Tom De Dorlodot has done more Red Bull X-Alps than everyone other than Toma Coconea (who has done them all!). The Belgian explorer extraordinaire started at the tender age of 21 in the 2007 race and hasn't missed one since. He is currently training for the 2023 event, which will be his 9th! We got together recently to dive into his campaigns just after he and his family moved into their new home on the island of Faial in the Azores. We rewind the clock to a time where teams didn't have GPS, athl...
Nov 18, 2022•2 hr 4 min
With the 2023 Red Bull X-Alps quickly approaching I thought it would be fun to sit down with Chrigel "The Eagle" Maurer to take a walk back through his 7 winning campaigns. No one in our sport has been and continues to be more dominant than Chrigel. He won his first X-Alps in 2009 and hasn't lost since (2023 will be his 8th campaign). He's won everything (many at least 3 times)- Bornes to Fly, X-Pyr, Dolomiti Superfly, EigerTour, Dolomitiman, VercoFly (which he won flying tandem too!), and of co...
Nov 04, 2022•1 hr 22 min
Tim Rochas is a long-time Niviuk Test pilot (he did his first testing for Niviuk at the age of 12!), wing and harness designer, French team member and veteran World Cup pilot. Tim has has recently gotten into hike and fly racing not only for his own pursuits but to become a Red Bull X-Alps supporter of Tanguy-Renoud Goud in the 23' race this summer.
Oct 17, 2022•57 min
During a weather day of the Red Rocks Wide Open this week, a US Nationals and Pre- PWC race to goal competition in southern Utah we held an panel discussion with some of our most veteran competition pilots- Evan Bouchier, Matt Beechinor, Josh Cohn, Bill Belcourt and Reavis Sutphin-Gray. Between the five they have 119 years of experience. The opening topic was competition strategy but the talk wandered into all kinds of fascinating areas including strategies for dealing with gust fronts, team fly...
Sep 24, 2022•2 hr 33 min
In a line, it explores the science behind why you might not be in the driver's seat of your own brain – and everything you can do to change that... It investigates everything from genetics, personality and intuition to habits, what you eat, social media, attention and bias – and how these factors influence and manipulate the way we think. We learn in the podcast that all KINDS of things get in the way of thinking clearly, which obviously isn't very good when we're in the air.
Sep 09, 2022•1 hr 16 min
In the Macedonia PWC this July, which had a pilot level similar to a Superfinal Baptiste Lambert was 1st or 2nd in 5 of 7 days of racing. He didn't even need to fly the last day to win the competition! Baptiste also won the PWC in Brazil and the PWC in China this year. But Baptiste does not consider himself a professional pilot, flying is not how he makes a living. He's not a test pilot. Until literally the day we recorded this podcast he's been a math teacher (he's just taken a new job with Ozo...
Aug 25, 2022•1 hr 5 min
In 2009 your host was about half way through a second circumnavigation when he was suddenly confronted with a rather daunting task- sailing from Bali to Langkawi, Malaysia (1500 nautical miles) across the two busiest shipping lanes on Earth (the Java Sea and the Malacca Straits) solo. This is an area of the world that is not only like a freeway on the ocean with enormous ships and fishing vessels moving at high speed it's also famous for the worst electrical storms on the planet.
Aug 12, 2022•30 min
The 2022 X-Pyr was substantially longer than any of the previous races with a big tweak to the route, and the weather this year was downright brutal. You had to be an animal on the ground, but it was in the air, and often in really scary air that we saw the true aviators make their moves. Manu was Pierre's weather and route-strategy ace and not only did their team hold in up at the front for the entire race, Pierre was the only bird in the sky late on day 6 (when the forecast called for winds in...
Jul 24, 2022•1 hr 1 min
Aaron Durogati is no stranger to thinking and doing big, but this time he pulled off what can only be described as outrageous. He and a few friends spent 40 days in the Himalaya in Pakistan to pursue mountaineering "combos". They used their paragliders to take off from lower elevations, put their touring gear (ie skis) on in the air, stuff it in somewhere high, often above 5,000 meters and then ski and fly down. They spent many nights at altitude acclimatizing; they got stuck with heinous walks ...
Jul 07, 2022•1 hr 18 min
Most pilots who think of flying in Brazil think of chasing records across the Sertão or racing in the land of the lost terrain in famous sites like Governador Valadares and Baixo Guandu. But Brazil is massive and the flying possibilities and potential is as big as the smiles that adorn the welcoming people. Leandro Estevam Montoya and a fast-growing group of pilots at all levels in Brazil have been exploring the countries' vol-biv potential for the past few years and their discoveries are tantal...
Jun 21, 2022•1 hr
Andy Baumelt is a Swiss pilot who reached out to me because he loved the show and said that while he would probably never be one of the top ranked pilots or do something big and wild in the sport he loved to fly, was firmly in the throws of intermediate syndrome and had made some mistakes that many pilots make in their journey. Andy's story is probably one that most pilots can relate to and we had a lot of fun just talking flying- and life.
Jun 04, 2022•51 min
Daniel Tyrkas is no stranger performing at a high level. He took a passion for gymnastics onto the slopes and soon after competed for Germany in snowboarding in the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics after nearly qualifying for Nagano in 98' (while going to engineering school!). He sends huge airs in kiteboarding, but his true passion for the last couple decades has been paragliding. He's commonly ranked in the top 15 in the world, regularly represents Germany on their national team, and very often ca...
May 21, 2022•1 hr 20 min
I'm not sure if I introduce Benjamin with "film maker" or "pilot" as he does both in spades. Benjamin makes amazing films about his flying and bivvy adventures in New Zealand and takes the viewer directly into his cockpit, talking the audience through his decision making with some of the most infectious stoke on flying I've ever witnessed. Come along for the ride with Benjamin as he takes us into the clouds to surf the possibilities.
May 01, 2022•1 hr 18 min
Alex has a very methodical approach to learning and training which we dove into in this talk. Alex likes to say "flying bags around the sky with grace and tact" is important, style is important, and style isn't just the physical movements we make under canopy but the holistic approach we take (or should take) to every aspect of flying and life in general.
Apr 16, 2022•1 hr 2 min
Bas van Duijn has been flying for 27 years, has been a paragliding instructor for 10 years and has a commercial aviation background. No stranger to simulator training he decided to bring the lessons from professional flightsim usage to our world. He also coaches recreational pilots who have developed a fear of flying. I reached out to Bas after watching one of his simulator videos because it seemed like an incredible way to learn our tricky sport with zero risk. We had a fascinating talk about w...
Apr 01, 2022•1 hr 20 min
Steve Bramfitt was a rookie in the 2021 Red Bull X-Alps (GBR1) this year and had a phenomenal race, and like everyone this year- experienced plenty of harrowing and wonderful moments. In this episode we talk about his physical and mental preparation, dealing with the unknowns going into such a huge endeavor, how he assembled his team, some of the crazier (and hysterical) moments in the race, his scary accident in the UAE Hike and Fly championships and his rather nasty accident on the last full d...
Mar 17, 2022•1 hr 25 min
season Serena won the female XContest and flew OVER 10,000 kilometers in a single season! She quit her job as a teacher and went on an 8 month sabbatical to fly and spent over 3 months in the Sertão of Brazil. Serena takes us back to her time in Brazil and learn about flying in a lot of wind, towing, figuring out the flats and having it all come together. Serena takes us through her journey to become a pilot, the addiction that set in, her dreams and hopes with flying and then the accident that ...
Mar 03, 2022•54 min
sport he is a legend. He's performed stunts in thousands of shows, including Cirque Du Soleil, IMBA World Summit, and Crankworx and has appeared in dozens of films. Ryan has been teaching mountain biking for over 24 years and is an avid explorer of human potential and is a certified Integral Master Coach. In this episode we explore the four types of Flow, the risk of entering flow through risk, developing the mind to increase performance, how a professional athlete has to ride the often very nar...
Feb 18, 2022•1 hr 9 min
Ovcharov hails from Sofia, Bulgaria who's background is in acro but he's about as all-purpose as you can get in the realm of free flight. He's passionate about wing suit base jumping; he just competed in the UAE Hike and Fly Championships in Dubai; he won the overall XContest this year chasing huge distance in Brazil and around the world; he competed in this year's World Championships in Argentina and still holds the world record for Infiniti tumbling. We talk in detail about his amazing year, t...
Feb 03, 2022•1 hr 9 min
World Cup Competition pilot Johanna Hamne had a very big year. She had a daughter, and when she was 8 months pregnant she broke the Nordic FAI record. That's not a mistype. She was 8 MONTHS pregnant when she flew the biggest triangle in the Nordic countries! You will love this story. But that's just the start. Johanna is a regular on the World Cup circuit and brings an always-smiling face to our sport. We delve into how risk tolerance changes (or doesn't) after you have a baby, competing after y...
Jan 21, 2022•1 hr 7 min
Clemens Ciepek is an Austrian Sailplane pilot who lives in Boulder, Colorado. He's the president of one of the premiere gliding clubs in the world and runs a website dedicated to spreading knowledge and improving pilot ability called "Chess in the Air" that is filled with fantastic in-depth articles that cover the full gamut of flying. Why do some pilots improve very slowly and others get good really fast? Clemens says it's in the approach. We cover the value of using the Condor flying simulator...
Jan 09, 2022•2 hr 32 min
Peter Zaccagnino is an aviation Hall of Fame pilot; 4 X Air Racing Gold Champion; has flown over 23,000 hours in more than 270 aircraft, flight tested more than 685 and even built three of his own. Peter's company, High Performance Aircraft Group manages several corporate jets, provides his clients with custom-tailored, high-intensity world tours, and performs flight test services for several manufacturers, including the U.S. and foreign militaries. He’s also the film producer of multiple Discov...
Dec 23, 2021•1 hr 26 min
Hannah Jane Williams is a postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior in Konstanz, Germany. For eight years she's been studying soaring birds across the spectrum to figure out why birds do what they do and when they do it in the air. For birds, soaring is a delicate game of balancing energy and reward. Flapping takes energy. Energy requires food and getting food has risk. Do birds practice? Do they every soar just to play? How often to birds make mistakes? How do they ...
Dec 09, 2021•55 min
This week we're doing something a little different. It has been proven that our minds don't know the difference between a real experience and visualizing an experience. Olympic athletes, race car drivers, elite ski racers, golfers- you name it, the best of the best across the sport gamut visualize themselves doing their thing. It takes practice, but the results are proven. Going out and flying to improve is still the best way to get currency, but if you're hurt, or the weather is bad, or you jus...
Dec 02, 2021•23 min
Kirsty Cameron has been a member of the British team many times. She's been flying high-end 2 line gliders for over 10 years and put a ton of energy and time into competition flying since she began flying in the late 90's. This year with travel being difficult and her 4 year old son vying for more her time Kirsty decided to dedicate her flying time to chasing big distance at home in the UK. She nabbed a couple records this year (see below for the links) and has found a new, super fun outlet for ...
Nov 25, 2021•1 hr 19 min
Jonny Durand is a long-time Red Bull sponsored hang gliding pilot who's been ranked #1 in the world multiple times. We've all seen the incredible footage of Jonny flying the "tsunami" morning glory phenomenon that sets up in Northern Australia, but Jonny has been chasing the sky crack in many different ways since his early days more than 20 years ago. He's chased the world distance record in Texas and Brazil and came up just shy of the record from Zapata on that fateful day back in 2012 flying w...
Nov 16, 2021•2 hr 45 min
Want to listen to some crazy stories? Eduardo Garza (Team Mex 1) competed in his second Red Bull X-Alps this year. Eduardo has also competed in two X-Pyr's, and he's done all of it while working full time in a very intense and demanding engineering job. Most X-Alps pilots are full time, sponsored professional athletes. Their work is flying paragliders. And most of those who do well in the race also live in and regularly compete in the Alps. How does Eduardo go about finding an edge against the b...
Nov 08, 2021•1 hr 19 min
I've had my friend and mentor Bill Belcourt on my mind a lot lately. He managed to handily win the US XContest this season with a series of impressive, committing, deep flights in the Intermountain west while juggling two professional jobs and being a father and husband; and he won a task at the XRedRocks hike and fly race last month and nearly took 1st place overall, proving there is no need for a masters category even when races are extremely physical. For this show we went back to the archive...
Nov 01, 2021•46 min
Thad hails from Minnesota, just sold a successful musical production company and is addicted to flying. The holy grail in the US has been the 200 mile mark, a distance very few pilots have pulled off and Thad has chased it hard for years. His chase has taken him through the full arc of what you have to learn to send, an arc that of course never ends. This spring he pulled it off in the flats of the MidWest with a 228 mile (very cold) beauty. A little while after he pulled it off he sent me an em...
Oct 09, 2021•2 hr 11 min
Burkhard Martens is one of the most-recognized names in the sport. His seminal work, "Thermal Flying", first published in 2005 is the world’s best-selling guide to the art of thermalling and XC flying. Cross Country’s team has been hard at work thoroughly revising and updating the text, line by line, and the design and photography has been refreshed to bring it bang up to date. I sat down with Burki a few weeks ago to talk about his new edition, what's changed since 2005, and the meat of the boo...
Sep 24, 2021•47 min
