Another Good Day

The forecast was looking good for flying. Cu's were popping early in the day and I thought it could be a promising XC day. The plan was to meet at 2:30. Since I was up early, I thought it would be nice to catch an early skate session with Nick.

Iris in the front yard

Skating didn't turn out to be so nice. I was feeling off and ate shit hard more often than I stuck a trick. You can forget how hard cement is until your body is bouncing off it. Anyways, it is alway nice to pretend to be young again.

Nick in the cradle

I rolled up to the LZ at 2:30 and quickly loaded gliders. Everyone was anticipating a good day. When we reached the launch the sky was still looking promising, but we knew there was a high pressure system nipping at our heels. Greg, Mike, and Karl launched first. After some short "climb-outs" they were heading to land. Brian, Josh, and I waited a short bit to launch after watching that horrior show.

A Bitterroot flower on Mt. Sentinel

Josh launched. As I stood on launch watching, he inspired no confidence. High pressure was here and we were getting hosed. Josh found no lift and quickly landed. I figured I might as well hang out with the guys in the LZ and launched. As I was getting hosed and heading to the LZ, I found a nice thermal and was able to hang with it for some time. It eventually took me to 8,200 ft where there was a shear. After that, I lost some altitude but was able to find another thermal taking me back up to 8,000 ft. I never could get past that point. Eventually I couldn't find any more lift and was forced to land.

Greg launching

Flying, skating, climbing and more...

I had the last few days off and they turned out to be good ones. The weather is getting nice and Missoula is a had place to beat in the summer time. I got a chance to fly, skate, climb, and just lounge around enjoying the sun.

Davis

Karl

Launch

Most of you know that I obsessively fly and climb when I have a chance, but recently its been skating that is eating up a chunk of my time. Yea, yea, I know. When will I grow up? Maybe never. Take a look around. Who is having more fun in life or should I say wearing a smile more often? Children or bitter adults...

Jeff

Lindsay

Since my last skating post I have been at the park nearly every day. After many cuts, bruises, and scraps, I'm starting to get my form back. Of course I've began to feel like an old man in the process. I didn't remember the ground feeling so hard!

Blodgett burn

Some local art

"Slack-lining"

Summit photo

Arts and Crafts Time

Like I said in the other post, the weather in Missoula has been shitty. Today being the worst I've seen since June of 2001 (I think). In order to stay busy on the poor days, I've been shaping an aerodynamic "POD" for my flight instruments.

No that's not rain....ITS FUCKING SNOW!

Jeff had done this before so he taught me how to make one. I started by shaping floral foam into the specific shape I needed. Next we secured a bracket from my instruments into the foam using bondo. After much needed sanding to get the shape as perfect as possible we were ready to lay the carbon fiber. We painted the foam with epoxy resin and molded the carbon to the foam shape. I wrapped my instruments in plastic and placed them in the POD to hold the carbon in place. It took a night for the epoxy to harden. Then we laid a sheet of carbon on the back of the foam and let the epoxy harden over night once again. Now we had the basic POD and it was now time to sand and layer epoxy on to increase the strength. After about eight layers, I had a finished product. What would of cost me over $300 from a manufacturer probably ended up costing me about $40 in material and some of my time. Click on the images for a closer look.

Another Rainy Day

Not much has been going on for myself. Weather in Missoula has been poor for a longer stretch than I can remember. What few nice days we've had, I've tried to make the most of. Some hang gliding, climbing, biking, and plenty of skate boarding. I haven't been too motivated to take pictures lately due to the poor lighting, but I thought I'd post what I've got.

Farmers Market

Blossoming flowers

Jumbo saddle

Jeff and Nya

Nick boating the wave

Nya

Pink (?) flowers

Nya playing in Napweed

Brad Potter preparing to surf the local wave

Nya on her swing

Brad surfing

Nya

Rosko

Rosko again