Hi there, everybody. Welcome to another episode of the Cloudbase Mayhem. 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. 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 263. 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. It'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.
Yael, it's great to have you on the show. And I know we've got a lot of time, you and I, right now to be doing these kind of things. But you were just saying before we started recording that you just showed me your beautiful view at your door there. You're living above the surface. You love Verbier. And that's where you're from, right?
Yeah, exactly. That's where I grew up. So, in the mountains and it's quite, 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. And I understand Switzerland is, it hasn't banned flying, but it's just highly suggested not to. How are you, how is everybody kind of approaching flying right now in Switzerland?
I mean, I see paragliders every day. So, kind of thermals and local flying. And yeah, it's not banned, but it's like quite recommended not to fly, of course, for the accidents. And yeah, to stay like 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 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 now your job? Is this what you do or are you still pursuing what you studied?
No, the studies, I finished them and I thought that I would never work in this. I was studying social works with like any kind. It was either kids or... Older people or so on. And I really, yeah, it was not 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 tandems in the summer and skiing in the winter.
So, is that still, has sponsorship started playing more of a role or because you're flying on the Swiss team and competing, is there help you get from the Swiss Federation?
Yeah, of course, I get help from the Federation and also money when I do good results. So, that's pretty good. And yeah, on the sponsor side, I'm now with the town of Verbier. So, they give me a wing every year. Great. So, it's pretty good. And yeah, I'm still looking for the big one that will allow me 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. I've been kind of following you and we were in touch years ago when you supported Michael in the 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 started really the competition in 2015. Like, it was more to discover new places and to learn how to fly fast. And yeah, that worked pretty well and I got good results. And, you know, hanging out with people that have the same passion and so on. And I really liked it. And with the older Swiss team, it was not a problem because I also speak German. So, it was pretty cool and I always had fun doing that. Actually, I'm interested in hike and fly since a long time. Like, when I supported Vici, the deal was I do the X-Alps 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 knee 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 he'd be a great supporter, I would think, given his background with it. But we'll get to that. But what happened to your knees?
Yeah. So, actually, I had a tendonit resulting from a foot fracture that I had a rescue incident in January 2018. And I landed 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 expect you have for injuries when you have a paragliding incident. And they checked my back. And I had nothing. So, I could stand up.
And at the time I'm standing up, I said, my foot is quite painful. And they said, yeah. And it'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 swallowed. So, no worries. There's nothing. You can keep doing some physiotherapy and to strengthen 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 happened. What's wrong with that? Because there's something wrong, I'm sure. And I went. And, yeah. We figured 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 doctor that my goal was to go to the Superfinal in March.
And he said, yeah. I would not say that you're going to go. But let's see. And I really put everything I had in my hands to get ready for that. And in the end, it worked. 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 going to say, well, before we get to that, how did you land on a moving car? What happened? I
was training some rhythmic to go in. I was in infinity. And I pulled too early. The collider collapsed. And I got, I have an acrobatic system. But my lines were around my head. And, yeah, I could just throw the wrong 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 good. And then started on the other way. 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 on a 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 brake. And this, I landed on the front window. Whoa. That
must have given her a fright.
Yeah. Of course, the lady was terrified. But yeah, I could not really choose that.
Did you kind of bounce? Did you hit pretty hard?
No, I broke the screen. Oh, my gosh. So, you could see really two impacts, like my bumper and my foot.
Whoa. Have you had any other accidents flying?
No. It's the only serious accident I had.
Yeah. So, you were there in Verbier. You're describing this as you were training over the valley there. Yeah. Yeah. You guys have a fantastic place to train over the dirt there in Verbier. It's an awesome.
So, now I'm still, yeah, infinitely tumbling. 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 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 there any other kind of, I don't know, fear, injury involved with that?
No, it was just really the rhythmic side and the acro side. The other way, I threw two reserves in competitions, and yeah, there it was much more difficult to get back into it, like really be confident about myself.
Yeah. 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 Disentis, and the other one in Engelberg.
Engelberg. And the two
times I got, again, super lucky, and yeah, it was mistakes from my side, and yeah, in the end, I have nothing, so it's pretty good, but yeah, could be worse.
Did your acro training change at all how you approached 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 pulled was the base system, and it's quite different, so yeah, it not really helped, or I think it's just the reflex I had, and it was pretty good, because 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 not, wasn't.
Yeah, I thought I was not really, like, not, not enough trained, and not enough flying also, with the commitment, so yeah.
Mm. So, I just recorded a show, you know, a week ago, and it, 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. Yeah. I'd love to hear about that, because he, he mentioned that, that he, he was talking about the, they call it the time jump. Yeah. 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.
Yeah. 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 a 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, like, indication of the air mass, but not competitors when you fly. 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. 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 style. 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. Two days later, so that was like, for me, still, yeah, now we're going to do it again. And yeah, it was difficult also, because I kind of saw, yeah, the whole different approach of it, like, in the post and so on. And I got like, yeah, yeah, now I got to 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 day before. The last day, so we, we had the chat together with my partners, Clément and 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. And then it's one of those days you're like, no, I didn't do right. So, It's kind of hard. So we, we tried to go with that kind of mindset and yeah, it worked pretty well. And then when we saw also that we all three survived on the two first hours, then we had good wins. So we thought, yeah, no, that's gonna bring it to the end.
Tomas mentioned in the show that you, 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 is 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, it sounds like that's kind of what
He's doing right now, what?
you and Clemont 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 to the next question, which is, what do you think is the most important thing?
for you to do when you're flying in the ex-alps, I think 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 and just talking about strategy and tactics? that kind of thing so
Uh, with Clem, with Clemont, 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 Clemont, so it was kind of for me before going, I was kind of scared of what's towing and how it's going to go with, uh, with strong winds and stuff like that, so I think it's really important to, and so on, and yeah, it was interesting, and then we, we flew a bit together, I flew with Reynolds a bit and Clemont 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, 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 not the material side, not the, the mental side, but more the, all the papers with the FII to, to certify records and so on.
And also the waypoints we have to use and we lost a lot of time doing that. And yeah, now we know that that was a big. 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 gonna go again this year and, uh, check what's what's going on if we have good wind. 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, 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 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 subconscious mind get in there with doubts, yeah? Pretty
much yeah huh
Can you, can you share 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 all 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 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-Alps for 21. I'm curious, or oh, you know, I wanted to ask you first, are you part of the X-Alps 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 physical side. 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 just to, to have all the information he can give me for the X-Alps.
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 VercoFly or Gruyere, any of those in preparation for the X-Alps next year, so
For sure, I will do the this year, the the air tour, if it takes places and
otherwise, if not, I plan to go on the VercoFly, which is much smaller race, so let's, yeah, let's see and
but not only that, but I'm also going to do the X-Alps next year, so I'm going to do 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-Alps quite a bit and you live in Europe, so that helps. But also, because you supported Michael in 2015 and, you know, obviously it sounds like you've been doing some work with Chrigel and the X-Alps 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 in a lot of ways, there was a lot of trepidation 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 still weighs out, but it's not that far away.
What are you kind of, oh, and actually, you date Clement, 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, the tiredness and the flying in super hot conditions with, with, uh, so less, uh, sleep hours, so I think you, you really got them 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 that he was, uh, talking to a place next to my home, 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 flying in super turbulent conditions, but, yeah, I think it's also something I gotta train. And, uh, also for the confidence, I will, if I, if I subscribe, I will really get, uh, close to Thomas for one year 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, uh, I have a good friend also here. He's super motivated, motivated, and he's called the... is a... is a pilot, like tandem pilot, and doing a bit of acro, but he's also a, yeah, 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 Ash out together because we all got there. Well, I got there the night before, and then those Aaron and he and bunch of others came up that morning, and it was all stormy and nasty, and yeah.
i remember it
Was crazy morning there. Oh my gosh, and my 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. 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 will you have, you know, a dedicated weather team sitting looking at servers? And you know there's, I think that's what Chrigel does and several I've done that now in 2017 and 2019 and I'm really on the fence, really actually, if I'll do that again.
But yeah, yeah, what what will your approach be with your yeah?
I think it's the most important part of the thing is to be, uh, in the right, right time in the right place, and for that, you all, you really have to know what's going on with the weather. And I think I'm not so such an expert, so I will definitely request some people to, to give daily reports and to be joinable when, 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 and
What, what do you see yourself flying if you had to make, if you had to make a decision now? And there might be something new out by then, but what, what gear would you probably use? I
Will definitely get the take the zeolite. I, I bought it last winter, and I did one flight with it, so it was, uh, oh yeah, 199 kilometers. So just before they that we should stop flying, and actually, it's an incredible glider. Like, it's, 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—yeah, it's a great, great wing. Uh, 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—you've really—I've been watching you the last couple years, you've really turned on there with the comp flying. Take me through that progression a little bit. How—how has your approach been? How did you—how did you kind of start figuring it out, making it click? I
Think, the more you fly, the better you get. So I'm doing a lot of com, so in all kind of different terrains brings me a lot of knowledge. And then you, you don't think about them anymore, but you have them. And, uh, I think it's, that's really something you, you learn by experience. So that, that's a big part of it. And as we mentioned, uh, just before we with Thomas, that the work we did together was, uh, was really important for me. So, yeah, I think it's, it's half of the, 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, I've been flying a lot again, 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 the league team leader is always doing some debriefings with the wins and with the with the options, and it's super super interesting.
How does the Swiss team approach passing on knowledge to all of you? Is it—it seems quite organized to me, like with the Swiss league that you're all—they're really, it seems to be that they're really building everybody up.
It's, it's hard to say. I think, um, 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, it's not so organized, like I don't know. I think, yeah, when you're motivated, uh, in any country you are. If you have the, the infrastructure of training and doing some comps, you, you will get better. How
Does 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 for, say, the Superfinal or a World Cup? Or, you know, if we—if we were in real time right now and COVID wasn't happening, how would you be preparing for the World Cup and Passy, uh?
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, or so on. It's more like looking the the old tracks on the sorry, on the um, the previous competitions to see what what are a bit the the normal tasks they set, and yeah, it's more like it's more like that. And then you just fly the tool first days before the comp and set your marks, and then you gotta go when
You look at your results and, and I'm not necessarily, I don't necessarily mean ranking and the World Cups, but when you look back at the times where you feel like that's, 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 the World Cup in um Coeur de Savoir last year and and I mean, it was hard to analyze what was going on because I was flying well and I just stay at this end of speed section. super tricky, and I bombed out twice in the end of speed section, and it's like I wouldn't say it's, it's, uh, um, when
You have chance, and when you don't have it, like, yeah, I would, but yeah, I could not really analyze it properly. What's—what was wrong from my side? And, uh, yeah, that was pretty hard. But otherwise, you know, every comp I got better, and I got better good rankings. And if I don't have good ranking at the end, I still do, like, super nice task. And I know what are my weaknesses, like, when, um, sometimes I'm too optimistic and I'm don't—I'm not checking enough the the sign that shows that it's gonna 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 a—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—if you gamble 10 times and you win eight, that's better than only gambling four times and winning four, you know? And in other words, it pays off. And something like the X-Alps, to take chances and to not—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 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. 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 just a physical penalty, it's a mental penalty, and it's just I find that I get more and more boxed in, I, you know, 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 told straight away that it was something I had to 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 the on this option or on the other option and or something like that. I don't know if it's a good thing or not, I don't know if it's a good thing exactly, but I really think it's something you have to think about it and not take it like just spontaneously, um, 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—it's how I imagine the thing, you know? It's like a checklist or something that—that you just, yeah, "let's go," or "let's go somewhere else," you know? And you—you can, uh, both options, okay?
So, pretend that we're not on a big public forum and everybody's listening to this, uh, how 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 as a woman, it's like it's hard to to to imagine what I can do because there is no many women's competing and so on, and I know that, uh, I would not be as strong as most of the men, but yeah, my goal is really to go as fast as as far as possible. Like, you cannot say, "I want to go to Monaco," but you want to, you want to say, "Yeah, I want to go so as far as I can," and also like be be fit at the end of the race or not be destroyed physically. Mm-hmm.
what about fun
fun is flying
What if it's like 2017? You can't fly the
best place of the world, and then yeah, I remember a video of you that, uh, it was the after the call divorce in 2015, I think. You didn't have so much fun there, oh
My god, yeah. I was—I went from having a banner, epic, beautiful day where it was like, "Oh, I'm gonna get to Monaco, no problem," and the—the two guys behind me just had no chance to catch up. But I was, you know, 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. And 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 race, and they're going to be able to take 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 informations from the locals because I think it's they know with which which conditions the 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 head to have. So, yeah, I will definitely go and 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, I really want to focus, um, also on the, um, actually, before the this whole thing started, I, 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 a super nice day and you cannot, you're flying up and down tandems when you can do 250ks, 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 yeah, now let's see, with all these things, I did think it's going to be difficult, but yeah, I wanted to take more, more time for cross country and also to train a lot physically for what's ahead, and I have this, uh, air thrower in, in June normally, and then the European Championships, and then I will do only one World Cup this year, so it might be either Germana 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, um, and then you said you're going to probably return to Brazil, yeah?
I hope so. I, I hope so. 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, world record now. And, yeah, maybe they don't think that I'm going to be in the world, world record now. I think it's good to, they will let the chance to somebody else. I don't know, but, uh, 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, your, your, your boyfriend has done very well in the ex alps in 2011 and 13, or no, so yeah, 2013 and 15. Yeah, okay, no. Oh, yeah, 15, he got injured and he wasn't able to start. Uh, what have you learned from him? What, what, what, what if his advice has been for getting ready and for doing well, um...
Yeah, we discussed about about a lot of things about, uh, just, um, more the logistic aspect and so on, so it's quite helpful. And, um, I think the ex Alps is getting more and more professional, like they're—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. He's—he's a super good athlete, but I mean, yeah, I think it wasn't super easy for the—the team. So, yeah, and we also talk about what—what you—how you should approach the thing with the also, um, checking the route and so on.
So, yeah, it'll be interesting tell
me about that? That is interesting. How does... what does he... what's the best homework you can do for the route, uh?
Is a pretty good, um, um, user of Google Earth. I have with my laptop is a bit harder, but he is using it 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 the route, but we do have a lot of people that are following us and we do have a lot how he does and, yeah, or when he went to the excels, 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 2015, that's been something that's completely blown my mind in 2015. And I've said this many times, I apologize to the listener, I know you've heard this a bunch, but in 2015, the mistakes we made and I made were so many, they're—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 2015 and still do okay.
And now, it's the pace is unbelievable, it's just gotten so much faster. I'm gonna say it's probably 30 percent me, I don't know exactly, but it's the pace of the top 20 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.
That's a lot of the fun, though, too. The preparation's fantastic, you know? It's that's, uh, you know, it's not just the race, it's the whole—it's the whole gamut of the the beginning of the end, and it doesn't end at the end of the race either.
Yale, that was great. Uh, it's fantastic to see you. It's been a while, and 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, uh, one week ago
this hey
Fantastic! Wow, how... how far was it? I know it's 500, but it was 500 and some odd, right?
in stretchers distance is 531.
Fantastic. Fantastic.
Using three points is 552. So we did a big banana.
As you do down there. Magnifique. Fantastic. Well, thank you very much.
Thanks. Bye. Thanks to you.
Okay. Bye.
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