Daniel Vélez Bravo <<danielvelezbravo>>
writes:

The Canoa Open Hang Gliding Speed Ridge competition took place
last week from October 31st to November 2nd.

Average speeds from 48km/h to 53km/h during the racing days.

The event was attended by a nice delegation of local pilots from Ecuador, a few
pilots from Peru, about ten pilots from Venezuela and three pilots from
Colombia. They had a sport class race and an open class race.

The conditions where average, with not too much wind but enough for the standard
task (about 45.9 km) on the first day, the short one (41km) on the second and
the long one (about 46.2km) on the third and last day for the open class.

On the first day I got a good lead on my T2C 144 with custom home made "Icaro
cardboard tips", followed by Raul Guerra and Fausto Arcos, with no real
surprises there as the Venezuelan team was quite new to this kind of ridge speed
racing format.

Nevertheless Andrés Riera, a young pilot from Venezuela that landed short on the
first day, appeared really strong on the second task, pushing hard on front
where we shared the lead as a Formula 1 race, changing positions maybe three
times. I finally pushed a little harder at the end and got a lead by 16 seconds
in front of him. Raul Guerra got in third for the day (If I recall right. I
haven't got the scores to share yet).

The third task wasn't a walk in the park as the wind wasn't that strong and the
committee decided the long task, so we went on some long-slow glides to get to
one turnpoint out north. Fortunately, I got a good start and even when it seems
that I was losing a lot of my advantage when slowing down, I got to keep up the
lead on Andrés Riera, who was also pushing hard in second place. We went on some
risky low glides without stopping at all, where the other pilots where doing one
or two passes for height. I crossed the line with only eight seconds to spare in
front of Andres, and almost didn't climb back up to get back to the landing
place 3 km out, finishing 1st overall.

Raul and Fausto had a close encounter when racing towards the compression zone
on one of the lowest and more difficult ridges, and Fausto decided that it was
too much and bailed out to short land, losing his third overall to Jelko Loor.

Raul on his Moyes got in 4th or 5th of the day, but with enough advantage to be
second overall.

Even though the racing with Raul and his Moyes glider wasn't as close and
personal as 2012 race, Andres Riera was putting a lot of pressure and speed at
the front.

On the sport class the winner Jacob Espinosa was flying as aggressive and fast
as the open class gliders on his Icaro MastR glider, followed by Cesar Clavijo
and Alan Arcos on 2nd and 3rd.

Maybe next year the "Americans" won't be finding an easy win, as "Latin America"
is getting bold and speedy every day.

Some pictures and detailed "Spanish" stories on my blog. Maybe I throw a short
edited video sometime this week.

http://danielvelezbravo.wordpress.com/

Raul sends:

After 3 days of competition with 40 + pilots, from different
countries, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela, was performed with success,
Canoa 2013 Championship at Ecuador.

Sport Class results:

#	Name	Glider	Total
1	Jacob Espinosa	icaro 2000 mastr M	2954
2	Cesar Gustavo Clavijo	icaro 2000 mastr M	2416
3	Arcos Alan	wills wing S2	2367
4	Rafael Chirinos	moyes xtra lite 137	2343
5	nicolas morillo	wills wing us 137	2307

Open Class results:

#	Name	Glider	Total
1	Daniel Velez	Wills Wing T2C 144	3000
2	Raul Guerra	moyes litespeed RS 3,5	2800
3	Jelko Loor	Wills Wing T2	2688
4	Rafael Arcos	Wills Wing T2C 154	2676
5	Alejandro Riera	Wills Wing T2C 144	2665

Spot landing:

Fausto Arcos OPEN

Allan Arcos SPORT

With this result the new Ecuadorian Champions are Raul Guerra OPEN and Jacob
Espinosa SPORT CLASS.