Mayday, Mayday for Sierra Lima!

November 17, 2010, 4:45pm

I watched my bright orange hat blow away, tumbling along the sharp rocks in the wind. The canopy had shattered, its pieces flung away during the impact, and I could see my sunglasses perched, strangely intact, on top of…

Night Crawlers of the Abyss

May 19th, 2010, 7:34pm

Shining back at me like a green laser, the shark’s eye reflected the beam of my dive light surprisingly well. I felt a rush of adrenaline as I froze, not daring to move my light off of the creature. The sound of my breathing through…

The Great Divide

April 28, 2010

Rain has always been romantic to me. Not the kind of rain that relentlessly ruins your leather shoes and freshly pressed trousers on the way to work in San Francisco, but the kind of rain that you can prepare for, best enjoyed while wearing waterproof…

Welcome to the Real World

As I write this, I have only two weeks left with my current employer, and for the first time in my life I’m going to spend a significant amount of time with no income, no concrete plan, and no certain outcome. Thinking back on my life, there was always a Master Plan. For thirteen…

At the Edge of Fear

August 7, 2010

“Alex!”

Roused from a fitful sleep, my body simultaneously shivered and ached and my head was pounding.

“Alex! Wake up! Quickly, get your stuff and bring it up to the first floor.”

What is gliding?

This is a common question given the relative obscurity of the sport, and since I plan to be making posts detailing some of my flights, I’d better explain up front.

The closest corollary to gliding is sailing, where success is determined by knowledge and successful…

At the End of the Earth

May 8–11, 2010

With our existence on a near-perfect sphere, there is no reason that any one point should be intrinsically more alluring than any another. In fact, there are many reasons to remain within a comfortable climatic band like any other sensible…

Exceeding All Expectations

May 3–5, 2010

For some reason, Dunedin never appealed to me, and as I drove north on SH1 under darkness, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Perhaps it was one of the young tow pilots on the airfield, a Dunedin native, who managed a guttural grunting sound and…