outpost your, your, your, your skills, you know, but, uh, in my opinion, that's why that's what a lot of, uh, a lot of pilots should, should, uh, should just mentally train. It's that, okay. Maybe on this flight, I will have to further rescue. And, uh, if this has to happen, then I will throw it. You know, it just, it's just mentally, actually, there is no, no much skills to find the rescue is just a mental preparation. I think. And I think a lot of cross country pilot, uh, doesn't have this because for them, it's kind of, uh, it's kind of shameful to throw the rescue because of a, of a crowd or of a twist or of just, uh, pushing the bar too much in, uh, in turbulences and getting the collapse.
And I don't know, they are ashamed or maybe they are just more scared of, uh, of the landing with the rescues and the landing with the glider. I don't know. It's, uh, basically, it's, it's one skill that Acro can teach everyone and not only Acro, but you can teach it yourself without flying Acro just by, just by thinking before flying that maybe it could happen. And if it happens, then you will be ready because you, you already knew that it could happen. Basically. I
like that. Maybe, you know, like we learn, we learn to, to always reach down every flight and, and, you know, put our hand on the, on the toggle for, to just get that muscle memory. You talked about going out to your knee and over, you know, having, having creating that muscle memory, but maybe creating the muscle memory of just acknowledging that this might be the day.
Yeah. Basically. If you, if you think it's a possibility, when the possibility arrives, you are much more prepared because you already thought about it. So you won't hesitate. Well, if it never crossed your mind that it's possible to further rescue, it won't be the first thing that, that pops into your mind in case of, of trouble. And, uh, and basically everyone is, uh, I think in paragliding, a lot of people are optimistic people. I mean, to go flying by yourself, you must be quite optimistic and quite confident in yourself, but basically too much optimism is not so good. So I think sometimes it's good to just admit that it won't, it won't, uh, just fly by itself. You know, the glider won't recover by itself and that you have to further rescue. And basically the only way is to be prepared to do it.
I like that. Theo, how do you, how do you approach training in the off season? So like you're going into a new season, the winter now, I'm assuming this, this magical site that I can't wait to come fly that you have, uh, that I never even knew was, was there all these years as I've flown a ton of Hennessy and stuff. Um, what, what do you, what do you do now in, in the winter to prepare for the next season?
Well, um, so far winter started since quite, since quite a long time in France, at least, at least two months. And now it's, uh, it will be getting to an end soon, but, uh, basically I'm flying. I'm still flying as much as I can. I'm trying to find the conditions, but, uh, just doing runs. So not, not with thermal activity with the cars are going up and down and with cable cars. So I'm training a lot, uh, a lot for this. And I'm also training physically to, to still be in shape for the season. So running, doing exercises, just, just to keep the, to keep the cardio high and to keep the body in shape for the season. And, uh, and I will also move to, to better climates. Uh, so probably in January, February, uh, to the Cornelius Island in Spain, which are also really good flying spot for the winter.
So we just travel around in the, in the winter. We take some, a few, a few weeks off just to relax after the season. And after that, we just try to find the conditions or to just wait the sunny days in the winter in France.
For those who, um, yeah, specifically speaking to our North American listeners, but there's, there's people all over the world that maybe don't have, uh, great spots in their, their backyard like you do to train. What are, what are, um, you know, give us your, give us a half dozen or more sites that are, that are great. And maybe the times of the year, like if you wanted to get on, not necessarily the, the circuit to train for, for comp flying, but just to, you know, your, your kind of favorite, most reliable places to train acro.
Well, obviously the most reliable and my favorite place to train acro is, uh, is in Spain. It's Ogania. And the good thing about it is you don't, you don't have to be a world-class pilot to fly there. It's a, it's a really cool place. It's really smooth conditions. It's not so turbulent because it's mostly a restitution place. So from four to 10 PM, it's, it's amazing restitution with a really, really soft air and climbing everywhere. So this is the most reliable place you can find from May to end of September. So this is a place to be. If you want to, to train acro or just basic, basic tricks, you know, not even to train acro, but just if you want to truly get into it.
And then there is my, my own place is really cool. It's really great also. And it starts a bit earlier around March and it ends also end of September and of October, October it's less reliable, reliable than Ogania because obviously Ogania is really special, but it's still working quite good. And otherwise if you have, if you have, if you want to go in the winter, basically Chile, so he is one of the best spots. It's really working really, really good. And it's really amazing. Oh, if you find a place with a cable car, so basically if you are in Europe, Austria, France and Switzerland are full of those. So place with a lot of altitude and a cable car, you can do runs really fast there.
And it's, it's much less boring than if you go with a car. So it's really fast and it's a, it's less tiring as well. So with the car, it's obviously less fun than well with thermaling, but it's quite good. So you have Chamonix, there be a, and all those places in Switzerland, in France and in Austria as well. And you have also the Canary Islands in Europe, which are really, really good as well. And, but it's more, it's a, it's more tricky places. It's more for experts pilot, because, the whole area is a bit more sketchy. It's a boxes for rescue are a bit more hardcore. So you have to take care and you have to really think about it a lot when you're flying. So I think it's more for experts pilots. And well,
basically there is places, I mean, so far I've seen amazing places to fly everywhere, even for ACRO, just in a good day, every place is amazing. And I think in USA and everywhere on the globe, you have amazing places. So basically if you find one, just send me a call and give me a call. I would be happy to visit.
Tell me a little bit about the tour. You know, when, when would someone you know, start to consider, you know, Hey, maybe I could go compete. I mean, cause it's, I mean, it seems to me like you know, you guys, you and Andra and the, the really top level guys it's it's, it's like a world. Of its own, you know, is, is there, is there much room still for, for people to, you know, to come into that you know, arena because it doesn't, you're certainly not going to be top three, unless you're, you're doing the same tricks that all you guys are and not even the same tricks, but the same sequences and you know, the same runs.
Yeah. Obviously the, the tool so far, if you look at the top pilots, it's mostly professional pilots training all year long. So, yeah, it's, it's pretty difficult to get them straight away. You need a lot of training to do so, but still there is a lot of, of pilots, which we, which have another level. So we are, we are not only professional in the tool so far. There are also people with a side job or people just, just flying for fun. And they come to the tool, just, just for the, for the atmosphere, because it's a, it's a really cool atmosphere. We are really friendly. It's a friendly atmosphere in Accra. It's no pressure. Uh, so basically at any level, if you have the basic safety level, so if you can perform the basic tricks, which are any copter and full stolen, some basic connection, you are welcome to the tool because you will always find some people to, to compete, to compete against because there's all level represented at the tool.
So obviously the top level, but as well as the, as a lower levels and, uh, and it's all quite friendly. So basically if you feel that you want to compete in Accra and, and your level is not, is not so high, but you still, you, you are interested to compete. You are welcome because you will always find somebody to compete with right now.
Oh, great. And who that, that that's really cool. I thought you had to qualify or something. So that, that's pretty neat. What, what we
have actually like a qualifier, but uh, basically the pilot has to perform full stall helical and sat, uh, in a, in a safe way about the, so basically as soon as, as he, he's safe and you, you see that he's safe, he's, he's allowed to enter the, the competition. And so far the system is going to change. Uh, I don't have the confirmation, but we should have a qualifier to also going on in the, in the upcoming seasons.
Who, who runs the tour and what, where does, where does the money from that come?
Um, basically every, every competition has its own sponsor so far. So, uh, so there is not a one main sponsor for the tool. Uh, but, uh, usually the competition finds money for, for the States, basically the organizer, walk up or something like this. And, uh, and the country, the States and, uh, and the local, local companies give them money for, to pay for the expenses as well as the entry fee of the two. Also, uh, uh, helping a lot, the organizer to pay, uh, to pay, uh, all the expenses for the, for the, for the event. So basically we don't have a main sponsor, but we have a lot of those plus entry fees paid by the pilots.
Cool. T. If you, if you look ahead, uh, say five years, w where do you see yourself in five years?
Well, I, I have pretty much, and, uh, you know, in a similar spot because I've, I've worked really hard on my career to make it working and running. And I hope that in five years, I should, I should still be able, able to enjoy this, this career and to, to perform. So obviously when I look in five years ahead, I, I hope that, hope that i will be still training still competing and still uh living out of paragliding through cross country for i can fly through all the all this fun stuff that is paragliding
you've mentioned hike and fly now a couple times are we going to be uh are you going to be a surprise show at something like the X-Alps here one of these years well
obviously i'm hoping for it uh i will be competing this train uh in the in the i can fly competition in france i've competed also last year in some and i'm training a lot for it so so far there is nothing decided but uh but i'm training and i i'm hoping to to get the level there
great well i i would uh i'm gonna do it again i think in in 2019 so maybe we'll maybe we'll see you there at the starting line in salzburg that would be uh that would be a blast but yeah i really appreciate it this is uh this has been a real honor and i i thank you for your time i know you've got another meeting coming up so uh let's let's call it there is there anything uh you'd like to say about your sponsors or any of the people that follow your column or anything before before we sign off here yeah
obviously uh first i would like to to thank everyone who follows a column because uh it's been a first for me this year this season to write a column and i've got really really nice responses for it and uh and uh if people have questions about the color now suggestions uh i'm open to suggestions because it's uh it's quite a fun stuff to write and i'm really enjoying it and i hope that everyone is is finding my advices and my column uh uh interesting and helpful also and uh and last of all i would like also to i i'm i would like to thank my sponsors because uh as an athlete i cannot live without them and uh and they are like the main the main my main support there and they they help me out uh in many ways uh other than financially but also uh helping me out in my in my daily life for their product and everything so it's it's something we don't say enough but as an athlete we are totally dependent on them and it's really nice to see that they are there to support us so mainly gradient super
and all the all the paragliding industry supporting us so we are there helping they are helping us out all the time and we need to thank them for the for it
great great thank you i do you know what before we sign off one one more question i'm sure a common friend of ours uh jean baptiste chandelier do you have any you know he's been putting out these amazing films for all these years uh and he and i keep missing each other on on potential uh projects doing together you know of course i'm more cross country but we've we've also done some really fun film projects um do you have anything planned with with him in the future are you guys friends
no yeah we are friends for sure we know each other and we we we see each other quite often because obviously it's a small world and and we are we are friends and but we don't have any project together because obviously so far we have been in in different uh areas and with different sponsors so it's always difficult to to create things uh with different sponsors but i really enjoy his work and so far i think he started some vlogs which i really enjoyed his last vlog was really really nice and it was a new approach for him and and uh it's really nice to see to see him doing such nice work i think it's it's making really good promotion for paragliding globally because uh yeah it's easy to see that it's a nice boat and he really enjoys what what he's doing and for me it's it's the main main thing is to just enjoy what you are doing so gb is really showing it and it's it's really nice
fantastic great theo thanks so much uh let you get off to your other meeting i really appreciate it uh and and also for those of you who who aren't aware of it uh please check out theo's column and cross country it is absolutely fantastic whether you fly acro or not it's a it's it's really terrific i appreciate you the effort you're putting into that theo it's great and uh thanks thank you i appreciate it
yeah thank you for for the opportunity for the for the nice for the nice talk i really enjoyed it it was really nice great see you later buddy yeah see you later i
hope you enjoyed that pretty quick talk with theo the blick uh fantastic to hear all his thoughts about acro and training and and how we cross country pilots can learn from acro and and get a lot safer hope you enjoyed that uh if you are getting something out of the show or this one or one of the previous episodes or if you're just discovering the show uh there's a whole bunch of hours and hours and hours of awesome content back there go back and dive deep into uh some of those other shows just a ton of fantastic advice and if you are enjoying it i'd like to think put this out there think of it like a magazine subscription or something all we ask for is a buck a show you can find those links to support the show on cloudbasedmayhem.com either through paypal as a one-off or you can sign up to kind of set it forget it through patreon.com forward slash cloud based mayhem but this is uh we're not using sponsors to support the show because i hate having to do all that announcing in the beginning uh and i know everybody just fast forwards through it anyway so this is a listener supported podcast you are what makes this possible and uh we dig bringing it to you so
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