Wednesday 22 January 2014

2013 Super Final - Govenador Valadares - Day 6 - Task 6

Another diabolical day!  You may have seen the leader-board by now, so let me tell you how it is:
Winning a world cup task is like the holy grail for most of us.  You hunt it and don't care how you get it.  Like a crack junkie, you just want the win and you'll take it good, bad or ugly.  

Then once you win your first one and the euphoria has worn off you think about how you did it.  How stylish was it?  Did you get lucky? Did you deserve it?  How many made goal that day and how exclusive was your win?  

Then you get to thinking about the ultimate hero-fantasy-task win where you are the only pilot in goal.  Well, let me tell you folks, Russel Ogden did that yesterday (albeit on an open class wing ;-).  He covered himself in all the glory with a magnificent solo performance that elevates him from sky god to THE big bad ass sky God (with a capital G).  The man rules!

As for the rest, the glider thang is getting a little stale now with no solution in sight.  It seems my little poll has the majority of respondents so far thinking Ozone cheated with the Enzo 2. 

Some mangy blogger poll hardly carries any weight, but if it is representative of what the paragliding community thinks then you have to consider that perception is just about the only thing that matters.  Legal threats, technical spin and gamesmanship does nothing in the face of perception.  I wonder if it was worth the gamble for Ozone (assuming they gambled that is).

Pilots are scrambling to get different gliders for Mexico because there will be no resolution in time and they don't want to run the risk of being disqualified on the Enzo 2.  


5 comments:

Airplay said...

Great Blog Andre, though having a good friend just pop round to my house - who just happens to be a head honcho for a certain paragliding business - I am not convinced that any intentional manipulation has taken place. There is just too much to lose through purposely breaking any rule. I don’t think you can state Russ wing is an open class wing ( even in jest) though maybe you are just getting him back for calling you a pussy . Let’s hope these shenanigans get sorted and you guys and gals get back to what you do best and have fun racing.

AndreR said...

I hear you. Believe it or not I am one of those who will accept the result regardless of the noise. My next poll will ask the non ozone Super final pilots if they feel the same...

Chrissi Maria said...

Sheesh, always the high drama with these paragliding comps ;) I don't believe for a second that in this day and age of social media, presumed guilt and the risk of reputational loss world wide that any manufacturer would do something like this on purpose, in particular a brand that seems to be as marketing savvy as Ozone.

Stephan said...

I agree with you 100% Chrissi, but only time will tell....

Anonymous said...

yes, it seems too much to be true, but then stuff has been said that can't be un-said, so we're all a little cynical right now about the spin. Andre is brutal in telling the story, but he's right on target as always.