SAFA Skysailor Magazine

7 January | February 2022 SKY SAILOR While the visible wave had disappeared, the turbulence that goes with the wave cer- tainly did not fizzle out, and produced a very invigorating ride down to the ground… I think Viv used somewhat different terminology to describe the downward journey. Viv landed in a huge open area which just happened to be a couple of kilometres from the road. Whoops! From the air, the ground out there looks great, but on the ground, it is actually very rough and surprisingly featureless – every- where looks the same as everywhere else – and there is no phone signal. The Garmin InReach came in very handy with coordinates being sent to the retrieve car and after some head scratching a rather dusty pilot was duly retrieved. Later in the week, Viv got onto a classic, horizon to horizon wave and managed a flight of 170km on the wave before winding down to land because the road went into inhospitable terrain. Usually, the weather is hot and humid, but this year, the air was only hotish, and unusu- ally cloudy. The sky is normally quite clear at that time of year, but bits of rain and overcast conditions threw the proverbial spanner into the works for the Morning Glory waves, with only sporadic waves appearing, often weak and disorganised. Only towards the end of our stay did we see three good waves in a row with a classic, smooth, fat, horizon to horizon wave taking the prize for the best wave of the trip. Above: The Australian team, l-r: Trent Brown, Peter Burkitt, Steve Blenkinsop, Craig Taylor, Jon Durand Jnr, Tony Cross, Steve Docherty, Nils Vesk, Alan Bond Left: Team pre-task briefing Photos: Courtesy S. Blenkinsop Clockwise from top left: A big fat, smooth wave that went from horizon to horizon A tiny hang glider on a huge wave – Viv Clements flying his Laminar Viv on a wave out near the coast