Hi there everybody, welcome to another episode of the Cloudbase Mayhem. It seems like most places in the world are back to flying, so that's pretty exciting. We shall see how things go. It has been a strange time, but hopefully you all are getting a little bit of air time. It seems like all the competitions for the most part this summer have all been canceled, but still hoping for maybe some hike and fly events and maybe some things in the fall. But anyway, hope you're flying, hope you're being safe, and hope you're all healthy. My guest today is Yael Margulish, a Swiss pilot who lives in Verbier, a very special place to my heart. That's where I cut my teeth in a sense. She started flying when she was 19. She's an ozone team pilot.
Flies the Enzo 3. Many of you will recognize her name from the world record she broke last year. She has a few world records. She has the current FAI triangle record of 263K in the Alps. And she beat the world record last fall, beating out Marcelo Ochoa, a Brazilian who we've had also on the show, flying 442K. And then about 10 days later, she went 531K. So she's the only woman who's flown over 500K. And currently owns the world record. And until very recently, that would have been the world record. The boys down in Brazil, Rafael and those guys had the record just slightly longer than that at 564. And then this year they went even a little bit further than that.
I think it's 578. I think I have that right. But anyway, fascinating person. She's gone in for the X-Alps. She really wants to get in the X-Alps in 2021. She would have applied in 2019, but had a little bit of an injury that we hear about. In this show. And we also hear about her incident, I believe last year when she threw her reserve and landed on a moving car. Pretty interesting. But that all worked out okay. So talk a little bit about safety and a lot about training and getting ready for the X-Alps. Yael is another person who is working with Thomas D 'Arlo. We seem to be on that theme lately. If you didn't catch that show with Thomas, people really enjoyed that one. That was a lot of fun working with him. And I hope you enjoyed it. And I think that's the thing that's kind of making a show and it's a great chapter in the book.
Also, the book is pretty much written. We're just in the final editing phase and it's getting really close and hope it out to you and have it available to you all very shortly. So keep on the lookout for that. So enjoy this talk with Yael Margulis, Ozone team pilot and current women's world record holder. Cheers.
Cheers.
Cheers. Cheers. Cheers. Cheers.
Cheers. Cheers.
Cheers. Cheers. Cheers. Cheers. Cheers. Cheers.
Cheers. Cheers. Cheers. It's a bit far from the town, so it's quite wild and I like it.
Yeah, perfect place to hide out from Corona right now. I understand Switzerland hasn't banned flying, but it's just highly suggested not to. How is everybody approaching flying right now in Switzerland?
I see paragliders every day, so kind of thermals and local flying. Yeah, it's not banned, but it's quite recommended not to fly, of course, for the accidents. And yeah, to stay with a good solidarity mind and so on. So yeah, it's still allowed. I mean, people still fly a little bit, but not so much. And yeah, I think it's not so. How
did you get into flying? How long has this been a pursuit of yours?
So it's been 10 years now that I have the license. So I started, I was 19. And yeah, I started here by seeing the others training on the hill next to my house. So that's how I started. And I really, at the beginning, it was not so easy to fly like very often because I was still studying. And yeah, it was a bit hard and I didn't get the good confidence at the beginning. So then I could fly much, much more. When I. Finished the studies. And then when I got really involved into it, I really liked it and dedicate my life to flying.
Is this is this now your job? Is this what you do? Are you still pursuing what you studied?
No, I the studies, I finished them and I thought that I would never work in this. I was studying social social works with like any kind. It was either kids or all the older people or so on. And I really. Yeah, it was not. My my dream life. So I started being a ski instructor in winter and I really liked it. So I kept I did the whole formation to be a certified ski instructor and then started in the summer. I did many different type of jobs, so small jobs to earn a bit of money. And then I did the tandem license. And after I left, I've been living.
For 10 names in the summer and skiing in the winter. Mm
hmm. So that is that still it has sponsorship started playing more of a role or because you're flying on the Swiss team and competing as their help you get from the Swiss Federation.
Yeah, of course I get I get helps from the Federation and also so money when I do good results. So that's pretty good. And yeah, on the spot, the sponsor side. Um, I'm now with. The town of Verbier. So they give me a wing every every year. Great. So it's pretty good. And yeah, I'm still looking for the big one that will allow me not to not to work at all in the summer. So really focus on training and flying. But yeah, now it's difficult times and I think it's not going to be for this year.
Right, right. And I, you know, I've been kind of following you and we were in touch years ago. And you know, I've been kind of following you and we were in touch years ago. And, you know, when you supported Michael in 2015 X-Alps. But I gather that your initial drive or your initial pursuit was competition flying. You've been doing a lot of World Cups and that kind of thing. Is that right? Or have you been kind of into the hike and fly thing all along as well?
No, no, I was I started really the competition in 2015. Like it was more to to discover new places and to learn how to fly. I thought I had a good kick. I thought I had a good kick. I thought I had a good kick. I thought I had a good kick. I thought I had a good kick. I thought I had a good kick. I thought I had a good kick. I thought I had a good kick. I thought I had a good kick. I thought I had a good kick. I thought I had a good kick. I thought I had a good kick. I thought I had a good kick. I thought I had a good kick. I thought I had a good kick. I thought I had a good kick. I thought I had a good kick. X out with you this year and in two years I'm doing it with you as a supporter so it was an exchange role and yeah for the moment I could not do it because of some yeah knees problems and yeah I hope for 2021.
So yeah and we're going to get to that in your training and I know you're pursuing that and I'll have to find out who your supporter is I'm assuming it might be your boyfriend but that would be he'd be a great supporter I would think and given his background with it but we'll get to that but what happened to your knees?
Yeah so actually I had a tendon it resulting from a foot fracture that I had a rescue
incident in January 2018 and I landed in a on a car which was driving actually. Whoa! And! With the rescue and yeah at this moment the ambulance came and so on and yeah I went to the hospital and they checked the back of course because it's what they what they expect you have for injuries when you when you have a paragliding incidence and they checked my back and I had nothing so I could stand up and then time I'm standing up I said ah my foot is quite painful and they said yeah there's no worries if it's still painful in one week you can go to your doctor. And he will check it so one week after I went to the doctor and the doctor said yeah it's not blue it's not it's not swallowed so no worries there's nothing you can keep doing some physiotherapy
and to strengthen the the ankle and so yeah I believe the doctors and in the end in November I went to the doctor again and said yeah we have to figure out what's wrong with that because there's something wrong I'm sure and I went and yeah. We figure out that my foot was broken for 10 months so I got a surgery straight away and yeah last year was no skiing in the winter so I could when I got the surgery I said to the to the doctor that my goal was to go to the Superfinal in in March in March and he said yeah I would not say that you're gonna go but let's see and I really put everything I had in my hands to get to get ready for that and in the end it works and that was pretty cool to start the season like this like no flying and in the end I got second at the Superfinal so yeah it was a good thing.
Yeah I was gonna say you're well like before we get to that how did you land on a moving car? What happened? I
was training some rhythmic to go in infinity and I pulled too early the glider collapsed and I got. I have an acrobat system but my lines were around my head and yeah I could just throw the the round one I was super high actually I was maybe at 2,000 meters above the valley and it started drifting on the right way like a way with open fields and so on I said yeah that's that's good and then started on the other way it's oh no there is the river shit if I land in a river and then I was really above the small village there I thought yeah shit if I land in a river I'm gonna roof I will fall down and I will hurt myself and in the end I landed yeah on a small really small road it's tiny road in between the houses and the car was going there at the same moment so I shouted she really break and this I landed on the on the front window.
Whoa that
must have given her a fright.
Yeah of course the lady was like terrified but yeah I could not really choose that.
Did you kind of bounce did you hit pretty hard?
No I broke the I broke the screen. Oh my gosh. With the with you could see really two impacts like my my bumper and my foot.
Whoa have you have you had any other accidents fine?
No it's the only serious accident I had.
And you're so you're you were there in Verbier you're you're describing this as you were you were training over the over the valley there yeah you guys have a fantastic place to train over the dirt there in Verbier it's an it's an awesome. So
now I'm still yeah infinity tumbling is I do only tumbles I don't do anymore some rhythmic because I'm still like kind of super scared and yeah it's hard.
Did did coming back from that affect your other type of flying too or was it really just specific to doing rhythmic and that kind of thing or was it was there any other kind of I don't know fear injury involved with that?
No it was just a just a really the rhythmic side and the acro side. The other way I threw some reserves I threw two reserves in competitions and yeah there is was more much more difficult to get back into it like really be confident about myself.
That so those were in world cups?
It was the first one was in the the two yeah two was in the Swiss Open once in Decentis and the other one in Engelberg.
Engelberg. And the two
times I got again super lucky. And yeah it it was mistakes from my side and yeah in the end I'm I have nothing so it's pretty good but yeah it could be worse.
Did your acro training change at all how you approach the two times you threw your reserve? Did they did you find your acro training helped you to know when to throw or did that affect it at all either of those incidents?
Not really because in acro all the time I I pulled was the base system and it's quite different. So yeah it's it's not really helped or I think it's just a reflex I had and it was pretty good because the the rescue always opened well and so.
You said you in 2015 you kind of had a deal with Michael that the next time in 2017 it would be flipped. You said you got hurt in 2018. Was there another reason you didn't do the 2017 race? You just wasn't.
Yeah I thought.
I was
not really like not not enough trained and not enough flying also with the commitment so yeah.
So I just recorded a show no week ago it isn't even live yet with Thomas. Turia yeah. Oh gosh I won't even try that. And he talked you know I asked him a lot of questions of course about Chrigel and about one day coaching but I'm I'm fascinated to learn about what you've been learning from him because I understand you're doing some you've done some coaching with him and you were you guys were working together before you went to Brazil and broke the world record last year. I'd love to hear about that because he mentioned that that he he was talking about the they call it the time jump and of course I don't know what he what those words are in German but he talks about that he had you kind of visualize what the story that you wanted to tell after you broke the world record before you went to Brazil.
So maybe maybe you could tell us about that.
Yeah we've been working for for five years now with Thomas so really at my beginnings I started working with him and at the beginning for me it was really about the I had problems with self-confidence so really being sure of myself and knowing what I can do and so on and he really helped me this way to set my goals and to yeah to see what was important to get to the top. Good good performance mode so in a good flow so we kept working on that for for a long time. In Brazil it's a bit different also in in the World Cup when you focus on the hours on like more than on your flying you start doing some things not right because you're not there only to compare but also to have fun and others must be really a like indication of the air mass but not competitors when you fly.
Yeah. In Brazil it was funny because we were fighting about against numbers so it was like yeah we want to go there and we have this this much kilometers and at the beginning it was pretty hard to get set and to understand also a bit how it's going because it's kind of different type of flying with the wind and so on and then I broke the first first time the world records so I was pretty happy but still not super happy with the flying. I like I was I was too much focused on the on the performance and I was too careful and yeah I was not flying free and didn't enjoy it as much as the 500s and then Seiko broke it the today two days later so that was like for me still yeah now we're gonna do it again and yeah it was difficult also because I kind of saw we had a whole different approach of it like I was like I was like I was like in the post and so on and I got like yeah yeah now I gotta get better and then we tried we tried we bombed out like four times the next day so it was really hard and then the the day before the last day so we we had the chat together with my partners Climo and then Reynald we decided like to not focus on the numbers like to be more free and try to do the things correctly and not to the problem is when you want to be too fast sometimes you you just especially at the beginning of the flight you take too much risk and then you're you're you're landed and that's come super fast and then you're you have the whole day to think about what you did didn't did not do right so it's kind of hard so we we tried to go to go with that kind of mindset and yeah it worked pretty well and then when we saw also that we
three survive on the two first hours then we had good wins so we thought yeah now that's gonna bring it to the end Thomas
mentioned in the show that you know you when you approach something like Brazil or ex-alps or marathon doesn't matter he used them he used a marathon as the example that you can have three types of goals you know the first goal is okay I want to win or be third or be on the podium or be top 10 and he said those are just stupid you know those are ridiculous goals that it doesn't and then you can have performance go goals which uh can be really useful you know so like say in the ex-alps you want to be able to climb 3 000 feet in an hour whatever you know that that would be like a performance goal or in a marathon you want to run a marathon in four hours the problem with performance goals is that a lot of other people could do the same thing you know the many other people in the exile a lot of people in the ex-alps could climb 3 000 feet in an hour you know um so he really focuses on the process side of things it sounds like sounds like that's kind of what you and Clement and you all decided to do is okay well instead of chasing the world record the number let's just fly well
exactly yeah it's more about all all what's behind and what's the feelings and yeah it's i think everybody's different but for me it's really when i focus on a number on another person i just lose the the fun of flying and the the reason why i love it so much so that brings me into not into a good performance mode like into the flow we actually call it the flow so yeah for me it's it really it's really important to have like process goals you can always analyze and also see when when you reach it or not and it's it's a good tool what
did your team how did you guys prepare for even going to brazil was there a lot of practice team flying before you went or was it more sitting down at night just talking about strategy and tactics and that kind of thing
so uh with clem with clemon we never been there and reynolds was there the last the the year before so he had really good information about the flying and what we can expect and also the towing because we never told before with clemon so it was kind of for me before going i was kind of scared of what's towing and how it's gonna go with uh with strong winds and so on and yeah it was interesting and then we we flew a bit together i flew with reynolds a bit and clemon was not available on this day and yeah we we also had some dinners together to to really see the what we're gonna have there and set also some um some tables with the distance and the hours so we can see that if we have to abort the flight because we're not gonna make it to the mark of the world record or not and uh yeah that was helpful and yeah now it's very different because after going there we can see that we were not ready on many points like we were not ready on many points and we were not ready on many points and we were not ready on many points and we were not ready on many points and we were not ready on many points not the material side not the the mental side but more the all the papers with the fii to certify records and so on and also the waypoints we have to to use and we lost a lot of time doing that and yeah now we know that uh that was a bit of a weakness and um we know also better the place and how it's going on and how hard are the two first hours to to stay in the air and yeah we hope we're we're gonna go again this year and uh check what's what's going on if we have good win you mentioned that
when you contacted thomas and started working with him five years ago or so that one of the one of the main things you wanted to work on it was a lack of confidence how do you how does he approach that i mean i think many people can relate to that i
think it's i don't know because i haven't speak with much people about that but i know that i'm always that's my i've always been like that it's been thinking that i'm not doing good enough or so on and degrade myself and yeah i don't know about other people what what they really need but for me it was a really good good um approach of the thing and also when you got doubts so you analyze and try to to fix the thing that you you find back good um flow like
so so really the what he's helped you with is is more easily accessing the flow channel yeah
exactly yeah
okay yeah so letting kind of letting your subconscious do more of the work don't let your conscious mind get in there with doubts and pretty
much yeah huh
can you can you in specific ways how he's done that with you so
for me i got like i was uh taking the the points that are making the flight good or not so like it's fun it's focus how i feel that day what was the next one there was four of them and yeah how how confident also i feel just so the the feeling of the body and the feeling of the confidence and with all of that like trying to get to 100 with all of these um points was bringing me into a good like flow and for me it was really those those things there was the there were the keys and i know how to feel well so i have to eat well sleep well and not drink so much
normal and uh for the confidence sometimes it's a bit harder to yeah sometimes you know when there is a lot of wind of day on takeoff and you're you're nobody's going and you you start thinking about how is it in the air you just have to go and see and then how you feel in the air and we'll we'll see if you go landing or not and yeah with all these points i managed to have this this channel that that was bringing me into a good flow or not you're
thinking about or you're planning on i understand you know depending on covid obviously and your your knee uh you're trying you're planning on the x-ops for 21 i'm curious about your plan for the next year i'm curious about your plan for the next year or oh you know i wanted to ask you first are you part of the x-ops academy have you been doing any of those uh courses
i'm i'm part of it but actually it's it's quite hard to go to every every training and so on because they also they take place a lot of in the weekends and the weekends i'm doing tendons so yeah it's kind of hard so it's also next not next to my home so now i'm focused more on the on the fitness and i'm doing a lot of fitness and i'm doing a lot of fitness and i'm doing a lot of physical side uh i took a coach like he's doing some some plans for training and i think it's better so and i also can can chat with michael to to have all the information he can give me for the x-ops and
will you do any you know uh any smaller races on the i know you're planning on the air tour but will you do like the eiger tour or verico fly or gruyere any of those in preparation for the x-ops next year
so for sure i will do the this year the dr2 if it takes places and uh otherwise if not i plan to go on the verco fly which is much smaller race so let's yeah let's see and
but not the eiger no
it's in the middle of the summer and i have the european championship so yeah
okay it's
kind of not so easy to mix everything going
into you know you've been around the x-ops quite a bit and you live in europe so that helps but also because you supported michael in 2015 and you know obviously you sounds like you've been doing some work with Chrigel and the x-ops academy which is that just looks awesome i'm so envious and jealous of that but when i before my 2015 race i had a lot of uh doubt and just i just had really no idea what i'd signed up for and i mean a lot of ways there was a lot of because i just honestly had no idea if i was just going to get eliminated right in the beginning or if i was going to do okay you know it was it was kind of hard to what are you you know i realize it's still a ways out but it's not that far away what are you kind of
when actually you date clemont who did it twice and did it really really well so i'm sure he's been really valuable as well for information but what are you kind of most worried about
about yeah um! the tiredness and the flying in super hot conditions with with uh so less uh sleep hours so i think you you really got um yourself into your your limits and your reserves and i think when you're tired maybe you just like yeah it's super hard this this um i was talking with aaron a few months ago and he said oh yeah this place i know i was he was uh talking to a place next to my home he said oh yeah this place next to my home he said oh yeah this place next to my home i fell asleep in 2015 there i said no come on so i mean that's something yeah i have no idea if i can handle it and yeah otherwise the the aspect of playing in super turbulent conditions but yeah i think it's also something i gotta train and uh also for the confidence i would if i if i subscribe i would really get uh close to thomas for one year and uh yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah and try to really prepare myself as well as possible.
Do you know who your team would be yet? Have you given that any thought?
So, hopefully, Michael Vici. And I have a good friend also here. He's super motivated. And he's called Joël Bruchet. He's a pilot, like tandem pilot, and doing a bit of acro. But he's also a super good sport runner and ski tourer and so on. So, yeah, on the sportive side, he's super motivated. So, that's good.
I had a really special time with Michael in 2015. The second day, we walked down off of Asheville together because we all got there. Well, I got there the night before. And then those Aaron Durogati, and he and a bunch of others came up that morning. And it was all stormy and nasty. Yeah,
I remember.
It was crazy morning there. Oh, my gosh. And my supporter, Bruce, was just like, you got to go down. It's terrible. It's tons of wind and all this. And Gaspard kept coming over to me and pulling me away from everybody. And he goes, you should wait. It's going to get good. You should wait. It's going to get good. And I was like, how is it? There's no way it's going to get good. It's just dumping rain. It's awful. And so, we all walked down. And I had a great talk with Michael about him being an engineer and everything. We had a nice walk together. And then Gaspard flew right over. Our head like an hour later. I was like, how did you know that? And I later found out that he had a weather team and all that. How about that? Would you have a dedicated weather team sitting looking at servers? And I think that's what Chrigel does in several.
I've done that now in 2017 and 2019. And I'm really on the fence, really, actually, if I do that again. Yeah, yeah. What will your approach be with your… Yeah,
I think it's the most important part of the thing. It's to be in the right time, in the right place. And for that, you really have to know what's going on with the weather. And I think I'm not such an expert. So, I would definitely request some people to give daily reports and to be joinable when I need. If I have any questions and so on, I think it's the best way to have them because there's not much sense to bring them together. So, yeah, I'll try that. Yeah.
What do you see yourself flying? If you had to make a decision now, there might be something new out by then. But what gear would you probably use?
I would definitely take the Zeolite. I bought it last winter and I did one flight with it. So, it was 199 kilometers. So, just before they said that we should stop flying.
And actually, it's… Incredible glider. Like, it's super… I find it super easy. So, yeah, it brings back all the feelings. And yeah, I really liked it. Super performant also.
Yeah. Yeah, no, it's a great wing. Switching gears to your comp flying. You've been… You said you started kind of getting into comps in 2015. Is that right? Yeah. You've really… I've been watching you the last couple of years. You've really turned on there with the comp. You've really started to learn about comp flying. Take me through that progression a little bit. How has your approach been? How did you kind of start figuring it out, making it click?
I think the more you fly, the better you get. So, doing a lot of comps in all kind of different terrains brings me a lot of knowledge. And then you don't think about them anymore, but you have them. And I think that's really something you learn by experience. So… That's a big part of it. And as we mentioned just before with Thomas, the work we did together was really important for me. So, yeah, I think it's half of the thing that my progression got good. And, yeah.
Have you been flying a lot in the Swiss league?
Yeah, as much as I can. So, we do some trainings and some local competitions. So, on weekends, I've been doing a lot of them. So, when the ski season is over, and that's pretty good because there is always good pilots in Switzerland. And you always learn also. The team leader is always doing some debriefings with the wins and with the options. And it's super, super interesting.
How does the Swiss team approach passing on knowledge? What's the knowledge to all of you? It seems quite organized to me. Like with the Swiss league that you're all… It seems to be that they're really building everybody up.
It's hard to say. I think more is that it's just like in other countries. Like the people who are involved and motivated, they get good. And I think also some people, they like to share things. And some others are more… Yeah, they say a bit less and they just let you go by yourself. So, I think it's not so organized. Like, I don't know. I think, yeah, when you're motivated, in any country you are, if you have the infrastructure of training and doing some comps, you will get better.
How does comp training look for you?
You mean when I'm not in a real competition? Yeah. I
mean, how do you… How are you preparing? How
are you preparing? How are you preparing
for, say, the Superfinal or a World Cup? Or, you know, if we were in real time right now and COVID wasn't happening, how would you be preparing for the World Cup in Passy?
As it's really close to my house, I would go there and try to train a bit there because it's an interesting place. In Brazil also, and it's more like looking the old tracks on the previous competition. To see what are a bit the normal tasks they set. And, yeah, it's more like that. And then you just fly the tool first days before the comp and set your marks and then you got to go.
When you look at your results, and I'm not necessarily… I don't necessarily mean ranking in the World Cups. But when you look back at… The times where you feel like that's where I really flew well versus other times where I didn't really fly. Have you been able to find a common thread?
Not really because it's kind of… Yeah. The last comp that I didn't fly well was the World Cup in Cœur de Savoie last year. And, I mean, it was hard to… It was hard to analyze what was going on because I was flying well and I just… They had this… End of speed section, which is super tricky. And I bombed out twice in the end of speed section. And it's like… I wouldn't say it's…
When you have chance and when you don't have it. Like, yeah. But, yeah, I could not really analyze it properly what was wrong from my side. And, yeah, that was pretty hard. But otherwise, you know, every comp I got… Yeah, that was pretty hard. And I got good rankings. And if I don't have good ranking at the end, I still do, like, super nice tasks. And I know what are my weaknesses. Like, when I'm…
Sometimes I'm too optimistic and I'm not checking enough the sign that shows that it's going to get tricky or so on. And that's anticipation. And that's really something I have to get better at it.
Chrigel, I don't know if you listened to the show. I did with Chrigel. And then we did the follow-up with a bunch of the X-Alps athletes. We've actually got another one of those coming out here pretty soon that I recorded ages ago. But we just haven't put it up yet. But Chrigel talks about the benefits of gambling, you know, like taking chance, taking risk. You know, if you gamble 10 times and you win 8, that's better than only gambling 4 times and winning 4. In other words, it pays. It pays off in something like the X-Alps to take chances and to not… Like, take sporting chances, not chances with your life, but take sporting chances. It's very easy to go deep and take chance when you're not in the race.
But when you're in the race and going off course line 20K to chase a cloud street, it really makes sense. It's visual. It's what you would normally do if you were just flying. You're flying from Verbier and you're flying to Fiche tomorrow and on a good day. You know what you need to do to get there. And you're okay with that because you don't care if you land because you can walk. It's not a big deal. But in the X-Alps, it's like, man, if I put it down at noon and miss two hours of the good part of the day, it's a big penalty. It's not… It's a physical penalty. It's a mental penalty. And it's just… I find that I get more and more boxed in. Yeah. Yeah. As the race goes on, it just takes…
It's committing doing those. Have you thought about that at all and how you'll approach that?
Yeah. I thought about that, but I also thought straight away that it was something I had to discuss exactly with Thomas, like to have some small book of rules and to analyze which option is… Yeah. With how many points you can take on this option or on the other. Like how many points you can take on this option or something like that. I don't know exactly. But I really think it's something you have to think about it and not take it like just spontaneously.
Because it's too… Yeah. It's too painful if you miss it.
Book of rules. That sounds interesting. Tell me about that.
Yeah. It's how I imagine the thing. It's like a checklist or something that you just… Yeah. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go somewhere else, you know, and you can compare both options.
Okay, so pretend that we're not on a big public forum and everybody's listening to this.
And given Thomas saying, you know, having a position goal is completely stupid, but what will your goals be for the X-Alps?
You know, as a woman, it's hard to imagine what I can do because there are not many women competing and so on. And I know that I would not be as strong as most of the men. But yeah, my goal is really to go as far as possible. Like, you cannot say I want to go to Monaco, but you want to say, yeah, I want to go as far as I can. And also, like, be fit at the end of the race or not be destroyed physically.
What about fun?
Fun is flying.
What if it's like 2017 and you can't fly? It's the
best place of the world and then, yeah. I remember a video of you that it was after the Col de Vars in 2015. I think you didn't have so much fun there.
Oh, my God. Yeah. I went.
I went from
having a banner, epic, beautiful day where it was like, oh, I'm going to get to Monaco. No problem. And the two guys behind me just had no chance to catch up. I had whatever it was. I had seventh, like, locked up. And then, whoa, did things change for me in the span of a very few minutes. Yeah, that was. Okay, that's a good question. Chrigel famously doesn't scout really any of the race beforehand. I learned that from him in 2015. You know, he doesn't spend the many of the pilots, the ones that have the time will, you know, they and their teams will go learn parts of the course and fly as much as they can. How will your approach be? Because Chrigel doesn't do that.
It's hard to say. I think I would still. I would try to get as much as information from the locals, because I think it's they know which which which conditions the. Place is good or not. And I also think I will go and check a bit because, yeah, it's for me, for sure, it will be helpful to not only Google Earth had to have. So, yeah, I will definitely go and check.
What does your year look like between now and next? I don't know if they're having June or July. We don't know yet. But yeah, let's assume. We weren't dealing with Corona right now. But what what did it look like? What what were you planning on? You know, give me the kind of highlights of the year.
Yeah, I really want to focus also on the.
Actually, before the whole thing started, I wanted to turn this year really professional in summer. So not to do any tandems anymore, because it's always like you said to the boss, you're there. And then there is. It's a super nice day and you can you're flying up and down tandems when you can do 250 case. And I really want to fly more like for fun, for not in competition, but cross country. So I wanted to turn professional for that. And now let's see with all these things. I think it's going to be difficult. But yeah, I wanted to take more and more time for a cross country and also to train a lot physically for. What's ahead.
And I have this air tour in June normally and then the European Championships. And then I will do only one World Cup this year. So it might be either Gemona or decent. This I will see. It's for the moment. It's hard to say.
Yeah, exactly. For everybody right now. Who knows? Yeah. And then you said you're going to probably return to Brazil.
Yeah, I hope so. I hope so. I will. I will go again with the Swiss League. So let's see if they still want me to to be in the in the team there because, yeah, I have the world record now. And yeah, maybe they don't think it's good to they will let the chance to somebody else. I don't know. But yeah, I think now we have more experience and I really think we can we can do better. So, yeah, let's hope I can go again there.
Yeah. I'll. You're you're you're boyfriend has done very well in the ex-Alps in twenty eleven and thirteen or no. So yeah, twenty thirteen and fifteen. Yeah. Okay. No. No. Yeah. Twenty fifteen got injured and he wasn't able to start. What have you learned from him? What what what what have his advices been for getting ready and for doing well?
Yeah, we discussed about about a lot of things about this. The. More the logistic aspect and so on. So it's quite helpful. And I think the ex-Alps getting more and more professional like there there's no. Yeah. The teams are more and more good built. And at the time he was there, I think it was still like a bit of freestyle. Yeah. He's a super good athlete. But I mean, yeah, I think wasn't super easy for the team. So, yeah. And we also talk about what what you how you should approach the thing with the also checking the route and so on.
So, yeah, it'd be interesting.
Tell me about that. That that is interesting. How does what does he what's the best homework you can do for the route?
Is a pretty good user of Google Earth. I have with my laptop is a bit harder. But he is using it. It's really well. And so we are we're checking and also for the triangles or any exit plans we have. So we check the route and it's it's super interesting. So that's mostly how he does. And yeah, when he went to the exiles, he was also going to to the places and checking.
Yeah, that was one thing. I mean, I'm sure you've noticed this and because you took part in twenty fifteen, that's been something that's completely blown. My mind in twenty fifteen. And I've said this many times. I apologize to the listener. I know you've heard this a bunch, but in twenty fifteen, the mistakes we made and I made were so many there. They're just there's too many to even put down on paper. You know, we did this big feedback thing at the end and evaluated all our moves and stuff. And it was just mistake after mistake after mistake. And they were all totally legitimate, fine mistakes. We were comfortable making them because we were new. We didn't know what we were doing. And yet it's you could still make all those mistakes in twenty fifteen and still do OK.
And now it's the pace is unbelievable. It's just gotten so much faster. I'm going to say it's probably thirty percent. I don't know exactly, but it's the pace of the top twenty teams is is unbelievable. It's just incredible. It's amazing how fast and how. Prepared and how logistically prepared and the whole thing. It's just it's really remarkable.
Yeah, I think so, too. So that's why I said now. Yeah, it's it's getting I think for the for the team also. It's good if we if we have a good preparation together. And yeah, of course.
And that's
something that's
a lot of the fun, though, to the preparations. Fantastic. You know, it's that's you know, it's not just the race. It's the whole. Yeah. The whole gamut of the. The beginning of the end. And it doesn't end at the end of the race either.
Yeah. That was great. It's fantastic to see you. It's been a while. And I hope that we all get back to the skies here soon and wish you the very best in your training and your preparation. And thanks. Congratulations on the world record. That's epic. And can
show you. I just got the thing like one week ago. Yeah. This. Hey.
Diploma de record du monde. Fantastic. Wow. How far was it? I know it's 500, but it was 500 and some odd.
In striking distance is 531.
Fantastic. And if
you're using three points is a 552. So we did a big banana.
As you do down there. Magnifique. Fantastic. Well, thank you very much.
Thanks. Bye. Bye. Thanks to you. Okay.
Bye.
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