Jonathan Tagle is one of the competitors at the Columbia SpeedFlying Pro Les Arcs in France, taking place this very moment. He will be sending in updates as possible, in-between blizzards and crazy runs on the mountain :)
Yesterday, Tuesday February 5th, all 25 competitors were up on the lift by 8:00am. The dual slalom course was set up and ready to go by about 8:30am. Each competitor did 1 practice round down the red course and then it was back up for the first qualifying round on the blue course.
In this competition I have seen many different wing shapes and sizes. It has been very interesting to see the different flying styles too.
After the qualifying round, the top 8 went on to the next round (going head-to-head). Antoine Montant and Mathius Roten qualified flying the PD Spire. Mathius had just hooked up a brand new 9m that morning and had never flown it before.
Kevin Love (another American competitor) finished 10th on a 10m wing, but was assessed a 5 second penalty for not touching down going through one of the gates. I finished 17th on a 10m wing, with a clean slow run. Vincent Reffet qualified using an 84 Velocity. His teammate from Babylon Freefkly, Stephane Fardel also flew an 84 Velocity in the competition but struggled to inflate the canopy in the beginning.
The top 8 then went head-to-head, leaving only 4 competitors for the semi-finals. Antoine Montant with PD Spire and Vincent with the Velocity were still in it. After several head-to-head runs, Antoine Montant was the winner of the Speed event with the PD Spire! When I went to congratulate him, he said "With the Spire it's so easy... It's the perfect canopy for this event."
Today (Wednesday, February 6th) we have the day off due to weather - it's snowing and windy. Tomorrow we will go up for the Big Mountain event. In that one, competitors will run down a designated slope with no restraints. Each rider will try to impress his peers with a line or a run that is both compelling and controlled. At the end of the day, competitors will watch video of the runs and judging will take place.
Scores form both days will then be added together for the overall champion of the Columbia Speedflying event. Stay tuned for more updates!
We can't wait to hear from Jonathan again, with another update from this very exciting event. Stay tuned for more information, along with photos from photographer Max Haim.
It's not just members of the PD Factory Team that head off and have all the fun during winter months. A group of 60 skydivers from Netheravon in the UK headed to Val Thorens, France for bit of skiing. Val Thorens is the highest resort in Europe and so the snow was guaranteed. There was a mix of abilities with some never having been on snow before and others ripping through the knee high powder all day. HEAT also had a few guys out there and took a canopy along for a bit of Speed Riding. You can check out the video of the Sabre 135 flying down the slopes here. We're looking forward to next time when there should be more of us out Speed Riding and we can't wait to start flying a Spire.
