As usual I got to the hill before sunrise. The winds were on the light side and a little too east for soaring. I kited for awhile and then the wind died off to the point even that wasn't working. Chris Santacroce showed up with his students and some of his flying buddies that are into paragliding, skydiving , and BASE jumping. Chris asked me if I'd like to try foot launching a BASE canopy from the top of the south side just for fun. For those of you that don't know, a BASE rig is a skydiving parachute that's been optimized for BASE jumping. Here's a picture of Plamer (a BASE, sky dive and paraglide genius) kiting his skydiving rig. A BASE rig is about twice the size of the of Plamer's canopy, but it's still tiny compared to a paraglider. The launch speed was so high that I ran half way down the hill before I took off. The flight was short and the landing was HOT. I flared for all I was worth and then ran my ass off and wound up having a nice landing. It was so much fun I went back up and did it again. Thanks Carson for letting me use your rig!
After that the winds picked up and I got back into my paraglider and soared and practiced ground handling until about 10:00 am, at which point I was pooped and ready for some breakfast.
The weather seems much improved today. I think there's an excellent chance that the north side of the Point will be soarable this evening.
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