Racing OVER THE MIGHTY COLUMBIA

By: Nick Greece

By KAVU

August 13^th, 2019

Chelan, Washington is one of the top flatland paragliding competition arenas in the World! This year the US National Paragliding competition's final leg was held in a part of Washington where pilots get to fly through beautiful mountains and across incredible flat lands. The terrain we raced over varied from rivers and hanging lakes to wheat-filled landscapes where a glacial explosion carved a swath from Canada through Washington and Oregon million of years ago.

Passing over historic cities like Grand Coulee, which houses one of America’s greatest engineering achievements of the 1930’s, Grand Coulee Dam. Grand Coulee Dam is a concrete gravity dam on the Columbia River in the U.S. state of Washington, built to produce hydroelectric power and provide irrigation water.

Racing a paraglider is similar to sailboat racing. In this competition, 150 competitors launch in an hour-long window to get into position for the start. Then, we race for 2 to 5 hours, across wide expanses ranging from 40 to 100 mile-long courses, averaging speeds of 20-40 mph- per day.

The first person to "make goal" gets 1000 points and one point for every second behind the winner is deducted from competitors who arrive after the day-winner. For every four days raced, one day is "dropped"from the overall scores, to take away any luck factors, and after seven days the scores are added and......

....we have a winner!

It is a glorious game of real life aerial chess that is one of the finest sporting contests in the world, and the fact that we live in a time where we can race around the sky hanging from nylon and string is always celebrated at these events!

This year, I was able to hang on and grab the second place spot! I am over the moon thrilled to be able to place with such a stiff level of competition and a huge congrats to Donizete Lemos who after 5 days of racing, deservedly, earned first!

Hopefully we’ll have a World Cup in Chelan next year!!!!

Thank you to Ozone Paragliders for making the best wings in the world, KAVU for always supporting free flight and ambassador’s dreams, KEEN for crushing footwear and community engagement, TAKA for being the paragliding benefactor of the century, and Horn Creek Hemp for making products for aging athletes to continue our dreams without sore muscles!