Day 1 US Paragliding nationals

Well you guessed it I am away yet again to the US. This time I am competing in the US Nationals. They are located in Sun Valley Idaho which is basically a high mountain desert, so very HOT and DRY. The mountains are capable of giving us life to well over 18,000feet so we all fly with O2. I got here after a very long drive of 13 hrs in the rain. I arrived last Friday night and was ready to fly Saturday morning. We had the official practice day and one of my buddies Nate decided to take a few of us on a tour of the area from the air of course. We ended of flying towards a beautiful pass called Galena. It was only about 40km so only 2 hours in the air so we would be rested for the next day.
Day 1 started very sunny and we went up to launch early via a chairlift which is very nice. My chairlift partner is of course my bro Ryan and he flying as well which is a lot of fun having friends to hang with to make it like home. The task for Day 1 was a 79km out and part way back flight over the Galena Pass. I was able to time the start with the lead group and decided to take a very direct line to the next turnpoint where as Will and a few others choose some very different lines. My line was up the middle so I could keep a very close eye on everyone. As we neared the Turnpoint the pilots all converged on a single mountain so we were all together again with about 10 of us. At the turnpoint I made the major mistake for the day but recovered nicely and was able to head of to goal shortly after the winner allowing me to take 7th for the day.
Day 2 was well lets just say not so much fun. I was fully dehydrated and hypoxic from the Day 1 has my O2 system ended up leaking so I had none and my camelbalk was pinched so I had no H2O. I did launch in the less than ideal conditions but after close to an hour I decided with judgment to save my life and go land. I was not into it as I was really not well and was unable to really get my head in the game. The day ended up being good and 12 made goal, so my placing overall dropped to 25 but I am only a little ways back from Top 10 so with a couple more days it should be good. WOW that was long but there it is JC....grin.
Cheers to all back home and Thank You to Invico Capital Corporation for sending me here.