Keep checking our online shop for new products constantly coming in and new specials put up on our website. If there is anything you would like that you can't see on the page, please contact us. There is a good chance that we actually have it and our web master has been too slack to put it up (me) or that we can get it in short notice. Similarly, if there is a product you would like but our prices seem too high, please let us know. We constantly try to make sure that all our products are well priced, we sell direct from import to customers and keep the margins down. Even if we can't quite match a price, if the difference is not big, you may also consider to buy locally, support the local school who does all the hard work all year, and enjoy the service we can offer with it.

We have had a couple of good weekends flying in a row: It must be that summer is coming.

A really nice bunch of new pilots is training at present. All our instructors are back from their various overseas adventures, races, competitions and courses, with new skills, motivation and ideas.

We are offering a few PG1 courses with a free tandem with one of our champion pilots if you sign up and pay by the end of October.

Instructional tandems are invaluable. You learn so much during those one on one intense lesson - more than in 20 solo flights.

!

It is this time of the year again!! WOF inspections

23 October 2019

4.30 - 7.30pm

Belmont Intermediate School Hall

More info and sign ups are on our Facebook page.

Last weekend was the Kite Foil Nationals. We got to race on Friday and Sunday in glamour conditions. I came 2nd! overall I'm happy with my ridding and the results with mainly seconds and a 3 cheeky first places. We had 13 competitors and by far the strongest fleet I've seen, but the dream team showed the gains we've made over the last few months. Thank you to everyone who supported the event and me personally. Next stop: World Champs in Italy next month :0

Lukas won the Sports class on his GIN Bonanza 2 at the Nationals. Eva won the women's title for the 10th time.

After winning the EN B class last year, Lukas won the EN C class this year and came 6th equal in the open against many competition and serial gliders. Eva won her 10th women's NZ Champion title. Lukas: “Thank you to Gin Gliders Inc. for the fast glider and Wings and Waves for the lifetime of support The Bonanza 2 is amazing! The glider is an example of what the Gin brand is about in my eyes, a glider that is an impressive balance of easy to use safety and performance. It is an instant legend. I felt very comfortable pushing full speed on the very first day, flying through turbulence, and climbing in weak and strong thermals. The glider seems to maintain its stability and glide ratio while on speed bar extremely well, giving me confidence to stay in the lead packs. It was a great feeling to outfly and maintain positions against serial and competition gliders #flygin #gingliders”

Here is a spring time reminder to all pilots and kiters to be safe. "Human Factors" make flying safe or dangerous, statistically at least as much as e.g. equipment issues. With the next WOF night booked for October - see our other news item - we shall cover both equipment and Human factors. We are also offering a bunch of new courses this season to get your skills up to speed. The combination of the lot shall make you a competent, confident and safe pilot!

WOF inspections

16 October 2018

4.30 - 7.30pm

Belmont Intermediate School Hall

More info and sign ups are on our Facebook page.

We are putting together new dates and courses for the new season 2018 / 19. Please check out the calendar page and register your interest asap, so we can book and plan ahead.

Wanaka 2019Bright 2019Europe 2019

The dates for these are still vague as we are still waiting for the dates of the NZ Nationals 2019 where we have a couple of titles to defend.

Yes, it is this time of the year again: Save the date for the annual WW party.

22 September 2018, from 6pm, at 26 Beresford Street, Bayswater Bring your shit flying and kiting banter, dancing shoes and come catch up with Auckland pilots and friends. We will provide some food for you, have prizes for some pilots, music and good company. We should be able to convince Reuben to make his world famous Chilli con Carne for you all. Please bring your drinks.

Survey link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/MJDX3ZQ

During winter, we get to do all these things which we are too busy or too tired to do during the summer season when we are out teaching most days and back home late. Right now, we are lying low, teaching only when the weather suits occasionally and spend the rest of the time improving our shop, storage, processes, paperwork. Watch Facebook and call us to join us flying or kiting when it is good!

We are also planning ahead for the new season, which we officially start on the first weekend of September. There will be the annual Wings & Waves WINTER PARTY in August, a BBQ on the beach in September, and new dates for courses and trips soon.

To help us improve our service to you and everyone else, we have put up a survey to find out what YOU guys would like, what ideas you would have for us for improvements or additions to what we offer.

Could you spend 6 (!) minutes - that's the time survey monkey estimates it will take you - to fill out our small 10 question survey? We would appreciate it. We will also raffle a tandem flight voucher among all those who fill it out and leave their name.

Here is the link:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/MJDX3ZQ

Thank you!

Lukas competed seriously for the first time. He once entered the comp in Nelson, but ended up only flying 2 tasks. With a bit more experience under his belt now, he flew like a demon in this year's Nationals and won the EN B prize on his GIN Explorer in front of Kieran Campbell on another GIN Explorer and Leighton Joll on his GIN Carrera+.

In the over-all competition, he came 11th behind the NZ and international hot shots on 2-liners and other higher performing wings which is an impressive result for someone new to competition and on an EN B glider. Maybe starting to play on a paraglider in our school at the age of about 5 years may have something to do with it.

Eva won the ladies class, not for the first time. We counted it to be the 9th time, spread over many years, pre-children and post-children, with the first one in 1994. This year, Eva flew a GIN Carrera but on the last day, managed to catch up on and just beat wonderful pilot Kirsten Seeto from Australia on her Ozone Zeno. For next year, the ladies decided to team fly more and make sure the ladies both get back into the top 10 mens ranking, which is always the goal, and has often been achieved.

Lukas and Eva were wondering if that is a world's first, to have a mother and a son win their classes. We will do some research to confirm.

One big issue for the Wings & Waves team is to get training and airtime in during the year. Teaching takes up most of the flyable time, and training flights are rare.

While for 13 years in a row (!), we had claimed the NZ overall Champion prize as well, this year none our top pilots was current enough and had enough airtime to fly the probably world's best glider, the GIN Boomerang 11, an amazing high tech 2-liner glider, which Michel Siegel recently won the most hotly contested competition in the World ever, the PWC Superfinal on.

To fly such high performance hot gliders, the pilots need some serious training and airtime, which none of us got this year, due to work, teaching, kids and other mundane issues like that :-) Louis Tapper from Queenstown in contrast, had an impressive season of flying in Europe and Australia, and training on his home turf, in Queenstown and Wanaka. He won every task of the competition impressively on his Zeno 2-liner glider. He flew best and had the faster glider than the WW pilots and deserved the win 100%. Congratulations to Louis Tapper!

Next year, we may be back in serious competition with the new GIN 2 liner, GIN Leopard. Wait and see!

The Wanaka competition was expertly run by Mark Hardman and a team of local pilots.

We had 4 valid tasks over the week, with a weather bomb for a few days in the middle of the week. From a daily (and nightly) near 40 degrees, the temperature dropped pretty much over-night by 20 degrees, making warm gloves the number one hot item on launch the next day. With temperature about 2 degrees Cel on launch, and flying at up to nearly 10,000 feet altitude, we got seriously cold on the last days.

The first and the second task were both amazing trips around the most stunning Wanaka scenery. Launching at Treble Cone, we flew over high peaks towards the Raspberry flats, with views of Mount Aspiring and the glaciers, into the Cardona Valley, over Wanaka, Hawea and the Hawea flats with a handy goal right in Wanaka town, no 500m from the pubs and a cold beer. Each task was between 90 and 100km in distance through such a variety of terrain that the pilots had to adapt to changing conditions and flying styles. A fabulous challenge.

Beer supply was ever an issue for the Wings & Waves team: Stephen Scott from our XC course the week before, did the most amazing job as a team retrieve driver. Our trusty van tended to arrive just before the pilots were able to finish packing their gear, with cold soft drinks, the odd beer and G&T on ice, along with some light snacks. How good is that to finish the flying day?! Thank you Stephen!

Having a great team, lots of support, so much fun together and an easy week, makes it all the more fun, but also lays the foundation for success.

We are onto a good thing here, join the Wings & Waves team and benefit from all our exprience, great gear and support - we run courses at all levels and make sure, each of our pilot is on the gear that suits his and her flying the best at any one time to make it fun, relaxing and successful.

It's your lucky Xmas: No more socks for presents! Wings & Waves offers the perfect Xmas service. We advise you or your friend, family, partner about what is most useful to you in your paragliding or kiting career. Should we ever get it wrong, of course, you can exchange anything with us after Xmas. Xmas holidays

We are taking 24 December to 1 January off, back in action on 2 January 2018!

January

2 - 26 January, we are running courses every day. From 27 Jan to 5 February, we are at the NZ Paragliding Nationals. Back on 6 Feb.

One of these types reserves was factory packed badly. We would like to ensure that all are re-packed by us PRIOR to your next time flying.

We have emailed all those who have bought them from us recently.

Please contact us asap.

In good Auckland club tradition - it's only been about 25 years now - we will run a WOF night for all Auckland Club members. This is your chance to learn about gliders, get your annual WOF, catch up with other pilots.

17 October 2017

from 4pm - about 7pm

Belmont Intermediate School hall

Reuben will give the usual lesson for new pilots / glider owners of how to check and look after your glider.

We will also give a talk on line trim / measuring, as this has been a topic of interest for many pilots. Wings & Waves has a laser measurement set up which we will bring along and demonstrate.

This may also be a good time to re-pack your reserve. On the WOF day, we can't do repacks unfortunately, because we are too busy. But you can drop the reserve off on the day and we will do them asap afterwards. Or you can drop it off to us / courier it prior to the WOF day.

Reuben is the only PG manufacture service person in NZ with 25 years in being the club safety officer, 30+ years as a qualified sailmaker who can answer most questions about repair and service. Those who had their ripped glider fixed by him before, know that he is magic!

There will be sausages and a few bits, BYO drinks.

We have now set 3 dates for XC and thermalling courses. Check them out and book asap - they are booking out quickly, so don't be slow.

21-26 Jan 2018 - Wanaka thermalling and XC

24 February - 4 March 2018 - Bright, Australia thermalling and XC course

4 - 9 March 2018 - Bright, Australia, Masterclass for those who have done provious Bright or Wanaka courses with us – depending on demand.

Book by 3 September 2017 and get a FREE tandem trial flight for a friend with any PG1 3-day beginner course or a PG2 package deal. This is the easiest way to get your friend to join you in your course - tandem trial flights tend to be very very addictive.

Usually, the flight is $190 but until the end of next week, you get one free when you book the PG1 course.

Contact us to book asap!

Every year, we offer a variety of exciting trips and courses in addition to our beginner and intermediate paragliding and kitesurfing courses.

One Days, PG1, PG2 courses and trial flights are basically available every day of the year, with few exceptions.

For those, who want more, we offer trips to the South Island, to Australia, thermalling and XC clinics and the likes. All of these usually book out quickly, so we thought we give you a chance to put your name down early this year, to avoid missing out. That way, we can also gauge the interest and cater perfectly for what you want!

At this stage, we will offer our famous Bright trip - a week of course and flying and a fabulous holiday in beautiful Bright, Victoria, a 1 week thermalling course in Wanaka, several thermalling and XC clinics on the North Island (Paeroas, Kaimais, Kamo) and most likely a trip to Europe in winter 2018.

We set the dates for the courses as soon as we know the dates for the NZ Nationals and a couple of other events, which should be around August, I hope.

Thermalling / XC North Island: I am planning 2-3 trips spread over the season.

The Bright Trip will be in February or early March 2018.

Wanakathermalling / XC will be in January 2018.

Europe flying trip will be July 2018.

Some details on the previous courses are on our website.

Please give me an indication which one you are interested in! Email Eva.

The 31. March is getting close, which is when we have to do a stocktake for our accounts. PLEASE help us count by taking some stuff away before that date! SPECIALS: We take a minimum of 10% off all harnesses on stock - we have pretty nearly all harnesses on stock which are on the website. We offer super specials on many items, such as

FULL FACE helmets

FLYING SUITS

some CLOTHING

DEMO and stock GLIDERS

and many more.

Since we are not Briscoes or Kathmando or the likes with huge margins, we can't do quite the same discounts. Our prices are calculated a lot tighter than that, but we will still offer great specials! Check Facebook the next few days! Or come and in and check stuff out!

Congratulations to GIN and WW pilot

Grant Middendorf

2017 New Zealand Champion!

Grant is also the Winner of the NZ Open - that means he bet all the international competitors, too!

Winner of the Sports Class - that means he bet everyone on supposingly higher performing gliders on his EN C glider GIN GTO2.

In most other countries that would have him win the Serial / next higher class at the same time, but after Reuben won the Open on the GIN Carrera EN B glider one year and took out all prizes except the woman's, NZ changed the rules to prevent this happening again, even though no one ever won any Nationals on an EN B before or since. It was probably just an exceptional pilot on an exceptional glider. Or luck :-)

Grant has won the NZ Nationals 6 times. The first win was in 2005, then 2007, 2011, 2013, 2015 and now 2017. (O, watch out for the odd numbers!!) A true NZ legend.

As for old Wings & Waves pilots who hang around like a bad smell:

Reuben won his first one in 1997 and then 2014 and 2016.

Eva won the women's 1995, 1997, 2009, 2010, 2015, 2016, with many top 10 over-all ranking, best was 4th. (That didn't work this year with a very low overall ranking.)

Jeff Ripley won 2009, 2009, 2010 and Evan Lamberton 2011.

This is the 11th year in a row, that our GIN pilot has won the NZ Nationals, which is unheard of. To be quite honest, with a bunch of keen pilots nipping on our heels and stepping up to the top class of competition gliders to compete against the sports class, we didn't expect this. The new 2liners, like the GIN Boomerang 11, the Enzo and Zeno perform better than traditional design gliders. Grant, Reuben, Jeff and Evan decided not to step up to the Boomerang 11 prior to the Nationals, mainly because they simple don't fly enough to get used to the rather different characteristics of such machines. Grant winning anyway, truely shows you that with gear which suits a pilot 100% at the time, you can do best.

We are extremely proud!!! Congratulations from all of us.

Thank you to Louis Tapper for the photo. kiwisparagliding.co.nz

On Waitangi weekend, the NZ Nationals Hydrofoil racing were held off Takapuna Beach.

Congratulations to Wings & Waves instructor Lukas Keim: After only 2 months on his new foil board, Lukas came 2nd in the Nationals. Here is his comment: "2nd in the hydrofoil nationals! Happy with the result since my first comp was a week ago. Thanks to #ozonekites for the insanely fast R1v2 race kites and for #axiskiteboarding for supplying sam and I with some impressive foil setups. Congrats to Sam Bullock for dominating, Richard for taking third and Gina for kicking some ass and winning the women's and coming 4th overall."

Merry Xmas! The weather has been great recently, and we have done lots of flying, both in Auckland and the Waikato.

We are still teaching until 23 December - so come out with us!

Last minute Xmas presents are going out the door fast, call Eva if you still need anything, we have a great variety of fabulous useful pilot and kiter presents on stock.

From 24 December to 1 January 2017, we will have a break with the families who don't see us all that much during the summer otherwise.

From 2 January, Reuben, Lukas and Bryce will be teaching in Auckland full time again. We gave up teaching on 1 January because we had a few seriously hung over people which is not idea.

From 7 January, Eva and Mike are running a thermalling and XC course in Wanaka.

There is also a thermalling course in Bright, Victoria, from 10 February.

Have a wonderful holiday with lots of love and laughter and a Happy New Year! See you all soon.

Thank you all for showing up for the WOF night last night! What a major turn out we had, with a record number of sausages eaten, and WOFs completed.

Reuben offered a session on how to check gliders, what to look out for and how to look after gliders to those who are new to flying and glider checks.

Thank you especially to Leighton for manning the BBQ expertly, to Bryce for taking over for round 2 and getting more supplies, to Mike for organising the hall and the rest of us, to Jeff for helping lots of people with their gliders checks, to Stefan for the extra porosity meter and his help, for Reuben for his tireless work. It ended up a long day for us when we finished at 9pm.

I hope you all learnt something new.

Not flying much due to work, health / surgery, kids and dramas, I ended up with some confident issues flying. At a recent competition in Chelan in the US, I enjoyed only about half the flying we did to be honest.

That reminded me that even after some 30 years flying, currency is still an issue for some. Pilots with less experience must experience this more. Others don't seem to have this issue at all: I endlessly admire how pilots like Reuben and Middy - after an entire year of hardly flying at all or only flying tandems on the coast - can jump on a EN D or comp class glider and fly very competitively and fast. It doesn't work like this for me, nor for a bunch of other pilots.

One of the ways for me to get over confidence issues, is to firstly try to get out and spend time in the air, but also by stepping back in glider class, to an easy glider. At times over the years, I have competed on un-certified top end gliders, at times EN Cs and EN Ds without any issues, mostly at times when I felt current. While I realise that the glider isn't the problem alone, flying a glider that is easy for me to handle in tough situations, takes one major worry out of my mind. The worry that with a major collapse in major turbulence, I would end up out of control and in a potentially dangerous situation. The lower rating the glider, the easier it less likely a major incident and the easier it is to recover.

Flying a high end EN B like the Carrera is perfect for me: With my level of experience, it is a very easy class, but with a high aspect ratio and nimble handling, and good speed, it does not feel dumbed down enough to restrict my flying. I fly the original Carrera version in size S now.

After a bunch of pretty bad flying in competitions, lots of worries about conditions and cascades I saw other pilots perform around me, reserve deployments near by etc, I launched into the last task of the Canungra Cup quite determined to make the most out of my last day XC flying for a while. I knew that once I got home, I need to concentrate on kids, teaching and business again and XC flying will be rare for a while.

The task was a 95km race to goal in good conditions for the first time during this competition week, even though initially cloud base was rather low. I decided not to start too early as I had noticed being a bit unfit and lacking stamina for very long flights. So I thought I go half way through the open window with enough time to get to cloudbase at the edge of the 8km start cylinder in time to be in a good position for the start of the race. The day seemed rather slow for starters with lots of pilots near launch struggling to get up. Well, my tactics kind of worked out: I launched and instantly found what must have been the strongest thermal of the day so far, which I managed to hold on to past many other pilots, straight to cloudbase! It was a fabulous fun climb which made me feel great. That is, until I looked on my instrument (which I could read for the first time in a year thanks to my new bifocal sunglasses - age has its own challenges..) only to find out that I was at cloudbase with 54 (!) minutes to spare to start open time. OMG, for one that had only managed to focus for about 1 1/2 hrs at a time that seemed a lot of hanging around and waiting! During those 54 mins mostly at cloudbase, dodging the white room, my fingers on my left hand pretty much frozen numb and I was doing up my jackets to the top to keep warm. I even had time to remembered to eat half my sandwich perfectly timed just before the race start.

fires on course, photo by Kris Ericksen

I ended up with a good start, with the early groups, which earned me just a handful of lead out points. The first or second big glide ended up with my first lowish safe, then a long, admittedly a bit slow flight over beautiful countryside I had never seen, all the way to the 95km goal.

I met and waved to a lot of pilot mates on the way, struggled through some slow and difficult climbed, enjoyed some really quick and good ones to cloudbase and navigated well through tricky terrain.

In very typical Eva style, I arrived at goal with a truckload of altitude - which I really shouldn't, as it means I could have left the last thermal much earlier and get to goal quite a bit faster. With my lack of flying time, and having had disappointing flights prior to this one, the distance was more important to me that the competition and the time, so while I know I can and should fly faster, I was just very happy to have had such an enjoyable long flight.

What was the best part of this flight for me, is the fact that I realised I had entirely got over my confidence issue in terms of glider / conditions / safety. While a bunch of pilots were talking in the retrieve van about the very rough parts of the course, the collapses they had, the reserve deployments etc, I realised that I had not wasted one minute of my flight worrying about any of this!! And that me, the pilot who usually seems the only person to worry about the safety issues, weather and collapses. There I was, happy and focussed without the slightest issue that worried me. I did have the odd small tuck, but I hardly took notice of these trusting my glider and my skills.

I did stop at a pass about 15km from goal and watched one lady pilot I was climbing with, diving into the back of the pass. I decided to let her go and perhaps beat me, which that turned out a rather rational decision as she ended up in a serious lee side situation unable to control her glider and throwing reserve. When watching her go, I did consider whether I was being overly careful again, which I often am, and whether she just knew the area better. Needless to say, I was happy with my decision. (Her glider is in steep terrain still, about 30m high and won't be recovered. She is well, which is the main thing).

How to cure confidence issues:

- fly a glider to suit your ability and you trust

- be curent - spend time in the air!

Happy flying!!!

Our online log book has been a great success, thank you so much for developing it for us, Joe Ward!!

While we published our new website yesterday (yay!!), we had to re-name the page to fit in with what we were doing. The new log in link is

http://pglog.wingsandwaves.co.nz/new_user.php

Here is an article about Lukas setting a NZ record kite jump. Great little vid but the mother in me was not impressed.

The Wings & Waves instructors hold 11 NZ Champion titles among them, ranging from about 1994 to 2016.

As of 2016, the Wings & Waves team has won the NZ Championships 10 (!) times in a row. That will be unbeatable for a long time.

At the 2016 NZ Nationals, we even won every single title:

1. Overall - Reuben Muir on a GIN GTO2

1. Woman - Eva Keim on a GIN Carrera

1. EN B glider - Joe Ward on a GIN Carrera

1. EN C glider - Grant Middendorf on a GIN GTO2 L

1. EN D glider - Reuben Muir

Best up-and-coming pilot - Leighten Joll on a GIN Atlas.

The titles range from 1995 to 2016 and all classes.

Why? This is only possible with a superior understanding of the sport, consistantly great gear matched to the right pilots, great teaching and coaching. We try hard to do everything we do at top level, keep up-to-date, support each other well, choose gear wisely.

We are very proud of these achievements of all our pilots.

Don't forget: 14 August in party day! The picture, of course, is mis-leading. There won't be a BBQ, but Chillie con Carne to eat. BYO drinks, please.

We have been working furiously to build a new website for Wings & Waves. The old one started to look a bit aged and was too hard to up-date to more modern features.

So far, we only have the basics ready to go, but posted it because such project can turn into a never-ending process. We have a bunch of new ideas of what to add in the future.

Thank you to all of you who had some input into this!!! PLEASE give us feedback: What would you like to see in addition to what is there now? What would you recommend we change?

Your WW team