About the X-Alps 2012: chat with Oriol Fernandez

Last saturday, 25th of March, was hold in Pamplona a very interesting conference around the particpation of Oriol Fernandez, sole spanish competitor to take part on the 2011 edition of the Red Bull X-Alps.

Organized by the Federación Navarra de Deportes Aéreos, the Hang Gliding and Paragliding Club Alas de Leyre, and with the collaboration of AVLE, the event gathered more than 30 people around Oriol.

The conference started with a short (very short indeed) introduction made by Oriol himself.

Next, the oficial X-Alps´movie (spanish) was shown (as it has been broadcasted several times on RTVE). As fascinating for both those who had already seen it and those who had not, it was the perfect occassion for the public to prepare the endless list of questions addressed to Oriol that would follow later.

After the 50 minutes´video, Oriol took over and started his presentation. He told us about his flying and sportive backgrounds, from his first approach to paragliding to its participations in competition (Catalonian championship) or his adventures travelling around the world hiking and flying, to actually end-up in his participation on the X-Alps, of course.

Every issue he talked about was explained to the last detail by Oriol, who was in tune with a delighted audience. Between both, the presentation and the questions that immediately arose from the active listeners, the chat naturally resulted in a very profitable experience.

Of the race itself, many aspects were treated: material and preparation, physical and mental training, work with the team member, routes, planning, relations with other competitors, key factors in the race, wise decisions, mistakes, injuries, bad days, good days, and even some funny stories inside the race (the kind of which you cannot get through the media)…, in all, everything.