Cloudbase Mayhem Podcast

Hugh Miller began flying at the age of 15 and has been a household name in the sport since taking over Cross Country Magazine back in the 90's at the age of 21. He does most of the EN C and D wing testing for the magazine today and just last year won the UK League in a career that spans decades. This talk could have gone on for hours. We cover a huge range of topics that are pertinent and valuable...

On the 25th of November 2016 Joanna Di Grígoli beat her own personal best by 240 km and landed than 2 km away from beating the longest women's footlaunch in history flying just over 400 km in Quixada, Brazil. But this talk is a lot more than chasing records. The flight in Brazil in the topping on the cake. Joanna grew up in Caracas, Venezuela and hasn't been able to ignore the flying dream since s...

We've got a VERY special episode for you this Holiday Season. Ozone test pilot and world cup crusher Russ Ogden, one of the great living legends of paragliding and the inspiration for the Cloudbase Mayhem podcast and one of the most-mentioned pilots in the podcast gives us two solid hours that I am calling a Masters Class in paragliding. This is the most information dense episode to date. There is...

Michael "Micky" Sigel began flying before most people learn how to drive a car. His early talent and passion got him on the Advance team when he was just sixteen years old. These days Micky makes a living as a test pilot for Gin Gliders and has been a dominant force in the Swiss League and the World Cup for nearly a decade. In this episode we catch up on what went down with the Gin factory last ye...

Larry Tudor was known as the "Dark Prince" back in the day. We roll the clock way back to 1973 when Larry learned how to fly his first hanglider in the seated position (yep, pre-prone days) on a wing that got a worse glide ratio than today's smallest speed wings. The stories in this episode are going to make your head spin. Remember when hangies flew the Owens every day in the summer? Guys tumblin...

Max Marien broke the Infinity Tumbling record after jumping out of a helicopter in 2012, going right up and over his wing an incredible 374 times. Max started flying at the tender age of 12 and makes his living flying tandems at the Torrey Pines Glider port. He's been frequently requested on the show and this talk is awesome. Whether you are pursuing acro or not, there's a lot of great knowledge a...

World-famous climber turned paragliding addict Cedar Wright returns to the Mayhem to describe...well a bit of mayhem! A year ago I sat down with Cedar on the podcast, who was 6 months into his sky addiction and as we're both in Banff for the film festival we thought it would be fun to find out how this past year has gone. He and his learning partner Matt Segal flew off the highest mountain in Mexi...

In this episode I sit down with former British team pilot and 15 year instructor and Alps guide Kelly Farina to discuss his new comprehensive book on paragliding, "Mastering Paragliding." This fantastic read is and A to Z encyclopedia of flying. Many concepts were completely new to me- the 4/90 rule, the Golden Rule of thermalling and gliding, lee side warnings, becoming a "natural", the air mass...

Kari Castle has been flying for 35 years. You name it, she's flown it. Hangliders, paragliders, paramotors, speed wings- her passion for flying began early and she still goes hard. She was winning hang gliding competitions before paragliding was even invented and then when paragliding came around she went ahead and won a bunch of those too. A fraction of her resume is enough to put most of us to s...

Isabella Messenger took a paragliding course in 2007 and quit her job as an IT Specialist after the first day. She's been chasing it ever since. She and her husband and air-Jedi Jamie Messenger spend half their year in the Alps traveling in their camper van and the other half in Nepal flying as much as they can. You name it, Isabella flies it- world cup competitions, acro, vol-biv, tandem. In this...

On the last day of the World Cup in Sun Valley in 2012 British pilot Guy Anderson disappeared in an area we call "no man's land." Three days later, in a heroic search effort involving thousands of man hours and a very fired up team Guy was found, in no small part due to his own monumental efforts to stay alive. Guy suffered some pretty major injuries but three months later he was flying at the top...

Ed Ewing, the editor of Cross Country magazine takes over as show-host and asks Gavin the questions many people have wanted to know about how it all went down on the traverse. We talk about the Red Bull X-Alps, how Gavin's obsession with paragliding started and find out what led to his 6-year pursuit of a dream- to traverse the full length of the Alaska Range by paraglider and foot. We find out wh...

What's it like to break world records? How do you win tasks at World Cups? Find out how to train to truly go big from one of our sports most talented and dedicated pilots, Brazilian Rafael Saladini. Rafael discusses strategies and tactics at the world cup level; why the Brazilian team and his mentors are able to send such huge flights with so much style; why he left the sport for seven years and h...

Bruce Goldsmith has quite possibly more competition flying under his belt than anyone. One of the few pilots who's won in both Hangliding and Paragliding Bruce began flying comps in the mid 80's and capped off over 30 years of success by winning the world championships in 2007 in Australia. He's started or designed for most of the major brands in paragliding (Ozone, Airwave, Advance, etc.) and now...

Jocky Sanderson literally wrote the book on SIV and training and is one of the most celebrated advanced instructors in the game. In this comprehensive podcast we talk about it all- competitions, modern gliders and what's changed in SIV, is SIV necessary, what's the most important maneuver in your tool kit, what kind of pilots are most likely to get hurt, how to advance with limited time, why accid...

Questions include how to become a "professional paraglider", bivvy and expedition tips, how to develop flatland flying skills, the importance of acro skills and ground handling, how to handle emergency situations, how to develop with limited time, how to break through from an "also ran" to a full fledged comp pilot and much more. Hope you enjoy and please let me know what you think!

Will Gadd began his flying career in the early 90's and quickly became one of the most prominent pilots in the world. A Red Bull original gangster, Will is considered one of the best mixed climbers on Earth. He's a world class whitewater kayaker, mountain guide, speaker, author, journalist, expedition leader and is highly regarded for his views on risk management; maintaining a safety margin; his...

Cody Mittanck set the unofficial Canadian foot launch record ("unofficial" for a very cool reason- listen to find out) last summer, and he's one of a small handful (if there's even a handful) of pilots in North America who's doing the Infinity- as well as everything else. Cody only started flying in 2009 but he's as hungry as it gets and his progression into the elite ranks of pilots in the world...

Ondrej only began flying in 2010 but last month he broke the Esfera world record (off-axis Infinity) in Mexico and sends it hard in cross country as well. Not many athletes hit switch so well when it comes to paragliding and in this episode we find out what drew Ondrej to acro initially; how important it is to go well beyond simple SIV courses; why acro is safer than XC; what it's like to be a sup...

Paul Guschlbauer has become one of the best adventure cross-country pilots in the world and showed his amazing skills this year in the 2015 X-Alps by coming in 3rd place and giving Chrigel a hell of a run for his money. In this episode Paul grants us an intimate view of what he's done right, what he's done wrong, some hard lessons along the way and a lot more like the pressure of making a living f...

Veselin ("Veso") Ovcharov is a cross-country and acro ace. A long-time Red Bull athlete Veso was the first Bulgarian to nail the Infinity and has traveled the world perfecting his craft, pushing the limits of what can be done by paraglider. In this episode we travel back in time to find out how Veso got into the sport; the many hurdles he had to jump to become one of the very best (including liter...

Aaron Durogati is only 29 years old, but he's already been a world champion, gotten 6th and 7th place in the last two Red Bull X-Alps and has a LONG list of podium finishes. A Red Bull athlete and ambassador for several other brands, the "Italian Stallion" is making a good living in the sport of paragliding and in this episode we dig into how he does it. From learning how to fly at the tender age...

Gurpreet Dhindsa is India's top ranked pilot, and has been for some time. He is the only certified instructor in the country and has 20 year passionate years in the sport. Gurpreet has been on the podium six times and has been a very integral figure in pushing paragliding in India and has truly given his life over to free flight. In this entertaining episode we discuss the political and bureaucrat...

Josh Cohn has been the most consistent competition pilot the US has ever seen. His competition CV reads like Kelly Slaters. Soon after Josh learned to fly at age 16 he has been dominating the US comp scene and has notched up not only state distance records (New Mexico, Hawaii, Texas) but PWC wins, two National Championships and task wins at the Worlds to boot. In this episode we dig into how he's...

Thomas de Dorlodot is probably the most enviable pilot in the world. He's made a living out of traveling the world and documenting his expeditions. A 5 time Red Bull X-Alps competitor and Red Bull Athlete Tom started flying when he was 15 years old. He's flown above 7,000 meters in Pakistan, paramotored over the Marquesas in French Polynesia, glided over volcanoes in Guatemala and Tanzania, hucked...