A SCHLECHTFLIEGER AT THE RED BULL VERTIGO
Villeneuve, Switzerland, 18-27 August 2006
report by Greg Hamerton (www.greghamerton.com)

The brothers Rodriguez embrace each other on the launch site, a final moment to gather strength before the violent display. We're high over the town of Villeneuve. There's hardly a breeze coming up the slope. Then one!two! and they're off, racing down to the Competition Box - the over-water exhibition zone, where the title of World Champion in Paragliding Aerobatic Flying will be established, for the first time.

I glance at the schedule for solo acro runs. There's a range of manouevres to choose from, most of which are beyond my ability, and I've been flying for many years. It starts with a full stall, that's the lowest scoring manouevre. From there you work your way upwards through SATs, Dynamic Full Stall, MacTwist, Helicopter, and Misty Flips with improved scores for direct transitions from one to the other. The Rhythmic SAT and Infinite Tumbling are on the program too, even though only a few competitors are capable of such advanced aerobatics. (The Infinite Tumble is a perfect repetitve somersault over the wing, a manouevre believed to be impossible until a few years ago).

After watching the near-perfect routines of the top thirty pilots, it begins to look easy. I sneak off the launch site when nobody is watching, and head out over Villeneuve. Right! Time for acro! I can do this.

It takes me about five seconds to get a totally uncontrolled aerial mess. As I fall past my balled glider, I reflect on just how hard it is to perform these manoeuvres. Slack lines pass me like psycho spaghetti, each thread a potential garotte just waiting for me to fall into. Bang! The canopy slams open, with a big cravatte. Before it can spiral on me, I have to full stall it. Grrrr ... lash! ... shake-a-shake-a-shake-a ... wriggle ... yoik! Padam! And I'm out. I check all my lines. Nothing broken. Praise the Lord.

I watch the next acro sequence with new respect. Judy Zweifel (the leading female pilot) carves high over the lake, making radical manouevres seem somehow delicate, moving from a SAT into a helicopter without a wrinkle in the glider. She swoops down on the water at the end of her routine and drags a foot like some languid waterbird before touching down, on the raft, in a flurry of nylon feathers.

Now you've got to understand, the raft is small. It's so small that your wing will fall into the water if the helpers don't pull it in quickly enough. For those pilots that came in hot and succeed in dragging a foot or a wingtip in the water before landing, there is the reward of extra points, and a roar of applause from the crowd. Those that go splat!- well, they don't earn the points, but I think the crowd loves them all the more for trying.

The Hang-gliding aerobatics is impressive in a different way. It is faster, more graceful, with pilots performing a series of spins, wingovers and loops. But unless you really understand hang-gliding, you can't appreciate the immense precision these pilots must deliver. With most pilots avoiding the dangers of the landing raft, the crowd is left without as much spectacle, until Rolf Gruber falls on his wing during a loop and throws his reserve. On the final day the hang-gliders go all out to impress, and many pilots attempt the raft landing, much to the spectators' delight.

I look up. The Rodriguez brothers enter the Competition Box, high overhead. Their wings synchronise in perfect harmony. Their routine includes syncro Infinite Tumbling and Rodeo SATs that are truly spectacular. (In the Rodeo SAt, one pilot does a SAT, the other spirals tightly around him). They have been the innovators for many years, and are the prime instigators of the whole acro scene, with their Safety Acro Team videos causing many youths to be lead astray from 'boring soaring' into the realm of 'self-induced turbulence'. In the end, they are crowned the champions in Synchro, and Raul ROdriguez claims the first place in Solo.

It was great to witness the final moment of official recognition for this rebellious offshoot of paragliding, with all its busted-jeans-and-devil-may-care attitudes. Used to be the day that pilots would laugh when you mentioned aerobatics on a paraglider. Now it's safe to say that the paragliding aerobatics stole the show. Nothing brings the crowds like a good acro competition.

More info on : www.redbull-vertigo.com