2012
Kris Ericksen writes: "The Leo Geary Award wasn't presented this year. Unfortunately, due to the La Nina weather conditions, our paragliding season hasn't been particularly good, and as a result there really hasn't been an opportunity for new up-and-coming pilots to shine and show their stuff.... So the competition committee chose not to make this award this year. Next year we hope that the weather gods will co-operate!. See http://www.pgopen.org.nz/results/2012."
Caroling answers: Interesting decision! The New Zealand Paragliding Open website and pictures are wonderful. I'm thrilled to find a list of trophies with a history of winners and a link to wholeo.net pages here http://www.pgopen.org.nz/trophies (scroll down). Kris, congratulations on being a winner in the Fun class. Fun class? That deserves a page in itself. It's all about the fun, isn't it? So how would a pilot distinguish oneself as being or having or demonstrating the most fun?
2017
Kris Ericksen replies: Fun Class refers to the type of paraglider that is flown. There are four classes in NZ: Fun, Sports, Serial and Competition.
Wings are classified by there flying characteristics and how much pilot “input” is required when you have a collapse or a stall, etc.
Fun class wings are those rated “B”, Sports are rated “C”, Serial are “D” and Competition are unrated. The Bs have the lowest glide ratio while Comp wings have the highest glide ratio. Glide ratio is the distance travelled while dropping a certain height.
B class wings are considered to be the safest wings to fly - and so you can have more fun and less worry when flying them! Hence “Fun Class”
Cheers
Kris
2024
Sven Ericksen (note he was previously Kris) writes:
We had our Paragliding Nationals in Rotorua at the end of February - and had some great flying.Unfortunately there were no "up and coming" pilots that were considered worthy of being awarded the Leo Geary Trophy….
Below is a photo of Jonny Hopper, who was "Master of Ceremonies", at the prize giving explaining the history of the award and that it would not be presented in 2024.
Here are some photos from the competition: https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B1o56xoDUqvpbw
In the album are two photos of Louis Tapper, the award winner from 2013. He is now one of NZ's top pilots. In the photos he is in front of a TV screen explaining race strategy.
Also in the album are three photos of Jesse Dhue, the 2022 award winner, holding the award. He was not present at the 2022 award ceremony, so I didn't have any photos of him back then!
Feel free to download any of the photos and use on the website.
Here are the tasks that we flew: https://xc.highcloud.net/task_overview.html?comPk=387.
We are having the Paragliding Nationals again in Rotorua in January 2025 - I promise to be get news and photos to you sooner!
Kindest regards
Sven Ericksen
