The Cloudbase Mayhem podcast is where you will find fascinating and educational interviews with the best free-flight pilots in the world. If you fly a hanglider or paraglider, if you fly acro or cross country, the Cloudbase Mayhem podcast is where we glean how the great pilots of the world get there. Hosted by Red Bull X-Alps pilot, National Geographic Adventurer of the Year and current holder of the North American foot launch record, Gavin McClurg. Follow me on Instagram @gavinmcclurg or on Facebook @ facebook.com/gavinnmcclurg or Twitter on @cloudbasemayhem.
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Episode 129- Piedrahita, Wild Stories, Accident hindsights and more with Steve Ham
Steve Ham’s fascination with flying began with hang gliders in 1981, which subsequently ended any attempt at a serious career path. In 1991 Steve discovered Piedrahita in Spain and began a crusade to put the site on the world map for flying and competitions. During the 90’s Steve organized and ran some of the most memorable and successful comps of the decade, including 4 World Cups, the Europeans, the Hang Gliding World series and multiple national events. Steve still holds the site record from Piedrahita and has at various times in his long career held many other records in Spain and the UK. Steve has represented the British Team several times over a long competition career starting in 1990 and the latest in 2007 in Australia; and has notched a number of wins at comps around the world. He was the comp director in the tragic 2011 World’s competitions in Piedrahita, probably the most notorious event in the history of paragliding which resulted in two deaths and several reserve throws on the second day. The fallout from that event radically changed paragliding and resulted in the ban of Open Class gliders. In this episode we revisit the tragedy in Piedrahita and get the full story on what happened and how the “writing was on the wall”; we hear about his fateful accident after the comp that lead to him becoming a talented illustrator; several other accidents both hang gliding and paragliding over the years; Steve’s “flyguiding” in Piedrahita; the craziness of Manila in 2007, and plenty of entertaining stories. Enjoy!
Show Notes:
* The 2011 World’s in Piedrahita- what went wrong and all the fallout from the comp
* Piedrahita gets on the map
* The Open Class and Serial Class and comparisons to 1998
* Fly on the wall goes bad
* The history of comp gliders
* Revisiting the weight issue and size of gliders and “weightless” style comps
* Saving Piedrahita
* Accidents and takeaways
* The craziness in Manila in 2007 and Eva’s flight over 30,000′
* Maintaining a good attitude at comps
* The liberation of leaving competitions
* Running a comp and covering costs
* Red Bull X-Alps
* Becoming an illustrator
* Kiwi’s “road to Macedonia” series
* Meet directing and flying in comps = bad idea
* Stupid decisions and complacency
* Looking back at a long career
* How our acceptance of risk changes in the comp environment
Mentioned in this episode: XCMag, Russ Ogden, Ozone, Gin, Ed Ewing, Alex Hoffa, Richard Gallon, CIVL, Eitel von Muhlenbrock, Mads Syndergaard, Francisco Vargas, James “Kiwi” Johnston, Tom Payne, Seiko Fukuoka, Brett Janaway, Bruce Goldsmith, Godfrey Wenness, Eva Wisnerska, David Dagault, USHPA, Miguel Gutierrez, Alas Del Hombre, Jocky Sanderson