World Championships - Sublime, Sad and Ridiculous

It breaks my heart that Xavier is gone too.

A black week for paragliding darkening rapidly by the condescending arrogance and total lack of leadership displayed by FAI representatives while Steve Ham gallantly tries to gain acceptance for a proposal designed to save what is left of this competition.

Steve’s initiative started well enough but the mood has turned partly sour with fractious opinions being bandied about between opposing camps of enthusiasts, nay Sayers and individuals with zero-on-the-first-day agenda’s.  There appears to be no time-line for decision making but we are hopeful for resolution some time today or tomorrow.

Looking on the bright side…. Uhm… well… ummm… ahhh… uhm!   Ok, moving along then: perhaps if we all fly seven hours a day (every day) we really will be safer.  Local sales of catheter/condom pee-tube thingies and adult incontinence nappies will spike.

Quote from Khobi while trying on aforementioned nappy: ‘Does my bum look big in this?’.  To which we all replied: ‘HELL NO!! Your bum makes that nappy look fat!’

The reality is that we will never fly these elegantly beautiful two line racing machines in FAI competitions ever again and the World Cup will grow in strength and continue as the premier body for high performance paragliding by individuals. 

And just in case you think I am gung-ho and callous you should know that I think this is probably a good thing.  FAI will never be able to reconcile safety and racing on paragliders in it’s present form.

One suggestion that has emerged is to send the FAI delegation home and let Steve Ham run a comp for the World Cup as a memorial to Francisco, Eitel and Xavier.