Thanks to all the donors who supported the US PG National Team.

Eagle will be providing coverage of the 2009 Paragliding Worlds in Valle De Bravo. Click on a task below for details. Task 1 (Jan 25) Task 2 (Jan 26) Task 3 (Jan 27) Task 4 (Jan 28) Task 5 (Jan 29) Task 6 (Jan 30) Rest Day (Jan 31) Rest Day (Feb 1) Task 7 (Feb 2) Task 8 (Feb 3) Task 9 (Feb 4) Task 10 (Feb 5) Task 11 (Feb 6)

Opening Ceremonies & Registration Day Video: World Championships Official Website Alas Del Hombre Website (Event Organizer) World Paragliding Championships Past Winners Current Paragliding World Rankings

Saturday January 24th, 2009

Let gets ready to rumble! The 2009 Paragliding Worlds start tomorrow, and Team USA is fired up. The team has been flying here this week getting ready to race. Kari Castle seems pretty hungry to fight for a world title. She feels dialed in on her UP Edge, and has been feeling really good and flying well during the training days. The boys are hungry as well, and seem ready to get down to business. They put in time training during the week, and are ready to race.

The guys spent the afternoon yesterday making some line tweaks to their Niviuk Icepeak 3 wings. We got out the door early today to get registered, and wanted to take the wings up to the launch at the lake (La Torre) to test fly the wings with the new lines. The wings looked super clean, and Bradley blasted by some of the Advance protos. Farmer snapped some nice images of the Icepeak’s high above the city.

Brad and Eric above the Torre Launch site

Brad and Eric on glide to the lake LZ

The guys landed at the lake. We wolfed some tortas and beer then headed for the pilot meeting to meet up with Kari. The team leaders attended a meeting right after the pilot meeting, and then we all headed toward the main square for the parade. The parade was loads of fun. We walked through the streets of Valle with the American flag and a group of kids from Valle as our escorts. Lots of people were chanting “USA”, but most of them were chanting “Obama, Obama, Obama”. We all had big smiles, and waived with approval.

(l to r) Jeff Huey, Kari Castle, Eric Reed, Brad Gunnuscio, Matt Beechinor "Farmer", Rob Sporrer

The parade caravan arrived at the cultural center for the opening ceremonies. The Mayor, and many others spoke to the large audience. They ended the show with some fireworks, and Team USA made off for our private team dinner to debrief on the day’s meetings, and go over some strategy and mindset for the two weeks of racing ahead. We had an excellent discussion, and veteran Jeff Huey brought up some great history and got us all fired up. This party gets started tomorrow, and we will bring you all the news at the end of day 1.

Rob Sporrer reporting from the pit