Well I'm back on expedition but I'm not the one doing the hard yards. This time it's Juliana Bahr-Thomson, the mermaid of the seas. She'll be paddling Newcastle to Noosa over the next month or so and I'll be her water support crew for most of the journey.
We are currently a few days in and it's already been absolutely spectacular. There's been Humpback whales, pods of dolphins and some very cheeky and curious Albatross to accompany us on our voyage. There's been plenty of highs and lows already for Juliana but that's what an adventure is all about. Check out more about her and what we're doing at www.mermaidwithamessage.com.au It's been many months since the end of the Icarus Trophy, but the trophy itself has finally arrived home in Australia. A massive thanks to Ryan Shaw of Paradrenalin for all his expert tuition and guidance during my race and all my sponsors who were there to support me. It's been a while but here it is!
Here's my ground crew Teddi and I celebrating with the trophy! A quick reprise from the grind and 6 of us were able to escape to a beautiful adventure playground for some rad downhill mountain biking and speed flying - all for work of course! I've been busy product testing some radical new gear over the past few months and I'm stoked to introduce the Recon Jet HUD (Heads Up Display) sunglasses. To date I've been using them for mountain biking, skydiving, speed flying and paragliding just to name a few disciplines.
The Jet has full inbuilt GPS, WiFi and bluetooth and it has been an amazing couple months learning to use and explore the possibilities of this awesome piece of technology. I honestly can't believe how versatile this little piece of kit is and the possibilities truly are endless. I'm currently working to try and develop them for skydiving but at current they're a world of fun to use while paragliding, riding and speed flying! Check out the shots below! There are some awesomely big things happening in the next 12 months and I'm super excited about them.
First and foremost I have been spending every other moment in my life in freefall and training hard to be an even more rad skydiver. March and April this year I am taking a small crew to New Zealand for some speed flying and downhill mountain biking. July is tropics time with a big kayak expedition taking place on the Great Barrier Reef. The end of the year is a couple months of dedicated skydiving and BASE time and then January 2017 is when Arabian Knights kicks off. It's going to be an action packed and truly awesome next 12 months. There's always room for more adventure and shenanigans though so watch this space to see what other bouts of crazy I come up with to 'fill the gaps'! Photos below; Swoop five on the beach at work and another day in paradise above the clouds. Now 12 Months away from an amazing adventure and the crew are in full training and preparation mode already.
Loz flew out from the UK to Australia to meet with me and we certainly got the expedition planning juices flowing. The hardest thing about most expeditions is almost never doing them, it's all the pre planning and preparation that is the most mind numbing and painful bit for us adventure and outdoorsy types. Alas however it begins. The journey to cross a completely inhospitable desert doesn't begin with buying camels or treating blisters, it begins with elevator music on repeat for hours at a time while you're on hold to foreign embassies around the world. Yay... In the mean time it's desert training for the three of us which means summiting peaks in the 40 degree aussie heat! I finally finished the Icarus trophy today and I'm stoked to be the FIRST one across the finish line. Thank you so much to everyone for your well wishes and words of encouragement.
Some stats: I've travelled well over 1000km in under 2.5 days Spent up to 9.5 hours in the saddle in a day flying. Gone as high as 10,000ft and skimmed as low as tree trimming height. Been neck and neck with fellow Aussie competitor David Wainwright and only beat him to the finish line by 4 minutes!! Zero mechanical failures or problems. I had one hell of an amazing adventure with too many aching muscles to count! Now it's party time and a massive thank you to everyone involved, helped support me (Teddi especially!) and continued to send me their well wishes while I was in the air. Even though I could read them it was a little difficult to reply with PPG T-Rex arms. Only two more days now til launch and I can't wait! Weather has been terrible and very little flying happening pure race thus far. I'm hoping for a break in the wind and fog on Sunday to get up for a pre race blitz and to take a look at stunning Mt Ranier from the sky. Monday morning USA time is the official start.
You can follow me live with my tracker from that time on using this link. Follow me! http://www.theadventurists.com/the-jibber/2015/10/1/five-pilots-to-watch
Top five pilots to watch and I'm on the list! If it only it would stop raining... |
Archives
May 2020
Categories |