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PILOTS
I was brought up in the South West of England, where I acquired my love of the outdoors from my parents. My father was a keen photographer which in turn led me down the same route. At the age of eighteen I moved to North Wales for the climbing, it was while here that my passion for outdoor sports was nurtured. In 2002, I took the summer out and learnt to paraglide, obtaining my licence in September. The year after I started as a trainee instructor and on advice from my teaching school entered the BP Cup (British based, entry level competition) coming 3rd overall. That same year, I was hired as official photographer of the British Nationals Paragliding competition. The rounds were held at St Andre in France, Castlejon in Spain and the Long Mynd in Britain. It was a massive learning curve in terms of both flying and taking aerial pictures, but one that I thoroughly enjoyed. It also gave me the opportunity to fly with and meet a great number of highly qualified pilots. The following year, I entered both the BP Cup and the Nationals. Managing to come 1st in the BP Cup and be 2nd best newcomer in the Nationals behind Steve Nash, who took best newcomer. Since becoming qualified as a pilot I have travelled widely in Europe flying at many different sites. I am an active outdoors person who also enjoys climbing, mountaineering and snowboarding. My interest in film comes from working with a number of production companies on large scale motion pictures where I learnt about the possibilities of video, since then it has been my goal to film a ‘story’. Mongolia I hope will deliver more than is required. SAMPLE PHOTO PORTFOLIO
I started paragliding in August 1990, seeing it as a light wind alternative to windsurfing. Having qualified in 1991, I mainly flew the closest hills to me in North Wales. It wasn’t until 1996 on my 1st trip to the French Alps, that the spark of flying in the high mountains was struck. On my return to the UK, I was shown around the Snowdonia region by Snowdon Gliders and have spent a huge amount of my flying time there since. On a return trip to Chamonix in 1997, I got a taste for high altitude launches taking off from both the Grandes Montets (3290m) and the Aiguille du Midi (3800m) in the same week. 2 years later during a climb of Mont Blanc, I launched from above 4000m at the Vallot Hut. From this, a project to foot launch above 5000m resulted in a trip to southern Russia to climb Mt Elbrus (5642m), this was achieved on the 2nd July 2001. In looking for a mountain that would provide a 6000m take off, Peak Lenin in Kyrgyzstan provided the perfect challenge, from both a climbing and flying perspective. The goal of the 7134m peak escaped the team, but I was able to launch from a spectacular 6075m take off. Over a 10 year period, I have amassed a considerable amount of mountain XC experience in the French, Swiss, Austrian & Italian Alps. In 2004, I competed in the BP Cup (a British entry level competition), finishing in the top ten. A more determined effort in 2005 has seen me finish 3rd in the BP Cup and ‘Best Newcomer’ in the British National competition series. During the past three years I have given a number of lectures on my flying/climbing experiences to a wide variety of audiences. The proposed Mongolia trip offers me a great opportunity to combine my adventure flying skills with a location that is as yet mostly unexplored by paraglider pilots. SAMPLE PHOTO PORTFOLIO
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Image courtesy Andrea Rasetti |
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 Watts, St Andre France'))
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