Off to Austria

Tomorrow morning I head to Zell am See for Paranoia Acrobatixx which will be my first Aerobatic Paragliding World Championship (APWC) event. (Vertigo should've been my first . . . . yeah, still pissed about that.)

After 3 straight days of rain, it's finally gonna be clear tomorrow so I hope to get out to Murren early and get some flights before facing the 6-hour drive. This is crucial since it'll be my first flight since the accident as I really didn't want the 1st run in Austria to be it!

Regarding the accident, I'm almost 100% except for some tightness in my left gluteal. After looking at my harness and jacket, and feeling where it hurts on my body, I clearly landed perfectly flat on my leftside, which obviously dissipated the impact energy evenly, making it the only way to avoid breaking anything (except my sunglasses).

Geezus. If it wasn't for hanging solely on my right carabiner as I fell, I'd be in a body cast for sure.

My FLX didn't go unscathed either; it suffered a tear which I quickly had the Swiss Ozone importer repair. He and his wife have a great business JUST selling Ozone wings and doing repairs. Amazing.

Every night in Interlaken, I come to the Funny Farm which is part of the Mattenhof Resort to use their free wifi and basically hang out since it's warm in here and not-so in my tent. If you didn't already know (I didn't before I got here two weeks ago), Interlaken is the extreme sports capital of Europe where a tourist can try paragliding, hanggliding, canyoning, river rafting, skydiving, and zorbing in the summer. The town is just full of American college students who are traveling throughout Europe in an urban backpacking trip.

It's pretty scary.

But the money you can make off these kids is phenomenal. One of my friends here, Sebastian, has been doing PG tandems since last summer. If he hustles and averages 4 tandems/day (VERY conservative number) during this time (3 -4 month period), he can take the rest of the year off and travel. Can you imagine?

While you won't get rich and receive any stock options, it sure sounds better than a cube job, eh? But before any of you T3s get any funny ideas and quit your day job, go get at least 2500 tandem flights, and maybe - just maybe! - your T3 will be transferable. But I seriously doubt it. The requirements to get a coveted Swiss tandem license make the USHPA ones look like 3rd grade.

That said, there are some major business opportunities in Interlaken if you can create something for them to do when it rains . . . . or anything involving a certain green plant.

See you guys next when I'm in Austria!