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“Addictions can be very, very bad but addiction itself is not bad.
It’s a case of what you’re addicted to.
You better live each day like it’s your last, ‘cos one day you’re going to be right”.
Ray Charles.
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Rapid Descent Racing
- Dan still smiling in spite of hideous bodily deformities having broken out over his torso.
In their own words:
“Welcome to Rapid Descent Racing and we are a high-performance whitewater team comprised of Tasmanians Ben Maynard, Dan Hall and Stewart Bennett.
As athletes we travel extensively to compete at the highest levels in the disciplines of Wildwater, Xtreme, Marathon and Multisport.
Each paddler has won Australian Championships as individuals and together are the reigning Australian Champion Team and aim to win Australia's first ever Teams medal at the 2008 World Championships in Italy”.
- Ben at right racing for a semi-final berth in the Teva Wairoa Xtreme in NZ
Keep and eye out for their progress at www.rapiddescentracing.blogspot.com and we’ll post more of their exploits.
- Scarily good super athletes one day, three guys in a white van the next ….
Monday 25 June 2007 ….. Silver medal for Dan Hall at World Cup 5!!!
Australia's Dan Hall has re-written his own record books and taken the silver medal in World Cup 5 (sprint) at Irvea, Italy.
This is Australia's first Wildwater medal at senior level and only Australia's second medal in total after Andrew Tribe won Junior gold many years ago.
The Irvea course claimed some big names, with Mruzek, Marek, Slepica (CZE), Andrea (ITA) and Stiefenhoffer (GER) all well down the list compared to their results from earlier sprint World Cups this season.
Dan has been training and competing at the top level on a shoe-string budget every year since his first European campaign in 2003. Dan was elated that his commitment and hard work has yielded such a big result:
"Wahoooooo!!!!!! Silver medal at World Cup race 5!!!! Wahoooooo!!!!!! I'm so stoked! It was the toughest course I have raced on in my Wildwater kayak.
The course was like Brady's Lake on steroids but harder! I had 2 crackers and came from 4th to 2nd!!! I was only .7 of a sec off winning. One more race tomorrow and then back to Scotland."
News just in - Dan 11th in World Cup 6 (classic).
A solid classic from Dan and from the six World Cup races, Dan has results of 2nd, 8th, 10th, 11th, 14th, and 15th. The best four of these count for overall World Cup ranking, so Dan should have a good chance of improving on his World Cup ranking of 7th in 2006.
See some awesome video footage of the sprint race courtesy of the CUS Milano Wildwater Team here
Parahawking.
“Parahawking is the art of training birds of prey to fly with Paragliders, it was developed and pioneered in 2001 in Pokhara, Nepal by Scott Mason. By combining Paragliding with the ancient art of Falconry, we are able to train birds of prey to fly with us, guide us to thermals and even perform aerobatic manoeuvres.
Eagles, Kites and Vultures are natural soaring birds; together with Paragliders they use thermals to fly long distances whilst conserving energy. Our trained birds are no different, they will utilise the thermals and guide us to them, then be rewarded in the air for their efforts. The ultimate flying companion!
Black Kites are particularly agile in flight, out-manoeuvring the most skilled paragliders. Our Kites are able to spiral, stoop and perform the most incredible aerobatics whilst chasing the glider to get their reward”.
Have a look at what they’re doing at www.parahawking.com
Francois Bon
To see a bit more of where this speed flying has got, have a look at the following video that shows Frenchman François Bon’s descent of the south face of Aconcagua.
Bon is currently the world’s most prolific exponent of this new hybrid sport, with a descent of Mont Blanc, as well as the Eiger by both the west and north faces.
Bon reached the top of the 22,841-foot Aconcagua, the highest peak in the Western Hemisphere, after 11 days on the approach and the climb itself, in early-winter and launched from the summit where he flew the 9,000-foot south face in 4 minutes 50 seconds.
A speed riding wing is only about half the size of paragliding rig and can reach 100k’s per hour or more and to give an idea of what that looks like in reality, Bon has descended from 15,774-foot Mont Blanc to the valley in Chamonix in just 3.5 minutes.
Below is him with Antoine Montant on one of their descents of the Eiger.
- Bon and South Face of Anconcagua