... so, after i accidentally erased about 140 GBs from my ipod last night, i woke up to another day of rain this morning. no flying, no music, no shit to do. i guess i might as well try this blog thing, shit, even my buddy Cameron is doing it. i guess it's time to join in the 21st century.
a couple of years ago, after an exceptionally shitty winter, while living in Victor, Idaho for the season, i decided i've had enough of cold, want to get more into flying and put riding on hold for a while. i still love skiing powder, there aren't many things that are better than that, but i can't stand all those dry cold days with frozen snowpack and shitty riding conditions.
it also got harder and harder to talk to my parents after what happened to Paul, not being able to ever talk about skiing or an epic day in a backcountry.
i chose to spend summers in Jackson and winters in Hawaii, mostly just to keep flying year round, but also to change the scene, do something different, after 10 years in JHole.
the 2007 was the beginning of my ENDLESS SUMMER
i've been to Hawaiian Islands a couple of times before, but always only passing thru the main one, Oahu. never really liked it, always seemed to me too busy and dirty compare to the other islands. this time i decided to stay there, because Oahu is the only island in the Hawaiian chain, that has good paragliding.
it only took me about 2 weeks to completely fall in love with it though, because of it's diversity. i've met some people on North Shore, set up a base there, bought a van and started exploring the island, looking for work and paragliding every day.
van died on me, had to buy another one. kept getting reports about an epic winter in JH ( which turned out to be an epic record setting 600" season ), couldn't find any work for a while and went completely broke. also flew in shorts and a t-shirt every day, and every full moon night, did a bit of surfing, lots of mountain biking, tried sky diving, kite surfing, did a bunch of sailing, flew in small airplanes around the island ... and couldn't have cared less about the epic season they were having back home in Jackson.
went back to JH in June of 2008, worked hard all summer, did a lot of good flying, had some good times going down the Snake River again, hangin' out with some good friends and when the winter came had a few really good days riding powder on The Mountain. also had some bad experiences with the american law system and to top it off, crashed my beloved Toyota Previa. by the end of the year i decided i've had enough and after 13 years of living in the US, i decided it was time to go.
i remember sitting in an airplane from Jackson to Chicago ( after packing 13 years of my life into 7 bags - my boards, gliders, cameras and a bit of clothes and paying some ridiculous excess baggage fees ), thinking that i might not see this place ever again. taking off and looking at Sleeping Indian, Golf and Tennis, Snow King, Town, the buttes south of town, Rafter J and Melody, Snake River .... and feeling really sad to be leaving the place i still call home. and also excited about what's coming.
never been into planning too much, but the immediate "plan" was to visit the family, spend a bit of time in The Czech and head out to Nepal, to hopefully get into tandem business and start working.
spent a month in Czech, which turned out to be a bit disappointing for me, picked up a brand new glider from Gradient, the best paragliding company in the world, and started packing my bags again.
so, here i am, sitting on the porch of Frontiers Paragliding office in Pokhara, Nepal, just downstairs from where i live, typing away with my two index fingers, wearing shorts, a hoodie and "22" baseball cap from my buddy Tommie, watching the rain coming down hard and about to have a smoke ...
