Alejandro Barañac

We have a saying in our sport, "never avoid inconvenience." But it's easier said than done. An easy field a kilometer away from the train station, or a really tricky field right next to it? Landing in strong wind across a river that means a long walk, or landing in strong wind near a road that will have rotor? In the 21' Vercofly a number of pilots were injured. Some due to rowdy conditions, but several were just because of pilots making poor decisions. This is one of the latter stories from a first-time hike and fly competitor, Alejandro Barañac.

Episode 199- A story of avoiding inconvenience with Alejandro Barañac

Eliya Zemmour

Eliya Zemmour is an Isreali-born climber, endurance athlete, hike and fly guidebook author and...formerly incarcerated conman, but that's another story to be told soon on the podcast! In this show we take a deep dive into his recent 228km flight from the southern tip of Israel past Jerusalem, which broke the country record.

Episode 198- Going Big in…Israel? A flight to remember with Eliya Zemmour

Andrey Kuznetsov

Andrey Kuznetsov has been on the national sky diving team for many years, holds several world records and the genius record (100 way canopy formation record) and has been a long-time test pilot for reserves. He made the transition quite easily from sky diving to paragliding in 2009 and skipped the C class altogether as he found it too slow! He recently flew across Vermont and landed on the beach and owns AirQuest paragliding, a professional reserve packing and line-trimming company. In this episode we talk about his history of sky diving, the transition to XC paragliding, why SO many people don't pack their reserve correctly, trimming gliders, why it matters and a lot more.

Episode 196- From World Record Skydiving to Paragliding, Reserve Testing, pro repacks with Andrey Kuznetsov

The toughest adventure race on Earth starts in a few hours! 32...

Bonus Episode! Behind the scenes before the start of the 23′ Red Bull X-Alps

5 time Red Bull X-Alps pilot Honza Rejmanek and his son Martin return to the Cloudbase Mayhem this week to recount yet another incredible vol-biv tandem adventure in the Alps. Martin is now 14, and he and his dad have been tackling some pretty epic lines in the Alps since Martin was 8. In this episode they recount their 3rd attempt at hiking and flying from Annecy to Zermatt last summer and hooking into incredible weather which allowed for an amazing flight right up on the Matterhorn massif and then continuing well past their goal of Zermatt and carrying on all the way to Davos. This is inspiration on a magical level.

Episode 197- Honza and Son strike gold in the Alps

Philipp Zellner

In this episode we discuss Philipp's zen for going big, being a professional pilot, the importance of having an acro background and acro training, vol biv, and just some good old fashioned storytelling in the highest mountains on Earth. Tuck in for some inspiration!

Episode 195- Sending in Style with Philipp Zellner

Nick Greece

Russ Ogden

This week we dive into spring with the current World Champion and long-time Ozone test pilot Russ Ogden and multiple US National Champion Nick Greece. Year after year we see accidents in free flight spike in spring. Spicy conditions, rusty skills, new unfamiliar gear, heightened stoke, another year behind us, lack of confidence... we explore the many things that might have an impact on why we see the spike and what you can do to make sure you're not in the data set.

Episode 194- The Spring Tune up with Nick Greece and Russ Ogden

Nikolay Lipko

There are times in a pilots career when things do not go according to plan. This is one of those times. Nikolay Lipko had a rather unusual (but not unheard-of) event flying in Chamonix, France that thankfully ended quite well thanks to a successful reserve deployment. As with all incidents, there is hindsight and modifications to how to take to the skies. And if anything else, this story is a case study for why SIV training is so important. In this instance your host and our guest don't see eye-to-eye on the cause and effect but the take-aways are valuable.

Episode 193- “The Scariest Flight of my Life” with Nikolay Lipko

Myles Connolly

Our Mayhem editor Myles Connolly is about 350 hours into his flying journey and is leaving soon for an SIV course with Jocky Sanderson in Turkey. We thought it would be fun to connect and have him fire questions at me about all the things he's currently curious about as his XC skills and training progress. Hike and fly; risk related to big events like the Red Bull X-Alps; how to approach Vol Biv (gear, locations, top landing, distance, etc.); Wing and gear developments and the new 2 liner C wings, gear choices and a lot more.

Episode 192- Questions answered with Myles Connolly

Gaspard Petiot

Gaspard Petiot is a mountain guide and very accomplished pilot who competed successfully in the Red Bull X-Alps in 2015 (5th, Monaco), 2017 (broken wrist, withdrawn after leading day 6) and 2019 (7th, Monaco) despite having very bad knees. In this episode we rewind the clock as we have done with the others in this X-Alps series and hear the behind-the-scenes stories that the fans didn't see on live tracking.

Episode 191- A Walk (and Fly) down memory lane with Gaspard Petiot

Free flight podcast hosted by Gavin McClurg

Awesome guests and great to hear some exciting stories. Was hoping the quality would be better considering the age of this podcast.  Still a worth a listen.

There’s Still Hope

Gavin provides a bunch of fun and valuable info for people interested in paragliding.

Great paragliding info

Cloudbase Mayhem Podcast

Jeff Shapiro

Jeff Shapiro is a world class sponsored athlete and a world class human being. He's flown and competed on hangliders since he was 17 all over the world, he sends 5.14 big wall routes in climbing, he flies wingsuits, rides sport bikes, is a gifted Falconer, and is also a Dad and family man.  But don't call him extreme and don't call him an adrenaline junky. Jeff is grounded, thoughtful, eternally grateful to be able to pursue his passions and his approach to risk and danger is something we all need to ponder. In this amazing episode we discuss the incredible numbers of losses in the wingsuiting community the last three years, including his close friends Sean Leary, Dean Potter, and Graham Hunt; an amazing close call flying at King Mountain Idaho a few years back on his Hanglider; how he has flown for more than twenty years without an accident; his own brush with death this year; and if it's possible to justify participating in a sport with such terrible odds, among many other things. Grab a cup of tea or coffee and prepare to be whisked away into a realm that very, very few people inhabit.  It's a special place.

Episode 3 – Jeff Shapiro and the Dark Arts

Nate "Papa" Scales got his first flight in 1991 on a glider that had 11 cells in Sun Valley, Idaho.  The next day he moved to Utah to learn how to fly and hasn't looked back since. I've never met anyone as passionate as Nate is about flying nylon and string and he's even more psyched today to go big than ever. We cover a LOT of ground in this hysterical episode. Nate discusses the value of competitions; his only (and very wild) reserve toss; risk and safety; his recent decision to step down to an ENC glider after flying comp gliders for more than 15 years; his "dream" line; learning from failure; and we go way back in time and talk about the days of taking pictures of waypoints before there was GPS; his 2007 X-Alps campaign and much more.

Episode 5 Nate Scales and Staying in the Game

Mads Syndergaard

Mads Syndergaard started paragliding in 1987 and it quickly became his life. He began competing in 1994 and hasn't looked back since. From learning how to soar in Denmark to becoming one of the leading wing designers in the world with UP gliders, Mads has been has been a vocal figure in the comp scene for twenty years. In this episode Mads discusses the mental attitude necessary to win; his thoughts on the dissolution of the Open Class and how we got to the CCC class; the debacle last year with Ozone's Enzo 2; what he calls "priming" your head to fly and a lot more. This is an awesome talk with a living legend and we go DEEP on topics like safety, risk, making good decisions, anarchy and a lot more.  Enjoy!

Episode 7- Mads Syndergaard and the Art of Winning

"If you believe you can do it, you can do it. But that doesn't mean it will happen tomorrow. You have to do the work, nothing replaces mileage (or in this case, air time)." Little nuggets of wisdom like this is why Jeff Shapiro returns to the Cloudbase Mayhem in this amazing follow up to our first podcast a year and a half ago. The first time we spoke Jeff was just learning how to paraglide after spending a lifetime and thousands of hours hang gliding. We catch up to explore how his progression is going, how the new aircraft is opening all kinds of new adventures, we revisit his decision to wingsuit basejump again after losing so many friends to the sport, and in true Jeff Shapiro style- talk about life and joy and wonder in a way that only Jeff can.

Episode 38- Jeff Shapiro and cracking the code

Cedar Wright

World-famous climber turned paragliding addict Cedar Wright returns to the Mayhem to describe...well a bit of mayhem! A year ago I sat down with Cedar on the podcast, who was 6 months into his sky addiction and as we're both in Banff for the film festival we thought it would be fun to find out how this past year has gone. He and his learning partner Matt Segal flew off the highest mountain in Mexico, Pico De Orizaba, which is the centerpiece of Cedar's new film "The Fledglings", in partnership with the North Face and Niviuk.

Episode 27- Cedar Wright and Intermediate Syndrome

Bruce Goldsmith

Max Jeanpierre

This is another Ask Me Anything show that we typically release as bonus content but we got so many great questions that cover such a wide range of topics we've decided to release it as a regular show and for this one I went out to the experts to get the answers. Max Jeanpierre, Bruce Goldsmith, and Reavis Sutphin-Gray take on a wide range of questions, and their answers are gold. Enjoy!

Episode 106- Your Questions answered (Bruce Goldsmith, Max Jeanpierre, Reavis Sutphin-Gray…)

Maxime Bellemin

Maxime Bellemin is a name all veteran competition pilots know well. Not just because of his decades of experience and multiple wins at the national and international level but because of his performance coaching with the French team and his two incredible books dedicated to flying "Performance Paragliding."

Episode 104- Maxime Bellemin and Performance and Preparation

Larry Tudor

Larry Tudor was known as the "Dark Prince" back in the day. We roll the clock way back to 1973 when Larry learned how to fly his first hanglider in the seated position (yep, pre-prone days) on a wing that got a worse glide ratio than today's smallest speed wings. The stories in this episode are going to make your head spin. Remember when hangies flew the Owens every day in the summer? Guys tumbling out of the sky and not using reserves? Flying without instruments? Larry was the first person to fly over 200 miles (in 1983!) and was the first person to fly over 300 miles. His 308 mile record from Hobbs, New Mexico in 1994 wasn't beaten for a decade. In the mid 80's Larry was widely regarded as one of the best hang gliders in the world and this conversation covers a lot of awesome ground. Scary close calls, whorehouses, guns, cowboys, flying in tornados, trouble with the police, flying with air force bombers and early towing nightmares- this podcast is a glimpse into a crazy world of the pioneers who laid the ground in free flight.

Episode 29- Larry Tudor from Scary Origins to Radical Records

Ben Abruzzo

Ben Abruzzo was the guy who turned me into a machine for the 2015 Red Bull X-Alps. My knees are a cartilage wasteland and I'd never done any endurance training or racing in my life. But when I approached Ben about doing the X-Alps he was all-in and had zero hesitation that he could get me there. This episode is kind of an "inbetween-cast" of the usual Cloudbase Mayhem in response to all the myriad of questions we've been receiving about how I prepared for what is billed as the hardest adventure race on Earth.  In this episode we go deep on Ben's approach and methodology and what came down to handling not only how to get me ready physically, but how he supported me in the actual race and helped keep my head together.

Episode 6, Ben Abruzzo and training for the 2015 X-Alps

Chris Santacroce

Chris Santacroce has been a pillar in human flight for nearly thirty years. A long time Red Bull Air Force athlete; co-owner and founder of Superfly Paragliding in Utah; founder of Project Airtime which allows the disabled to fly; total air Jedi on anything that flies- from powered trikes to wingsuits and everything in between, Chris has been one of the most requested guests for the show and now here it is.

Episode 41- Chris Santacroce and Set Ups for Success

Hang gliding is arguably the first "extreme sport" in human history and it literally changed the world. Drawing inspiration from Leonardo Davinci, Otto Lillienthal built the first foot-launched hang gliders in the late 1800's. His wings inspired Octave Chanute and his assistants to make thousands of flights at the turn of the last century on the shores of lake Michigan which led to the Wright Brothers' remarkable inventions- and humans take to the skies. Orville and Wilbur Wright's flights in the early 1900's are still hard to wrap your head around. Imagine picking up a 150 pound glider built out of bamboo and mizzen cloth in 30 miles per hour of wind and actually soaring!

Episode 80 – The History and Future of Hang Gliding

Chrigel Maurer

Chrigel Maurer is the undisputed king of paragliding and after his 5th straight X-Alps win I get the feeling that he's just getting started. Chrigel was the world champion 3 times, is an acro champion, test pilot for Advance, two times winner of the X-Pyr, regularly dominates the Swiss League and just simply wins- over, and over and over again. Everyone has heard of Chrigel's famous training (ground handling in VERY strong wind, flying in the lee of cornices...) but most don't know the extent of how hard and specifically he trains. How much is talent versus persistence?

Episode 45- Chrigel Maurer and becoming an Eagle

Will Gadd began his flying career in the early 90's and quickly became one of the most prominent pilots in the world. A Red Bull original gangster, Will is considered one of the best mixed climbers on Earth. He's a world class whitewater kayaker, mountain guide, speaker, author, journalist, expedition leader and is highly regarded for his views on risk management; maintaining a safety margin; his model of the "positive power of negative thinking"; his studied ability to appropriately assess weather and terrain; and his amazing knack to keep pushing the limits in a unique and pure style.

Episode 17- Will Gadd and the Mastery of the Sky through Mastery of Self

Honza Rejmanek

Honza Rejmanek competed in the Red Bull X-Alps five times. He finished in 3rd place in 2009 and made goal in Monaco in his last campaign in 2015. Many of our listeners will also know Honza from his regular meteo column in Cross Country Magazine. Honza makes a living as a meteorologist and in this episode we tap into his vast knowledge of the invisible world we operate in and how to understand how it works and how to use this knowledge to fly farther and safer. Honza's passion for flying and for weather are obvious from the first word- consider this a masters class in understanding the sky!

Episode 49- Honza Rejmanek and Understanding the Invisible

Kari Castle

Kari Castle has been flying for 35 years. You name it, she's flown it. Hangliders, paragliders, paramotors, speed wings- her passion for flying began early and she still goes hard. She was winning hang gliding competitions before paragliding was even invented and then when paragliding came around she went ahead and won a bunch of those too. A fraction of her resume is enough to put most of us to shame:  14 national HG championships, 6 national PG championships, 3 world HG championships, multiple distance records, Red Bull athlete, and that's just the beginning. Kari has made a life and a living out of flying and her wealth of knowledge is a tank I try to tap in this great conversation with a true legend in human flight.

Episode 25- Kari Castle and flying for life

Alex Robe

There is the most information-dense podcast than possibly any previous show we've done. Alex Robé and one of his main flying partners Primoz Susa are nearly always the two guys right at the top of XContest on the big days. Alex won the XContest in 2015 and 2017 and is currently in 3rd this season (his lowest value flight is over a 260KM FAI, and the two pilots ahead of him both went to Brazil last fall!). But Alex is extremely limited with his time and how much he can fly. In a typical year he'll only fly 10-15 times! So for those of you who are restricted with time, prepare to be inspired!

Episode 98- Learning it all from an XC Master, Alex Robe

Cody Mittanck

Cody Mittanck set the unofficial Canadian foot launch record ("unofficial" for a very cool reason- listen to find out) last summer, and he's one of a small handful (if there's even a handful) of pilots in North America who's doing the Infinity- as well as everything else. Cody only started flying in 2009 but he's as hungry as it gets and his progression into the elite ranks of pilots in the world has been astonishing

Episode 16- Cody Mittanck and the art of Going Big

Larry Bunner

We've had a LOT of amazing talks on the Mayhem over the past bunch of years but this one is in a category of its own. Last summer Larry Bunner and three other very experienced Hang Gliding pilots (Glen Volk, Robin Hamilton, and Pete Lehmann) flew from the Gulf of Mexico to the Canadian border in a series of tow and mountain launch flights over 21 days (1884 miles) and 11 States. This is their story...and a LOT more.

Episode 107- Larry Bunner, the X-Flight and flying in the moment

TEM is a simple system that helps pilots identify threats so they don't lead to errors which if they multiply could lead to an "undesirable aircraft state." It's simply an awareness protocol laid out through a series of checklists and procedures that become built-in threat mitigation.  Threats in all forms of flight are ubiquitous- internal and external threats are everywhere. So how can we use this remarkably successful program in free flight to reduce risk?

Episode 90- Threat and Error Management (TEM) and Free Flight

Hugh Miller

Hugh Miller began flying at the age of 15 and has been a household name in the sport since taking over Cross Country Magazine back in the 90's at the age of 21. He does most of the EN C and D wing testing for the magazine today and just last year won the UK League in a career that spans decades. This talk could have gone on for hours. We cover a huge range of topics that are pertinent and valuable for any pilot at any level- exposure to risk in competitions; how to improve regardless of your level; tactics for flatland flying; the importance of flying intuitively and following a "hunch"...

Episode 33- Hugh Miller and Flying Psychology, X-Alps, Chrigel Secrets and MORE

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