Day 7 Task 6 Santa Cruz Flats Race

BBQ task- downwind 49 miles. There was a death gaggle at the start, no one seemed to be climbing at all (they weren't) but after the long long line I waited in the day before, I wanted to be up in the air. I got a great tow behind Corey in the trike ( I don't know why some people have such a hard time behind trikes- it must be a psychological thing) and he dumped me on top of the gaggle. These guys were barely climbing and so close together. I tried to spread out and find a little pop here and there, but when I did, it would get so crowded. One guy even reversed his turns, forcing me out and then I had to follow suit til I caught back up to the rest of the gaggle. Time to go and leave this mess. We started getting a little higher and then it got pretty good. I glided past the first mountain to the SE and had Greg Dinauer along with me, then a few of us got stupid low and had to hang onto a dusty until we got back up. Then the stragglers caught up and we all got high. The rest of the race was easy, big strong coherent lift to over 6000'. I was determined today to play it safe- the last two days I pushed, I dirted early. So after flying with a big gaggle of vultures and Sonny Veneski, I got to goal with over 1000' and it was blowing pretty good there. Lots of gliders on the ground, I was 33rd in!!! Ah well, at least everyone was smiling, and Jonny and Kraig ran over and grabbed my glider and began taking the sail off... I will post pics later of the new one. It is very sweet but today I won't be flying it today. It was blown out since 7am...

This is Campbell Bowen supervising the sail swap...