Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Fun At The beach!!

Well After nearly 11 years of Hang Gliding in the Gold Coast hinterland we finally get a rare 20-25knt easterly. So after dreaming about flying the Gold Coast beaches for so many years today looks like it will be the day except for one thing rain. It was a wet wednesday morning and we had been planning this all week so it was off to Dirks house down in southport where we had all planned to meet up. There was Dirk,michelle,enda,kath,lee,taj and me and it was pooring rain only 5kms from the beach. We had all the toys with us and knew that one of them would keep us entertained for the afternoon. It was decided on the pub of all things as the rain was just not easing up. After a few games of pool and something to eat it was now starting to look better, so we raced off to the beach to check it out. When we arrived at Narrowneck just north of Surfers Paradise it was blowing about 20knts straight E and the rain had stopped. After a quick check of conditions and sand dunes we quickly set up 1 fun 190 and leeroy saddled up for a virgin flight on the coast. This is a picture I took of him with my new phone moments after taking the first steps to a awesome afternoon. Ben 737 also turned up along with a few other pilots and we all flew until sunset. there were a few incidents in amoungst all of them including me going upsidedown after hitting leeroy in the head with my leading edge as I cruised along the dunes. I was not the only pilot to see the coast upsidedown on this beautiful afternoon. As I drove away from the carpark it was all smiles at the end of the day and I can not wait until we get to enjoy the beach again. I will put up some more photos when I get them from the others cause i did not have my camera there at the time. It was not long until I got to take the leap of fun from our very own beaches. I have done a little dune gooning before and have always wanted to fly the coast since I can remember. The feeling I got when i took off and started flying down towards the high rises and past the lifeguard towers could only be described as very memorable. I had a smile from ear to ear and just wanted to fly until sunset. It was not long before we had caught the eyes of many spectators including the ones on high rise balcony's. Matty one of the local pilots was working in one of the buildings and finished work and came down to join in on the fun.